A man admitted to setting his home on fire in Waterbury, Connecticut, back in February, but his reason for the arson is heartbreaking.
He had been locked in his room by his father and stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, 20 years ago when he was only 11 years old and was kept in there for the majority of his life since. His father passed away in recent months, and he set a fire in an attempt to escape his stepmother.
The 5'9" man weighed only 69 lbs. Medical personnel said that he was suffering from severe wasting disease.
The man told police that he was constantly hungry. When he was in school, he would ask classmates for food, steal food, and eat out of the garbage. In later years when he was out of school and confined to the house, he would get two sandwiches a day and some water while locked in his room.
There was no restroom in his prison, so he used a series of straws to dispose of waste through the windows. There was also no heat or climate control in the room. His sisters were reportedly allowed to have a normal life, while he had to educate himself with books and a dictionary and kept track of time and current events by listening to a radio that he could hear through his door.
When people did come to the house, he was told to be quiet so no one would hear.
Here's the body-cam footage of EMS arriving at the house the night of the fire:
Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said,
Thirty years in law enforcement [and] this is the worst treatment of humanity that I've ever witnessed.
The local child welfare department was called to investigate in 2005 when the man -- a kid at the time -- went missing from school, but they deemed the reports of abuse "unsubstantiated."
Read this part of the police affidavit:
MV1 stated that he always had a lock on the outside of his door. It evolved from a chain lock to a pad lock and eventually a slide bolt lock. Not only did he demonstrate to Detective Pesce how it operated, but the lock was also observed from photos obtained from search and seizure warrants executed at the residence.
MV1 added that when he first moved to (address omitted) he was in an actual bedroom (locked in) but was then moved to a smaller 'room'. This area was observed during the execution of the search warrant and can be described as a back storage space on the second floor of the residence. MV1 stated he was only there for a short period of time eventually being moved to a smaller 'room'. This is where he has been since the age of twelve. This space that MV1 was locked in was a back storage space that measured approximately eight feet by nine feet. The space also had angled ceilings making the space that much smaller. Speaking with (Doctor's name omitted to protect location of MV1) she stated that MV1 stated during conversation that the space had no heat in the Winter and no air conditioning in the Summer.
MV1 stated that once he was pulled from school his weekday routine and captivity became brutally consistent for the rest of his life. MV1 stated that he would typically go to sleep around 7:30pm 'depending on what season it was'.
The man says he was only allowed out for a few minutes a day to do chores, and that the last time he left the property was when he was 14 or 15.
For her part, the stepmother has pled not guilty to all the charges against her and finds the allegations "horrible and astonishing."
"Horrible and Astonishing."
Yeah, that about sums it up!
Shout out to Not the Bee user @satirenap for the heads up about this story.
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