March 20, 2025 • 41 mins
It’s a nightmare on Blake Street, in the town of Waterbury, Connecticut where one local law enforcement officer says it’s “the worst treatment of humanity” he’s ever witnessed in 30 years of law enforcement. A 32-year-old man was rescued from his stepmother’s home, claiming he has been held captive in a room for two decades. The emaciated man set fire to his bedroom in the house in an attempt to be rescued from the debilitating conditions he was being held under. Dan discussed the details of this harrowing story!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's night Side with Dan Ray from.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Radio. Okay, those of us who have worked in the
news media come across bizarre stories, uh and the pairly
normal bizarre stories. Some of them are easy to understand.
I remember, you know, one of the oftentimes bizarre stories
of tragic stories. Obviously, I remember covering the UH station
(00:26):
nightclub fire down in Rhode Island. One hundred people burned
to death. This small nightclub went up in flames, and
people stampeded for the doors, and with the crush of people,
people couldn't get out, and one hundred people died. Plane
crashes all sorts of you know, stories that that just
(00:48):
make no sense. I mean, clearly, the crash in earlier
this year over the Potomac, the plane coming into Washington,
d C. Colliding with the military's a helicopter. We won't
know for sure, but it looks to me like the
military helicopter was about one hundred or so feet higher
than they should have been. But the story that I'm
(01:08):
about to tell you, if you haven't heard it, is
extremely bizarre, extremely bizarre. So let me try to keep
it straight because there's a lot of details that frankly
had not been filled in However, in Waterbury, Connecticut, there's
(01:33):
a street. I guess it's called Blake Street. Side Street.
I guess. I'm not sure if it's a main thoroughfare.
The only thing I know about Waterbury, Connecticut was it
was the home of the birthplace of Jimmy Pierce All
Great Red Sox center Field, a number thirty seven in
the nineteen fifties, played alongside played between Ted Williams and
Jackie Jensen. So Waterbury, Connecticut, nice city in Connecticut, Connecticut,
(01:57):
lovely state. I think it's called the makes Steak if
I'm not mistake in the insurance state or whatever I miss.
I get my state nicknames mixed up every once in
a while. But it's a it's a it's a lovely area.
It's it's a Northeastern state. It is it's considered probably
one of the states with the highest educational levels of people.
(02:21):
The home of Yale. Other great schools, Trinity College outside
of Hartford, as well as Yale. US Coast Guard Academy
is down down in Groton. Wesleyan is great schools. It's
just it's a. It's a it's a wonderful, wonderful state.
So the story goes that on February seventeenth, which obviously
(02:49):
three days after Valentine's Day. It's a Monday, it's a holiday,
and at that night, fire alarm comes in on a
house on Blake Street. Get there. There's a woman fifty
two years of age. She is out on the street.
Her name is Kimberly Sullivan. She looks a lot older
than fifty two years of age, but she's fifty two.
(03:11):
And the fire apparatus is there trying to save the house,
and she's holding looks like a pet dog, and she's
telling the firefighters that her step son is inside the house.
And I think she was concerned about some cats as well.
But they were asking is there anyone any any adults? Yes,
(03:32):
my step son. Well, the firefighters somehow, some way, we're
able to rescue the steps on. He's thirty two years
he's currently thirty two years old. But upon closer review
they find out because the thirty two year old admits
(03:53):
he set the fire, he'd been held captive in a
single room for twenty years by his and his stepmother.
According to a police warrant, the man had told police
that he's been confined since he was eleven years old. Now,
(04:14):
it would appear to me that he must have been
born sometime, and I'm going to guess nineteen ninety three,
I guess would be the way to kind of do
the math. It depends upon what month. But let's say
nineteen thirty, nineteen ninety three. So when he's eleven, it
would have been two thousand and four, George Bush still
(04:34):
would have been president, George Bush forty three in his
first term. In his first term. And the story that
this young man told who when he was saved from
the fire, that he admitted he started, it's five point nine,
but he weighs sixty eight pounds. That means that I
(04:58):
guess his body fat content or his BMI. Yeah, his
body mass index. You know, a healthy body mass index
is probably really you know, an athlete is probably eighteen.
If you're really an excellent shape, body mass index of
(05:18):
twenty is good. This guy's body mass index was about eleven.
I guess if your body mass index is thirteen, and
you get your body mass index by dividing your height
by your weist. This he was he looked, they said,
like someone coming out of a concentration camp. The story
(05:41):
that he told is bizarre, It's bizarre for a number
of reasons. It's bizarre. It's bizarre that his neighbors. He
lived in this one room, which was eight feet by
nine feet, locked in the room by his stepmother. According
to the media reports that I have read, she's now
been arraigned on a number of char charges kid including
kidnapping and child abuse. Now he's thirty two, so he's
(06:07):
older than a child. Obviously, she was held on three
hundred thousand dollars bail. She made bail. She made bail
on Thursday the thirteenth. So now no one on the well,
no one on the street knew that this guy was
still living in the house. People who were longtime residents
(06:30):
remember seeing him working in the yard with his father,
like maybe ten years ago or fifteen years ago. The
father just passed away. His biological mother apparently. And I
do not know anything about this, whether or not she
was a surrogate mother, or whether she was a woman
(06:54):
who gave up a child for adoption, or a teenager
who gave up a child for adoption. She was quoted
and rob, I get some soundbites here. I want you
to begin to play. She was quoted as saying that
somehow her sister heard about this news story which has
been percolating in Connecticut now for days, for weeks actually,
(07:19):
and that was the first she had heard. She'd been
looking for her son. I don't know the circumstances which
caused her to lose contact with her son cut twenty.
Please Rob, this is the mother, the biological mother of
this young man.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
She could written, Hell, my sister actually called me while
I was at work and she had stated that we found.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
We found them.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
So just St'm battlement.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
How can anybody treat somebody like that? So apparently when
she refers to that this young man was held in
activity for his entire life, but certainly for the last
twenty years, living in a room, I guess he would
come downstairs every morning and get two sandwiches, which was
his food for the day, and two small cups of
(08:14):
water and go back to the room. Now why he
didn't try to make a run for it. The mother
who was the stepmother who has been arrested and now
is being held on bail. She doesn't look very well either.
She looks like a tough fifty two, if you get
what I'm saying, And she doesn't seem to be someone
who would have been able to physically restrain him if
(08:36):
he tried to make a run for it. This is
such a bizarre story. I mean, that's the only way
to describe this. Now. The Waterbury, Connecticut Police Chief Fernando Spagnola,
talked about his condition at at a press conference a
(08:57):
few days ago. This is cut number twenty six. Please
rob twenty six.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
There's an adult that was five foot nine and sixty
eight pounds. You know, there's some apparent orthopedic issues. You know,
the room was very small. That room did have exterior
locks on it, in a number of different styles of
exterior locks, as was explained during an interview with the victim.
Throughout the years, it appeared that the locks increased in
(09:23):
security levels as time progressed. Information was very guarded on
what was released. And you know, when he was able
to see other members of the family and other members
of the community.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, and one of the TV stations down there was
the NBC affiliate spoke with the former principle of his
elementary school. This young man who was held in captivity
apparently did begin a public school, but he would have
(10:00):
been in the first grade, I guess, and somehow, some way.
The parents at one point had made some complaint to
the school. Some children in the school had talked to
the principal down there and said, there's something wrong with
(10:21):
this kid. Somehow, some way, there was a guess, a
couple of home visits made to his home in the nineties.
