A Connecticut lady has been busted for holding her stepson captive for 20 years.
RadarOnline.com can reveal particulars of 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan’s arrest, as she’s charged with assault and kidnapping for allegedly imprisoning the sufferer and driving him to set his room on hearth in a determined try to flee the nightmare.
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Sullivan allegedly held her stepson captive for 20 years, main the sufferer to deliberately set a small hearth to his small bed room.
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Her 32-year-old stepson, who stays unidentified, set hearth to a small upstairs bed room of their Waterbury house on February 17.
When first responders arrived to extinguish the hearth, they found an emaciated man weighing solely 68 kilos.
Prosecutors described him as trying “like a survivor of Auschwitz’s loss of life camp” on the time of his rescue.
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The sufferer has reportedly been denied medical and dental care whereas being held in captivity.
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Whereas receiving therapy for smoke inhalation, he revealed to rescue crews he had intentionally began the hearth as a strategy to escape.
The person allegedly exclaimed: “I needed my freedom.”
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The sufferer claimed he had been imprisoned since across the age of 11 in an 8-foot-by-9-foot room with out warmth or air-con.
Following an in depth investigation, authorities now imagine he was held captive for over 20 years, enduring extreme abuse, hunger, neglect, and inhumane situations.
All through that interval, he was by no means given any medical or dental care.
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Sullivan is presently being held on a $300,000 bond following her arraignment on Wednesday. Her lawyer, Ioannis Kaloidis, stated Sullivan plans to combat the costs vigorously.
Kaloidis acknowledged: “She’s adamant she didn’t do the issues that she’s accused of.”
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Chief Fernando Spagnolo stated: “The struggling this sufferer endured for over 20 years is each heartbreaking and unimaginable.
“This case required relentless investigative effort, and I commend the dedication of our officers and the Waterbury State’s Lawyer’s Workplace.
“Their unwavering dedication ensured that justice is served, and the perpetrator is held absolutely accountable for these horrific crimes.”
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Supervisory Assistant State’s Lawyer Don Therkildsen known as the case “actually one thing out of a horror film” – and emphasised how that wasn’t an exaggeration.
In line with WFSB, the person “lit a fireplace with some hand sanitizer (and) some paper from a printer.”
Prosecutors knowledgeable the courtroom throughout Sullivan’s arraignment that the person deliberately set the hearth, absolutely conscious it might price him his life.
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They added: “However he had been locked within the room for 20 years, and for 20 years he’d been attempting to get out of that room.
“He was… akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s loss of life camp.”
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A warrant for Sullivan’s arrest revealed the sufferer’s situations worsened following his father’s loss of life final yr.
He informed authorities he was solely given two cups of water a day and at instances was compelled to drink from the bathroom.
The person’s former elementary faculty principal, Tom Pannone, informed NBC “the tragedy of the entire thing” was how faculty officers notified the police when the boy stopped attending lessons.
He stated: “We knew it. We reported it. Not a rattling factor was performed.”
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Sullivan is presently being held on a $300,000 bond following her arraignment on Wednesday
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Pannone revealed he and his employees have been involved in regards to the boy’s well being from a younger age, noticing he appeared skinny and infrequently admitted to not being allowed meals at house.
He defined: “Everybody actually was involved with this little one since he was 5 years previous. You knew one thing was unsuitable. It was grossly unsuitable.”
Academics would even convey him lunch after seeing him steal meals or eat from trash cans. Pannone famous they contacted the Division of Youngsters and Households over 20 instances.
He final noticed the boy within the early 2000s, and after the boy stopped attending faculty, Pannone was initially informed he transferred however later discovered he was being homeschooled.