[Image: Pappalardo / CC]
Stepmoms get a raw deal in most fairy tales, but this one might just be the real evil stepmom.
A Connecticut woman was arrested this week after a man identified as her stepson told police he started a fire at their house to escape after being held captive in a small room for 20 years.
Kimberly Sullivan, 56, is accused of holding her 32-year-old stepson captive since he was 11.
The victim, now 32, also said that his stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, started locking him in his room when he was just 3. At first, he just spent evenings being locked up, but that all changed when he left school at the age of 11, when he said he was removed from schools after teachers and administrators raised concerns to authorities.
“By this time in his life he was always hungry so when he was at school he would ask others for their food, steal others’ food and sometimes eat food out of the garbage.”
The poor guy alleges that his stepmother pulled him out of school after these incidents, marking the start of 21 years in captivity in which he was allegedly locked in his room, a 2×3 meter storage space with angled ceilings, for at least 22 hours a day, according to the warrant.
“In 33 years of law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity that I’ve ever witnessed … It was worse than the conditions of a jail cell,” police chief Fernando Spagnolo told The Guardian.
“He was only allowed out of this room to do chores, he told police, and was forced to find new ways to relieve himself given his limited access to a toilet. According to the warrant, the victim described urinating into a bottle, then “funneling it into a tube made of straws that emptied out through a hole in the window.”
The situation got worse when the stepson’s father died last year, the victim told police.
“He lit a fire with some hand sanitizer, some paper from a printer, and he lit that fire while he was locked in that room from the outside. He lit that fire very well knowing he could die, but he had been locked in the room for 20 years, and for 20 years he’d been trying to get out of that room,” prosecutors said during the arraignment.
“The suffering this victim endured for over 20 years is both heartbreaking and unimaginable. This case required relentless investigative effort, and I commend the dedication of our officers and the Waterbury State’s Attorney’s Office,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said.
“The facts of this case, quite frankly, are something out of a horror movie. That’s without exaggeration.”
Sullivan was 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.
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Her attorney, Loannis A. Kaloidis, however, denied any wrongdoing on his client’s behalf and called the allegations “outlandish.”
“She was blown away when she heard these allegations,” the lawyer told reporters. “She’s adamant they are not true. This did not happen and we look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.”
Sullivan is currently out on a $300,000 bond pending the trial.
[Source: People]
