CT - 32-year-old man held captive by stepmother Kimberly Sullivan since age 11, weighs 68 lbs, sets fire to home to escape, 17 Feb 2025

[AcerPacer]

I started wondering about the death of the Father. Maybe he was a victim in some way as he was handicapped and reliant on care from KS. I use the word care very loosely.
For KS to talk in a derogatory way about her vulnerable husband to her work colleagues speaks volumes
IMO

Yes I wonder about the husbands "care" too! Has it been reported on his cause of death? Could exhumation be possible if it was evenly slightly premature and unrelated to his disabilities?
This KS sounds like an absolute monster and it would not surprise in the least if the 2 daughters were abused and the husband too..all by her!

 

[angkg]

I would hope they at least investigate the husband’s death. I wonder what his disability was. Could she have been poisoning him to keep him sick to keep him with her? She is an evil woman!

 

[Izzylizzy]

<mod edit: replaced full name of victim to initials> HT, the victim's 1/2 sister was put up for an open adoption by her and the victim's biological mother.
The mother was 17 when she had HT and 20 when she had the victim .
She gave the biological father of the victim KS full custody of the boy.
HT remembers seeing her little brother once when he was 3 yrs old.

https://www.ctpost.com/waterbury/article/waterbury-man-captive-kimberly-sullivan-tessman-20231934.php.

 

[Izzylizzy]

I started wondering about the death of the Father. Maybe he was a victim in some way as he was handicapped and reliant on care from KS. I use the word care very loosely.
For KS to talk in a derogatory way about her vulnerable husband to her work colleagues speaks volumes
IMO

There is a church memorial service announcement for KS posted online but I gather the victim did not attend and if not weren't family/friends curious as to why not?

imo

 

[Jo in Calif]

HT, the victim's 1/2 sister was put up for an open adoption by her and the victim's biological mother.
The mother was 17 when she had HT and 20 when she had the victim .
She gave the biological father of the victim KS full custody of the boy.
HT remembers seeing her little brother once when he was 3 yrs old.

https://www.ctpost.com/waterbury/article/waterbury-man-captive-kimberly-sullivan-tessman-20231934.php.

WATERBURY — HT always knew she had a younger brother. She remembers meeting him once when she was just 3 years old.

She was 3 years old when she met her 1/2 brother. He had to of been just an infant.

https://www.ctpost.com/waterbury/article/waterbury-man-captive-kimberly-sullivan-tessman-20231934.php

 

[mickey2942]

The more I read about this, the more disturbing it gets. No records of a principal calling CPS?! Because they don't keep the records?! This should absolutely be mandatory, to keep those records.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/23/us/waterbury-connecticut-man-held-captive/index.html

 

[Bounceycat]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/23/us/waterbury-connecticut-man-held-captive

Brendalis Medina, 31, a former student at Barnard Elementary, remembers sitting in fourth grade class next to a young boy who appeared to be struggling, she says. He often seemed hungry and would ask the other kids for food.

Her seatmate was timid and small – even for his age – she says. He was pale, with yellowed teeth and dirty clothes that didn’t quite fit him, and he sometimes spoke with a stutter.

“Some kids would make fun of him because he was different, he looked different,” she recalls.

When she heard recently about the harrowed man who told responders he set his Blake Street house on fire, it hit her: He could be the young boy she remembers from her class.

“I got chills all over my body,” she says. “I couldn’t even sleep that night.”

----
More at link

 

[musicaljoke]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/23/us/waterbury-connecticut-man-held-captive

From the article:
Former Barnard Principal Tom Pannone and his team called the Connecticut Department of Children and Families at least 20 times years ago with concerns about the well-being of their then-student, he told NBC Connecticut.

The agency has “looked extensively” at its databases and not found any records related to the family, it told CNN, adding its policy is to expunge records five years after completing an investigation, “provided there are no other substantiated reports.”

 

[Bounceycat]

From the article:
Former Barnard Principal Tom Pannone and his team called the Connecticut Department of Children and Families at least 20 times years ago with concerns about the well-being of their then-student, he told NBC Connecticut.

