Cnn
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Newly published photos of a house and camera house in Connecticut at night when she was burned down gives life to an amazing story of captivity and abuse that has remained hidden for decades.
A 32-year-old man set fire in February using printer paper and a hand disinfectant to escape the house where his mother-in-law would have kept him locked up and almost hungry for 20 years, the Waterbury police announced.
His mother-in-law, Kimberly Sullivan, pleaded not guilty of kidnapping and accusations of assault for crime and was released on bail of $ 300,000 last week.
On February 17, firefighters answered a frantic call from Sullivan 911 reporting a fire at Maison Waterbury. She said her stepson was still inside the house and injured.
“He was sort of passed out. He got out of it,” she told the operator of 911.
But when the first stakeholders arrived and saved the man 5 feet 9 inches and 68 pounds from the house on fire, they found him reactive – and what he said to the police was deeply worrying.
The blue and red lights of a fire truck, ambulance and police cars reflected on the snow that borders the usually silent suburban street while the chaotic scene took place, captured in images of body cameras from the Waterbury police.
Sullivan, dressed in pants and pajama boots, tightened a small dog while she was talking with officers outside the house.
She told a police officer that the door of her stepson’s room was not locked at the time of the fire, which she is normally not locked and that he had the freedom to leave her room, the images show.
At the back of the ambulance, his stepson told a very different story.
“He says he hasn’t taken a shower for over a year,” said one of the first speakers, standing outside the ambulance.
The images of the body camera captured another exchange between two officers on the scene.
“I just don’t want her to go anywhere,” said an officer, referring to Sullivan. “We don’t have enough to hold it really.”
This quickly changed after detectives searched the house where the man said he was held in captivity in an 8 -foot storage space, fixed with plywood and a lock.
More than 100 photos of the Waterbury police reveal disastrous conditions inside the house.
Some rooms are visibly charred with the fire, while others seem to be congested and decrepitized due to a lack of maintenance over the years.
Mold is visible throughout the house, which is paved with broken floor and carpet areas covered with dirt and waste. The ceiling seems damaged, with exposed beams, and the windows are now on board with plywood.
A bright pink room is cluttered with personal effects, including a printer, loose plastic drawers and a leopard print cat tower.
Police captured several close -ups of charred doors and locks in the house, where the man told the police that he had been allowed to leave his room to perform tasks.
The images give life to a heartbreaking story of abuse that seized the nation.
Sullivan’s lawyer, Ioannis Kaloidis, described the schedule for the liberation of “suspect” photos, which raises concerns about potential prejudices against his client.
“It was shocking, to say the least,” he told journalists at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “The only thing we could think of is that it is clearly made to influence public opinion.”
“(The photos) do not prove anything,” he added. “Where are the handcuffs? Where are the channels? Where are signs of restraint? These images raise many questions if you look objectively.”
Concerns about the well-being of the man would have arisen when he was still a child. The former director of the primary school of Barnard, Tom Pannone, and his team contacted the Department of Children and Families of Connecticut there are at least 20 times concerns about their student, he told NBC Connecticut.
The ministry recently declared that it has found archived files linked to the family.
“The ministry is currently examining them in order to assess our work with the family over 20 years ago and to inform any need for current statutory reforms or practice,” DCF in CNN in a statement.
The ministry previously declared to CNN that he had no file linked to the family, citing his policy to establish files five years after having completed an investigation, “provided there are no other supported reports”.
Before his mother-in-law withdraws him from the school, the man told the police that he had met DCF officials twice when he was in the fourth year.
He told the police that his mother-in-law asked him at the time to tell the department that everything was fine. Police making social protection checks also said that nothing suspicious.
The last time he left the property was with his father when he was about 14 or 15 years old, he told the police. After the death of his father in 2024, he said that his captivity had become even more restrictive.
“It happened to a point where the only time he came out of the house once his father died was to leave the family’s dog in the back of the property,” he told the police, according to a affidavit.
These outings were “only about 1 minute a day” because it “was essentially locked in his room between 22 and 24 hours a day,” said the press release.
A year ago, he found a lighter in a jacket that belonged to his late father, he told the police. It was then that he began to develop an escape plan.
“There is a lot of physical therapy he will have to live,” said Waterbury police chief Fred Spagnolo. “There is a lot of healing that he will have to pass mentally.”
The detectives of Waterbury, themselves shaken by the inhumanity which they say to investigate, took a collection to buy the clothes, books and other articles which could make it more comfortable.
As for the newly released man, the mayor of Waterbury, Paul K. Pernerewski, said: “We are committed to supporting him in all possible ways when he begins to cure this unimaginable trauma.”