When people they have I guess they're called the Department
of Children in Families. An article that will be in
(10:41):
The Globe tomorrow morning, written by Travis Anderson and Claire
Thornton of the Globe, staffs that are representative of the
Department of Children and Families in Connecticut told The Globe
Wednesday that the agency has been unable to locate any
records pertending to the family, but that a search for
any information is ongoing. The severe in duration of the
alleged abuse and how it remained hidden has stunned the region,
(11:04):
and recent court records provided Harrying new details of the
man's alleged captivity. Authorities have not released his name to
protect his privacy, but guess what. The school principle was
found by the local television affiliate down there, the local
NBC television affiliate, and I have misplaced the paper here
(11:28):
for a second, Rob, But the teacher, the school principal
did speak with local newspaper. I will find that sound
bite his the SoundBite that he gave. Didn't you have
that one there? Please play that one?
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Rob?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
His name is, his name is Thomas Panone.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
We knew it, we reported it. Not a damn thing
was done. That's that's the tragedy of the whole thing.
Everyone really was concerned with this child since he was
five year so you knew something was wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It was grossly wrong.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
You don't disappear off the face of the earth at
ten years old. Sorry, we couldn't do more, because you
went through more than any of us ever will go
thward our lives.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well, that's great. Sorry, we couldn't do more. Sorry, we
couldn't do more. There's so many lessons to be learned here.
I just want to open up the phone lines. If
you know about the story and you want to add something,
that's fine. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.
What does this say about our relationship with our neighbors?
There were news stories I've seen with the neighbors said
(12:37):
we had no idea this kid lived there. I mean,
was there any interaction in that community. Fourth of July, Christmas, Halloween, whatever, Thanksgiving.
Did anybody ever go over to the house? I don't know.
I've seen pictures of the house. Obviously it had a fire,
it wasn't destroyed. It looked like a particularly great neighborhood,
(12:57):
but it looked like a fairly normal house. Two five, four,
ten thirty six, one seven nine three, one ten thirty.
If you know about the story, feel free to add
anything that I've omitted. But how can this happen in America?
How can it happen in the state of Connecticut, the
state of Yale, and you know education and wow, this
(13:20):
this boggles my mind. I know that this bad stuff
that goes on, but for bad stuff to go on
like this to a kid who just has the mistake
of being born into a bad set of circumstances. All
the money we paid for social services, where are his
social services? Back on Night's Side right after the break.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Now, I'm sure some of you think, well, Dan's telling
a story and they don't believe this, But this is
a true story out of Connecticut, and it is out
of Connecticut in the last the last few days. So
again the victim discovered. On February seventeenth, Waterbury Police officers,
along with the Waterbury Fire Department, responded to a report
(14:11):
of an active fire at eight forty two in the evening.
By the way, I miss aged his step mom. She's
fifty six. She still looks like there'll be a tough
fifty six, let me put it like that. So she's evacuated.
The male occupant, who was in the house longer. This
thirty two year old son, suffered smoking elation and exposure
(14:32):
to the fire, had to be assisted from the house.
As his understandable he'd been locked in a room. He
further alleged he had been held captive by Sullivan since
he was approximately eleven years old. Now, apparently his father,
his biological father, died in twenty twenty four January, about
(14:55):
a year ago. That's according to the Waterbury Police chief.
You know there was a biological father. The father was
wheelchair bound from some sort of medical condition. The victim's
biological mother, who you heard from earlier in this half hour,
apparently has not been involved in his life since he
was about two years old. Now I'm gonna make a
(15:17):
huge leap here that the biological mother and the father
at some point had this child. Whether they were married
or not doesn't really matter at this point, because whether
the father took the child away or the mother didn't
particularly care, it doesn't matter. The father ends up with
(15:38):
the child when he's two, which again we're guestimating a
sometime around nineteen ninety five. He then marries. I assume
he marries the fifty six year old Kimberly Sullivan at
this point, and that's how she becomes the step mother. Okay. Now,
(15:59):
the the lawyer for Sullivan, the woman here who's the
one who is charged with this abuse, has said, oh, no,
she did. She did great, she took care of him
and all of this. The police chief was quoted as saying,
(16:23):
thirty three years in law enforcement, this is the worst
treatment of humanity that I've ever witnessed. She's arraigned in court,
had a bond of three hundred thousand dollars. She's now
expected to be placed in the custom of the Connecicut
Department of Correction while she awaits trial. Kimberly Sullivan refused
to talk to police almost immediately, but does not have
any prior criminal history. Yeah, she just stayed in the
house with this kid for twenty years. Look, there's got
(16:48):
to be some mental health issues involved here, maybe all around.
But my question is, how is it that in a
neighborhood and I don't know Waterbury, Connecticut, as I say,
other than the birthplace of Red Sox in the field
did Jimmy piersoll many years ago? But this me and child.
(17:14):
I'm looking at the mugshot of the mother. She's fifty six.
She looks presentable. She looks a rough fifty six, but
she's presentable. How did she survive? What did she do
for a living? I mean this, I just can't wait
till we get some of the details. Did she have
a job? Who? I assume that she inherited the house
(17:40):
from her husband when he died a year ago. Did
he leave her instructions? Apparently this kid for twenty years,
not only for the year in which the stepmother was
the only adult in the house. The father, the biological father,
had been there for this kids the entirety of this
(18:01):
kid's life. Look, this kid apparently had seen hadn't seen
a dentist, hadn't seen a doctor. Uh, how does this happen.
How does this happen in a place like Connecticut, one
of the you know, one of the more adviced states
(18:24):
in America. Uh. Again, it's just unbelievable. Look, what I
want to do is I want to give you a
chance to if you, if if you've heard about this case,
h feel free to offer your opinion.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think it's an It's an indictment obviously of this family,
which was dysfunctional, but it's also an indictment of government. Okay,
it's an indictment of government, and it's also I think
an indictment of the people that live in that community.
How could they not know that something was amiss. They
probably did not know what was going on inside the
(19:01):
home because this kid apparently hadn't been out in twenty years.
So I get it. We don't care about our neighbors
as much as we used to in this country, and
even in a place like Connecticut. But what does it
say about us as a society within no charitable organizations
(19:23):
in that community, no churches, no temples, no synagogues, no
outreach from anyone. I'm assuming that the house probably has
it looks okay now, but I'm sure it's fallen into
disrepair over the years. What does this say that this
(19:46):
can happen and this young man now thirty two years old,
he will never be right? Okay, I mean this kid
will be This guy will be taking care of for
the rest of his life by so society. But the
time when society had the greatest obligation to him was
as a child, as a student in a in an
(20:09):
elementary school. That just stopped. Don't they have truant officers?
Aren't these social workers? This is Connecticut. If you're in Connecticut,
you know about the story, feel free. You wanted to
defend your state. I'm not attacking the state. I'm just
saying I think it's it. It says a lot about
our society. If you lived on that street, how would
(20:30):
you feel at this point? How would you feel knowing
that this went on under your nose? You lived your life,
You walked and drove past that house a thousand times,
maybe five thousand times, and you never seem to notice
and say what's going on there? Six seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
(20:52):
Have we lost what we once had in this country
as a society where we actually at least knew our neighbors,
maybe even cared for our neighbors. We're coming back on
Nightside right after the news. I hope to hear from
as many of you as possible. And if you think
that I am being overly critical, or if you think
I'm being naive, feel free. This one hit me hard.
(21:16):
I mean, this kid did nothing. The only mistake this
kid made was being born into this situation. Coming back
on night Side, It's.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Night Side, Boston's news Radio, or.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Let's go to the phones. I am I'm just this
this story blows me away, and that this is this
kid was born in Connecticut, who was born in a
state that should have provided him with lots of opportunities,
and I just I kind of understand it. I just
(21:54):
can't understand. Let me go to Joe and Boston. Joe,
appreciate you calling in. Had you heard about this story
before tonight, Joe or is this your first exposure to her?
