[Music] Oh my god. Lake Street. What's the address? Please hurry. It's Dude Lake Street. There's a fire. Come on down. Who else is in the house? Who else is in here? My stepson is in here. Help them out. That's it. I have two cats. Everybody's out. Yes. Are your stepson's still inside? Yeah, he's right here. Okay. Come out. Come down the road. Come on. Come on. To stay safe here. Come on. All right. My dog is shaking. I know. We're down here. That's true. 87.32 for victim. My dog. I got my dog. I know. Come on. I'm coming. You see it? Got one victim right here. since he was 30. Since he hasn't had a shower in over a year, February 12th, 2025. Waterbury, Connecticut. It started out like any other cold, quiet winter day. But inside a modest home on Blake Street, something much darker was happening. Inside, a 32-year-old man made a desperate move to save his life. What he would eventually reveal to investigators would make headlines across the country. He described years of unimaginable isolation and suffering. And over the coming months, the horrifying details of what really went on inside that house would slowly emerge. The case was so disturbing that Waterbury Police Chief Fred Spagnolo called it the worst treatment of humanity he'd seen in his 33-year career. But this story isn't just about one horrifying act. It raises the bigger questions. How did something like this go undetected for so long? Who failed to step in? And how could a system designed to protect children allow something like this to happen? What you're about to hear is based on publicly available court records, police reports, and credible media accounts. Let's dive in. Once known as the brass city, Waterbury was built on factories, manufacturing, and hard work. But like many former industrial towns, it's faced years of economic decline. Nearly 30% of residents live below the poverty line. And the average home here is worth about $225,000. In one of those homes on Blake Street lived the Sullivan family. Kimberly Sullivan, her husband Craig Sullivan, their two daughters, and Craig's son from a previous marriage. Craig worked as a shipper for Gem Manufacturing for over 30 years. Kimberly's last known job was at a retail store in West Farms Mall, though she stopped working in 2021. But despite Craig's steady job, finances were always tight. Both Kimberly and Craig filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy separately in the mid200s. They were drowning in credit card debt, mortgage payments, and struggled for years to stay afloat. It was around that time when troubling signs first started appearing involving Craig's son, who we'll refer to as John Doe. In fourth grade, John's teachers noticed him stealing food from classmates. He was even seen scavenging from garbage cans, a red flag that he wasn't being properly fed at home. School officials quickly contacted Connecticut's Department of Children and Families, or DCF, concerned for his well-being. According to the school principal, John's condition was obvious to the staff. We knew it. We reported it. Not a damn thing was done. That's that's the tragedy of the whole thing. Everyone really was concerned with this child since he was 5 years old. You knew something was wrong. It was grossly wrong. Police records show that at least one welfare check was conducted by DCF with police present back in 2004, but no action was taken. Months later, DCF was called again. On April 1st, 2005, police were dispatched to the Sullivan home after some of John's classmates expressed concern that something had happened to him. He hadn't been at school for a while. When police arrived, Kimberly Sullivan told them that after the initial DCF visit, they had pulled Jon out of school entirely and were homeschooling him. She reportedly told officers, "This is the second time I've been bothered by DCF." The responding officer noted that Jon appeared healthy and happy and that the home looked normal. With no obvious danger, the case was closed that same day. No further action was taken, according to police. But the police would return to the Sullivan home multiple times over the years. Between 2004 and 2025, police responded to 14 different calls to the address, ranging from harassment complaints, domestic disputes, lararseny, suspicious persons, and medical incidents. Still, none of these incidents resulted in any criminal charges against Kimberly Sullivan. Meanwhile, school officials and state workers kept trying to check on John. Principal Tom Penon even visited the home with the school nurse. However, the family resisted these efforts, eventually filing harassment complaints against the school. Over time, John essentially disappeared from public view. Neighbors would later admit that they had no idea a boy even lived in the house. And you live right next door to the to the house, correct? And how how long have you lived here? I've lived here for about four years. I've known my wife for almost 10. So, I've been coming here, you know, knowing my wife for almost 10 