Distraught uncle of malnourished man reveals moment the pair reunited after evil stepmother kept him captive

The uncle of a Connecticut man who was allegedly held captive by his evil stepmother for more than two decades revealed the shock he felt when he was finally reunited with his nephew.

Kurt Sullivan, 55, had not seen the boy in more than 20 years as his sister-in-law Kimberly Sullivan, 56, allegedly kept him in an 8-foot-by-9-foot room with no heat or air conditioning and with very little food, as she pushed away relatives who started to ask too many questions.

Eventually, Kurt said he became so concerned with the child’s well-being that he ‘spoke with a private investigator who suggested going to vital statistics to look for a death certificate,’ according to an affidavit obtained by the New York Post. 

He told police he went to brother and sister-in-law’s Waterbury home ‘for Christmas Eve for a few years in a row until the family pushed him and his wife away,’ describing the boy as ‘skinny, meek and mild-mannered.’

But when he tried to ask the boy some questions, Kurt said his sister-in-law ‘intervened.’

It wasn’t until after the boy set a fire inside the home on February 17 in a desperate attempt to escape that Kurt was able to reunite with his nephew.

‘I was shocked, he looks like a Holocaust survivor,’ he told police of his reaction, echoing a prosecutor’s sentiment that the unidentified man was ‘without exaggeration, akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp.’

Kimberly is now facing a slew of disturbing charges, including assault and kidnapping, but was released from prison on Thursday after posting a $300,000 bail.

Authorities say she had held her stepson captive since he was in the fourth grade, during which time he endured ‘prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect and inhumane treatment.’ 

He even had to devise ways to dispose of his own waste because he was given no access to a bathroom, according to a newly-released arrest warrant.

This included him using a series of straws that led to a hole in a window. It also said that his teeth would frequently break when he did eat due to his lack of dental care.

The man also told police that he was constantly hungry. When he was in school, he would ask classmates for food, steal food and eat out of the garbage. 

In later years, when he was out of school and confined to the house, he would get two sandwiches a day and some water while locked in his room.   

The victim’s living conditions only deteriorated when his father died last year, telling police he was given just two cups of water a day and was sometimes forced to drink out of the toilet. 

When he finally got free last month and was brought to a local hospital, medical personnel said he was near starvation and had wasting syndrome –  a condition of weight loss and muscle deterioration.

He weighed only 69 pounds, 31 kilograms, while standing at 5 feet, 9 inches, according to authorities.

The man now faces a long road of physical and mental health treatment, Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said at a news conference on Thursday, adding that police are trying to support the man by taking up a collection to buy him clothes and other necessities.

He noted that the police’s only interactions with the family were in 2005.

At first, police conducted a welfare check after children who attended school with the boy expressed concern about him. 

The second and final time police interacted with the Sullivans was after they made a harassment complaint against school officials for reporting them to state child welfare officials.

Officers who went to the home said that they spoke to the man, then a child, and reported there was no cause for concern.

But the former principal of the now-closed Barnard Elementary School said he was not surprised when he heard of Kimberly’s arrest, noting that ‘every year, every teacher had concerns.’

He recalled how the boy used to share horror stories about his home life starting at the age of five, when he already looked way too small for his age.

‘A teacher reported to me that he said the mother bought pizza one night, but he could not have any. It was only for the sisters and the rest of the family,’ Tom Pannone told DailyMail.com.

‘So this is when he was like five years old, and the red flags were flying at that age and reports were made.’

Eventually, Pannone said he even caught the boy ‘in the urinal flushing it to drink water, because I don’t think he could reach the water fountain at the time.’ 

Pannone said he repeatedly contacted authorities about the clearly malnourished boy with rotten teeth, but was repeatedly told that he was OK.

He has always felt that the authorities dropped the ball on the case, and now feels guilty about what happened.

Neighbor Zeffney Guarnera also told DailyMail.com how his daughter once spotted the victim in a window around 14 years ago – but was so stunned by his appearance she mistook him for a ghost. 

But Kimberly has denied any wrongdoing.

‘She completely maintains her innocence, from our perspective. These allegations are not true. They are outlandish. She was blown away when she heard these allegations,’ her attorney Ioannis Kaloidis told NBC Connecticut. 

‘We look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.’

The lawyer added: ‘He was not locked in a room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food, she provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations. It is shocking and what’s more shocking to me? It’s how somebody can (be) falsely accused of such a thing.’

Kimberly is due back in court on March 26.