Speaker 7 (22:03):
No? No, I heard about it then a few days
ago when it first actually happened. I was, I mean,
I was stron I'd say, how can things like this
happened in America today? And I mean, and there's two
things to it.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
I was in what a very Connecticut about twenty years
ago with a client from Boston. She went to a
concert of shed over her to a concert down there. Yeah,
and I look at the town and it looks very
run down and everything. Since I'm not going to spend
the three or four hours, I asked a police officer.
(22:38):
You know, I tried to find a bathroom. There was
only one hotel in town a holiday holiday in that's
where the uh the group was staying. It was actually
the Beach Boys.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Okay, and this lady was a huge fan. I took
her the night before to the performance center in Providence,
and then she took me for the next night to
go to what a Better Connecticut.
Speaker 8 (23:01):
My first time downe there, I asked a police you know,
I'm going to take a nap. I'm want to snooze.
Where should I you suggest? He goes, oh, you park
of me. Here in the middle of town is like
north west, south and east Main Street. He goes, you
stay within the two blocks over here. That way is
not saying because of this and that way you have
(23:24):
that is like the city is like a rundown city.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
I mean that part of it.
Speaker 7 (23:32):
You know, I can probably understand because I drove a
little bit around.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Another thing that I saw last night, actually on inside
edition was a sister or the kid or the gentleman.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
He's a gentleman now a lost sister that he has.
She's they had, They shared the same biological mother. The
sister grew up.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
She's fine, she's perfectly find she's older than him, and
she knew about him and she's been looking for him,
trying to reach out to him, and she didn't know,
and she looked and looked and looked. And they share
the same mother. But the mother gave her for adoption. Okay,
so so so so did she.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Also give the boy up for adoption? Because the woman.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
I was talking to my wife and I was talking
to my wife, I guess she was one of those
probably on a stable person. And then she had it
with this guy, the kid, you know. And then because
they don't share the same father, the guy is not
a father or the girl, the girl is older, and
she gave her for adoption. But she knew about her brother,
(24:45):
and she saw him, you know, as a boy, and
then she never saw it, never saw him again.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
So so she so so so so the the biological
mother who who we heard from earlier, had at least
two kids that she had and that she gave up
for adoption.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Yeah, the first one gave up for aduction, and I
guess the second one, which you will be the kid
left them for you know, left them with the father,
you know, and the father at some point I was
to marry somebody else. You know. The this is insane, Dan,
And like you were saying earlier, I mean, what about neighborhoods, neighborly,
(25:29):
I know my neighbors, I know the kids of my neighbors.
If I gets for the kids of my neighbors for Christmas,
if you don't see them, you know I have you know,
how is uh, how is the little one doing how
you know insanity in these day and age, Dan, I mean,
(25:50):
I don't know. I just don't know.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
They probably, I mean it's probably some mental health issues
they're involved or things like that.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I'm sure. Well, I like the soundbod we had from
the school principal who said, yeah, we knew about it,
we reported it, but nothing was done. Everybody like said,
what we did the best?
Speaker 8 (26:13):
Yeah, I mean we had in Massachusetts, as you know,
we had so many issues with the prominent of children
and family whatever they.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Called them, you know. And yeah, I mean look at
that little that little girl that was given to the
father and they disappear. Yes, I mean it's it's so sad,
so so sad.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Well, it's always thanks. It's interesting you kind of painted
the picture of Waterbury, Connecticut a lot of nice areas
in Connecticut.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
Because I asked the police, I mean, why he goes, well,
this is used to be an old mill town, and
then while the industries left, it became a ghost out
and down that way. I'm not going to mature races.
You got these sparts on the other side.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
You got the other part in, you know. And I
tried to go to a seventy eleven because every time
I go to a you know, to a job faraway
out of town, I just said, let me just play
a mega box, make a million's bower ball, yes, in
(27:28):
case you know you're hearing on somebody wanting on gonna.
I went to seventy eleven and I pulled up and
they were like seven away guys veggars out front, and
I said, this is not a good environment for me to.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Keep keep thy see next time.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
So are you skipped And at that point, that's when
I went back and I asked a police officer that
was working detail at the performance center there. He goes, No,
you want to stay here close to the area because
I told him, you know, I want to take a nap.
Where's the safe to take a nap? And yeah, you
want to say you want to stay close to the
(28:11):
area here that you know that tells you about the town.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
You got it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You got it, Joe, Thank you much, you get you
gave us some good information. I appreciate it, Joe. And
again I wish, I wish there was a happy ending here.
There's no happy ending to this story.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Yeah, I'm going to keep an eye out. I mean,
I'm sure that they're going to do movie other weeks
and whatnot, you know, but I mean I'm interested in
tree the outcome of this.
Speaker 8 (28:34):
Well, remember that there was a Yeah, there was a family.
Yeah there was a family that came out about probably
four five years ago.
Speaker 7 (28:45):
But there was like four or five kids that they
were the parents had them, you know, and they lived
like gypsies. I don't know if you remember that was I.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Don't remember, but I promise you were. Well, we'll keep
an eye on this story and see where it goes
from until I got a screwed Thanks man, talk so
much time? Thanks well, you bet your buddy be well.
Let me go to Fred and Melrose. Fred, you're next
on Nightside. Your thoughts on this absolutely bizarre story.
Speaker 9 (29:14):
Uh, I was kidnapped when I was two?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Really?
Speaker 9 (29:20):
Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
By whom? If I by whom?
Speaker 9 (29:24):
If I could ask, I'd rather not get into the details.
Fair Enough, I was kidnapped. I was kidnapped when I
was two for about five weeks. My father found me
and got me back home. And I was stopped during
that time too.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
And you know, let me ask you, Fred, Fred, do
you have an actual memory of this or is this
what you were told?
Speaker 9 (29:55):
I remember everything I remember from the day was born
until today everything.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
How's that possible?
Speaker 9 (30:04):
I don't know, But I can tell you my earliest.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, I mean most my earliest memories were I probably
was two, but then the next one when I was four. So,
without getting into who you who? Was it a domestic
kidnapping or were you kidnapped for someone kidnapping you as
a child and looking for money and ransom?
Speaker 9 (30:29):
No, they weren't looking for money and ramps, and they
were just looking for a kid and I happened.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
To be it.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, okay, well if you if you can't.
Speaker 9 (30:42):
There was anything said to the police at the time.
This was during the plates.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, okay, all right, well Fred again, yeah, Fred, I
appreciate that. I appreciate it. I'm up on my break
here and I just I can hear your coffin. Get
a glass of water and feel better and thank god
you survived. Have you had a after having gone through that.
Has it impacted your life or were you able to
have a pretty successful and normal life.
Speaker 9 (31:11):
I've had a pretty successful life, but good it took
an impact on my life's definitely, no question about it. Yeah, yeah,
but I've worked through it. Look, it's taken seventy years
to do it.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Okay, Well, Fred, you sound you sound great like you're okay,
and call the show anytime. And again, get a glass
of water. I gotta have a glass of water every
once in a while too. Sounds like you had something
in your throat. Thanks Fred, have a great night. We'll
be back on night's I quick break here. We're talking
about this bizarre case in Connecticut. I know I have
Connecticut listeners, so please feel free. Look Connecticut is a
(31:52):
highly advanced state. This is a this is a story
that is disgraceful. It's disgraceful and it's more all the
just a messed up family, folks. This is indicative of
our society. And as Joe from Boston said, you know
he knows the families in his neighborhood. Do you know
the families in your neighborhood. I hope you do, and
(32:14):
I hope that they know you because there have been
some bizarre stories. Look, this is not the only bizarre story,
but this is pretty bizarre that this kid was kept
in a room for thirty years. There was the story
here in Boston of the woman somewhere in South Boston.
