On February 17, a 32-year-old man set fire to a Connecticut home in a desperate attempt to escape two decades of allegedly being starved and held captive there by his stepmother.
Police and fire officials arrived at the Waterbury home after the stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, called 911.
“While receiving medical care, the male victim disclosed to first responders that he had intentionally set the fire in his upstairs room, stating, ‘I wanted my freedom,’” Waterbury police said in a statement on Facebook. “He further alleged that he had been held captive by Sullivan since he was approximately 11 years old.”
Sullivan, 56, was arrested and has been charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, cruelty, and reckless endangerment.
She has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty at a Friday arraignment. Sullivan remains outside outside of jail after posting a $300,000 bond.
Here’s what you need to know about the shocking allegations:
A 911 call uncovers ‘heartbreaking cruelty’
Police said they found Sullivan’s stepson in severe condition, with one official comparing him to a survivor of a Nazi death camp.
“The suffering this victim endured for over 20 years is both heartbreaking and unimaginable,” police chief Fernando Spagnolo said after the arrest of the man’s stepmother.
Body camera footage of the rescue has been released, showing officers carrying the injured man out of the house.
Local authorities said he had an adolescent mental function and weighed 68 pounds.
He showed signs of cachexia, a physical wasting syndrome usually associated with victims of severe cancers and was severely emaciated, near starvation, and hadn’t gotten proper food or medical care in years.
A contentious court case
Friday’s arraignment gave some indication of the shape of the case to come.
Prosecutors have outlined how they’ll allege that Sullivan hid her son out of public view.
"A friend of the defendant's of 21 years has come forward and provided a written statement to the state, to the police that in the 21 years she's known this defendant, she's never spoken of a stepson, " Assistant State’s Attorney Donald Therkildsen said in court, according to NBC News, while adding more witnesses have been in touch.
"She was shocked to learn she had a stepson, and that that friend was never allowed in this house."
Another issue will likely by the fairness of the trail itself.
Ioannis Kaloidis, Sullivan’s lawyer, objected to a proposal to confine Sullivan to house arrest, arguing it would send the signal she’s already being considered guilty.
“I understand the whole world wants to convict Ms. Sullivan and the whole world has,” he said. “But this is the only place, the only room, we have to protect her rights.”
Therkildsen framed the request as a way to protect the former alleged captive from further fear and harm.
"His first question in this fear is, 'Why is she out walking around while I was locked up in her room for 20 years?'" Therkildsen said.
The judge ended up splitting the difference, denying conditions of house arrest but ordering Sullivan subject to GPS location monitoring.
“The allegations are arguably the most troubling that I’ve seen during my tenure as a judge and show really an unthinkable amount of lack of empathy, and I do stress that they are just allegations,” Superior Court Judge Joseph Schwartz said.
Hunger ‘every day’ and severe neglect
The stepson said that beginning as a young child, his stepmother kept him locked in an eight by nine foot room most of the day, only letting him out to go to school or do household chores, according to court documents obtained by The New York Times.
The rest of the time, he remained in the room, where he was allegedly made to defecate onto newspapers laid out onto the floor and urinate in a bottle, while suffering from hunger, “All day, every day, my entire life,” according to the documents.
To pass the time, the boy would listen to a radio on the other side of his door or count cars driving by his window.
At school, he would beg classmates for food or scavenge from trash cans, according to the paper.
Later, the child was pulled from school, and began living a life of “brutally consistent” deprivation, he said in a police warrant in the case, locked from the outside in a room with no heat or air virtually 24/7.
Neighbors have recounted fleeting glances of a pale child looking out the window of the house or briefly spending time in the yard before disappearing from public view for long stretches.
The last time the boy left the property was as a teenager to dump yard waste with his father, per the warrant.
The stepson, who has not been named publicly, told police he was too afraid to escape and knew his stepmother had a gun.
Due to an alleged lack of medical care, the son’s teeth would regularly fall out as he ate his daily allotment of two sandwiches, he claims.
“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,” Sullivan’s lawyer told NBC Connecticut. “We look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.”
Authorities investigated home multiple times before fateful 911 call
School officials reportedly contacted the state Department of Children and Family, who visited the home on two occasions.
The department said after Sullivan’s arrest it was "unable to locate any records pertaining to this family nor any records connected to the names of others who have indicated they made reports to our Department,” though it noted it expunges records of abuse and neglect that haven’t been investigated or substantiated after five years.
The boy didn’t return to school after the second visit.
Police also visited the home in 2005 for a welfare check, after the boy’s schoolmates reported their concerns, and did not find cause for further investigation.
“The house was clean. It was lived-in,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo told reporters earlier this month. “They spoke to the victim at that point in time and there were no cause for any alarm or any conditions that existed that would have led officers to believe anything other than a normal childhood in a normal family existence.”
A sudden plan for freedom
The stepson reportedly decided to light the fire on the spur of the moment, using hand sanitizer, paper, and a lighter he had found while doing his chores, alerting officials to his condition.
He alleges his stepmother and a third individual, redacted in court documents, rushed to wash his face and try to remove the lock from his door to conceal the conditions of his captivity.
Sullivan’s next court date is March 28.
A biological mother in shock
The boy was living with his stepmother and his biological father during his alleged captivity.
His biological mother, Tracy Vallerand, gave up custody in 1993 shortly after her son was born. She told NBC Connecticut that she and the boy’s father had lost custody of a previous child after the father was accused of shaking the baby, and that she thought her son would have a better life if placed in another home.
"Things didn’t work out between the two of us, and I was thinking that I was giving my son a better chance at a full life," she told the outlet. "If I had known ... I just can’t fathom ... I have no words."
Vallerand and the accuser’s half-sister, Heather Tessman, have vowed to attend the court proceedings.
The biological father of the man at the center of the case died in 2024.
