Kimberly Sullivan can be heard desperately pleading for an emergency dispatcher to send an ambulance to her Waterbury, Connecticut, home just moments after her abused and imprisoned stepson set the house on fire.
“Please hurry there’s a fire, oh my God, there’s a fire,” the 56-year-old accused abuser can be heard in audio of the frantic call first obtained by CT Insider.
The operator asks Sullivan what’s on fire, to which she replies, “The TV, I don’t know, my stepson is in his room and I don’t know, he did something with the TV, I was sleeping, I fell asleep,” she said, her voice growing increasingly hysterical.
“We need an ambulance, please, we need an ambulance.”
She said her son was injured when the 911 operator asked if anyone was hurt, and Sullivan began stammering when answering the question.
“He’s, he’s, he’s, I don’t know … he’s, he’s, he’s kind of passed out, he’s out of it, please!” she exclaimed.
“Oh my god, it’s like all the power in the house is out, I don’t know if it blew a fuse.”
The operator then advises Sullivan to get out of the home, to which she replied, “I’m gonna call my daughter, oh my God.”
When the fire department responded to the scene, they pulled her 32-year-old stepson from the home, who weighed a frighteningly gaunt 68 pounds.
He later told police investigators that he set the fire deliberately using hand sanitizer, printer paper and a lighter he found in his late father’s hand-me-downs in a bid to escape his captivity or die in the process, having been imprisoned in a 9-by-8-foot storage space in the ramshackle home for more than two decades.
The alleged victim — whose name has not been publicly released — said he was routinely deprived of food and water — forcing him to steal food, eat out of trash cans and drink from the toilet to stay alive.
Sullivan was arrested last week and now faces charges including first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons, and first-degree reckless endangerment.
She was released a day later after posting $300,000 bail.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for March 26, and her lawyer said she intends to plead not guilty.