Uncle of victim in Connecticut house of horrors says he looked ‘like a Holocaust survivor’
The uncle of a Connecticut boy allegedly starved and kept captive in a house by his cruel stepmother said he was prevented from seeing the boy for decades, and that when he finally saw him, he looked “like a Holocaust survivor.”
Kurt Sullivan, 55, was unable to see his nephew for around 20 years, after his sister-in-law, Kimblerly Sullivan, 56, reportedly pushed him and other relatives away for asking too many questions, keeping the stepson imprisoned in their Waterbury home until he was discovered after intentionally setting a fire to escape.
“I was shocked, he looks like a Holocaust survivor,” Kurt Sullivan told police after seeing his nephew — now 32 — in hospital, according to an affidavit.
Sullivan had been so concerned for his nephew’s safety that he “spoke with a private investigator who suggested going to vital statistics to look for a death certificate,” according to the affidavit.
Sullivan had gone to his nephew’s home “for Christmas Eve for a few years in a row until the family pushed him and his wife away,” the affidavit reports.
He described his nephew as “skinny, meek and mild-mannered,” but remembered that when he had tried to ask the boy questions, Kimberly “intervened,” according to his statement.
Follow The Post’s coverage on Kimberly Sullivan and her “CT House of Horrors”
Kimberly Sullivan was arrested on Wednesday and charged with first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons, and first-degree reckless endangerment, Waterbury police said at a press conference on Thursday morning.
Cops were called to the home on February 17 after reports of a fire, and found two people there — Sullivan, and her stepson.
Sullivan was able to escape the blaze while the stepson had to be helped out of the house by the Waterbury Fire Department after suffering from smoke inhalation and exposure to fire, according to police.
“I wanted my freedom,” the stepson said, admitting to intentionally starting the blaze using paper from a printer and hand sanitizer.
“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,” a prosecutor said in court on Wednesday.
The nephew, who said he had been kept captive in an 8 foot by 9 foot room since he was 11, weighed just 68 pounds when he was taken to hospital.
He was only given two cups of water a day and was sometimes forced to drink out of the toilet, he told police.
The man was only allowed out of his room to do chores for his stepmother, according to Sullivan’s arrest warrant.
“He was, without exaggeration, akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp,” according to the prosecutor.
Sullivan’s attorney denied the charges against her.
“Absolutely not true. He was not locked in a room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food and she provided shelter and she was blown away by these allegations. Absolutely not,” her defense attorney argued.
