According to a newly released arrest warrant, the man rescued from a burning Connecticut home told a shocking story of cruelty and constant hunger as he was kept by his father and stepmother for 20 years.
The man told authorities that his confinement began when he was about 11 years old. He said that day and night are locked in almost every heat or unconditioned room, with limited food and water.
With no access to the bathroom, he devised ways to dispose of waste, such as using a series of straws that led to window holes. When he eats due to lack of dental care, fragments of his teeth break. He took a bath without soap and saved some of his daily rations of two small water bottles to cut his own hair.
The year of cruelty ended on February 17th. He sets the fire to Waterbury’s house, with deliberate efforts to save himself, telling the police and firefighters who respond to his story.
Police are now trying to determine how this happened without anyone noticing, and whether the warning sign was missed. Investigators want to see records from the city’s schools and the state’s Child Welfare Agency, Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagrolo said at a press conference Thursday.
The now 32-year-old man has been identified as “male victim 1” in police records. Stepmother Kimberly Sullivan, 56, posted a $300,000 bail on Thursday and was released from custody after appearing in Waterbury Superior Court, her attorney, Ioannis Kaloyd, said. He said Sullivan, who was arrested Wednesday, would deny any misconduct. Her next court date is March 26th.
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“I encourage people to hurry to judge,” Kaloidos said in a phone interview. “This woman is presumed to be innocent.”
The man’s father passed away last year, but his biological mother was not part of his life, authorities said. He and Sullivan lived in the house he set fire to.
Medical officials said the man was approaching starvation and when he arrived at the hospital he suffered from a vain syndrome, a condition of weight loss and muscle deterioration, the warrant says. He was 5 feet and 9 inches tall, and he weighed only 69 pounds.
He was treated for smoke inhalation and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Spagnolo said men face a long road in physical and mental treatment. He said police were in support of him. Includes taking up a collection to buy him clothes and other items.
The man told the police he was constantly hungry. When he was at school, he asked his classmates for food, stole food, and ate out of the trash. In his later years when he graduated from school and was trapped at home, he got two sandwiches a day and water while locked up in his room.
The only interaction between police and their family took place in 2005, the chief said. One was a welfare check after the children who went to school with him before he was pulled out.
The second and final time came after a family filed a harassment complaint for reporting school officials to state child welfare officials. Officers who went to the house said they spoke to the man and then the child afterwards, reporting that there was no cause of concern, Spagnolo said.
A State Department official investigating child abuse said Thursday that he had not found a record of family involvement but continued to look at it. They added that five years after the investigation is completed, reports of negligence or abuse that are deemed unfounded will be erased.
“We are shocked and saddened by the victim and the indescribable circumstances he endured,” the department said in a statement. “The current adult victims have shown incredible strength and resilience during this healing period, and our hearts are headed towards him.”
When the man attended Waterbury Elementary School as a child, staff saw that he was very small and thin and made multiple calls to the stepmother and child and family department. Spagnolo said when he responded to the man’s house in 2005, police said they had no information.
Officials at the Waterbury school did not immediately return an email message Thursday seeking comment.
By Dave Collins
