‘Evil’ Stepmom Held Son Captive for 20 Years: Police

who else is in the house who else is in here my stepson is in here she might be acting like she allegedly cares in the slightest about her stepson in this body cam video but this woman is accused of a crime that not even veteran law enforcement can comprehend 33 years of law enforcement this is the worst uh treatment of humanity that I've ever witnessed she allegedly kept her stepson trapped inside this home for 20 years when rescued he weighed just under 70 lb and was 32 years old now she is under arrest and there

are major questions about the failures that would allow this to happen we're on the case presented by law and crime I'm Chris [Music] Stewart it is hard to come to grips with what police say happened inside this home you see this picture here this is in Waterbury Connecticut firefighters responded to a call here for a fire on February 17th inside that house they found much more than just flames and smoke they say they found a terrifying story of abuse and neglect and they say this woman is allegedly responsible this is Kimberly Sullivan here she is

in custody police say that she held her stepson captive for two decades inside that Home Police say the man was kept in his room for 22 to 24 hours a day before I get into any more of the disturbing details of what allegedly happened in this home let me lay out the time timeline of the night that authorities responded to this fire let's begin with the 911 call that we just received oh my God to Blake Street what's the address pleas hurry it's to Blake Street there's a fire oh my God fireing ma'am what street

the TV I don't know my my son was step son is in his room and I don't know he did something with the TV I was I see Flames or smoke yes come on Che come on okay can you get yes we need an ambulance please okay please we need an ambulance ma'am all right you said something's on fire and now you need an ambulance what's going on there yes his room the TV in his room did he get injured is he on fire yes he's injured please St the ambulance ma'am I'm gonna stend the

ambulance I need to know what's going on and while they're going out there where is he injured he's I don't know he's he's kind of he's he I don't know I don't know he's kind of passed out he's out of it please okay what's your phone number just in case we need to give you a call back please okay is the is the fire out ma'am no it's not please I'm trying to I understand ma'am I'm trying to get information on what's going on there oh my God it's like all the power in the house

is out I don't know if ITW okay ma'am just get out of the house okay I'm yes I'm going to call my water my God here's the newly released body cam video of what authorities found when they arrived here go on the road come on come down come down come El is in the house who else is in here my stepson is in here trying to help out I have two cats everybody's out yeah but your stepson's still inside yeah he's right here okay come out come down the road come on come onfe to stay

here come on all right my dog is shaking I know down here that's true 873 for victim fire vitim okay come on my my I know come on I'm coming see that got one victim right here stay over here [Applause] what you just saw there at the end of the video was the victim the stepson being taken to the hospital according to the arrest warrant affidavit a waterburry police officer described the stepson known as male victim one or as we will call him mv1 as emaciated his hair matted and unkempt was very dirty and his

teeth all appear to be rotten days later in the hospital mv1 would speak with police officers and give details of what he says life was like over the last 20 years before I go into the details of that here's what the Waterbury Police Chief said about what you're about to hear this video is from the news conference courtesy of wvit TV in Connecticut because frankly uh what was being reported was was unfathomable to us at that point in time um you know through uh those investigative meetings and through search warrants we were able to uh

seiz uh physical evidence uh and conduct uh interviews uh and uh dig up some more information U that um cooperated the victim story this is the law and crime legal alert did you know that children are being diagnosed with serious conditions like type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and research is potentially linking ultra-processed foods to these outcomes our partners at Morgan and Morgan are stepping in to fight to hold food companies accountable they have Decades of experience of standing up to Big corporations and they are ready to stand up and fight for families

and make sure that they get justice so if your child under 21 has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or fatty liver disease visit forthepeople.com food or you can scan the QR code on your screen to learn more according to the affidavit the male victim told police he was pulled out of public school in 2004 when he would have been around 12 years old when asked about his earliest memories mv1 said he would sneak out of his room at night to eat and drink and when it was discovered that he was doing that he was

locked in his room he recalled drinking from a toilet because he was only getting two cups of water a day mv1 detailed a life being allegedly held captive in this home by Kimberly Sullivan who allegedly locked him in his room and would only let him out to do chores anytime he would be let out and be around someone he wouldn't speak about what his life was like inside the home out of fear of being lock down even longer please say MV one's dad lived in the house until he died in January 2024 and he was

