Stepmom locked up, mistreated son for 20 years, police say

Connecticut authorities charged Kimberly Sullivan on Wednesday with kidnapping, assault, and cruelty for allegedly holding her stepson captive in squalid conditions for over 20 years.

The Waterbury Fire Department responded last month to a fire at Sullivan’s house where they helped a 32-year-old man leave the burning building. He suffered from breathing smoke and being exposed to the fire, according to a Waterbury Police Department statement. The man told medical responders that Sullivan took him captive when he was about 11 years old, and that after years of captivity, he lit the fire on purpose as a way to escape the house, police said.

Authorities launched an investigation and arrested the 56-year-old woman March 12 on charges of first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons, and first-degree reckless endangerment.

What has Sullivan said? Sullivan refused to talk with authorities, Spagnolo said. She is currently being held in the York Correctional Institution on a $300,000 bond and is due back in court on March 26. Sullivan’s attorney insisted the allegations were completely untrue, according to local media reports. Sullivan gave the man food and shelter and never restrained him, her attorney argued. She is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

How was a 56-year-old woman able to hold a grown man captive? Authorities described the 5-feet-9-inch man as emaciated, weighing only 68 pounds. He suffered years of severe neglect, abuse, starvation, and inhumane treatment, police said. It took a lot of convincing for police to truly believe the level of abuse, Police Chief Fred Spagnolo said at a Thursday morning news conference.

The man was locked in a small room in conditions worse than a prison cell, Spagnolo said. The man was let out of the small room for only 15 minutes to an hour every day, according to the authorities. The chief described the situation as the worst treatment of humanity he had seen in over 30 years in law enforcement.

Where is the rest of the man’s family? The man’s biological mother left the victim when he was about 2 years old, Spagnolo said. His biological father, who used a wheelchair, lived in the house with Sullivan before his January 2024 death.

The father apparently knew of his son’s captivity and squalid conditions since the victim said he would let him out of the room sometimes, Spagnolo said. The police chief added that the victim’s two siblings were in and out of the house throughout the man’s time there and had since moved out.