[ad_1]
OOn February 17, a 32-year-old man set fire to a home in Connecticut in a desperate attempt to escape two decades of allegedly starving and jailed by his stepmother.
Police and fire officials arrived at the Waterbury House after stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, called 911.
“While receiving medical care, the male victim announced to the first respondents that he had intentionally put the fire in his top room and said,” I want my freedom, “” Waterbury police said in a statement on Facebook. “He further claimed he was imprisoned by Sullivan since he was about 11 years old.”
Sullivan, 56, was arrested and charged with assault, kidnapping, illegal restraint, cruelty and reckless threat.
She denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty during a Friday array. Sullivan remains out of jail after placing a $ 300,000 mortgage.
Here’s what you need to know about the shocking allegations:
A 911 call uncovered ‘heartbreaking cruelty’
According to police, they found Sullivan’s stepson in serious condition, with one official comparing him to a survivor of a Nazi death camp.
“The suffering that this victim has endured for more than 20 years is heartbreaking and unthinkable,” said police chief Fernando Spagnolo after the arrest of the man’s stepmother.
Rescue footage was released, showing that officers carry the injured man out of the house.
Local authorities said he had an adolescent spiritual function and weighed 68 pounds.
He showed signs of cachexia, a physical wastage syndrome that is usually associated with victims of serious cancers and is severely worn out, close to hunger, and has not received proper food or medical care in years.
A controversial court case
Friday’s settlement gave an indication of the form of the coming case.
Prosecutors set out how they would claim that Sullivan hid her son from public view.
“A friend of the 21 -year defendant emerged and gave a written statement to the state, to police that she knew this defendant in the 21 years, she never spoke of a stepson,” assistant state’s attorney Donald Thekildsen said in court, according to NBC News, while adding that more witnesses were in contact.
“She was shocked to learn that she has a stepson, and that the friend was never allowed in this house.”
Another problem is likely to be through the fairness of the route itself.
Ioannis Kaloidis, Sullivan’s attorney, objected to a proposal to limit Sullivan to house arrest, arguing that it would send the signal that she was already considered guilty.
“I understand that the whole world me. Sullivan wants to convict and have the whole world, ‘he said. “But it’s the only place, the only room, we have to protect her rights.”
Thekildsen drafted the request as a way to protect the former suspected prisoner from further fear and damage.
“His first question in this fear is:” Why is she walking around while I was locked up in her room for 20 years? “” Thekildsen said.
The judge eventually divided the difference and denied the conditions of house arrest, but Sullivan ordered subject to GPS location monitoring.
“The allegations are probably the most worrying I saw as a judge during my tenure and shows an unthinkable amount of lack of empathy, and I emphasize that it is just allegations,” Judge Joseph Schwartz said.
Hungry ‘every day’ and serious neglect
The stepson said that his stepmother had held him as a young child most of the day in an eight -foot room of eight feet, and just let him go to go to school or do household chores, according to the court documents obtained by The New York Times.
The rest of the time he stayed in the room, where he allegedly lay on the floor newspapers and laid out in a bottle while he was hungry, “all day, every day, my whole life,” according to the documents.
To pass the time, the boy listens to a radio on the other side of his door or counts cars driving by his window.
At school, according to the newspaper, he would beg classmates for food or weakening of trash.
Later, the child was pulled from school and began to live a life of ‘cruel consistent’ deprivation, he said in a police order in the case, concluded from the outside in a room without heat or air virtually 24/7.
Neighbors tell volatile glances of a light child looking out the window of the house or spending short time in the garden before disappearing from public view for long stretches.
The last time the boy left the property, it was as a teenager to shower yard with his father, according to the warrant.
The stepson, who was not mentioned in public, told police he was too scared to escape and knew his stepmother had a gun.
Due to an alleged lack of medical care, the boy’s teeth would fall out regularly when he ate his daily award of two sandwiches, he claims.
“She completely maintains her innocence from our perspective. These allegations are not true. They are foreign. She was blown away when she heard these allegations, “Sullivan’s lawyer told NBC Connecticut. “We look forward to confirming her and showing that she did nothing wrong.”
Authorities examined a few times the home before the fatal 911 call
School officials have reportedly contacted the State Department of Children and Family, who visited the house on two occasions.
The department said after the arrest of Sullivan that it was “unable to locate any records regarding this family, nor did a record related to the names of others who indicated that they had made reports to our department,” although it noted that it has expanded records of abuse and neglect that have not been investigated or substantiated after five years.
The boy did not return to school after the second visit.
Police also visited the house for a welfare check in 2005, after the schoolmates of the boy reported their concerns, and found no cause for further investigation.
“The house was clean. It was alive, “Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo told reporters earlier this month. “They talked to the victim at that time and there was no reason for any alarm or any conditions that led to officers believing something other than a normal childhood in a normal family existence.”
A sudden plan for freedom
The stepson allegedly decided to set the fire on the spur of the moment, using hands -sanitizer, paper and a lighter he found while doing his tasks, and warned officials on his condition.
He claims that his stepmother and a third individual, who was driven in court documents, rushed to wash his face and try to remove the lock from his door to hide the conditions of his captivity.
Sullivan’s next court date is March 28.
A biological mother in shock
The boy lived with his stepmother and his biological father during his alleged captivity.
His biological mother, Tracy Vallerand, continued in 1993 shortly after her son was born. She told NBC Connecticut that she and the father’s father lost supervision of a previous child after the father was accused of shaking the baby, and that she thought her son would have a better life if he was placed in another home.
“Things didn’t work out between the two of us, and I thought I gave my son a better chance of a full life,” she told the outlet. “If I knew … I just can’t understand … I have no words.”
Vallerand and the accused’s half -sister, Heather Tessman, promised to attend the court proceedings.
The biological father of the man in the middle of the case died in 2024.
[ad_2]
Source link
