New photos reveal the filthy and squalid conditions where a Connecticut woman is accused of holding her stepson captive and starving him for decades.
Kimberly Sullivan, 56, pleaded not guilty Friday to several charges, including first-degree assault and second-degree kidnapping, in connection with allegations that she held her stepson captive in her Waterbury home for decades and subjected him to what police described as "prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect and inhumane treatment."
The stepson, 32, is alleged to have set a fire in the home to free himself on Feb. 17. When police found him, the man, who is 5-feet-9, weighed just 68 pounds. He told officers that he had been captive since he was 11 years old and that he started the fire because "I wanted my freedom," the Waterbury Police Department said.
New photos from inside the home, released by police through a Freedom of Information request to NBC Connecticut, paint a grim picture of life behind closed doors at the Blake Street residence: rooms cluttered with items, walls covered in smoke and destroyed from the fire, and doors with locks on the outside.
One photo shows a staircase that leads to the second floor, where the man is alleged to have been held, visibly dirty and stained, with some damage most likely from the fire.
Another shows a filthy bedroom with the bed covered in random items and the windows boarded up. Another photo shows a small, dirty bathroom also cluttered with items on the floor.
Other photos show door frames with locks on the outside, including an image from a police evidence room that shows a charred door frame with a lock on it.
First responders said they found the stepson under the table in the kitchen.
"I saw the mother and, at the time, what I thought was a child in the kitchen. He was in the fetal position in the kitchen," Waterbury Fire Capt. Jon Paul Oldham told NBC Connecticut.
Firefighter Gabriel Goja said: "The victim was curled up in a little ball underneath the table. Then I went up to him, scooped him up and just took him out the front door."
Sullivan’s attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, has denied the allegations and claims that the man was properly cared for and was not prevented from leaving.Tracy Vallerand, the man's biological mother, whose name has not been released by officials, told NBC Connecticut last week she gave up custody of her son in 1993, shortly after his birth, so he could live with his father.
"Things didn’t work out between the two of us, and I was thinking that I was giving my son a better chance at a full life," she said. "If I had known. ... I just can’t fathom. ... I have no words."
Kaloidis said the man’s biological father died in 2024. Sullivan is due back in court April 22.