confined to a wheelchair then mv1 captivity got allegedly more restrictive mv1 said that he would have to go to the bathroom in a bottle and on newspaper there are so many horrifying details in the arrest affidavit that we read through but this part in particular stood out to me when you try to comprehend what this man says his life was like for two decades mv1 says that he was occasionally allowed to watch TV on the weekends and once he had a black and white TV in his room but then that stopped working he said he

would listen to University of Connecticut basketball and NASCAR on the radio near his door to be able to keep track of what year it was he said he wasn't allowed to have friends and the only time he was ever allowed to have fun with Halloween the last time he was allowed to go trick-or-treating according to CNN was when he was 12 years old and his last costume was a firefighter and that leads us to the fire that allegedly set him free mv1 says he set the Flames himself he says that he used a lighter that

he had taken from his now deceased father a year prior and he used printer paper and hand sanitizer he told police that he read that hand sanitizer was flammable mv1 allegedly told Sullivan the fire started because his radio Mal functioned and then she let him out of his room but she also demanded that he wash his face before he escaped out of fear that firefighters might notice his appearance then the final line of that paragraph hit me in the chest when I read it it states that mv1 said he laid on the floor with the

fire in the house as smoke was going through the home knowing that firefighters would be forced to get him believing it was the only way out of his situation then he was taken to the hospital where he is now recovering and then had the conversation with police according to the affidavit mv1 stood at 5T foot 9 in tall and weighed 68.9 lb he told detectives that he started the fire because quote I wanted my freedom he did suffer smoke inhilation during the fire he's considered to be in stable condition and is recovering at the hospital

while he's recovering there are certainly a lot of questions about how this was allegedly able to happen and for so long Waterbury Police say the Department of Children and Families made two trips to mv1 house in 2004 after he was pulled out of school because there were concerns from the children and teachers at the school that something was going on the Waterbury Police Chief said this about those visits in that news conference this video from wvit we we're doing some background investigation there are two incidents that uh we had uh within our our computer system

of dealing uh with with that address and with the family back in 2005 uh one was a uh request from DCF to do a welfare check at the location um because children that um the victim were familiar with hadn't seen them and they were concerned about him officers went to the house the house was clean it was lived in they spoke to the the victim at that point in time and there were no um cause for any alarm or uh any conditions that existed that would have led officers to believe anything other than uh a

normal childhood uh and a normal family um existence was Aur occurring that was reported back to DCF and that was the last um that we were involved uh in that particular investigation uh we were called back to the house in the latter part of April by the family who wanted to file a harassment complaint uh against members of the school district saying that they were continuously reporting them to DCF and and felt that they were trying to get the family in trouble and have the family investigated um we have no further information about where that

went other than there was no proof provided by the family that there was any type of harassment that was occurring um you know as far as the school district's concerned we are looking at those records now we're working with DCF to look at uh Records that they may have uh from previous investigations and that's part of the ongoing investigation DCF told WTNH in Connecticut that they have no records related to mv1 and his family they said that in that state records are expunged 5 years after reports of neglect or abuse are considered unsubstantiated now you

may also be wondering what about other members of this family about other people who are related to mv1 the New York Post spoke to the man's biological mom the woman lives in Meridan Connecticut which is about 20 minutes from Waterbury where her son was allegedly being held captive she told the post from outside her house quote we are all trying to come to grips with this horror that my son had to Endor and quote he has family who love him so much and has never been forgotten about the post says the woman would not answer

questions about why she didn't allegedly rescue her son from this abuse as for the Stepmom here's Kimberly Sullivan appearing in court she is now charged with assault in the first degree kidnapping in the second degree unlawful restraint in the first degree cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment in the first degree here is what her attorney said outside of Court this per CT Insider absolutely yes so she completely maintains her innocence from our perspective these allegations are not true they are outlandish I mean she was blown away when she heard these allegations uh she's adamant they

are not true this did not happen and we look forward to being able to vindicate her and and and show that she's done nothing wrong can you speak on I guess what your stance is what what she I guess you say she's innocent been she's never locked him in a room that that is absolutely not true he was not locked in a room she did not restrain him in any way uh she provided food she provided shelter she is blown away by these allegations just it it's it is shocking and it what's more shocking to