The agency has “looked extensively” at its databases and not found any records related to the family, it told CNN, adding its policy is to expunge records five years after completing an investigation, “provided there are no other substantiated reports.”

Looks like the police still have records of 2 visits:

Spagnolo, who took the helm of the department in 2018, insists the police played this case by the book, even all those years ago. And while the child services agency may not have kept their records from that time, his department did.

Waterbury officers contacted the family on April 1 and 18 in 2004. They talked with the boy and found nothing that made them suspect “anything other than a normal childhood” was unfolding inside the home, the chief told reporters this month.

There’s ultimately one person responsible for the young man’s abuse, he says, and they arrested her.

“But it doesn’t make me feel less responsible for what occurred,” he says. “You know, that’s our job. Our job is to protect the people in this community, so in some senses – in this particular case – we weren’t able to do that.”

 

[Gemmie]

From the article:
Former Barnard Principal Tom Pannone and his team called the Connecticut Department of Children and Families at least 20 times years ago with concerns about the well-being of their then-student, he told NBC Connecticut.

The agency has “looked extensively” at its databases and not found any records related to the family, it told CNN, adding its policy is to expunge records five years after completing an investigation, “provided there are no other substantiated reports.”

TWENTY times?!?!? How is it the agency didn't put 2 and 2 together? I hope they at least keep backup data. What a horrible loss for that kid, now an adult. Help was initiated but nothing was done! smh

I hope he ends up OK after all of this. He sure went to hell and back, and had to escape through the flames of hell to get out of that situation.

 

[Izzylizzy]

TWENTY times?!?!? How is it the agency didn't put 2 and 2 together? I hope they at least keep backup data. What a horrible loss for that kid, now an adult. Help was initiated but nothing was done! smh

I hope he ends up OK after all of this. He sure went to hell and back, and had to escape through the flames of hell to get out of that situation.

IMO:
What's so concerning is that it was a school that called 20x and those calls were made by the principal, nurse (most) and teachers so CPS knew damn well that the calls weren't from disgruntled Exs,relatives or neighbors.

 

[katydid23]

Though the victim was no longer in school, financial records show the household continued reporting $450 in monthly tuition payments —presumably for the couple’s two daughters — along with $180 per month spent on cigarettes and $80 allocated to their pets, which included a dog, cats and a ferret.
https://www.ctinsider.com/waterbury...van-waterbury-ct-stepson-captive-20221808.php

The pets were eating better than that poor hostage was.

 

[Lilibet]

IMO:
What's so concerning is that it was a school that called 20x and those calls were made by the principal, nurse (most) and teachers so CPS knew damn well that the calls weren't from disgruntled Exs,relatives or neighbors.

Yes, but we don’t know what the rules are for CPS to contact a child. Can they meet at school without a parent present? I doubt it. So if they go to the home it will be what the police encountered…seemingly normal. Or no one home. I’m not sure anyone could have prevented this boy from falling through the cracks, even though we’d like to think CPS or LE could have.

JMO

 

[katydid23]

Yes I’ve been following that case as well. Absolutely awful.
Step/adoptive parents seemingly raise the danger level for vulnerable children
IMO

Maybe sometimes. But as an adoptive parent, who has been in many foster/adopt forums over the years, there are many horror stories about bio-parents as well. People are people, and they can be evil whether bio/foster/step or adoptive parents.

 

[katydid23]

Yes, but we don’t know what the rules are for CPS to contact a child. Can they meet at school without a parent present? I doubt it. So if they go to the home it will be what the police encountered…seemingly normal. Or no one home. I’m not sure anyone could have prevented this boy from falling through the cracks, even though we’d like to think CPS or LE could have.

JMO

It's interesting that his elementary school friends spoke about him and how they all played for years at the park by his home.

Didn't any other local parents or teachers realise that the parents still lived in that home? No one wondered where the boy was?

 

[katydid23]

IMO

This is so confusing. Bio mom and her daughter keep saying they searched. But bio dad and his family weren't in hiding. The records were available. They weren't living off the grid.

(Bold quotes are from linked article above.)


"She did the math, and when he was 18, she started searching social media, ancestry sites and court records, but nothing came up."

