A severely emaciated man, who was “akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp” when he was rescued from a Connecticut house of horrors, managed to survive decades in captivity by drinking from a toilet bowl, urinating in bottles and eating just two sandwiches a day, cops allege.
Harrowing details about the 32-year-old’s life padlocked in a tiny room inside his Waterbury home only emerged Wednesday after his stepmom, Kimberly Sullivan, 56, was arrested and charged over the pattern of shocking alleged abuse that authorities likened to “a horror movie.”
The victim, who weighed a mere 68 pounds, opened up to cops about the hellish conditions he was forced to endure since he was a child when he was rescued after deliberately setting his home on fire on Feb. 17 so he could escape the nightmare. (According to CDC data, the “average” 32-year-old American male weighs approximately 200 pounds.)
He spent at least 22 hours of his day locked away in a cramped, 8-by-9-foot “back storage space” on the second floor that was bolted shut from the outside, according to court documents.
The malnourished vic told cops he was given just two cups of water per day and desperately drank out of the toilet bowl when he had the chance.
Each day, he allegedly was given two sandwiches to eat, which were made up mostly of deli meats, peanut butter and occasionally tuna or egg salad.
“When asked if he was hungry every day, he stated, ‘All day, everyday, my entire life,’” the court papers state.
As a small boy, the victim recalled having a “training potty chair” in his cramped sleeping space.
When he was a teen, though, he was forced to rely on bottles and newspapers in order to relieve himself.
“[The victim] described how after he urinated into a bottle, he would have to then funnel it into a tube he created with a series of straws and then guide those straws through a hole in the window to empty it,” the filing charges.
When he needed to defecate, he would place an old newspaper on the floor and squat over it.
“He would then roll the paper up, tie it with string he unraveled from old T-shirts and eventually bring it to the kitchen garbage when he was let out.”
By the time he was rescued, the victim hadn’t showered properly in two years or had a haircut in three, authorities said.
He told cops he kept a water bottle in his room and would save a tiny portion of his drinking water each day just so he could bathe himself.
“Once that bottle was full, he stated that he would do what he could with that amount of water to bathe himself,” the complaint said, adding that he was never given any soap and only had “some men’s cologne.”
He was only let out of his quarters at about 8 a.m. each day to do chores, he told cops.
“He stated that he was tasked to complete several chores in the house which may take him between 15 minutes and two hours, depending on what he had to do,” the filing states.
“From there, typically late in the morning, he was brought back to his room where he was locked there for the remainder of the day and through the overnight hours until it was time to get out and do chores again the following day.”
Sometimes, he would be locked away for 24 straight hours, cops said.
The victim said he passed the time by counting cars out of a window, teaching himself to read from a dictionary and listening to a radio that was kept outside his bedroom.
He relayed the tragic details of his alleged captivity during police interviews after he was rescued from the house fire last month, which he admitted setting because he wanted “my freedom.”
An investigation determined he had been held in captivity for more than 20 years, during which he was starved and neglected, authorities said.
“He was, without exaggeration, akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp,” officials said of the victim’s condition.
His stepmom has been charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, cruelty and reckless endangerment.
She was arraigned Wednesday and held in lieu of $300,000 bond.