I think they found the remains of five fetuses or
infant who infants who had died in her She kept
(32:39):
them in shoe boxes. That was a story a couple
of years ago. Coming back on Nightside, I know this
is depressing. I apologize that it's depressing, but I think
we need to talk about it. Coming back on nights Side.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Now, back to Dan Way Live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
So I don't know if there's a lesson out of
this story. I think there is I think that we
have to in our communities, whatever, wherever you live, whether
it's a rural community. I suspect people in rural communities
probably know more about their neighbors who might live half
a mile away than most of us know about our
neighbors who are living up up the street or around
the block. I just think it's crazy. Let's keep rolling here.
(33:21):
Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty. Got some
calls that got one line there and a couple of
line at six one seven nine thirty. Alex is in Millis, Alex,
this is a bizarre story.
Speaker 10 (33:35):
It sure is. Dan. I was gonna say, who.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Was that in the background? Alex was that that was?
That's my son?
Speaker 6 (33:43):
He was.
Speaker 10 (33:43):
He was egging me on, okay, you're on dead go ahead.
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (33:49):
So, uh, I guess my town's like I don't know,
maybe seventy five hundred or eight thousand people, and uh,
most people know each other. I would say that fifty
seven percent of people don't know their neighbors because when
we live out here, we're very close with two of
the neighbors. I've helped him out and everything, And I say,
(34:10):
why is that is it because people you know are
too busy, or because you know of privacy and you
know they have busy lifestyles. But I'm not sure why
you know.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And well, I think that's part of it. I think, Alex,
that's part of it. I think that people are busy people. Look,
I know a lot of people have now worked from home,
but the fact of the matter is that they It
used to be we lived in a society where dad
went off to work at eight o'clock in the morning,
he came home at five point thirty at night. We
(34:45):
now have both mom and dad work and the kids
are oftentimes with their babysitter. I'm not criticizing that, but
you do have This kid got lost, he slipped through
the cracks, and this is his life. He's now thirty two,
he went to the fourth grade. What's he good? What's
this guy kid gonna do with the rest of his life?
His his by the way, his I'm sure that just
(35:08):
as his body has atrophied and he has all sorts
of they talked about orthopedic problems. I'm sure that he
has no muscular shore. He weighs sixty eight pounds. I'm
sure his mental facilities. What will he be able to do.
He's going he's gonna live, you know, on some form
of social security, disability or whatever whatever Connecticut's gonna do
(35:32):
for him. But Connecticut failed him, the town fail the
people who lived on that street. I think it's called
Blake Street. It's it's almost like a horror film on
Blake Street as opposed to horror film on horror on
Elm Street. I wish that we heard from some psychiatrist
tonight who could talk about it. But I don't know.
(35:53):
Did this mother never go to the store? I mean,
how did? You'd love to know all of this? This,
This deserves a full blown police investigation and that this
should be published and all privacy issues. You don't have
to mention people's names, but we want I want to
know everything. I want to know everything. How did this? This,
(36:15):
this stepmother and this thirty two year old locked in
his room, uh most of all of the day. How
did they function? This kid didn't even have a bathroom
in his room? Alex he apparently? I mean this, and
where's social services? Where where's the social I pay tax
money for social services for people who need social services,
(36:39):
and I'm happy to do it. How did this kid
get miss messed, missed.
Speaker 9 (36:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 10 (36:45):
This reminds me of the story that the couple that
had all the kids and the young girl she escaped.
H I kindly call their names the name of the
But this happened.
Speaker 9 (36:58):
A while back.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
Do you know where which no idea, no idea. Okay, yeah,
it sounds exactly like this. And and you know she
they the parents are in prison now, of course.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
But they.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, that was that was that a group that was
like somewhere in Utah or.
Speaker 10 (37:15):
Something like that in Utah? I think so, yeah, they okay, yeah,
the children's school homeschooled and didn't allow them to watch,
to do nothing, not to interact, uh, you know, and
they they were it was like they were treated like prisoners.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah. But again, I guess when when something like that
happens in a state like Utah that I don't know
a lot about. I can understand those are big states
and somebody is is off somewhere. But in Connecticut, in Connecticut,
I mean, Connecticut is one of the the the standard
of living in Connecticut is always very high up there.
When when I see these surveys about the uh, the
(37:54):
wealthy estate on a per capita basis Connecticut. It's a
state that has Greenwich and cost Cart They have all
of these wonderful, wonderful towns. It's unbelievable, Alex. I gotta
keep rolling and tell say hello to your son for us. Okay,
how was that?
Speaker 10 (38:10):
He's out fourteen? He's uh, he's like having three three boys.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Okay, I get you, I got you. Well keep them
in line. Okay, thanks Alex, talk to you soon. Let
me go to Glenn. Glenn, you're next nights. I go
right ahead.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
Yeah, I would say this kid not not that he
fells through the cracks. He sells for a canyon. I mean, yeah.
This is where this reminds me of that story in
New Hampshire. Two quick things of Harmony Montgomery. She was
missing for five years. YEP. I grew up in the sixties.
I have Laronoya forgive me.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
When I was five minutes raight for first period, because
I was in the bathroom, they sent a swat team
looking for me.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, yeah, a metaphorical swat team. I'm sure right, yeah, absolutely, no,
I understand that.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
And the other thing I remember that winter of ninety
four was rough. The winter of ninety six, the winter
of twenty fifteen, not one person knocked on my door
and said, hey, Glenn, it's going to snow them ow dded.
You know, I've lived here forty years where I'm living.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
And it's just that that sounds familiar. I guess no one.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
I hate to say it. I'm not shocked, Yeah I am.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
I am that somehow something like this can happen in America.
We have all these social programs everybody else for this
Department of Human Services, Department of this, Department of that.
And this kid was in school and like he disappears.
Don't they have truant offices there? Don't they figure out
where's this kid? Has he moved to Utah? Oh?
Speaker 6 (39:44):
Well, you know what they say about the Empathy Convention.
No one cared enough to show up. I guess just
the one area where this the one area. I agree
with Joe from Lynn. I think we're more of an
empathetic country than an empathetic.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Country areas, certain areas. I mean, not everyone fits this category,
but I'll tell you this, anyone who hears about this story,
they should They should check on some neighbors. If you
If I don't know, it just it appalls me it
just appalls me. Hey, Glenn, I appreciate it. We'll talk
to you tomorrow night, I'm sure.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
Okay, Yeah, I just came back from the winners. They're
gonna see me on the twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Good, well, we'll see you on the twenty seventh as well. Great.
Did they have a good crowd tonight?
Speaker 6 (40:26):
Oh yeah, I had to sit at to borrow all
the seats were taken.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Excellent, excellent. How's the Okay, we'll talk later. Thanks for
let me go to an in bath in Bradford in
We only got a minute left. You've called really late,
but I'd love to get you in. Go ahead, Hi,
okay quickly.
Speaker 10 (40:42):
That's a very very sad story.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
I agree with you, like like you mentioned, why weren't
they questioning where the child child is? And also, of
course the news will come out later. Now here's a thought.
When they do the senses, what they may check into
(41:05):
the senses? How they answer that?
Speaker 6 (41:08):
You know?
Speaker 4 (41:08):
How they answered where you work?
Speaker 7 (41:11):
Oh yeah, right, yeah, it'll work.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
And what about the child residing at a certain age?
They indicate that on the payent work right?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Oh right, But I'm sure these folks, if they got
that census for him. It was never returned. But there
was no one who was going up knocking on the
door of the house because I bet they paid electric bills.
I bet they paid gas bills, and that's all they
had to do. That's the point of the that's the
point of the story. And I got a run. I
wish it called earlier, but I'm out of time for
(41:42):
this ten o'clock hour, and I got the news coming
down the track, so I gotta let you go. Thanks,
call again bye. If you folks would like to talk
about this light, these phones up. If not, we're going
to change topics. My name's Dan Ray. This is night Side.
