A woman in Connecticut is accused of keeping her stepson in captivity for two decades. In a desperate bid to escape, the stepson set the house on fire — and is now sharing his story with the police. Follow The Crime Scene Weekly! You can find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is hosting The Crime Scene Weekly and what is the episode about?
Hey, this is Brad, host of the Crime Scene Weekly. Thank you so much for listening to our show here in the 2020 feed. After today's episode, we will be found exclusively in our own feeds. We're going to have a ton of great new episodes on the horizon. I don't want you to miss a thing. So search for the Crime Scene Weekly. Follow that.
You'll get all your new episodes right there for free wherever you listen to podcasts. A woman is accused of holding her stepson captive for two decades. In an act of desperation, her stepson sets the house on fire. Welcome to the crime scene. I'm Brad Milkey. I host ABC's daily news podcast, Start Here.
And every week, we're bringing you the latest on what's big and what's new in the true crime space. This week, we're talking to ABC's chief investigative reporter, Josh Margolin, about this unbelievable story of alleged depravity and resilience. But before we dive in, let's go over the true crime headlines you need to know this week.
Jury selection is underway in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial of music mogul Sean Diddy Combs. Prosecutors accused Combs of forcing his alleged victims into drug-fueled sex parties he called freak-offs and then threatening them into silence.
Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys are now working to seat a 12-person jury for what's expected to be a high-profile and closely watched trial. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Next up, a story out of Mississippi. After 49 years on death row, the execution date has been set for 78-year-old Richard Gerald Jordan. Jordan is Mississippi's longest-serving death row inmate.
He was sentenced to death back in 1976 for kidnapping and killing a woman. He filed multiple death sentence appeals, the most recent of which was denied in October. His execution is now set for June 25th. Lastly, a Connecticut man is facing one of the state's most serious charges, murder with special circumstances, after police say he beat his 12-year-old son to death with a baseball bat.
Officials say 52-year-old Anthony Andrew Esposito Jr. is accused of killing his son at their home. Because the victim was a minor, the charge carries the harshest possible penalty under state law, life in prison without the possibility of parole. Esposito is also charged with criminal attempt to commit murder after allegedly trying to also kill his 16-year-old daughter.
During his arraignment last week, prosecutors said Esposito told police he beat his son because he was being disrespectful. He's now being held on a $3 million bond. No plea has been entered. Now, let's get into this week's big story. ABC's chief investigative reporter Josh Margolin is here in the studio to tell us about these horrifying allegations of captivity in Waterbury, Connecticut.
So I can't stress enough to our listeners that this is a disturbing story, right? There are going to be details here about physical abuse, about psychological abuse, but it's worth examining. So here's the gist. A man claims he was held captive for 20 years by his stepmother, confined to a locked room inside their house.
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Chapter 2: What are the latest true crime headlines this week?
But so then- because we're talking about sort of what people around this knew, the welfare checks. So there are welfare checks early on when they're looking into how this kid who was in school is being treated. What happens? Do those continue then after you get withdrawn from school?
There's no evidence that the welfare checks continued. That really is one of the terrible parts of this terrible story. And by the way, this is not unique to this one terrible story. We have covered... people held in captivity previously, and we've done extensive work on this issue, and it's almost like these people just fall off the radar. And let's look at this.
This man slipped through the cracks for 20 years. Look, the National Home Education Legal Defense Association ranks Connecticut as among the least regulated states for parents or guardians that remove their children from classroom education. There are no homeschooling regulations in Connecticut or any system that's in place to monitor students once they're removed from school for any reason.
And look, there's a statute... that they will point to in Connecticut that requires the parents be able to show that the child is receiving whatever the equivalent is of instruction at a high school system somewhere in the state or nearby or something. But nothing explains how the state can or would enforce that.
So you never actually have to show up like you don't have to produce the kid to outside authorities at any point. OK, so then a few weeks after that fire in March, the stepson's stepmom, Kimberly Sullivan, is charged and arrested with kidnapping, felony assault, cruelty to persons and other crimes in connection with all this. Tell me about her case and how she pleads. Well,
First of all, she's pleaded not guilty. That's the most important thing, very important to know. And she has been released on bail wearing an ankle bracelet. She's not currently incarcerated. Sullivan's lawyers told the ABC station in the area there, WTNH, that the alleged victim's biological father, who has since died, that he was really at fault.
The lawyer has said, quote, he, meaning the alleged victim, was not locked in the room. She, meaning Sullivan, did not restrain him in any way. She provided food. She provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations, according to the lawyer. And... The lawyer says additionally that the alleged victim's biological father lived there until recently, quote, he was the biological father.
He was the one who dictated how his son would be raised. We think as the evidence comes out, you will see that she is not the villain she's made out to be.
So the lawyer is saying like, she just happened to be there. This was a tyrannical father who now happens to be dead. Right. Right.
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