me is so someone can be falsely accused in such a thing and you mentioned her husband passing away recently correct potentially someone who was biological father um well I mean he was the biological father he's the one that dictated how his son would be raised uh we think as the evidence comes out you will see that she's not uh she's not the villain she's being made out to me absolutely not you mentioned that the allegations were being cooperated I what how are the allegations well the allegations seem to be based on the words of one

individual and one individual Alone um I did not see anything in the warrant to indicate any independent evidence to corroborate these allegations so we'll see how they stand up at trial uh I do anticipate a trial in this case uh given the shocking nature of the allegations she's out of it she's done nothing wrong where's the boy now where's the the um I don't know um so but you know my understanding he's based on my review of the warrant uh there was no other person to corroborate any of the claims that were made uh and

we'll at the appropriate time we'll get into the motivations and The credibility of any witness Sullivan was held on $300,000 bail and she was able to post that so she is free right now as this case continues and her stepson recovers in the hospital her next court date is reportedly March 26th the city of Waterberry and the community are now trying to help this stepson as he recovers in in the hospital and faces a long path ahead when it comes to recovering from what allegedly took place this is a GoFundMe page that the police department

linked to on its Facebook page it's being run by a nonprofit called Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury and at the time of this recording it has raised more than $90,000 talk more now about a really difficult story is maryan brocha practice professor of law at Temple University and a former prosecutor thank you for taking the time to be with us um I know you in your career you've worked some some really difficult cases what reaction did you have when you first learned about what police say happened inside this home for 20 years well first reaction

is it sounds like a house of hars it sounds like something out of a horror film it sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel it's almost something that doesn't uh seem real but then when you hear the physical condition that that the Survivor was in that our that the male victim was in uh you know it is all too real and there is actually physical evidence of what he endured for all that time how common are I I know this and and we've heard from law enforcement that have said you know the chief

said in 33 years of of of his career he's never seen something like this but when you have cases where there is someone who's being held captive in a home how common are these types of cases I I can't say that a case like this comes down the pike every day I can't say that this is a very common fact pattern that that presents itself to prosecutors for consideration uh there have been instances where I I've seen and reviewed materials for captive like cases like this in the past but but again they're few and far

between and the thing to remember with any case involving a dependent person um or with a vulnerable victim is that these crimes go on behind closed doors in the dark outside of public viewing the are not what we call quote unquote Street crimes that can be captured by surveillance or pole cameras or uh a police car that's driving by that happens Upon a Crime Scene these are things that happen really in the dark uh and and are not often discovered by investigators or by the people who are best suited to help police say that he

was pulled out of school public school in 2004 um and then he was I guess considered to be homeschooled at the time and he just fell through the crack along the way how do how can we track somebody who who is pulled out of school but then it appears that there's no record whatsoever I know DCF went to the house twice and then said that at the time nothing seemed to be wrong but how does someone fall through the cracks like this I I think the the only phrase to use there is Administrative failure um

children and especially dependent children children who are being homeschooled children who are uh suspected of enduring abuse should not be able to fall through the the cracks or have their cases closed by a cursory review um how does that happen it it it happens with overburdened systems it happens with overworked social workers and case workers uh it happens when quite frankly there isn't the uh systemic priority placed on safe safeguarding uh the most vulnerable and potentially vulnerable victims of crimes and neglect like this then reported in Connecticut after 5 years when there's a report of

abuse so in this case a DCF social worker went to the house found nothing uh in their mind at that point warranted any sort of charge or abuse so it was considered unfounded uh uh in Connecticut those records are expunged after five years so they don't exist anymore how common are those laws and and and what's the point of those laws I think laws and and and time frame like that time limits like that on archiving and on recordkeeping of certain reports is is actually pretty common and if you think about it it's not just

uh recordkeeping when it comes to Social Services recordkeeping when it comes to child and youth Protective Services those those time limits exist exist in almost every industry in almost every facet of our society even things like bank records or tax records things like that um are pretty regularly expunged after a certain number number of prescribed years so unfortunately I don't think this was any malfeasance I don't think this was was any wrongdoing this sounds like something that was uh in uh in line with the agency's policies regarding recordkeeping and the length of time that records

