Engine 11 was first on the scene, and when a member of the crew came out of the home carrying a 5-foot-9, 68-pound person covered in soot, Stoeckert assumed he was a young teenager.
“Over my 37-year career, we’ve had plenty of arson fires, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard that someone lit a fire to be rescued from their confinement,” Stoeckert says.
“To start a fire in a room that small (8’x9’), just hoping that we were going to get there in time to get him out – that …” he takes a long pause, “It’s a different feeling.”
20 years of captivity. Gets out and sees state of the world. Ouch.
He also got to see the good that’s still there too.
Detectives took up a collection and shopped for some things the man might need – clothes, books, puzzles to pass the time – then put together a care package, complete with gift bags and tissue paper, Brownell says.
Having seen the conditions the young man was living in, Brownell wondered, “Does he even know how to receive a gift?”
It turns out, he does.
“He’s appreciative. It put a smile on his face. He was very curious,” he says of the sweet, friendly person who greeted him with a warm smile in the hospital.
“He’s just kind of staring at it, like, ‘What could be in there?’”
Residents have offered to help with his care. Some say they plan to come out to demonstrate their support for him when his stepmother has her day in court. And to date, a fundraiser organized by Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury, a non-profit that serves people facing domestic violence, has raised over $134,000 to help him recover.
I hope that covers the hospital stay and that he doesn’t become homeless after this.
There will likely be a massive lawsuit against the state and possibly the police force involved … which he should win.
My wish is that he can surround himself with some of those good people to help him on his way.
Hopefully he can go after his step-mother and her family. There’s zero chance multiple people weren’t aware of this and they must be held accountable.
Saw this on news. Apparently people in town knew and reported it. Police couldn’t find anything. What a travesty.
Last police check was 2 years ago.
Best part is stepmother lawyer says its all bs.
I never saw this story because of all the shit news coming out of the states everyday.
It’s just another day in a America
Bad Boy Bubby vibes. Poor guy, I hope that dragon of a step’mother’ is jailed for life.
JFC, 68 pounds at 5’9"!?
thats a BMI of 10. Healthy range is 18-25.
The sad part is only the step mother is being held accountable. There were other people who knew and did nothing.
Can someone explain what is up with all the “poses for a portrait” captions in the article?
Of course, there’s always posed pictures in an article like this, but usually the caption has something beyond “[person’s name] poses for portrait”, even if it’s just a quote from the article.
Seems like ai generated captions. All the image captions are worded strangely.
