Inset: Kandy Thompson (Anson police). Background: The dog kennel where Thompson was allegedly keeping her 22-year-old special needs daughter (KTAB/KRBC).
A Texas mother is behind bars after she allegedly locked her 22-year-old special needs daughter in a dog kennel in the backyard of their home.
Kandy Thompson, 60, stands accused of aggravated kidnapping, injury to a disabled person and criminal negligence, among other charges. Cops in Anson, which is about 20 miles north of Abilene, responded to a home on Nov. 22 after a neighbor heard screaming from the backyard, Chief Daniel Graziose told Law&Crime.
The neighbor took a video of himself confronting Thompson as the victim repeatedly screams “I”m scared.” Local NBC and CBS affiliate KTAB/KRBC obtained a copy of the video which shows the kennel as a chain-link fence with a tarp covering the top.
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“You lock your kid in a dog kennel?” the incredulous neighbor asks.
Thompson answers in the affirmative and said the victim was “tearing things up” and urinating everywhere.
The neighbor doesn’t accept the excuse.
“Do you really think locking a special needs kid in a dog kennel?” the neighbor asks.
Thompson clarifies that the dog that was in the yard does not use that kennel which seems to leave the neighbor flabbergasted. The victim continues to scream “I’m scared.”
“Do you hear that precious child?” the neighbor says.
The victim appears to hyperventilate as the neighbor tries to comfort her.
“It’s OK sweetheart,” he says. “Breathe. Breathe. Just breathe. Help is here. This ain’t gonna happen to you again. You don’t have to be scared anymore.”
Graziose declined to say how long the woman was locked in the cage or how often she was in there. He told Law&Crime that Thompson and her late husband adopted the girl when she was 2 years old. After cops arrived on the scene, they transported the victim to the hospital where she was treated and released. The state’s Adult Protective Services agency is working with her to make sure she receives what she needs.