years. Okay. And did you know of anything, hear of anything next door? Nope. Did you ever see the the the the woman or the you obviously never saw the I obviously saw the woman, you know, coming in passing, but um when I was asked about a son, I was shocked. I I never I never even heard of or knew that there was a son until my stepdaughter told me the story about when she was sitting on the swing and she saw a little boy up in the window or what she app she she thought was a little boy. It turns out it that was 15 years ago. So he must have been about 20 20 22 at the time. He just appeared to be a little boy I guess to her. On January 25th, 2024, tragedy struck the Sullivan household. Craig Sullivan passed away. The cause of death has not been made public. Police later said he was wheelchair bound and struggling with serious health problems. With Craig gone, Kimberly became John's sole caregiver, and the years of confinement continued. But behind those doors, John's desperation was building, and soon it would reach a breaking point. Fast forward to February 12th, 2025. It began as an ordinary winter day in Waterbury. But that quiet would not last. Soon, thick black smoke filled the evening sky above two Blake Street. A fire had broken out from inside the home. But this was no ordinary blaze. Oh my god. That's Blake Street. What's the address? Please hurry. It's Blake Street. There's a fire. Oh my god. There's a fire. Ma'am, what the TV? I don't know. My My son, he was a stepson is in his room and I don't know. He did something with the TV. I was sleeping. I fell asleep. You see flames or smoke? Yes. Come on, Steph. Come on. Okay. Can you get Yes, we need an ambulance. Please. Please. We need an ambulance. Ma'am. All right. You said something's on fire and now you need an ambulance. What's going on there? Yes. His room. The TV in his room. Did he get injured? Is he on fire? Yes, he's injured. Please send the ambulance. Ma'am, I'm going to send that ambulance. I need to know what's going on and why they're going out there. Where is he injured? He's I don't know. He's He's kind He's He's I don't know. I don't know. He's kind of passed out. He's out of it, please. Okay. What's your phone number? Just in case we need to give you a call back. Okay. Is that Is the fire out, ma'am? No, it's not. Leave. I'm trying to I understand, ma'am. I'm trying to get information on what's going on there. Oh my god. It's like all the power in the house is out. I don't know if it's blue or you Okay, ma'am. Just get out of the house. Okay. I'm Yes. I'm going to call my daughter. Come over here. Go down the road. You have to get stuff out. Come on. Come down. Come down. Who else is in the house? Who else is in here? My stepson is in here. How many other people? I have two cats. Everybody's out. Yes. But your stepson's still inside? Yeah, he's right here. Okay, come out. Come down the road. Come on. Come on. Come on. All right. My dog is shaking. I know. Come down here. That's true. 87.3 victim. Fire victim. Okay. My dog. I got my dog. I know. Come on. I'm coming. You're seen that one victim right here. Where are you going? I need your sit over here. [Applause] You're going to have to [ __ ] go. [Music] [Applause] Kimberly Sullivan made it out unharmed, but when first responders arrived, they found a man severely malnourished. He weighed just 68.7 lb at 5'9. His hair was matted, his teeth were decayed, and he showed clear signs of muscle atrophy. He was rushed to St. Mary's Hospital in critical condition, suffering from smoke inhalation and burns. It was while receiving medical care in the ambulance that he made a shocking admission to first responders. "I wanted my freedom," he said. The 32-year-old explained that in an act of desperation, he set fire to his upstairs room using printer paper and sanitizer and a lighter. He went on to describe a shocking account of more than two decades in captivity. He claimed that Kimberly Sullivan had kept him locked in a small room since he was 11 years old, isolating him from nearly all human contact. He spoke of enduring severe neglect, starvation, and prolonged abuse, food and water were limited, medical care denied, and whenever someone visited the home, he says he was threatened into silence. He also told investigators that his two stepsisters, Kimberly's biological daughters, knew about his confinement, but were treated differently. They had moved out years earlier. Back at the scene, officers questioned Kimberly about the fire. Hello. Are you Kimberly? Hi, I'm Detective Pesh. Um, I investigate all the fires that happened in the city. So, I just wanted to get an idea of what you know or what happened. The TV. When did he say that? He said he woke up and the TV was insane. Okay. Where was he when he said that to you? Um, he was coming out of his room. He was coming out of his room. Yeah. I guess he fell asleep and I guess he I don't know. Selt the smoke. So tell take me right to the beginning of when you know there's a fire or there's smoke. I