are kept uh but this is a fairly common practice again not just in the the the social service realm but in in most facets of our society is there a reason why though in in this realm that that they would do that I think back in the day you only have so much room for so much paper uh you know in in an archive room and then now everything's digital uh what's the reason that it would be expunged is it protecting someone who maybe was accused in a wrong way and then you know they don't

want to have that on their record if it was something that wasn't true in this case we'll see how the court case plays out yeah I I think both of those considerations are at play when it comes to expunging these records I think you're right that uh back in the day when these were paper records there was there was physical limitation on on storage of however many boxes or folders of information that a particular building or storage unit could hold the same is somewhat true of our digital archives there is only there are only so

many terabytes that that exist in terms of our cloud storage or in terms of these agencies storage that's not making an excuse for it by any means but that there is still that consideration of uh the the the storage space available for um a a forever maintenance of Records but I think you're also right that when someone is investigated or when someone is uh suspected of wrongdoing and they are cleared uh there is a societal interest in clearing that person's name if there are no subsequent reports if there are no follow-up concerns with that person's

Behavior or that person's care of of a child or or a dependent person um and so there is a a privacy interest there in terms of clearing their name and not having records attributable to them for suspected wrongdoing um ad infinitum forever and always so if if you were a prosecutor on this case going forward what happens now because you have this you know certainly the story that male victim one you know told authorities I mean there's just so many details of it that are just horrific uh he himself is a piece of evidence just

with the condition that that he was in at the time what are some of the pieces of evidence you would need as a prosecutor if you were to take this to trial so I I think there are a few steps of the investigation that I'm sure that are underway and and and being considered as they proceed toward a prosecution um number one the the personhood of male victim one has been deprived or or jeopardized for all of these years and so my number one priority as a prosecutor would be to safeguard that personhood that um

autonomy uh that that decision-making and the respect and the dignity that is owed to this victim uh to make sure that he is participating uh meaningfully and and willingly in the prosecution without having choices that are uh voed upon him uh that that aren't of his making so I would make sure that he is really involved in the process and that his voice his preferences his uh uh uh needs are are really heard and attended to moving forward because obviously he's been through 20 years of having those needs and that that voice uh completely disregarded

so he would be my my central Focus there is of course the the uh need to gather physical evidence so I believe his uh physical condition his physical state as you mentioned is an important piece of evidence so documenting photographing recording uh how he is physically his size his weight uh his his physical and mental well-being currently after he was discovered after all of these years and there's also physical documentation of the living conditions where he was for all of those years the fact that there was plywood and a series of of locks on his

door the fact that uh uh no one had seen him in however many years I would be going about the business of finding family members and interviewing them asking them about their involvement with the family with the defendant in this case the caregiver or the the should have been caregiver uh to find out when there the family member's access was restricted to this male victim when the last time they saw him and what the circumstances of that uh of of seeing him were um so I'd really be trying to get a holistic view of this

person's experiences and and living situation or I should say surviving situation over the past 20 years and and you piece that together with physical evidence with documentary evidence um with photographic evidence and certainly with narrative evidence of those closest to him or purportedly close to him or close to the family I look at her defense uh and her attorney was pretty defiant outside of Court saying that she is completely innocent and we're going to prove this wrong a lot of things that you would expect defense attorney to say especially early on in the case um

I think one argument that she is going to make is that he could have left at any time he didn't talk in the case about um any sexual abuse he said there was one instance of physical abuse I think it was slapped years ago he says that that had happened but other than that it wasn't uh a physical abuse case uh at least according to the arrest affidavit he was allowed to go outside to do chores and I think you could see the defense make an argument of well he could have left and and seek

help at any time if it was really that bad as the prosecution how do you push back on that if if that's the way the defense wants to do so the the push back that I would seek as a prosecutor is to really focus on the psychological harm which uh is not just something that that exists in one's mind as it were it's not just something elusory or imagined um there are psychological and emotional factors that go into holding someone captive that go into uh the kidnapping charge which I think a lot of people hear

kidnapping and they say well was he taken from one location to the next would he taken across state lines but there is a definition of kidnapping which means to to to hold against one's will to hold um uh essentially captive for the purpose of exposing that person uh to Serious bodily injury and so the serious bodily injury in this case would have been the deprivation of of food and water the deprivation of Medical Services uh that is the exposure to the serious bodily injury in this case and so the push back would be uh sure

