Northeast

‘House of horrors’ suspect wants victim’s new identity revealed; mom slams ‘appalling’ request: report

Published

5 months ago

November 11, 2025

‘House of horrors’ suspect wants victim’s new identity revealed; mom slams ‘appalling’ request: report

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A Connecticut woman accused of keeping her stepson prisoner in a “house of horrors” for 20 years is asking a judge to force him to reveal the new name he adopted after his escape from captivity, according to a new report.

Kimberly Sullivan, 57, allegedly kept her stepson locked in a storage closet for at least 22 hours a day, beginning when he was 11 years old in March 1996, according to court records. He is now 32.

She argued she has a constitutional right to confront her accuser, who is identified as “S” in court documents, according to a motion obtained by the New York Post.

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“The state’s position, stripped of its appeal to ‘victim’ protection, amounts to this: the accuser may assume a new identity, relocate to an undisclosed address, and the defendant charged with serious felonies arising from their decades-long relationship must be kept in the dark,” her attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, argued in the court filing.

It’s appalling that they even had the audacity to request that.
— Tracy Vallerand, victim’s biological mother

Kimberly Sullivan was arrested after allegedly abusing her stepson in their Waterbury, Connecticut, home. (Jim Shannon/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

Kimberly Sullivan allegedly imprisoned her stepson in this home. (Waterbury Police Department via AP)

According to a police affidavit, S told investigators he had been living on two sandwiches and a bottle of water a day. He said he was given a second water bottle “for bathing.”

To escape his ordeal, he lit Sullivan’s house in Waterbury on fire in February, Fox News Digital reported previously. When police and firefighters rescued him from the burning building, he weighed just 68 pounds.

Kimberly Sullivan is taken into custody by the Waterbury Police Department on March 12. (Waterbury Police Department)

The defense motion reportedly has S’s biological mother fuming — demanding in a new interview that the court keep “that thing” Sullivan away from him.

KENTUCKY COLLEGE ATHLETE ACCUSED OF HIDING DEAD BABY IN CLOSET WAS ‘SERIAL BULLY,’ FORMER CLASSMATE SAYS

This image provided by the Waterbury Police Department shows the home where a Connecticut man told authorities his stepmother had held him captive for two decades since he was a boy. (Waterbury Police Department via AP)

“If you look at any domestic violence situation, you’re not going to let the person who is being the evil person around the one who needs to be protected,” the victim’s biological mother, Tracy Vallerand, told the Post.

“It’s appalling that they even had the audacity to request that.”

Tracy Vallerand, biological mother of the Waterbury man allegedly held captive by his stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, for more than two decades, addresses the media outside state Superior Court in Waterbury following an appearance by Sullivan Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Waterbury, Conn. (Associated Press)

Vallerand reportedly gave up custody of the child decades ago, leaving him with her ex, who died last year, and Sullivan.

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Sullivan is out on $300,000 bond.

She has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, cruelty and reckless endangerment.

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Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania utilities appreciate market signals — but not market prices

Published

19 minutes ago

April 19, 2026

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Pennsylvania utilities appreciate market signals — but not market prices

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Rhode Island

Pulled funding creates a bike path to nowhere. Let’s hope RI fixes it.

Published

25 minutes ago

April 19, 2026

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Pulled funding creates a bike path to nowhere. Let’s hope RI fixes it.

I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.

We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.

It’s clearly a priority.

At least I thought it was.

But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.

The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.

There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.

Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.

The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.

But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.

To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.

That totally sounds worthy.

But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.

Especially for a particular reason in this case.

They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.

When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.

It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.

The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.

But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.

So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.

Too bad.

We were so close.

Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.

Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.

You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.

The PawSox.

The Washington Bridge.

But they’ve done great with bike paths.

And especially, linking many of them together.

Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.

But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.

That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.

We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.

But it’s now apparently dead.

Online commenters aren’t happy about it.

On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.

And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”

Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.

A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”

Hopefully not.

The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.

What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.

It doesn’t have to happen.

Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.

There’s got to be.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

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