A woman from Connecticut is accused of having held her severely emaciated stepson captive for over two decades after the man set fire to the home where he was being held in order to escape.
Kimberly Sullivan, 56, was arrested on Wednesday after the shocking claims came to light when the 32-year-old man started a fire in their home on February 17.
Authorities compared the “inhumane” conditions the man was held in for over 20 years to “something out of a horror movie”.
Sullivan had fled the family’s Waterbury home when the blaze erupted, and the 32-year-old man, who weighed just 68 lbs according to court documents, was later pulled from the property.
He received treatment for smoke inhalation and exposure to the flames, and told first responders that he’d intentionally set light to the cramped storage space where he was forced to sleep in order to end the hellish ordeal he’d been subjected to for decades.
The unnamed man told police he’d been held captive since he was around 11 years old, explaining: “I wanted my freedom.”
The police and Waterbury State’s Attorney’s Office launched an investigation which found that the man faced “inhumane treatment”, including being starved, abused, and neglected, and had not had any medical or dental checkups or treatment in many years.
The man heartbreakingly revealed that when he was a little boy living with Sullivan, his father, and his siblings, he even had to resort to drinking out of a toilet bowl at times to quench his thirst as he was only allowed two cups of water per day, according to a warrant affidavit obtained by WFSB.