smelled it. Okay. Where were you? Bed. In bed. Where's your bed? Downstairs. Upstairs. Upstairs. Okay. You smelled it. So then what happened then? That he I guess he was sleeping. He passed out. Okay. But what did you do though specifically? I was I was screaming for him. I was screaming, you know, for him. And and I I I was trying to go into the room, but it was just there were just flames. So he came out of the room. He imagine he woke up. He came out of the room. So when you saw him, at first he was sleeping. No, no, he was he was he was talking. Okay. But he said that he couldn't come out of the room because there were flames. Okay. And I was standing like back because I could see them. And I said, "Just come out." And he couldn't get out because of the flames, right? I said, "Just come out. Just come out. Just come out." You know, did he run through them? I guess he did. Okay. I guess he did. Was the door locked on his room or no? No. Okay. Is it normally locked? No. Okay. It's normally open. And he has free reign to go out of there whenever he wants. Yeah. Okay. Does he now does he have any like any mental challenges or anything? What is he history of? Okay. So, no. Nothing like that in the past. Okay. So other than you were you sleeping you said in your bed. Okay. You smell smoke, right? You get up, you go to his room, right? And you're screaming must have passed. He must have been sleeping and just I don't know. Didn't realize until it was actually happening. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And you're telling him to get out of the room. Get out of the room cuz there's flames there. It was scared because of the Yeah. And I get that. And um I said just just you know supposed whatever just come out of the room. Yeah. And where do you go at that point? We both We both went downstairs. So he was able to get out with you at that time. Okay. Okay. And I was I kept I was trying to hit 911 and I was just so shaken. I just It took me a second. Yeah. No, absolutely. I I I get that. All right. You're going to be here for a little while? Well, I was going to go to the hospital. Okay. Is somebody with you? Yeah. Okay. Who's with you? My daughter. Oh, okay. Okay. Do they live at the house, too? It's just you and your son. Okay. And you're going to go to the hospital? Okay. That's where my other daughter is. Oh, that's where she is? All right. I'm fine with that. He's at St. Mary's, right? Yeah. Okay. And that's where you're going to go now? Yeah. Okay. Okay. If I need to talk to you later, you you don't have a problem talking with me, right? Okay. Thank you. Kimberly cooperated with officers and was not immediately arrested. Instead, police opened a full investigation. Investigators needed time to fully corroborate the victim's statements, examine the house, and gather physical and forensic evidence before filing charges. Meanwhile, John faced a long road to recovery. Physically, doctors worked to stabilize his condition, but mentally, the effects of more than two decades of isolation and abuse would take far longer to heal. As the case garnered national media attention, scores of outlets asked the obvious question. All right, so if you're like me and you're wondering how did this go on for two decades without anybody noticing? Some neighbors say they had no idea that the man was even in the house. How did he get to this point? Who knew? And why are we just hearing about this now? Members of the community along with John's biological family came forward to shed some light on the situation. They shared memories, expressed their love for him, and assured him that he was never forgotten. Many said they had searched for John for years and had always hoped to find him. Searched MySpace. I searched social media. I searched do like anywhere I can to see if maybe there's some type of, you know, um, digital footprint of him. Matthew Stano says his family moved around a lot when he was young and it was hard to make friends. He says he instantly connected with another boy in second grade. Me and him would uh sit in class and um what we would do is we would break crayons in half and we would throw them at each other and the teacher got so really upset about it that she ended up having to separate us. Sto showed us pictures. That's the smile I remember that side smile explaining how they were inseparable at the former Barnard Elementary School. One day he just never came back to the fence, never spoke to me. Stenko hasn't been able to visit the victim yet, but he hopes he remembers him. I love you and I just want you to know I'm here and I still remember all the memories we had, all the times we spent. I saw him when he was a baby. Um, I was in foster care and our mom brought him to see me and that was the only time I've ever seen him. Due to personal reasons, the man's biological mother gave his father custody when he was a kid. He just completely shut me out. He shut everybody out. Some of his family though still got to see him. As for him growing up, I missed that