Awful story from Waterbury, Connecticut. 32 year old man says he was locked in storage room by his stepmom for 20 years. Weighed only 68 pounds when firemen found and rescued him. I hope he survives but he will have a long recovery.
Yikes that’s inhumane. The guy missed all that socialization everyone else gets. Horrible isn’t even a bad enough adjective. I can’t come up with any appropriate follow-up questions right now. It does motivate me to send some money for his support.
Wow. Kasper Hauser all over again.
Reminds me more of Blanche Monnier.
I never heard of Hauser or Monnier. Good comparisons with a few differences. Hauser was an infant when his alleged captivity began. Monnier was an adult in her 20s.
I can think of many questions about the Connecticut case. My first is the fire he started. Was it in his locked room? If so how did he survive the fire and smoke? Did the stepmom call the fire dept or did someone else?
He started the fire in his room using a lighter he found in coat pocket (from his father’s old clothes given to him), hand sanitizer and some papers. He waited until it was too large to get extinguished by his mother then called for help. He did suffer smoke inhalation. His stepmother was forced to call the fire department because of the size of the fire. She wanted to get him washed up and out of the house but he collapsed and wouldn’t get up to ensure that the fire department had to come in and get (discover) him.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5327122/connecticut-captive-stepmom-house-fire
Kudos to him for figuring out to do that. And I wonder how many people are still in a similar situation because they weren’t so resourceful.
Thanks for the NPR article explaining the fire. Next question is doesn’t the Connecticut Child Services or Health Dept check on kids who are home schooled at least once a year? Seems like they should be required to. Also, don’t home schooled kids need to take tests to show they are learning and progressing? That should be required, also.
Starting a fire in his locked room was very risky. The stepmom may have gone to sleep and not heard him yelling and stomping. Or she may not have been able to open the lock for some reason. Or she may not have cared if he died in the fire and just gotten herself out of the house.
But the man was desperate and may not have cared much if he died. Sounds like he was already close to death so fire was worth trying.
I was thinking more of the Turpin family, or Genie, who was kept so isolated, she never developed language.
Genie is another sad story. I wonder how the Connecticut man got a lighter. I doubt the stepmom gave it to him or would let him smoke. Maybe he stole it from her somehow.
When he was doing his chores up to two hours per day, seems like one day there would be oppurtunity to use a phone to call 911 without stepmom noticing. He wouldn’t need to say anything. Police are supposed to respond and should be able to tell where the call is coming from. But maybe stepmom watched him too closely or made sure a phone was nowhere nearby.
The stepmother gave him a pile of his deceased father’s old clothing to wear and he discovered the lighter in a pocket.
She may also have brainwashed him, a la The Girl In The Box, and told him things like that that neighbors are spies who would bring him back and he’d just get it worse from her.
I have a feeling this was not required at the time.
Here’s an interview with the principal of the elementary school he attended, who said multiple reports were made to the authorities, and literally nothing happened, and this was in the 00s!
So as early as 5 years old he was always hungry at school so the principal and teachers were concerned and called his stepmom over many years. For several years they reported him to DCF. DCF did welfare checks for years including some visual inspections of him and saw no problem. His two half-sisters and grandmother didn’t help him.
When he dropped out of school stepmom said she was home schooling him. No verification or tests were done. Neighborhood kids were friends of him and would see him in his window watching them play outside. Principal and teachers thought they would hear about his death one day in the news.
System failed this boy/man but he survived somehow. I wonder how much he will be able to recover.
Father lived in the home with the stepmom and victim and died in Jan 2024. He was at least partly to blame but won’t suffer consequences.
Uncle hired PI to search for boy in 2004 and 05. PI just searched records and couldn’t find anything so uncle gave up.
His biological mom and his sister did online search about same time and found nothing. Say they didn’t know boy’s name or location.
His whole family failed him, just like his neighbord and DCF. What a strange story.
These two statements don’t go together.
His mom and sister knew the father’s name and maybe location. Seems like they could have tracked him down easily and checked on the boy somehow.
Some folks call it a Sling Blade, I call it a Kaiser Blade.
What is the knife reference for? Sling Blade the movie?