A severely emaciated man weighing simply 68 kilos made a snap choice to set his Connecticut house on fireplace final month — risking loss of life simply so he may try to escape the hellish padlocked room he’d been held captive in for greater than 20 years, cops stated.
The 32-year-old gave investigators a terrifying play-by-play of how he lastly managed to alert authorities to the years-long sample of alleged torture and abuse after they saved him from his burning Waterbury house again on Feb. 17.
Like another day, the sufferer alleged he spent the overwhelming majority of his hours deadbolted in his 8 x 9 foot room — consuming simply two sandwiches and a snack, court docket paperwork made public on Wednesday detailed.
He was allegedly let loose briefly at about 7 p.m. to try to repair a light-weight bulb within the kitchen however was rapidly locked again up once more by his stepmom, Kimberly Sullivan, when he failed.
The sufferer instructed cops it was “same old, same old” when he heard Sullivan shut her bed room door at about 8 p.m.
It was solely then that he made the selection to begin the blaze in his cramped area, the grievance costs.
He set the fireplace near the door utilizing hand sanitizer, paper, a stack of video games and a lighter, cops stated.
The sufferer instructed investigators he’d discovered the lighter stashed in a jacket pocket a 12 months earlier when his father died and he was allowed to maintain just a few of his garments.
Conscious of the dangers, the sufferer stated he knew he’d need to let the flames get to some extent the place they couldn’t be put out by his stepmom — and she or he’d be pressured to name the fireplace division, cops stated.
“Once the fire got going good he started to stomp and yell for help. [He] stated that Sullivan yelled to him asking what he wanted and he told her ‘fire’,” in accordance with court docket docs.
When she lastly unbolted the door, the vic instructed his stepmom {that a} radio he was allowed to maintain had malfunctioned.
“At this point he was out of it and had collapsed at the top of the stairs… Sullivan made him get up and go to the downstairs bathroom and wash his face,” he stated, noting his stepmom allegedly didn’t need first responders to know his true look.
He recalled his sister and her boyfriend arriving on the house across the similar time as fireplace crews — and that his stepmom allegedly shouted for them to “get a screwdriver to get the locks off of the door.”
“[The victim] fell to the ground again with Sullivan yelling at him to get up,” the grievance stated. “He stayed on the ground and he purposefully didn’t get up so the fire department would be forced to get him.”
The sufferer later instructed cops he feared this was his solely approach out of the nightmare.
When he was being handled by EMS, the sufferer then confessed he’d intentionally began the inferno as a result of he wished his “freedom.”
His harrowing account kicked off an investigation that ultimately decided he had been held in captivity for greater than 20 years, the place he was starved and uncared for, authorities stated.
“He was, without exaggeration, akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp,” officers stated of the sufferer’s situation.
His stepmom, who insisted she is harmless, was arrested Wednesday and charged with assault, kidnapping, illegal restraint, cruelty and reckless endangerment.