We're coming up on the ten o'clock news right after
this
It's night Side with Dan Ray from.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Radio. Okay, those of us who have worked in the
news media come across bizarre stories, uh and the pairly
normal bizarre stories. Some of them are easy to understand.
I remember, you know, one of the oftentimes bizarre stories
of tragic stories. Obviously, I remember covering the UH station
(00:26):
nightclub fire down in Rhode Island. One hundred people burned
to death. This small nightclub went up in flames, and
people stampeded for the doors, and with the crush of people,
people couldn't get out, and one hundred people died. Plane
crashes all sorts of you know, stories that that just
(00:48):
make no sense. I mean, clearly, the crash in earlier
this year over the Potomac, the plane coming into Washington,
d C. Colliding with the military's a helicopter. We won't
know for sure, but it looks to me like the
military helicopter was about one hundred or so feet higher
than they should have been. But the story that I'm
(01:08):
about to tell you, if you haven't heard it, is
extremely bizarre, extremely bizarre. So let me try to keep
it straight because there's a lot of details that frankly
had not been filled in However, in Waterbury, Connecticut, there's
(01:33):
a street. I guess it's called Blake Street. Side Street.
I guess. I'm not sure if it's a main thoroughfare.
The only thing I know about Waterbury, Connecticut was it
was the home of the birthplace of Jimmy Pierce All
Great Red Sox center Field, a number thirty seven in
the nineteen fifties, played alongside played between Ted Williams and
Jackie Jensen. So Waterbury, Connecticut, nice city in Connecticut, Connecticut,
(01:57):
lovely state. I think it's called the makes Steak if
I'm not mistake in the insurance state or whatever I miss.
I get my state nicknames mixed up every once in
a while. But it's a it's a it's a lovely area.
It's it's a Northeastern state. It is it's considered probably
one of the states with the highest educational levels of people.
(02:21):
The home of Yale. Other great schools, Trinity College outside
of Hartford, as well as Yale. US Coast Guard Academy
is down down in Groton. Wesleyan is great schools. It's
just it's a. It's a it's a wonderful, wonderful state.
So the story goes that on February seventeenth, which obviously
(02:49):
three days after Valentine's Day. It's a Monday, it's a holiday,
and at that night, fire alarm comes in on a
house on Blake Street. Get there. There's a woman fifty
two years of age. She is out on the street.
Her name is Kimberly Sullivan. She looks a lot older
than fifty two years of age, but she's fifty two.
(03:11):
And the fire apparatus is there trying to save the house,
and she's holding looks like a pet dog, and she's
telling the firefighters that her step son is inside the house.
And I think she was concerned about some cats as well.
But they were asking is there anyone any any adults? Yes,
(03:32):
my step son. Well, the firefighters somehow, some way, we're
able to rescue the steps on. He's thirty two years
he's currently thirty two years old. But upon closer review
they find out because the thirty two year old admits
(03:53):
he set the fire, he'd been held captive in a
single room for twenty years by his and his stepmother.
According to a police warrant, the man had told police
that he's been confined since he was eleven years old. Now,
(04:14):
it would appear to me that he must have been
born sometime, and I'm going to guess nineteen ninety three,
I guess would be the way to kind of do
the math. It depends upon what month. But let's say
nineteen thirty, nineteen ninety three. So when he's eleven, it
would have been two thousand and four, George Bush still
(04:34):
would have been president, George Bush forty three in his
first term. In his first term. And the story that
this young man told who when he was saved from
the fire, that he admitted he started, it's five point nine,
but he weighs sixty eight pounds. That means that I
(04:58):
guess his body fat content or his BMI. Yeah, his
body mass index. You know, a healthy body mass index
is probably really you know, an athlete is probably eighteen.
If you're really an excellent shape, body mass index of
(05:18):
twenty is good. This guy's body mass index was about eleven.
I guess if your body mass index is thirteen, and
you get your body mass index by dividing your height
by your weist. This he was he looked, they said,
like someone coming out of a concentration camp. The story
(05:41):
that he told is bizarre, It's bizarre for a number
of reasons. It's bizarre. It's bizarre that his neighbors. He
lived in this one room, which was eight feet by
nine feet, locked in the room by his stepmother. According
to the media reports that I have read, she's now
been arraigned on a number of char charges kid including
kidnapping and child abuse. Now he's thirty two, so he's
(06:07):
older than a child. Obviously, she was held on three
hundred thousand dollars bail. She made bail. She made bail
on Thursday the thirteenth. So now no one on the well,
no one on the street knew that this guy was
still living in the house. People who were longtime residents
(06:30):
remember seeing him working in the yard with his father,
like maybe ten years ago or fifteen years ago. The
father just passed away. His biological mother apparently. And I
do not know anything about this, whether or not she
was a surrogate mother, or whether she was a woman
(06:54):
who gave up a child for adoption, or a teenager
who gave up a child for adoption. She was quoted
and rob, I get some soundbites here. I want you
to begin to play. She was quoted as saying that
somehow her sister heard about this news story which has
been percolating in Connecticut now for days, for weeks actually,
(07:19):
and that was the first she had heard. She'd been
looking for her son. I don't know the circumstances which
caused her to lose contact with her son cut twenty.
Please Rob, this is the mother, the biological mother of
this young man.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
She could written, Hell, my sister actually called me while
I was at work and she had stated that we found.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
We found them.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
So just St'm battlement.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
How can anybody treat somebody like that? So apparently when
she refers to that this young man was held in
activity for his entire life, but certainly for the last
twenty years, living in a room, I guess he would
come downstairs every morning and get two sandwiches, which was
his food for the day, and two small cups of
(08:14):
water and go back to the room. Now why he
didn't try to make a run for it. The mother
who was the stepmother who has been arrested and now
is being held on bail. She doesn't look very well either.
She looks like a tough fifty two, if you get
what I'm saying, And she doesn't seem to be someone
who would have been able to physically restrain him if
(08:36):
he tried to make a run for it. This is
such a bizarre story. I mean, that's the only way
to describe this. Now. The Waterbury, Connecticut Police Chief Fernando Spagnola,
talked about his condition at at a press conference a
(08:57):
few days ago. This is cut number twenty six. Please
rob twenty six.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
There's an adult that was five foot nine and sixty
eight pounds. You know, there's some apparent orthopedic issues. You know,
the room was very small. That room did have exterior
locks on it, in a number of different styles of
exterior locks, as was explained during an interview with the victim.
Throughout the years, it appeared that the locks increased in
(09:23):
security levels as time progressed. Information was very guarded on
what was released. And you know, when he was able
to see other members of the family and other members
of the community.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, and one of the TV stations down there was
the NBC affiliate spoke with the former principle of his
elementary school. This young man who was held in captivity
apparently did begin a public school, but he would have
(10:00):
been in the first grade, I guess, and somehow, some way.
The parents at one point had made some complaint to
the school. Some children in the school had talked to
the principal down there and said, there's something wrong with
(10:21):
this kid. Somehow, some way, there was a guess, a
couple of home visits made to his home in the nineties.
When people they have I guess they're called the Department
of Children in Families. An article that will be in
(10:41):
The Globe tomorrow morning, written by Travis Anderson and Claire
Thornton of the Globe, staffs that are representative of the
Department of Children and Families in Connecticut told The Globe
Wednesday that the agency has been unable to locate any
records pertending to the family, but that a search for
any information is ongoing. The severe in duration of the
alleged abuse and how it remained hidden has stunned the region,
(11:04):
and recent court records provided Harrying new details of the
man's alleged captivity. Authorities have not released his name to
protect his privacy, but guess what. The school principle was
found by the local television affiliate down there, the local
NBC television affiliate, and I have misplaced the paper here
(11:28):
for a second, Rob, But the teacher, the school principal
did speak with local newspaper. I will find that sound
bite his the SoundBite that he gave. Didn't you have
that one there? Please play that one?
