A Connecticut woman has been accused of holding her stepson captive for approximately 20 years after authorities discovered him – now 32 years old, 5ft 9in and weighing just 68lbs – during a house fire last month.

On Thursday police in Waterbury, Connecticut, arrested Kimberly Sullivan, 56, and charged her with assault in the first degree, kidnapping in the second degree, unlawful restraint in the first degree, cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment in the first degree.

According to the Waterbury police, authorities discovered the malnourished man on 17 February during a house fire that he told police he had set with a lighter, hand sanitizer and paper in an attempt to escape.

“I wanted my freedom,” he told police, according to an affidavit reviewed by NBC.

He said he had been held captive since he was 11 years old.

“In 33 years of law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity that I’ve ever witnessed … It was worse than the conditions of a jail cell,” police chief Fernando Spagnolo told reporters on Thursday.

“He would urinate in a bottle and he had straws connected to the bottom of the bottle, and he found a hole in the storm window frame that he was able to put these straws through.”

He said the man’s room was shut from the outside with “a number of different styles of exterior locks”.

“As we explained during an interview with the victim, throughout the years, it appeared that the locks increased in security levels as time progressed.”

According to an affidavit reviewed by multiple outlets, the man told police that he recalls being locked in his bedroom when he was three years old. He said he would sneak out at night to get food and would sometimes drink from the toilet because he was not being given enough water.

He said that after food wrappings were eventually discovered in his bedroom, he started to get locked in his room.

When he was in fourth grade, his prolonged absences caused the school to alert Connecticut’s department of children and families. Social workers from the state responded by conducting two wellness checks on his home, he said, alleging that his stepmother told him to lie and say everything was OK.

“I have been kept a secret my entire life,” the man told police, CNN reports.

He lived with both his father and his stepmother, but following his father’s death in 2024 he told police his captivity conditions became even worse.

“[The man] stated that it got to a point where the only time he would ever be out of the house once his father died was to let the family dog out in the back of the property. Stating it was only about 1 minute a day. Essentially, [he] was locked in his room between 22 to 24 hours a day,” the affidavit said.

Sullivan, who is held on a $300,000 bond, has denied the accusations.

“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,” her lawyer Ioannis Kaloidis said.

“We look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.”