The severely debilitated Connecticut man was forced to urinate in a bottle and was locked up nearly 24 hours a day in 20 years of confinement by his stepmother, police said Thursday.
“In 33 years of law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity I’ve ever witnessed,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagro told reporters.
Kimberly Sullivan, 56, was arrested Wednesday and was taken into custody on $300,000 bonds for alleged crimes against her step-son.
She is accused of first-degree attacks, second-degree lures, first-degree illegal suppression, first-degree reckless danger, and cruelty to a person. Sullivan denied the allegation.
Sullivan posted the bonds around 1:45pm on Thursday and left behind the Waterbury courthouse.
At the time of Sullivan’s arrest, his 5-foot-9 son-in-law, now 32, was 68 pounds.
“It’s worse than the condition of a prison cell phone,” Spagnoro said of the man’s life arrangements.
Authorities say Sullivan attracted attention on February 17th when a fire broke out at his family’s home in Waterbury, southwest Hartford.
At home, they found a severely malnourished man who had not received medical or dental care for many years and had been exposed to long-term abuse, starvation, serious neglect and inhumane treatment.
The man told police he used light hand sanitizer and paper to set the fire as a way to get away.
“I wanted my freedom,” he said, according to the affidavit.
Police said Thursday that officers went to their home in 2005 and acted on behalf of a social worker who was contacted by school officials who were concerned about their absence from their children’s classes at the time.
At the time, he seemed fine and not stand out among the officers, authorities said.
“The house was clean. It was alive,” Spagnoro said. “They spoke to the victims at that point, but there were no sources of alarms or conditions that existed that led officers to believe in anything other than normal childhood in the presence of a normal family.”
The family also filed a complaint against the school district in 2005, accusing them of harassment.
“There is no further information about where it went, except that there is no evidence that it is being provided by the family,” Spagnolo said.
But about a decade later, police found the man locked up in the room for more than 23.5 hours a day, authorities said.
“We have a wide range of current and historical databases and have not been able to find any records related to this family to date,” the State Department said in a statement Thursday.
He added that if the investigation is completed, the records will be periodically deleted after five years, saying “if there are no other empirical reports.”
“We will continue our search and ask anyone with additional information to contact the Waterbury Police Department,” the agency said. “These fears are a reminder that it takes the enthusiastic efforts of all members of the community, including family, friends, neighbors, and professionals, to protect children from abuse and neglect.”
While he was caring for his stepmother, police say the victim was forced to equip an elaborate toilet system to free himself while he was locked up.
“He urinated in the bottle and found a hole in the storm window frame where he could pass these straws through because there were straws connected to the bottom of the bottle,” Spagnolo said.
The man’s room was secured from the outside with “outer locks of various styles,” Spagnolo said.
“As explained in an interview with the victim, over the years it appeared that locks increased at security levels over time,” he said.
Sullivan made a brief appearance at Waterbury Superior Court on Thursday, refusing to issue a statement before a judge denied the prosecutor’s request to place her under house arrest.
Sullivan is permitted to travel within Connecticut, but must be in regular contact with his probation officer.
She denies all allegations.
“He wasn’t locked up in the room,” lawyer Ioannis Kaloidis told NBC Connecticut. “She never restrained him. She provided food. She provided shelter. She was blown away by these allegations.”
The victim’s father passed away in January 2024 and was sick for a while, but by the time he died he was in a wheelchair, police said.
There are no records of Sullivan’s previous arrests, police and her defense attorney said.
