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Kimberly Sullivan made the 911 call on Feb. 17 when she saw smoke coming from her stepson's bedroom in their Waterbury home on Blake Street, police said.
In the recording obtained by CT Insider, Sullivan pleads with 911 dispatchers for firefighters and paramedics to hurry to the scene as smoke poured from her stepson's room.
Sullivan told dispatchers she believed the fire started from a malfunctioning television in her stepson's room. However, she didn't know how carefully planned this seemingly spontaneous blaze had been.
The 32-year-old used a lighter he found in a pair of clothes he had received after his father died and set fire to a stack of printer paper covered in hand sanitizer, he told police. He said he had read in a book that hand sanitizer would burn hot and fast.
He jumped from his room to avoid the flames but realized that he might not get a chance to speak with first responders if he ran outside the house.
Despite struggling with smoke inhalation, he laid down, risking serious injuries, because he realized firefighters would have to carry him out — giving him a chance to detail the past two decades of horrors he'd endured, he told police.
But they weren't hard to see. The 32-year-old was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed only 68 pounds. He had a body mass index (BMI) of 11 — anything below 13 is considered life-threatening, police said. He hadn't bathed in years and had never been to a dentist, leaving him with a mouth full of broken teeth.
Sullivan screamed for help as dispatchers attempted to gather information about the blaze.
Responders arrived soon after, but that help was ultimately for the man police say she had tortured for two decades. After a two-week investigation, Waterbury police arrested Sullivan, sparking headlines across the globe.
She was charged with first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons, and first-degree reckless endangerment, police said. She was released from jail Thursday after posting a $300,000 bond, authorities said.
Sullivan has maintained her innocence through her attorney, saying she was unaware of the conditions inside the home, reports state.
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