all. She never got to be a mother for since like November. And Testman never got to be a sister. I I've always just wanted him to be a part of my life, you know? Figured someday I'd find him and like, "Hey, let's grab a beer. Let's, you know, catch up. How's it going?" As Tesman got older, she'd search everywhere for signs. Social media, every search engine you can think of, court records, ancestry websites, every lead turned out to be a dead end. I couldn't find anything. I could see that he was born. That was it. That is until her mom called and told Testman that her brother had been found. My sister had called me and said, "We found I just saw it on on the news. I didn't put two and two together." Saturday, our mom texted me, "Get a hold of me ASAP." Okay, what's up? That was your brother. No, it wasn't. Dad, I love him. And we we all love him. He has never been forgotten about. I'm going to tell him that I love him and I've always looked for him forever. It's hard to think about what he had to go through just knowing that he was right there. Tracy Valerand has spent the last three decades wondering where her son was, not knowing he was a few towns over allegedly being held captive in a room at the hands of his stepmother. I don't hate people at all. This one I hate. The 52-year-old gave up custody of her son shortly after his birth in 1993. When asked why, she says the story starts with her daughter, Heather Tesman, and losing custody of her back in 1990. DCF took her, said that she had shaken baby syndrome. Valeran says her daughter's father was charged and Tesman went to live with foster parents. She said the custody battle broke her. Around this time is when she met her son's father, Craig Sullivan. I ended up trying to kill myself because I knew I wasn't getting her back. Craig would visit me while I was in the hospital. After we got married, we we had our son, but she still struggled. I was still having uh issues coping. Things didn't work out between the two of us. And I was thinking that I was giving my son a better chance at a full life. As details continued to surface, the community grew louder in their calls for answers. They wanted accountability and justice for the victim. That responsibility now fell to law enforcement. Investigators quickly focused their attention on the home on Blake Street. Inside, what they found painted a disturbing picture. The room where John had been kept measured just 8 ft by 9 ft, roughly the size of a standard US prison cell, but with one key difference. A prisoner is allowed regular food, medical care, exercise, interaction, legal rights, and some access to the outside world. John had none of that. The door was equipped with external locking hardware. The windows were covered. The space was cluttered with bags of trash, spoiled food, piles of empty water bottles, many of them filled with bodily waste. Police noted the overwhelming odor of urine and feces and the mattress soiled and stained. There was no working bathroom inside the room. Authorities later determined that John had resorted to using makeshift containers and the toilet only when permitted. The rest of the home appeared to be in livable condition, suggesting a deliberate separation between the confined space and the main living areas used by Kimberly Sullivan and her family. For investigators, it was a scene that supported John's claims of long-term isolation, neglect, and abuse. On February 28th, police obtained and executed a search warrant for the home at two Blake Street. Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo held a press conference 2 weeks later to provide an update on the status of the investigation. What was being reported was was unfathomable to us at that point in time. Um, you know, through uh those investigative meetings and through search warrants, we were able to uh seize uh physical evidence uh and conduct uh interviews uh and uh dig up some more information that um cooporated the victim story. Um you know, uh this investigation, as the mayor points out, continues uh is very open and very active. Um we were able to uh obtain arrest warrants for Kimberly Sullivan. She was arrested yesterday. Uh she was arraigned in Waterberry Superior Court. She's currently being held on a $300,000 bond. Um I take it you haven't had a case like this before. 33 years of law enforcement. This is the worst uh treatment of humanity that I've ever witnessed. Right. I mean it it honestly when we first started talking about it, we we we just we really couldn't believe it. It took it it took a lot of convincing um amongst ourselves to to to just really accept what was going on. And it's really hard to talk about still. I mean, it's shuddering to think that someone would would treat any person, let alone a family member or someone that was entrusted as a guardian or or a parental figure uh in this way. 