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Rob?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
His name is, his name is Thomas Panone.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
We knew it, we reported it. Not a damn thing
was done. That's that's the tragedy of the whole thing.
Everyone really was concerned with this child since he was
five year so you knew something was wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It was grossly wrong.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
You don't disappear off the face of the earth at
ten years old. Sorry, we couldn't do more, because you
went through more than any of us ever will go
thward our lives.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well, that's great. Sorry, we couldn't do more. Sorry, we
couldn't do more. There's so many lessons to be learned here.
I just want to open up the phone lines. If
you know about the story and you want to add something,
that's fine. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.
What does this say about our relationship with our neighbors?
There were news stories I've seen with the neighbors said
(12:37):
we had no idea this kid lived there. I mean,
was there any interaction in that community. Fourth of July, Christmas, Halloween, whatever, Thanksgiving.
Did anybody ever go over to the house? I don't know.
I've seen pictures of the house. Obviously it had a fire,
it wasn't destroyed. It looked like a particularly great neighborhood,
(12:57):
but it looked like a fairly normal house. Two five, four,
ten thirty six, one seven nine three, one ten thirty.
If you know about the story, feel free to add
anything that I've omitted. But how can this happen in America?
How can it happen in the state of Connecticut, the
state of Yale, and you know education and wow, this
(13:20):
this boggles my mind. I know that this bad stuff
that goes on, but for bad stuff to go on
like this to a kid who just has the mistake
of being born into a bad set of circumstances. All
the money we paid for social services, where are his
social services? Back on Night's Side right after the break.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Now, I'm sure some of you think, well, Dan's telling
a story and they don't believe this, But this is
a true story out of Connecticut, and it is out
of Connecticut in the last the last few days. So
again the victim discovered. On February seventeenth, Waterbury Police officers,
along with the Waterbury Fire Department, responded to a report
(14:11):
of an active fire at eight forty two in the evening.
By the way, I miss aged his step mom. She's
fifty six. She still looks like there'll be a tough
fifty six, let me put it like that. So she's evacuated.
The male occupant, who was in the house longer. This
thirty two year old son, suffered smoking elation and exposure
(14:32):
to the fire, had to be assisted from the house.
As his understandable he'd been locked in a room. He
further alleged he had been held captive by Sullivan since
he was approximately eleven years old. Now, apparently his father,
his biological father, died in twenty twenty four January, about
(14:55):
a year ago. That's according to the Waterbury Police chief.
You know there was a biological father. The father was
wheelchair bound from some sort of medical condition. The victim's
biological mother, who you heard from earlier in this half hour,
apparently has not been involved in his life since he
was about two years old. Now I'm gonna make a
(15:17):
huge leap here that the biological mother and the father
at some point had this child. Whether they were married
or not doesn't really matter at this point, because whether
the father took the child away or the mother didn't
particularly care, it doesn't matter. The father ends up with
(15:38):
the child when he's two, which again we're guestimating a
sometime around nineteen ninety five. He then marries. I assume
he marries the fifty six year old Kimberly Sullivan at
this point, and that's how she becomes the step mother. Okay. Now,
(15:59):
the the lawyer for Sullivan, the woman here who's the
one who is charged with this abuse, has said, oh, no,
she did. She did great, she took care of him
and all of this. The police chief was quoted as saying,
(16:23):
thirty three years in law enforcement, this is the worst
treatment of humanity that I've ever witnessed. She's arraigned in court,
had a bond of three hundred thousand dollars. She's now
expected to be placed in the custom of the Connecicut
Department of Correction while she awaits trial. Kimberly Sullivan refused
to talk to police almost immediately, but does not have
any prior criminal history. Yeah, she just stayed in the
house with this kid for twenty years. Look, there's got
(16:48):
to be some mental health issues involved here, maybe all around.
But my question is, how is it that in a
neighborhood and I don't know Waterbury, Connecticut, as I say,
other than the birthplace of Red Sox in the field
did Jimmy piersoll many years ago? But this me and child.
(17:14):
I'm looking at the mugshot of the mother. She's fifty six.
She looks presentable. She looks a rough fifty six, but
she's presentable. How did she survive? What did she do
for a living? I mean this, I just can't wait
till we get some of the details. Did she have
a job? Who? I assume that she inherited the house
(17:40):
from her husband when he died a year ago. Did
he leave her instructions? Apparently this kid for twenty years,
not only for the year in which the stepmother was
the only adult in the house. The father, the biological father,
had been there for this kids the entirety of this
(18:01):
kid's life. Look, this kid apparently had seen hadn't seen
a dentist, hadn't seen a doctor. Uh, how does this happen.
How does this happen in a place like Connecticut, one
of the you know, one of the more adviced states
(18:24):
in America. Uh. Again, it's just unbelievable. Look, what I
want to do is I want to give you a
chance to if you, if if you've heard about this case,
h feel free to offer your opinion.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think it's an It's an indictment obviously of this family,
which was dysfunctional, but it's also an indictment of government. Okay,
it's an indictment of government, and it's also I think
an indictment of the people that live in that community.
How could they not know that something was amiss. They
probably did not know what was going on inside the
(19:01):
home because this kid apparently hadn't been out in twenty years.
So I get it. We don't care about our neighbors
as much as we used to in this country, and
even in a place like Connecticut. But what does it
say about us as a society within no charitable organizations
(19:23):
in that community, no churches, no temples, no synagogues, no
outreach from anyone. I'm assuming that the house probably has
it looks okay now, but I'm sure it's fallen into
disrepair over the years. What does this say that this
(19:46):
can happen and this young man now thirty two years old,
he will never be right? Okay, I mean this kid
will be This guy will be taking care of for
the rest of his life by so society. But the
time when society had the greatest obligation to him was
as a child, as a student in a in an
(20:09):
elementary school. That just stopped. Don't they have truant officers?
Aren't these social workers? This is Connecticut. If you're in Connecticut,
you know about the story, feel free. You wanted to
defend your state. I'm not attacking the state. I'm just
saying I think it's it. It says a lot about
our society. If you lived on that street, how would
(20:30):
you feel at this point? How would you feel knowing
that this went on under your nose? You lived your life,
You walked and drove past that house a thousand times,
maybe five thousand times, and you never seem to notice
and say what's going on there? Six seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
(20:52):
Have we lost what we once had in this country
as a society where we actually at least knew our neighbors,
maybe even cared for our neighbors. We're coming back on
Nightside right after the news. I hope to hear from
as many of you as possible. And if you think
that I am being overly critical, or if you think
I'm being naive, feel free. This one hit me hard.
(21:16):
I mean, this kid did nothing. The only mistake this
kid made was being born into this situation. Coming back
on night Side, It's.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Night Side, Boston's news Radio, or.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Let's go to the phones. I am I'm just this
this story blows me away, and that this is this
kid was born in Connecticut, who was born in a
state that should have provided him with lots of opportunities,
and I just I kind of understand it. I just
(21:54):
can't understand. Let me go to Joe and Boston. Joe,
appreciate you calling in. Had you heard about this story
before tonight, Joe or is this your first exposure to her?
Speaker 7 (22:03):
No? No, I heard about it then a few days
ago when it first actually happened. I was, I mean,
I was stron I'd say, how can things like this
happened in America today? And I mean, and there's two
things to it.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
I was in what a very Connecticut about twenty years
ago with a client from Boston. She went to a
concert of shed over her to a concert down there. Yeah,
and I look at the town and it looks very
run down and everything. Since I'm not going to spend
the three or four hours, I asked a police officer.
