- A Connecticut woman was arrested last month after a man identified as her stepson told police he started a house fire at their shared residence to escape decades of her alleged abuse
- The woman, Kimberly Sullivan, 56, has since been released from custody after posting $300,000 bail
- Sullivan, who maintains her innocence, was accused of holding the man, now 32, captive for 20 years. This week, police released images showing a trash-filled and cluttered house where he allegedly stayed
Police have released chilling photos showing the inside of a Connecticut home where a stepmom allegedly held a man captive for 20 years.
Kimberly Sullivan, 56, was taken into custody on March 12 after her 32-year-old stepson told police he started a house fire at their shared residence in Waterbury to escape decades of her alleged abuse.
As previously reported by PEOPLE, Sullivan has since been released from custody after posting $300,000 bail on March 13. According to CNN, she pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and felony assault charges last week.
Multiple images shared by local CBS-affiliated station WFSB Connecticut News from the Waterbury Police Department this week show a dirty staircase, cluttered rooms filled with trash and a bath with plywood in the tub and flooring that appeared to have been taken up.
Further images appeared to show the charred building following the blaze that the stepson started on Feb. 17. There were also multiple photos of locks and door frames, but it’s unclear where the man stayed at the property.
The Waterbury Police Department did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for the latest information regarding the case.
Sullivan was previously accused of holding her stepson captive since he was around 11 years old, the Waterbury Police Department stated in a March 12 Facebook post.
Officers added at the time that she’d been arrested and 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.
According to an arrest warrant previously obtained by PEOPLE, the alleged victim told detectives that his stepmother reportedly began locking him in the room for 22 hours a day or more after pulling him out of school.
The man told detectives that his father, Kregg Sullivan, and stepmother allegedly decided to remove him from school after multiple calls were made to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) about his behavior.
The man, who has not been publicly identified, arrived at the hospital after the fire weighing just 68 lbs., and later alleged he had not showered in close to two years and had been subsisting on just two sandwiches a day for a decade, according to the warrant.
Local Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo previously said during a press conference that officers had not been to the boy’s home since 2005, when DCF requested they do a welfare check.
DCF Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly then said in a statement that the agency was “unable to locate any records pertaining to this family,” noting that all unsubstantiated records are expunged after five years.
According to WFSB, DCF later said on March 28 that they had found records related to the case after spending two weeks searching the archives. DCF did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.
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Sullivan has been maintaining her innocence throughout the case.
“We would urge the public not to rush to judgment in this case, to please keep in mind that she is presumed innocent unless and until if ever, the state can prove otherwise at trial,” Sullivan’s lawyer, Ioannis A. Kaloidis, previously said in a statement to PEOPLE. “These allegations are horrific and she intends to defend them vigorously. She is innocent. And we intend to follow this case through until she’s vindicated.”
Kaloidis also told PEOPLE that it was his client’s late husband who “was in control” of all decisions regarding his son’s care.
The boy’s father died in 2024, at which time he alleged that his treatment became much worse.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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