How a man used printer paper and hand sanitizer to escape an alleged 20 years of captivity by his stepmother

edition.cnn.com /2025/03/13/us/waterbury-connecticut-man-captive-stepmom-hnk/index.html

Both sides of his door had been secured with plywood and a lock, the man would later say, to stop him from getting out.

For years, he’d only been given two sandwiches – egg or tuna salad, or peanut butter – and a small amount of water each day, he’d recall, in the storage space where he was held.

23 comments

The man had two adult sisters who did nothing "fearing retaliation".
What kind of massive coward do you have to be to see your brother locked up since the age of 12 and to his 30s and say or do nothing because you're scared of your mom.
Bullshit I say, they're complicit. Everyone who didn't report this or try to stop it is culpable.
- What kind of massive coward do you have to be
  I shouldn't have to say, but being able to cut out your family members out of your life is a luxury that some people just can't afford. Like in some areas, "burning a bridge" with your family is a pretty quick way to earn the ire of the surrounding community for breaking the unwritten rule to them.
  
  Their brother was locked in a room for 20 years. If you let that happen to maintain a relstion with your mom (Who is doing it), you are complicit in the crime. It's that simple.
  
  Abuse can twist a person's mind to do things that are unthinkable to someone not in that situation. Not justifying the sisters, I don't know anything about their relationship to the mother, but to me it sounds like recriminating a victim of abuse for not leaving their abuser. It should be easy and straightforward, but abuse makes it not so.
  
  I don't really care what it sounds like to you, leaving your brother to rot in a cell for 20 years is abuse. It would be one thing to not leave when abuse is happening to you, it is another thing to ignore and by doing so participate in the abuse of another person for 20 years.
  
  It's really easy to say that you'll do the right thing when you're sitting comfortably in an armchair. Honestly I'd bet you most of us here would be just as much of a coward in your words if we were put in the same situation.
  
  I know for a fact that I would stand up to an abuser parent on behalf of a sibling. But that's not the standard I'm setting. I'm setting the standard of giving someone a 20 year runway to do literally anything to help out their imprisoned brother.
  
  Before I get any further on this, I want to know if you lucked out on the parent lottery or not.
  
  LMAO are you really going to try and imply that "It's cowardly or complicit to not do something about someone locked in a room for 20 years" is a position born out of never having suffered any abuse, just pure privilege talking. Well it isn't, I can assure you.

23 comments