(22:38):
You know, I tried to find a bathroom. There was
only one hotel in town a holiday holiday in that's
where the uh the group was staying. It was actually
the Beach Boys.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Okay, and this lady was a huge fan. I took
her the night before to the performance center in Providence,
and then she took me for the next night to
go to what a Better Connecticut.
Speaker 8 (23:01):
My first time downe there, I asked a police you know,
I'm going to take a nap. I'm want to snooze.
Where should I you suggest? He goes, oh, you park
of me. Here in the middle of town is like
north west, south and east Main Street. He goes, you
stay within the two blocks over here. That way is
not saying because of this and that way you have
(23:24):
that is like the city is like a rundown city.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
I mean that part of it.
Speaker 7 (23:32):
You know, I can probably understand because I drove a
little bit around.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Another thing that I saw last night, actually on inside
edition was a sister or the kid or the gentleman.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
He's a gentleman now a lost sister that he has.
She's they had, They shared the same biological mother. The
sister grew up.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
She's fine, she's perfectly find she's older than him, and
she knew about him and she's been looking for him,
trying to reach out to him, and she didn't know,
and she looked and looked and looked. And they share
the same mother. But the mother gave her for adoption. Okay,
so so so so did she.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Also give the boy up for adoption? Because the woman.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
I was talking to my wife and I was talking
to my wife, I guess she was one of those
probably on a stable person. And then she had it
with this guy, the kid, you know. And then because
they don't share the same father, the guy is not
a father or the girl, the girl is older, and
she gave her for adoption. But she knew about her brother,
(24:45):
and she saw him, you know, as a boy, and
then she never saw it, never saw him again.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
So so she so so so so the the biological
mother who who we heard from earlier, had at least
two kids that she had and that she gave up
for adoption.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Yeah, the first one gave up for aduction, and I
guess the second one, which you will be the kid
left them for you know, left them with the father,
you know, and the father at some point I was
to marry somebody else. You know. The this is insane, Dan,
And like you were saying earlier, I mean, what about neighborhoods, neighborly,
(25:29):
I know my neighbors, I know the kids of my neighbors.
If I gets for the kids of my neighbors for Christmas,
if you don't see them, you know I have you know,
how is uh, how is the little one doing how
you know insanity in these day and age, Dan, I mean,
(25:50):
I don't know. I just don't know.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
They probably, I mean it's probably some mental health issues
they're involved or things like that.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I'm sure. Well, I like the soundbod we had from
the school principal who said, yeah, we knew about it,
we reported it, but nothing was done. Everybody like said,
what we did the best?
Speaker 8 (26:13):
Yeah, I mean we had in Massachusetts, as you know,
we had so many issues with the prominent of children
and family whatever they.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Called them, you know. And yeah, I mean look at
that little that little girl that was given to the
father and they disappear. Yes, I mean it's it's so sad,
so so sad.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Well, it's always thanks. It's interesting you kind of painted
the picture of Waterbury, Connecticut a lot of nice areas
in Connecticut.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
Because I asked the police, I mean, why he goes, well,
this is used to be an old mill town, and
then while the industries left, it became a ghost out
and down that way. I'm not going to mature races.
You got these sparts on the other side.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
You got the other part in, you know. And I
tried to go to a seventy eleven because every time
I go to a you know, to a job faraway
out of town, I just said, let me just play
a mega box, make a million's bower ball, yes, in
(27:28):
case you know you're hearing on somebody wanting on gonna.
I went to seventy eleven and I pulled up and
they were like seven away guys veggars out front, and
I said, this is not a good environment for me to.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Keep keep thy see next time.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
So are you skipped And at that point, that's when
I went back and I asked a police officer that
was working detail at the performance center there. He goes, No,
you want to stay here close to the area because
I told him, you know, I want to take a nap.
Where's the safe to take a nap? And yeah, you
want to say you want to stay close to the
(28:11):
area here that you know that tells you about the town.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
You got it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You got it, Joe, Thank you much, you get you
gave us some good information. I appreciate it, Joe. And
again I wish, I wish there was a happy ending here.
There's no happy ending to this story.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Yeah, I'm going to keep an eye out. I mean,
I'm sure that they're going to do movie other weeks
and whatnot, you know, but I mean I'm interested in
tree the outcome of this.
Speaker 8 (28:34):
Well, remember that there was a Yeah, there was a family.
Yeah there was a family that came out about probably
four five years ago.
Speaker 7 (28:45):
But there was like four or five kids that they
were the parents had them, you know, and they lived
like gypsies. I don't know if you remember that was I.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Don't remember, but I promise you were. Well, we'll keep
an eye on this story and see where it goes
from until I got a screwed Thanks man, talk so
much time? Thanks well, you bet your buddy be well.
Let me go to Fred and Melrose. Fred, you're next
on Nightside. Your thoughts on this absolutely bizarre story.
Speaker 9 (29:14):
Uh, I was kidnapped when I was two?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Really?
Speaker 9 (29:20):
Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
By whom? If I by whom?
Speaker 9 (29:24):
If I could ask, I'd rather not get into the details.
Fair Enough, I was kidnapped. I was kidnapped when I
was two for about five weeks. My father found me
and got me back home. And I was stopped during
that time too.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
And you know, let me ask you, Fred, Fred, do
you have an actual memory of this or is this
what you were told?
Speaker 9 (29:55):
I remember everything I remember from the day was born
until today everything.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
How's that possible?
Speaker 9 (30:04):
I don't know, But I can tell you my earliest.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, I mean most my earliest memories were I probably
was two, but then the next one when I was four. So,
without getting into who you who? Was it a domestic
kidnapping or were you kidnapped for someone kidnapping you as
a child and looking for money and ransom?
Speaker 9 (30:29):
No, they weren't looking for money and ramps, and they
were just looking for a kid and I happened.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
To be it.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, okay, well if you if you can't.
Speaker 9 (30:42):
There was anything said to the police at the time.
This was during the plates.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, okay, all right, well Fred again, yeah, Fred, I
appreciate that. I appreciate it. I'm up on my break
here and I just I can hear your coffin. Get
a glass of water and feel better and thank god
you survived. Have you had a after having gone through that.
Has it impacted your life or were you able to
have a pretty successful and normal life.
Speaker 9 (31:11):
I've had a pretty successful life, but good it took
an impact on my life's definitely, no question about it. Yeah, yeah,
but I've worked through it. Look, it's taken seventy years
to do it.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Okay, Well, Fred, you sound you sound great like you're okay,
and call the show anytime. And again, get a glass
of water. I gotta have a glass of water every
once in a while too. Sounds like you had something
in your throat. Thanks Fred, have a great night. We'll
be back on night's I quick break here. We're talking
about this bizarre case in Connecticut. I know I have
Connecticut listeners, so please feel free. Look Connecticut is a
(31:52):
highly advanced state. This is a this is a story
that is disgraceful. It's disgraceful and it's more all the
just a messed up family, folks. This is indicative of
our society. And as Joe from Boston said, you know
he knows the families in his neighborhood. Do you know
the families in your neighborhood. I hope you do, and
(32:14):
I hope that they know you because there have been
some bizarre stories. Look, this is not the only bizarre story,
but this is pretty bizarre that this kid was kept
in a room for thirty years. There was the story
here in Boston of the woman somewhere in South Boston.
