The dramatic body cam footage captured the bold rescue of an abused Connecticut man. He had been held captive by his evil stepmother for 20 years, so she would scream to the first responders outside the burning “home of horror.”
Members of the Waterbury Fire Station rushed to report a fire at an enclave in western Connecticut on February 17, where Kimberly Sullivan met with one of his dogs.
The 56-year-old was making an inconsistent cry as one firefighter stood away from the burning house, leaving her inconsistent screams. Video obtained by WFSB.
“My step-son is here.” She told the firefighters. “I'm trying to help them drive him out.”
Firefighters carried a 32-year-old, who was only 68 pounds at the time, when Sullivan was led down the road and then left the burning residence.
Sullivan was worried about the welfare of his dog. Because her son-in-law looked limp in the arms of his rescuer.
“My dog is shaking,” Sullivan said before carrying her son-in-law and screaming at the firefighters, “What are you doing?”
She was told to wait in the driveway as a group of first responders took her malnourished son-in-law to an ambulance.
The video ended when the man was transferred to the long-awaited stretcher.
He later told officers that for the past 20 years, his stepchild had been locked up for 22 hours a day in a 9-by-8-foot room on the second floor of his house.
The victim confessed that he deliberately started flames because he wanted “freedom.”
He explained that he would use hand sanitizer, paper, stacks of games and lighters to turn the fire near his door, according to the complaint charges against Sullivan.
Malnutrition victims only got two sandwiches a day, but discovered a lighter a year ago as they walked through clothes owned by their late father.
He said the fire must be large enough so that his stepmother would not destroy it and be forced to call 911.
“When the fire got better, he began screaming for help. [He] According to court documents, Sullivan cried out to him when he asked what he wanted, and he said he told her “fire.”
Sullivan unlocks the door and lets the man out of the room, where he soon falls down on the top of the stairs.
Sullivan is said to have ordered him to wash his face in the bathroom before fleeing the house to hide the true state he is in.
The man's sister and her boyfriend arrived at the house around the same time as the firefighters and was said to have been ordered by Sullivan to remove the deadbolt from the room.
Court documents say the man intentionally fell on the floor where he stayed until firefighters kicked him out to enter the house.
Sullivan was arrested Wednesday after nearly several months of investigation into the horrifying situation in which she allegedly included her step-son.
She was charged with first-degree assault, second-degree lure, first-degree unlawful restraint, atrocities against people, and first-degree reckless danger.
Sullivan's lawyers maintained her innocence while blaming her late husband for abuse.
“The allegations are horrifying, but that's just that,” Attorney Ionis Caroujis said after his arrest. “They are allegations made by one person who has been barely eradicated by independent evidence.”
“She is innocent and she has every intention to defend this case, and we are confident that she will be proven,” added Kaloidos.
Police compared the house conditions to one “horror movie.”
“The suffering that this victim has endured for over 20 years is both heartbreaking and unimaginable,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said.
Sullivan posted $300,000 in bonds within 24 hours of his arrest.
She is required to receive a daily evaluation and is prohibited from contacting the victim “in any way” in accordance with her terms of release.
