A Waterbury woman who is accused of locking her emaciated stepson in a room and holding him captive for nearly 20 years made a brief court appearance on Wednesday and the case was continued to Friday.
A Waterbury, Connecticut, woman who is accused of locking her emaciated stepson in a room and holding him captive for nearly 20 years made a brief appearance in court on Wednesday and the case was continued to Friday.
Tracy Vallerand, the victim's biological mother, attended the court appearance for Kimberly Sullivan.
“It’s just disgusting that she’s allowed on the streets right now,” Vallerand said outside court after the brief appearance. “The two daughters also knew that he was there. They didn’t say anything, they’re complicit. Even the daughter’s boyfriend that knew he was there. They all need to be charged.”
Police and firefighters found the man when they responded to a fire at the family’s home in February.
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In the days and weeks that have followed, more information has been coming out about what the victim has told first responders.
"Waterbury Man Held Captive," an NBC Connecticut special report
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"Waterbury Man Held Captive," an NBC Connecticut special report, aired at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday on NBC Connecticut. You can watch the entire report above.
Here’s a look at the case so far:
How man who said he was held captive was found
At 8:42 p.m. on Feb. 17, firefighters and police responded to a fire at the home at 2 Blake St. in Waterbury.
Waterbury Fire Captain Jon Paul Oldham was in the first engine responding to the fire and said it’s a call that will now always stick out in his mind.
When the crews got there, Sullivan, 56, and her stepson were home, according to police.
Sullivan was able to get out of the house, but firefighters had to remove her 32-year-old stepson from the home.
"I saw, the mother and, at the time, what I thought was a child, in the kitchen. He was in the fetal position in the kitchen,” Oldham said.
Firefighter Gabriel Goja carried the man out and first responders provided care because he was suffering from smoke inhalation.
Officials noted that the victim was “extremely emaciated,” weighing only 68 pounds. He was also dirty and his teeth appeared to have rotted, according to the arrest warrant for the man’s stepmother.
He was conscious and alert but had difficulty speaking.
What the man told first responders
What the man told first responders shocked them, officials have said in the days since the rescue.
He said that he’d been locked in the house for his entire life and intentionally set the fire because he wanted his freedom.
Officials said he used hand sanitizer, printer paper and a lighter he found in the pocket of his deceased father’s jacket to set it.
Police have not revealed the victim’s name to protect his privacy.
Over three hours of interviews, he told police about spending 20 years in captivity and suffering abuse and starvation, according to the warrant.
His first memory of abuse was when he was 3 years old, the man told first responders, and he had been held captive since he was 11 years old behind a door that Sullivan kept locked, according to the arrest warrant.
He said he was so thirsty that he sometimes drank from a toilet because he was only getting about two cups of water per day, the documents go on to say.
He went on to say that he was always hungry, and when he was in school he would ask others for food. Sometimes he’d steal food and other times, he’d eat out of the garbage, the arrest warrant states.
What firefighters saw in the Waterbury home
Firefighters described what they saw after containing the fire to the upper part of the house.
"The door opened to the second room, which was inside of that room. That's where the main bulk of the fire was. We put the fire out there, so it was actually a room that was inside of a room where this victim lived,” Oldham said.
He said there were some oddities in the home. Not only did he notice locks, but he also said two other rooms were empty and it was strange that someone who was theoretically capable of walking out was still inside.
What school officials say
Tom Pannone, the former principal of the now-closed Barnard Elementary School in Waterbury, said he hasn't seen the alleged victim since the early 2000s, when the man was a boy in fourth grade, but he always knew something was wrong and the school reported it.
Teachers would even bring food in for the student after noticing him stealing food and eating out of the garbage, saying he was constantly hungry, he said.
Pannone told NBC Connecticut he and his team made multiple calls to the boy's stepmom and called the Department of Children and Families (DCF) at least 20 times.
The arrest warrant said the student was told to lie and say everything was fine.
After the second DCF visit, he was permanently pulled from school while he was in the fourth grade, he said. By fifth grade, he never returned to school.
Pannone was told the student enrolled in Wolcott Public Schools, but he couldn’t find any record of that. He was also told at one point that the boy was homeschooled.
State Department of Children and Families responds
According to the arrest warrant for Sullivan, the state Department of Children and Families visited the home twice because of what the student was doing at school, but Kimberly Sullivan told him to tell them that everything was fine.
DCF said it has no records related to the family.
In a statement, DCF commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly said the agency has been "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."
DCF expunges reports of abuse or neglect after five years if they have been investigated and not substantiated, according to Hill-Lilly.
The arrest of Kimberly Sullivan
On March 12, police arrested Kimberly Sullivan and she has been charged 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.
