The Connecticut man who was held captive for 20 years in a small room detailed his horrific living conditions to police, according to an arrest warrant released Tuesday.
Kimberly Sullivan, the victim’s 56-year-old stepmother, has been charged with several crimes in connection with the man’s alleged treatment. She has pleaded not guilty.
The man, who is now 32, described how he was pulled out of school at 11 years old and eventually locked in an 8-by-9-foot room with no bathroom facilities and no way out, local NBC affiliate WVIT reported. The man said his last bath or shower came between one and two years ago.
He told officers he received two cups of water per day. While his initial food ration was two sandwiches per day, that was later decreased, according to WVIT. When he was rescued by police officers last month, the man measured 5-foot-9 and weighed just 68 pounds.
“I was shocked, he looks like a Holocaust survivor,” a family member told police after visiting the victim in the hospital.
The man described living in fear and said guests were rarely ever permitted in the house, WVIT reported. “Under pain of death, no one was to see me,” he told police.
He told officers the last time he was allowed to leave the property was at age 14 or 15, when he traveled with his father to dump yard waste, according to WVIT. He also described a previous escape attempt in which he cut a hole in the door to his prison-like room and snuck out for food. He told investigators Sullivan slapped him on the face and sealed the door.
In public statements, Sullivan has blamed the man’s biological father for his treatment. The father died last year, but the man told police his living conditions only got worse after that.
He was only able to escape after setting a fire using hand sanitizer, printer paper and a lighter. The blaze got out of control and forced Sullivan to call 911, sparking a response from the Waterbury Fire Department. The flames were quickly doused.
“He put a lot of trust in us,” one of the first smoke-eaters on the scene, Jon Paul Oldham, told WVIT.
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