I think they found the remains of five fetuses or
infant who infants who had died in her She kept
(32:39):
them in shoe boxes. That was a story a couple
of years ago. Coming back on Nightside, I know this
is depressing. I apologize that it's depressing, but I think
we need to talk about it. Coming back on nights Side.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Now, back to Dan Way Live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
So I don't know if there's a lesson out of
this story. I think there is I think that we
have to in our communities, whatever, wherever you live, whether
it's a rural community. I suspect people in rural communities
probably know more about their neighbors who might live half
a mile away than most of us know about our
neighbors who are living up up the street or around
the block. I just think it's crazy. Let's keep rolling here.
(33:21):
Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty. Got some
calls that got one line there and a couple of
line at six one seven nine thirty. Alex is in Millis, Alex,
this is a bizarre story.
Speaker 10 (33:35):
It sure is. Dan. I was gonna say, who.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Was that in the background? Alex was that that was?
That's my son?
Speaker 6 (33:43):
He was.
Speaker 10 (33:43):
He was egging me on, okay, you're on dead go ahead.
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (33:49):
So, uh, I guess my town's like I don't know,
maybe seventy five hundred or eight thousand people, and uh,
most people know each other. I would say that fifty
seven percent of people don't know their neighbors because when
we live out here, we're very close with two of
the neighbors. I've helped him out and everything, And I say,
(34:10):
why is that is it because people you know are
too busy, or because you know of privacy and you
know they have busy lifestyles. But I'm not sure why
you know.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And well, I think that's part of it. I think, Alex,
that's part of it. I think that people are busy people. Look,
I know a lot of people have now worked from home,
but the fact of the matter is that they It
used to be we lived in a society where dad
went off to work at eight o'clock in the morning,
he came home at five point thirty at night. We
(34:45):
now have both mom and dad work and the kids
are oftentimes with their babysitter. I'm not criticizing that, but
you do have This kid got lost, he slipped through
the cracks, and this is his life. He's now thirty two,
he went to the fourth grade. What's he good? What's
this guy kid gonna do with the rest of his life?
His his by the way, his I'm sure that just
(35:08):
as his body has atrophied and he has all sorts
of they talked about orthopedic problems. I'm sure that he
has no muscular shore. He weighs sixty eight pounds. I'm
sure his mental facilities. What will he be able to do.
He's going he's gonna live, you know, on some form
of social security, disability or whatever whatever Connecticut's gonna do
(35:32):
for him. But Connecticut failed him, the town fail the
people who lived on that street. I think it's called
Blake Street. It's it's almost like a horror film on
Blake Street as opposed to horror film on horror on
Elm Street. I wish that we heard from some psychiatrist
tonight who could talk about it. But I don't know.
(35:53):
Did this mother never go to the store? I mean,
how did? You'd love to know all of this? This,
This deserves a full blown police investigation and that this
should be published and all privacy issues. You don't have
to mention people's names, but we want I want to
know everything. I want to know everything. How did this? This,
(36:15):
this stepmother and this thirty two year old locked in
his room, uh most of all of the day. How
did they function? This kid didn't even have a bathroom
in his room? Alex he apparently? I mean this, and
where's social services? Where where's the social I pay tax
money for social services for people who need social services,
(36:39):
and I'm happy to do it. How did this kid
get miss messed, missed.
Speaker 9 (36:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 10 (36:45):
This reminds me of the story that the couple that
had all the kids and the young girl she escaped.
H I kindly call their names the name of the
But this happened.
Speaker 9 (36:58):
A while back.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
Do you know where which no idea, no idea. Okay, yeah,
it sounds exactly like this. And and you know she
they the parents are in prison now, of course.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
But they.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, that was that was that a group that was
like somewhere in Utah or.
Speaker 10 (37:15):
Something like that in Utah? I think so, yeah, they okay, yeah,
the children's school homeschooled and didn't allow them to watch,
to do nothing, not to interact, uh, you know, and
they they were it was like they were treated like prisoners.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah. But again, I guess when when something like that
happens in a state like Utah that I don't know
a lot about. I can understand those are big states
and somebody is is off somewhere. But in Connecticut, in Connecticut,
I mean, Connecticut is one of the the the standard
of living in Connecticut is always very high up there.
When when I see these surveys about the uh, the
(37:54):
wealthy estate on a per capita basis Connecticut. It's a
state that has Greenwich and cost Cart They have all
of these wonderful, wonderful towns. It's unbelievable, Alex. I gotta
keep rolling and tell say hello to your son for us. Okay,
how was that?
Speaker 10 (38:10):
He's out fourteen? He's uh, he's like having three three boys.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Okay, I get you, I got you. Well keep them
in line. Okay, thanks Alex, talk to you soon. Let
me go to Glenn. Glenn, you're next nights. I go
right ahead.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
Yeah, I would say this kid not not that he
fells through the cracks. He sells for a canyon. I mean, yeah.
This is where this reminds me of that story in
New Hampshire. Two quick things of Harmony Montgomery. She was
missing for five years. YEP. I grew up in the sixties.
I have Laronoya forgive me.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
When I was five minutes raight for first period, because
I was in the bathroom, they sent a swat team
looking for me.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, yeah, a metaphorical swat team. I'm sure right, yeah, absolutely, no,
I understand that.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
And the other thing I remember that winter of ninety
four was rough. The winter of ninety six, the winter
of twenty fifteen, not one person knocked on my door
and said, hey, Glenn, it's going to snow them ow dded.
You know, I've lived here forty years where I'm living.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
And it's just that that sounds familiar. I guess no one.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
I hate to say it. I'm not shocked, Yeah I am.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
I am that somehow something like this can happen in America.
We have all these social programs everybody else for this
Department of Human Services, Department of this, Department of that.
And this kid was in school and like he disappears.
Don't they have truant offices there? Don't they figure out
where's this kid? Has he moved to Utah? Oh?
Speaker 6 (39:44):
Well, you know what they say about the Empathy Convention.
No one cared enough to show up. I guess just
the one area where this the one area. I agree
with Joe from Lynn. I think we're more of an
empathetic country than an empathetic.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Country areas, certain areas. I mean, not everyone fits this category,
but I'll tell you this, anyone who hears about this story,
they should They should check on some neighbors. If you
If I don't know, it just it appalls me it
just appalls me. Hey, Glenn, I appreciate it. We'll talk
to you tomorrow night, I'm sure.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
Okay, Yeah, I just came back from the winners. They're
gonna see me on the twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Good, well, we'll see you on the twenty seventh as well. Great.
Did they have a good crowd tonight?
Speaker 6 (40:26):
Oh yeah, I had to sit at to borrow all
the seats were taken.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Excellent, excellent. How's the Okay, we'll talk later. Thanks for
let me go to an in bath in Bradford in
We only got a minute left. You've called really late,
but I'd love to get you in. Go ahead, Hi,
okay quickly.
Speaker 10 (40:42):
That's a very very sad story.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
I agree with you, like like you mentioned, why weren't
they questioning where the child child is? And also, of
course the news will come out later. Now here's a thought.
When they do the senses, what they may check into
(41:05):
the senses? How they answer that?
Speaker 6 (41:08):
You know?
Speaker 4 (41:08):
How they answered where you work?
Speaker 7 (41:11):
Oh yeah, right, yeah, it'll work.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
And what about the child residing at a certain age?
They indicate that on the payent work right?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Oh right, But I'm sure these folks, if they got
that census for him. It was never returned. But there
was no one who was going up knocking on the
door of the house because I bet they paid electric bills.
I bet they paid gas bills, and that's all they
had to do. That's the point of the that's the
point of the story. And I got a run. I
wish it called earlier, but I'm out of time for
(41:42):
this ten o'clock hour, and I got the news coming
down the track, so I gotta let you go. Thanks,
call again bye. If you folks would like to talk
about this light, these phones up. If not, we're going
to change topics. My name's Dan Ray. This is night Side.
We're coming up on the ten o'clock news right after
this
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