She denies the allegations.
Her attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, said his client is innocent and denies allegations.
“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,” Kaloidis said. “We look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.”
Kaloidis said his client never locked her stepson in a room.
“That is absolutely not true. He was not locked in a room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food, she provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations. It is shocking and what's more shocking to me? It's how somebody can (be) falsely accused of such a thing," Kaloidis said.
Sullivan’s attorney spoke outside court on Wednesday and said the state has indicated that it will file a motion seeking to add some conditions to his client’s release and the case was continued to Friday.
He called the allegations serious and said the state has to prove them in court.
“Those allegations are made by one person. I understand the whole world has jumped on those allegations and has already convinced my client, but the good thing about America is that is not how we work,” he said.
Sullivan was released on $300,000 bond.
She is due in court again on Friday to enter a plea.
Family responds
The man’s biological mother said she is distraught to hear of what her son has endured and the condition he was in.
She spoke outside of court on Wednesday and and told reporters that she thought her son would be safe with his father and she was heartbroken and angry when she heard the allegations.
She said her sister was the one to call her and tell her that her son had finally been found,
“We all love him. I love him. He’s so strong, and I’m so proud of him for doing what he needed to do. I wish he did it sooner,” the man's biological mother said.
Her daughter, the victim’s half-sister, said she’d been using social media and other tools to locate her brother for years to no avail.
“I just want him to know that he has a big sister, and I’ve always known he’s existed, and I’ve always loved him, and I’ve always been trying to find him. I’ve been looking for him for over a decade. I wanted to wait until he was 18. I’m almost 35 now. There was nothing…no social media, no court records,” his half-sister said.
The victim’s mother said she’d given up custody when he was a child, but that didn’t stop her from attempting to be in his life.
She said his late father and stepmother wouldn’t allow it.
She went on to say that she hasn’t yet connected with her son, but hopes to in the future.
“He does have everybody here, on both sides, on both sides of his family that love him, and have looked for him…I’m heartbroken,” she said. “I still just can’t fathom it. How can anybody treat somebody like that?”
William Flanagan, a great uncle to the victim who moved from Connecticut to Florida, said his late wife, Arlene, and her sister, who are aunts to the victim’s father, knew something was wrong when they visited years ago.
“My sister-in-law and wife went up there. They tried to see (their nephew), and they found out that the boy was being locked in a closet,” Flanagan said. “When they left, she called "child protective services}, and they said, 'Oh, they’ll take care of it.' They called her back and told her they’d knocked on the door, she wouldn’t let them in, so it was dropped from that point. That is what I was told.”
Police said two other siblings lived at the home at one time and the victim’s father died in January 2024.
NBC Connecticut obtained a Probate Court document for the estate of Sullivan’s late husband that shows him signing off as having only two heirs, and not mentioning the victim.
What the victim says the last year was like
The victim, who described being in fear, said the captivity and restraint got worse after his father died, according to the arrest warrant.
He told investigators that he was only allowed out of the house to let the dog out for about a minute a day.
He described being given little food and told police he had not bathed in a year or two and had only small amounts of water and some men’s cologne in his room, the warrant states.
What happened on Feb. 17
At some point on the night of Feb. 17, the man decided to set the fire and knew he had to let it get to the point where Sullivan couldn’t put it out, according to the arrest warrant.
Once the fire was going, he stomped and called for help, the warrant states. When Sullivan opened the door, he collapsed at the top of the stairs.
Sullivan then made him get up and wash his face in the downstairs bathroom because she didn’t want the fire department to know about his appearance, the warrant states.
He also told police that his sister and her boyfriend had arrived and Sullivan yelled to them to get a screwdriver to get the locks off the door, according to the warrant.
The man told first responders that he fell to the ground again and Sullivan yelled for him to get up, but he didn’t because he believed the only way out of the situation was for the fire department to get him, the warrant states.
What comes next
Police have said the man has a long road of recovery ahead.
Doctors who have been treating the man described him as being near starvation and his condition as life-threatening, according to the warrant.
Dr. Javeed Sukhera, a psychiatrist at Hartford Hospital, said it’s important to create a village of support around someone who’s been through something like this.
"Having the right professionals and a team of individuals that can help support an individual to reintegrate, build a sense of themselves,” Sukhera said.
Sukhera said that with the right help, healing from a situation like this is possible.
"Human beings really are wired to survive and be resilient, even at times when I work with people with unimaginable types of trauma, with the right supports and, taking a slow and steady pace, people do and can heal,” Sukhera said.
Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury has been collecting donations from the public to help the man and they have collected more than $195,000.
