‘Under pain of death no one was to see me': Warrant reveals CT man's account of 20 years in captivity

The arrest warrant for a Waterbury, Connecticut, woman who is accused of locking her emaciated stepson in a room for nearly 20 years reveals more information about what the man told first responders who rescued him from the family’s burning home in February.

The investigation started when police met with the victim while he was in ambulance, being treated for smoke inhalation, on the night of Feb. 17.

They noted that he was “extremely emaciated,” weighing only 68 pounds, and he was dirty and his teeth appeared to have rotted, the arrest warrant states.

The man was conscious and alert, but had difficulty speaking because of smoke inhalation.  

But he told the first responders that he had been locked in the house for his entire life and intentionally set the fire, using hand sanitizer, printer paper and a lighter he found in the pocket of his deceased father’s jacket because he wanted his freedom, according to the arrest warrant.

Police have arrested the man’s stepmother, 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan. She denies the allegations.

Police have not revealed the victim’s name to protect his privacy.

According to the arrest warrant, he told them that the abuse started when he was 3 years old and he had been held captive since he was 11 years old behind a door that Sullivan kept locked.

When police asked Sullivan if her stepson was locked inside his room, she said that his door is not locked and that he has free reign of the house, according to the warrant.

A detective noted that firefighters had removed the door to the room where the fire started and there was a slide lock on the outside of the doorframe and a latch on the door appeared to match up with the location of the slide lock, the warrant states.  

Days after the fire, police visited the victim twice at an undisclosed facility where he is being treated.

Over three hours of interviews, he told police about 20 years spent in captivity, abuse and starvation, according to the warrant.

His first memory of being locked in his bedroom was when he was around 3 years old, he said.

The family was living at a different house and he described sneaking out of his room at night to get food and fluids because he was hungry.

Then, when food wrappings were found, he was locked in his room at night, he told investigators.

He also told them that he sometimes drank from a toilet because he was only getting about two cups of water per day.

Before preschool, the family moved to another house, he told police.

At first, he was in an actual bedroom, but then he was moved to a smaller room – an 8-foot-by-9-foot storage space with angled ceilings on the second floor with no heat or air conditioning - and that was where he was kept from the time he was 12 years old, the warrant states.

He told police that he was always hungry, and when he was in school he would ask others for food, he’d steal food or sometimes eat out of the garbage, the arrest warrant states.

Then, the state Department of Children and Families visited the home twice because of what he was doing at school, but Sullivan told him to tell them that everything was fine, according to the warrant.

After the second DCF visit, he was permanently pulled from school while he was in the fourth grade, he said.

For a while, he said, he was given worksheets, but that stopped and no one was teaching him anything, the warrant states.

Once he was pulled from school, he would sleep from around 7:30 p.m., depending on the season, and wake at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. and he’d be allowed out of the room around 8 a.m. for anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours to do chores and tasks, the warrant states. Other times, he said, he was locked in the room all day.

On weekends, his father would let him out of his room for longer periods and they would watch TV together when Kimberly Sullivan took his sisters to events and to see friends, the warrant states.

The last time he had left the property was when he was 14 or 15 years old to go with his father to dump yard waste, he said.

When his father died in January 2024, the captivity and restraint got worse, the man told investigators, and he was only allowed out of the house to let the dog out for about a minute a day.

For food, he was given up to two sandwiches a day, then that was reduced over time, and he received limited food and the equivalent of two small bottles of water a day, the warrant states.

He told police that his sisters were not allowed to have friends over -- he “was their secret,” the warrant states. When people did come over, he was told not to make a sound.

The victim described being in fear.

The warrant states that he told police that he was told that he would “not see the light of day” if he told anyone and recalled seeing a gun once while he was cleaning.

He told investigators that he thought about breaking a window, but Sullivan told him, “under pain of death no one was to see me,” and she told him she was going to start unlocking his door, but she needed to see if she could trust him, the warrant states.

He described an incident in 2005 when he was home alone and cut a piece of wood paneling out of the door that he was locked behind and he was able to get out and eat food that he found.

When Sullivan found out, she slapped him in the face, then plywood was secured on the door so he couldn’t get out, the warrant states.

When he was young, the man told police, there was a training potty chair in his room for him to relieve himself, but he later had to use bottles and newspaper and create a way to empty waste through a window.  

He told police he had not bathed in a year or two and had only small amounts of water and some men’s cologne in his room, the warrant states.

The man also told police that his only connection with the outside world was through radio after his TV became too outdated to get a signal and he followed UConn basketball and NASCAR, the warrant states.

Police said over the years, he educated himself. Each year, he was given three or four books and used a dictionary to look up words he did not know, the warrant states.

At some point on the night of Feb. 17, the victim told police, he decided to set the fire and he knew he had to let it get to the point where Sullivan couldn’t put it out.

Once the fire was going, he stomped and called for help, the warrant states. Sullivan opened the door and he collapsed at the top of the stairs.

Sullivan then made him get up and wash his face in the downstairs bathroom because she did not want the fire department to know about his appearance, the warrant states.

He also told police that his sister and her boyfriend had arrived and Sullivan yelled to them to get a screwdriver to get the locks off the door, the warrant states.

The man said he fell to the ground again and Sullivan yelled for him to get up, but he didn’t because he believed the only way out of the situation was for the fire department to get him, the warrant states.

Doctors who have been treating the man described him as being near starvation and his condition as life-threatening, according to the warrant.

In the arrest warrant, a family member who went to the hospital to visit the victim after the fire told police, “I was shocked, he looks like a Holocaust survivor.”

Kimberly Sullivan has been charged with cruelty to persons, assault in the first degree, unlawful restraint in the first degree and reckless endangerment in the first degree.

Sullivan’s attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, said his client is innocent and denies allegations.

“She completely maintains her innocence, from our perspective. These allegations are not true. They are outlandish. She was blown away when she heard these allegations,” Kaloidis said. “We look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.”

Kaloidis said his client never locked her stepson in a room.

“That is absolutely not true. He was not locked in a room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food, she provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations. It is shocking and what's more shocking to me? It's how somebody can (be) falsely accused of such a thing," Kaloidis said.

Sullivan was released on $300,000 bond.

She is due in court on March 26.