Translated material
The stepmother was 20 years old
In the American state, Connecticut was detained by 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan. She is accused of having been mocking her stepson for more than 20 years. His father, who lived with them in the same house, knew about this. All these years, the guardianship authorities and the police almost did not pay attention to the family. Negligence and incredible cruelty are in the material of "Cold".
She swept him hunger and kept him locked up. The prisoner managed to escape, arranging arson
February 17, 2025 In a private house in the city of Waterbury, Connecticut, a fire occurred. The woman who ran out of the house told the arrived firefighters that her stepson remained inside. In one of the rooms covered by fire, they saw a young man. He was extremely exhausted. As it turned out later, with a height of 175 centimeters, he weighed only 32 kilograms.
He looked as if he had mocked him for a long time and hunger: dirty and tangled hair, most teeth rotten. In the hospital, doctors diagnosed him with post -traumatic stress disorder, depression and exhaustion - his body mass index was less than 11 with a norm of 18.5 to 25.
“I have been working in law enforcement agencies for 33 years, and this is the worst appeal with the person that I have ever seen,” said the police chief Waterbury Fernando Spanio.
During the interrogation, a 32-year-old man admitted to the police that he had a fire in his room on the second floor of the house. He took the lighter, set fire to the printer paper and added a disinfectant to the fire. He did this, according to him, in order to finally break out of freedom - he was captured by the stepmother for 20 years.
Was hungry all my life
The man whose name is hidden in the interests of the investigation told the police that they began to lock him in the room when he was three years old. So the stepmother punished the boy for the fact that he, when he was hungry, secretly went out at night for food. She also controlled how much he drinks water - Kimberly Sullivan gave him only two glasses of water per day, so he had to drink water from the toilet.
At school, the boy studied only until the fourth grade. The teachers noticed that he was always hungry, stole food or asked for it from classmates, and sometimes ate from the garbage tank. The school administration appealed to the Department of Children and Family Affairs, and officials twice came home to the Sullivans. Kimberly answered them that everything was in order, and demanded that the stepson say the same. Soon Sullivans took the child from school, saying that they would transfer him to home schooling.
A large father from Austria raped for more than 20 years and kept in the basement one of his daughters how did she manage to escape? Crime 8 minutes of reading
After that, the teenager has not studied anywhere. At the same time, the family continued to report on monthly training payments - most likely, they paid for the study of two daughters of Kimberly Sullivan.
First, the teenager was locked in the room, and then - in a small pantry in size two by two meters. The description of the investigators says that there was no air conditioner and heating in winter. Sullivan released a stepson only to remove the house, and then lock it up again.
Sullivan did not allow the stepson to leave the room even to the toilet or in the shower. He urinated in the bottles that he threw out the window. He had to defecate on the newspaper, which he threw away when he was released to work around the house. Sullivan threatened that if the young man tries to run away, she would feed him even less and lock him up for a longer period.
In addition to the prisoner, his father Craig Sullivan, his wife Kimberly and her two daughters, lived in the house. After the release, the young man told the police that the rest of the family did not participate in the tortures, but knew about the living conditions and how the stepmother treated him. When friends came to visit his consolidated sisters, the boy was hidden. Sometimes his father let him out of the room so that his son watched the TV with him - this happened when Kimberly left the house with her daughters.
The new Netflix series beats all the “transitional age” records was shot in one frame and embodied the main fears of the parents. Critics are delighted with the world 12 minutes of reading
Craig Sullivan moved in a wheelchair and died in January 2024. After his death, Kimberly began to lock her stepson for 22–24 hours in a row. He said that the stepmother gave him two sandwich per day and two small bottles of water. When asked by investigators, whether he was starving, the man replied that he was hungry all his life.
Incredible strength and resistance
The Department of Family and Children said that officials could not confirm reports of the cruelty of Kimberly Sullivan with a stepson when they came to their home during his study at school. Such messages in the department are deleted five years after the end of the investigation, so now nothing can be checked.
In 2005, the Department requested the police to check the welfare of the family. Then the police came home to the Sullivans, but found no reason for concern. Later, the family itself called the police: they wanted to complain about the persecution by the school administration, which was worried about the state of the teenager and called the guardianship authorities.
“We are shocked and saddened by the unbearable conditions in which he lived. Now an adult victim is showing incredible strength and resistance during treatment, and we are with all our hearts with him, ”the guardianship of the guardianship organs said .
The court found that the Sullivans had money with money. Five years in a row, the couple submitted bankruptcy statements: they had debts on credit cards to several banks, as well as two mortgage loans for their house. After the death of Craig, Kimberly lived only on a social benefit.
Mother found her son
A few days after the detention of Sullivan, a woman turned to the American media who called herself a biological mother Pasynka Kimberly. 52-year-old Tracy Wallerand said that 32 years ago she gave her son to her ex-husband.
She said she did it because she thought that his life would be better with her father. But she has not seen her son from the moment she gave him to a new family. She said that the ex-wife never allowed her to visit the child and she could not find out anything about his life. Vallerand called Kimberly Sullivan and her ex -husband a “gang of monsters”.
“It was the most painful emotional decision that any mother could make, but I thought that his life would be better there. Now I see that it turned out completely wrong. For the past 30 years, my family and I have tried to restore the connection, but [Sullivans] rejected us, ”she said .
Craig's brother Sullivan said that until 2005 he celebrated Christmas with his brother's family, but then the Sullivans stopped inviting him to him. Even then, he drew attention to the fact that his nephew is very thin and behaves squeezed. He thought that in the behavior of the boy something was wrong. The boy’s uncle and his wife tried to find out why the nephew looks unhealthy, but they did not receive a clear answer to this.
When Craig's brother Sullivan saw his nephew in the hospital, he was shocked. According to him, the young man looked like "as if he had survived the Holocaust."
After the arrest of Kimberly, Sullivan was released on bail of 300 thousand dollars. She is accused under several criminal articles: of causing serious bodily harm, abduction, illegal deprivation of a person of freedom and deliberate cruelty towards people.
Her lawyer said that she considers herself innocent and wants to "keep her good name." Another lawyer shifts responsibility to the father of the family, since "he was his biological parent and dictated how to correctly raise a child."
The former prisoner will have a long physical and psychological restoration. The American police promised to help him with the purchase of clothing and other essential items.
In order not to miss the main materials of the "cold", subscribe to our social networks!
"Cold" needs your help to work further
We continue to work, resisting prohibitions and repression in order to maintain independent journalism for Russia the future. How do we do it? Thanks to the support of thousands of caring people.
What are we dreaming about?
About simple and at the same time complex - the ability to work further. Life will change many times beyond recognition, but we, the editors of the Cold, want to stay with you, our readers.
Support the “cold” today, so that we continue to do what we are best done - to be independent media. Thank you!
Photo: Jim Shannon / Hearst Connecticut Media Via Ap / Scanpix