Waterbury Man Held Captive Faces ‘Long Road’ To Recovery

WATERBURY, CT — An 11-year-old donated $25 she saved from her allowance, and wrote the message, “I just want you to have a happy life from now on."

A woman who donated $100 offered encouraging words: “You made it, you survived, and now you are free. I wish you nothing but the best in recovery! It's a long road but what the heck is a road compared to the hell you've been through?”

They are among about 2,200 people who have made donations to help a man who police say was held captive for two decades in a Waterbury house.

As of Friday at 3:30 p.m., the GoFundMe campaign had raised $128,999.

Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury Inc., which helps victims of domestic violence, is organizing the fundraiser.

Amanda Nardozzi, the organization’s executive director, said this week the response has been “overwhelming.”

“We originally hoped to raise about $10,000, but the amount of global response has been incredible,” Nardozzi said. “People as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia have donated. The response reaffirms your faith in the goodness out there.”

The organization doesn’t have a specific fundraising goal, and organizers just hope to raise as much as possible.

Police in March arrested the man’s stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, 56, of Blake Street, and charged her with first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons and first-degree reckless endangerment.

According to police, the man, now aged 32, weighed just 68 pounds when he set his house on fire on Feb. 17. Firefighters responded to Sullivan’s house, at 2 Blake St. and put out the fire. Two occupants had been inside, including Sullivan and her stepson, police said.

Sullivan was able to escape safely. The male occupant remained inside, but firefighters helped him out. He suffered smoke inhalation and exposure to the fire, police said. The man told first responders he intentionally set the fire stating, “I wanted my freedom,” police said. The man told police Sullivan had been holding him captive in the house since he was about 11 years old.

Nardozzi said this week she can’t disclose the man’s current hospitalization status, but she said anyone in his situation would have a “long road” to recover and rebuild his life.

“It would be a slow feeding process (to recover from lack of nutrition),” she said. “There would be a need for physical therapy, education, housing, and therapy to recover from the trauma.”

She noted how he was pulled out of school at a young age and has no high school diploma and never had a job. He will need education and help paying bills, according to Nardozzi. The organization will be working with an attorney to establish a trust and to ensure his bills are paid.

Money raised through the GoFundMe effort will help pay for the man’s medical and dental care, counseling, education, housing, daily living expenses, and support for legal fees, “ensuring he can pursue justice for the abuse he suffered,” according to the campaign.

“We are a trusted organization, and people can feel good about making a donation,” Nardozzi said.

A harrowing ordeal

After the man’s rescue at the fire scene, police observed he was “extremely emaciated,” dirty, with matted and unkempt hair and rotten teeth, according to the arrest warrant affidavit filed by Waterbury police.

Police later interviewed the man at the hospital where he was being treated. He told police he had been held captive since he was about age 11, and he reported that his stepmother kept a lock on the outside of his bedroom door, the warrant shows.

Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said during a press conference that police confirmed the man’s bedroom door had exterior locks on it.

According to police, the space the man was locked in was a back storage area approximately eight feet by nine feet. The man reported he would be let out each day for approximately 15 minutes to two hours to do chores, but then would be locked up again for the rest of the day and overnight. After his father’s death, his captivity got even worse, he told police.

“Essentially (he) was locked in his room between 22 to 24 hours a day,” police wrote in the warrant.

The man told investigators he had been pulled out of school around the fourth grade because school officials had contacted the state Department of Children and Families about his behavior. He said he was so hungry he would ask others for their food, steal food and sometimes even eat food out of the garbage, the warrant shows.

The man told police that Sullivan told him to tell DCF workers that everything was fine.

He reported that he was given up to two sandwiches a day and two small bottles of water, the warrant shows. He described being hungry “all day, every day, my entire life.”

When asked why he didn’t tell anyone, the man said he wanted to, but feared longer lockdowns and further diminishment of food, according to the warrant.

When the man managed to sneak out of the room once to get food, he told police Sullivan found out and slapped him in the face.

A normal day for the man entailed counting cars outside his window, according to the warrant. While locked in his room, he was forced to use bottles and newspapers to get rid of his waste, since he couldn’t get to a toilet. Prior to the fire, he had not bathed in a year or two. He tried to stay clean using some of his drinking water, though he wasn’t provided with soap. He only had some men’s cologne in his room, the warrant shows.

His formal education stopped with the fourth grade. He told police he had been given about three to four books each year and a dictionary. He would look up words he didn’t understand, the warrant shows. Police said he didn’t know how to use a microwave or an iPad.

The family rarely had guests, but if someone did come over, he was told to not make a sound, he told police, the warrant shows.

He reported he hadn’t been to a doctor since he was a child and had never been to a dentist. Police observed he had severe tooth decay. The man told police pieces of his teeth would break off when he ate.

The man reported using hand sanitizer, printer paper and a flame from a lighter to set the February fire. After his father died, he inherited some of his clothing, and he found the lighter in one of the pockets.

Investigators consulted with the man’s medical caregivers after the fire, and he was described as being near starvation, with a body mass index of 11, about half of what it should be. Medical staff advised police they were trying to avoid “refeeding syndrome,” a life-threatening condition in which the introduction of food and fluids in someone who is severely malnourished can have fatal consequences because the body can’t properly process them anymore, police said.

The man tested positive for post traumatic stress disorder and depression, according to the warrant.

Sullivan has denied wrongdoing through her attorney, Jason Spilka of Waterbury. She told police her stepson’s door was not locked and asserted he had free rein of the house, the warrant shows. Sullivan has posted bail and is next due in Superior Court in Waterbury on March 26, state Judicial Branch records show.

Nardozzi urged anyone experiencing domestic violence to reach out to the organization.

“We offer services like emergency shelter, relocation, and counseling,” she said.