CNN
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Police in Waterbury, Connecticut, have released photos from inside a house where a man was allegedly held captive by his stepmother for 20 years.
The unnamed man, who in February escaped the house by starting a fire with printer paper and hand sanitizer, told police he was locked in a small room secured with plywood and a lock.
For years, the man was given minimal food and water, he told police.
The more than 100 photos obtained through CNN affiliate WFSB reveal the true extent of how dire conditions were for the man who police say emerged “extremely emaciated” –– 32-years-old, 5-foot-9, and weighing roughly 70 pounds.
Many of the photos WFSB received from Waterbury police show the inside of the house in evidently poor condition –– with some rooms clearly charred from a fire, and others cluttered and decrepit from a lack of care and maintenance.
Mold and broken floorboards are seen throughout the house, with some carpeted areas covered in dirt and trash. Part of the house’s ceiling appeared broken, with beams exposed. Many of the windows are covered with plywood.
In one photo, a bedroom with a bright pink wall is littered with random objects, including a printer. Another photo of a bathroom shows broken wall insulation, glass and cardboard boxes on the floor.
It is unclear which room belonged to the man who was purportedly held captive, though several close-ups of charred door frames and locks were captured by police.
The man’s stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, managed to escape her burning house and has since been accused by authorities of locking her stepson up and starving him for decades.
Last week she pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and felony assault charges and was released on a $300,000 bond.
“As horrible as the allegations are, and as much as people don’t want to hear it, she is not guilty in the eyes of the law, and that’s not going to change anytime soon, no matter how many millions of people hate her,” Sullivan’s attorney Ioannis Kaloidis said.
The Waterbury Department of Children and Families recently said it found archived records from 2005 naming Kimberly Sullivan and her stepson, according to WFSB, after previously stating that unsubstantiated claims were deleted five years after the police were in the house for a welfare check.
“After we have completed a comprehensive assessment of our prior involvement, the Department will be as transparent as possible in sharing our results while working within the parameters of both federal and state confidentiality laws,” DCF Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly said in a statement to WFSB.
The man told police he met with DCF twice when he was in fourth grade to complain about his living conditions before his stepmother pulled him out of school.
He told police his stepmother instructed him at that time to tell the department everything was fine. Police conducting the welfare checks reported there was nothing suspicious.
The last time the man left the property was with his father, when he was around 14 or 15. After his father died in 2024, the alleged captivity got more restrictive, he told police.
The man stated “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,” according to an affidavit.
Those outings were “only about 1 minute a day” as he “essentially, was locked in his room between 22 to 24 hours a day,” the sworn statement said.
A year ago, the man told police, he found a lighter in a jacket that belonged to his late father. That’s when he started devising a plan to escape.
“There’s a lot of physical therapy that he’ll have to go through,” Waterbury Police Chief Fred Spagnolo said. “There’s a lot of healing that he’ll have to go through mentally.”
Waterbury detectives, themselves shaken by the inhumanity they say they’ve been investigating, took up a collection to buy the man clothes, books and other items that might make him more comfortable.
As for the newly freed man, Waterbury Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski said, “We’re committed to supporting him in every way possible as he begins to heal from this unimaginable trauma.”