How is this possible? There are school, housing, court, and tax records. Probably countless other records and unofficial info online about them. They weren't off-grid.


"Tessman claims her half brother’s father and two step sisters were living in the home with Kimberley Sullivan, but were loved and cared for....."

I thought they were his half-sisters. They weren't her stepsisters, were they?
But then:


"Tessman wants her half sisters held responsible too."

How are they her half-sisters?




IMO

Reportedly Kim and her husband declared bankruptcy twice. So there should have been plenty of court records.

And the boy never had a name change. So I don't understand why he was so hard to find?

 

[Lusitana]

I mean, if she really said those things about her husband, who was disabled, and very clearly treated her stepson like this for so long, I bet she wasn't that nice to her daughters either. Probably didn't treat them as bad, but couldn't be very nice to them. Yikes, what a terrible person. I can't even say anything about her daughters, he had been abused and neglected for a really long time, they were probably manipulated to believe certain things about him. If you see someone being treated a certain way for so long, I believe you just kind of accept it as the way things are?

 

[Izzylizzy]

Yes, but we don’t know what the rules are for CPS to contact a child. Can they meet at school without a parent present? I doubt it. So if they go to the home it will be what the police encountered…seemingly normal. Or no one home. I’m not sure anyone could have prevented this boy from falling through the cracks, even though we’d like to think CPS or LE could have.

JMO

IMO:
We don't know the child abuse laws in Connecticut back then but the "Battered Child Syndrome " laws were from the 1960s and the federal funding CAPTA laws from the 1970's that also addressed CPS training,reporting to the courts etc.
This is an overview w/o any particular state being mentioned but under certain circumstances CPS can meet in the school with the child w/o the parent/guardian.
There are specific guidelines to follow.
CPS operates at a state level but is partially federally funded including laws and guidelines from them.

Can CPS Interview Your Child at His/Her School? - Minella Law Group

Discover the best strategies for handling Child Protective Services interviews with your child at their school, including legal rights and empowering tips

minellalawgroup.com

 

[rleigh123]

I mean, if she really said those things about her husband, who was disabled, and very clearly treated her stepson like this for so long, I bet she wasn't that nice to her daughters either. Probably didn't treat them as bad, but couldn't be very nice to them. Yikes, what a terrible person. I can't even say anything about her daughters, he had been abused and neglected for a really long time, they were probably manipulated to believe certain things about him. If you see someone being treated a certain way for so long, I believe you just kind of accept it as the way things are?

IMO:


I can believe that. They were younger. Perhaps told from a young age that he was disabled, delinquent, violent, etc, and that they didn't want the state to take him.

Perhaps brainwashed into believing he was locked in for his and others' safety.

When a very young child is told something, or they live with a certain situation, it may take decades for the "Wait a minute......" lightbulb moment.

However, it's hard to believe they didn't know he was being starved.

And, once they reached late teens and 20s, I tend think they had to know this was wrong.

Per the affidavit, the victim heard stepmom yell at sis and her bf to unscrew the locks, i.e. get rid of evidence. As the house burned and victim was collapsed. I can't get past that.

So right now IMO it doesn't look favorably for the sisters, the adult versions. But I realize there is much unseen of an iceberg. This obviously was not a normal household. I don't know and can't imagine what their upbringing was like.


IMO

 

[rleigh123]

TWENTY times?!?!? How is it the agency didn't put 2 and 2 together? I hope they at least keep backup data. What a horrible loss for that kid, now an adult. Help was initiated but nothing was done! smh

I hope he ends up OK after all of this. He sure went to hell and back, and had to escape through the flames of hell to get out of that situation.

BBM


IMO:

This is useless worrying on my part but I keep thinking about people crawling out of the woodwork who might try to take advantage of him - relatives, or the media, or snake oil salesmen, or financial con artists.

I hope everyone on his team are all trustworthy and that they all will look out for him. His lawyers, relatives, doctors, therapists, financial advisors, etc. It sounds like he got connected to a good nonprofit.

I know he's a smart man, considering the radio stations he listened to, and the fact that he did what he could to educate himself, and the steps he took to be free.


IMO