he was allowed outside to take the dog out or to attend to chores for a few minutes a day but what a about the psychological trauma that had gone on for decades before and and for that all of those decades ongoing that communicated to this male victim one if I leave or if I try to leave is there a greater harm that will come to me than submitting or succumbing to this captivity and so that is really something that needs to be explored and explained to the jury that holding this male victim captive for all

of these years and the condition I that he was that he was kept in really deprived him of the ability to make that choice the ability to say well I'm just going to walk away from this because in in a in a victim's mind like this that choice just doesn't exist I imagine too for the defense and and I don't envy the job of a defense attorney in this case because it's just it's you know there's such a a you're you're pushing back on on a story that is just it's so horrific and I I

imagine if this arrest affidavit was put up in court they're talking about how he listened to Yukon basketball games so he was able to understand what year it was that that would be really effective to a jury how else do you see the defense potentially pushing back on the horrific allegations that are being made against their client well unfortunately aside from the the condition the physical condition of the victim so the fact that he was in his 30s and weighed only 70 pounds uh and the the fact of his uh his living situation fact that

there was the the the plywood across the door and and the locks on the door I could imagine a defense putting forward a story or a version that perhaps the danger was coming from the victim and that these uh steps these lockdown conditions that were put in place to keep him in captiv captivity were actually put in place as a safety mechanism or a defense mechanism by the defendant um so I would anticipate the defense to explore uh and perhaps do some perhaps finger pointing to the victim and to say that this is this is

not someone who was safe this is not someone who was uh physically or mentally reliable uh and someone whom perhaps the defendant feared and so she was acting out of uh self-preservation I don't know if that would carry the day with a jury but I could imagine a world where that is a potential defense yeah it's um it's again that's it's a tough job I I think in that case for you know everyone's innocent until proven guilty but for for defense attorneys in this case she was given $300,000 Bond she was able to post that

um what do you make of of that part of the story in in most jurisdictions uh where where charges have no uh available bail ordinarily that that charge would be homicide so in most jurisdictions in Most states most criminal offenses um do have a a a bail amount that is that is available to a charge um remember that bail is not intended to be a punishment bail is intended to secure a a defendant's presence and participation in the criminal case uh in the prosecution so um if there is no indication that this person is a

Flight Risk if there's no indication that this person has previously left town or gone gone on the lamb um the fact that she has a private counsel is also something that is taken into consideration she has already invested in her defense so she is uh putting putting out evidence or or an indication that she intends to fight this case which also makes it more likely that she will appear in court um so the availability of bail is not a surprise to me because there is fortunately no homicide charge here um but at the same time

there would be conditions attached to her bail things like a staya away order she will likely be ordered to have no contact with the male victim she will certainly be instructed that she's not to have any contact uh or attempt any contact with other prosecution witnesses if there are family members who are uh sought to be interviewed or or testify on behalf of of male victim one uh so there will be conditions attendant with that bail but it's not a surprise to me that that bail was set and that she was able to post her

percentage of it and then just lastly as we we look at this story and and so often you hear about the the missed red flags that were there um and in this case you had DCF that in 2004 we don't know what the condition of the home was in 2004 but apparently it wasn't reaching the level that that they needed to do something though people were concerned about it when you look at the system as a whole what can be done just from from your career and your experience what can be done to prevent these

cases where these red flags are missed from happening well my my number one question would be after 2004 when this person was still 11 years old and was ostensibly being homeschooled until till uh the age that they could have declared emancipation or declared independence and and and left uh the situation of of formal education where was the state where was the oversight where was anyone making sure that that homeschooling was actually being done that he was being care for cared for um and and that he was in a in a safe and um if not

loving at least educational environment I think if there had been some oversight in terms of uh what condition his homeschooling or his alleged homeschooling situation was there could have been more eyes on his condition and perhaps the uh sad state that he was surviving in would have come to light much much sooner yeah uh it's just it's a horrific Story and there's going to be a lot of questions that will continue on as as this case and investigation continues as well Maran brocha always great to have you on La crime thanks for being here thank

you thank you Chris we'll continue to follow this story as new details come available for on the case presented by law and crime I'm Chris Stewart we'll see you next time [Music]