The biological mother of a Connecticut man allegedly held captive for decades by his stepmother has revealed new details about why she gave up custody — and vowed to be there for him now.
Tracy Vallerand told NBC Connecticut on Wednesday that she gave up custody in 1993, shortly after his birth. Vallerand explained that she had lost custody of her daughter, Heather Tessman, years earlier after the Department of Children and Families alleged she had shaken baby syndrome. Tessman’s father was charged with the crime.
“I was still having issues coping,” Vallerand said in her first on-camera interview with her daughter.
Vallerand explained when her relationship with her son’s father ended, she allowed her son to live with him.
“Things didn’t work out between the two of us, and I was thinking that I was giving my son a better chance at a full life,” she explained. “If I had known … I just can’t fathom … I have no words.”
Vallerand’s son, who has not been named, eventually started living with his father and stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan. Authorities allege that Sullivan held him captive in a small room at the family’s home in Waterbury.
The now 32-year-old was found on Feb. 17 after he started a fire at the home using a lighter, hand sanitizer, and paper from a printer, according to an affidavit. Police say he explained he started the fire because “I want my freedom.”
Prosecutors say that the stepson told authorities he had been locked inside an 8-by-9-foot room since the fourth grade. He told authorities that he was let out for brief periods in the mornings to do chores. Weighing only 68 pounds when he was found, he said he was fed two sandwiches a day and the equivalent of two small bottles of water.
“It’s hard to think about what he had to go through,” Vallerand told NBC Connecticut. “Just knowing that he was right there.”
Vallerand said she had tried to get back into his life but could never find him. Tessman said she never worried because “as far as I knew, he was with his parents living his life.”
The mother and daughter said they plan on attending every court appearance for Sullivan, who is charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, cruelty, and reckless endangerment.
Sullivan’s attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, has denied the allegations. He said the man’s biological father died in 2024.
“She wasn’t controlling anything in his life,” the attorney said. “She continued to maintain the home, she continued to get groceries, she continued to keep the lights on, the heat on, and provided a shelter.”