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan was hit with multiple felony charges, including first-degree assault, secondderee kidnapping, unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons, and reckless endangerment. She pleaded not guilty. Shockingly, despite the severity of the charges, Sullivan was released the very next day on a $300,000 bond without electronic monitoring. However, after public backlash, a judge reconsidered and ordered the GPS monitoring. At the time of her arraignment, court records showed that Kimberly Sullivan's only reported income was welfare. How she was able to post the $300,000 bond remains unclear as those details have not been made public. For now, she remains free to walk the streets of Connecticut. Following her arraignment, Kimberly's attorney, Ayannis Collidus, sat down with a local NBC affiliate. Despite everything, the victim's emaciated condition, his matted hair, rotting teeth, muscle atrophy, locked room confinement, detailed testimony, medical evaluations, and history of DCF involvement. Cloitus stood firm. He essentially said, "Confinement? What confinement?" He confidently dismissed the charges and told viewers he was certain the allegations would ultimately be proven false. My client is adamant she has done nothing wrong and this man was not held in a room for 20 years. Kimberly Sullivan's defense attorney Ionis Collidis pushing back on the allegations that have shocked the nation that her stepson was held captive in this Blake Street home in Waterberry for 20 years. We are saying that the accuser's claims are not true. Okay. My client is adamant she did not do the things that her accuser is claiming. In a one-on-one interview with NBC Connecticut, Collidus responding to everything from these photos released by police that show the conditions inside the home. What's more important is what's not in those photos. Any locked doors, any chains, any handcuffs, any bars, any evidence of restraint. Everyone wants to say, "Well, there was a lock." There was a lock on almost every interior door inside that house. To the emaciated state, investigators say they found the man in. There are detectives and investigators, first responders in the warrant who did, you know, say that his weight was 68 lb. How does that how is that explained? It doesn't explain anything. They're assuming. And here's the thing. This whole 68 lb 68 lb, it doesn't mean that she starved him. There's been no actual explanation. There's been no investigation into his weight. We've gotten records. His weight has been an issue since he was a child. When the time comes for the trial, Collida says he may motion to move it out of Waterberry. We're going to talk to jurors one at a time, and we're going to try hard to filter out the ones that have predetermined uh notions about the case. We anticipate a favorable verdict. We're confident in our case. We're going to continue to build the case and we look forward to her day in court. While Collidus defended her against the current charges, Sullivan's arrests brought renewed attention to a dark chapter from her past, one that still haunts another family. On the night of July 16th, 1986, 18-year-old Kimberly, then known as Kimberly Satosanto, was out with her friend, 16-year-old Laura Melio, and a 25-year-old man they had met at a bar that evening. According to reports, after an argument, Kimberly, who was driving, took off in the car, leaving Laura and the man alone at Silven Lake Park. Laura told him she would wait there while he walked to his house to get a car to take her home as she was too intoxicated to walk. When he returned, Laura was gone. Her body was discovered 7 months later in a wooded area off Silven Lakes Road. 37-year-old Robert Burke, a sex offender who lived across the street from where Laura was left, was later arrested, pleaded guilty to her abduction, rape, and murder, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Laura Melio's family believes the tragedy might have been prevented if Laura had not been left alone that night. They've expressed frustration with Kimberly's actions, pointing out that she left with Laura's purse and never reached out to the family afterward. Police never charged Kimberly with any crime or wrongdoing related to Laura's murder. Today, John continues his long recovery. He's receiving medical care, therapy, and support. His family says he's doing well, but the emotional healing will take time. Kimberly Sullivan remains free on bond under GPS monitoring. She faces multiple felony charges and if convicted could spend the rest of her life in prison. Her next court date is scheduled for July 2nd, 20125. For Waterbury, this case leaves behind painful questions, not only about the alleged abuse, but about how so many warning signs were ignored for so long. Child welfare officials who said they essentially lost the visibility of Jon after homeschooling began. law enforcement and the state itself will have to answer for the failures that allowed this to happen. We will continue to follow this case as it moves through the courts. But for now, Kimberly Sullivan's fate remains in the hands of the justice system.