Inset: Kandy Thompson (Anson police). Background: The dog kennel where Thompson was allegedly keeping her 22-year-old special needs daughter (KTAB/KRBC).
Kandy Thompson, aged 60, faces charges including aggravated kidnapping, injury to a disabled person, and criminal negligence. Authorities in Anson, a town approximately 20 miles north of Abilene, were alerted to the situation on November 22. This came after a neighbor reported hearing distressing screams from the backyard, as explained by Chief Daniel Graziose to Law & Crime.
The neighbor captured the confrontation on video, where the victim can be heard repeatedly crying out, “I’m scared.” The footage, obtained by local NBC and CBS affiliate KTAB/KRBC, shows the kennel constructed from a chain-link fence with a tarp over the top.
In the video, the neighbor questions Thompson incredulously, asking, “You lock your kid in a dog kennel?”
Thompson admitted to the act, justifying it by claiming her daughter was “tearing things up” and urinating everywhere.
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.
