On a quiet Saturday night in Anson, Texas, the sound that broke the stillness wasn’t barking dogs or passing cars.
It was the panicked screams of a disabled young woman begging to be let out of a dog kennel.
KTXS reporter Caitlin Leggett says those screams are what pushed neighbor Justin Anderson to grab his phone, start recording, and call police. That decision not only exposed what was happening in the backyard next door, it also led to the arrest of a longtime foster mother who had been trusted with some of the community’s most vulnerable residents.
Neighbor’s Video Captures A Nightmare Scene
In Leggett’s report, Justin Anderson’s video is the centerpiece.
He recorded around 8 p.m. on November 22, after hearing cries coming from the yard behind his home.
On the video, which Caitlin Leggett obtained and aired, Anderson can be heard saying, “Watch, you can hear her trying to get out. I mean, that’s a dog kennel with the latch.”
The footage shows a 22-year-old disabled woman physically pushing against the kennel, trying to break free from a locked cage in the backyard.
Leggett explains that this wasn’t some makeshift playpen or temporary enclosure. Anderson clearly describes it as a standard dog kennel with a proper latch, and the woman was inside it, alone, at night, screaming in fear.
Anderson later told Leggett he was “scared for somebody like that,” adding that he’d only seen this kind of thing on crime TV, never right in his own backyard.
That detail really matters. It shows how fast something horrifying can hide behind a normal fence line, and how crucial it is that someone nearby was willing to step in.
Police Say They Found A 22-Year-Old Locked In The Kennel
When Anderson called 911, Anson police didn’t treat this as a misunderstanding.
According to Caitlin Leggett, Anson Police Chief Daniel Graziose says officers arrived and “located a 22-year-old female locked in a dog kennel in the backyard of that residence.”
Leggett reports that officers found two other adult foster children inside the home at the time.
That means this wasn’t a household that was unknown to the system. It was a foster home where disabled adults and special-needs young people were supposed to be cared for.
Police arrested 60-year-old Kandice “Kandy” Thompson, the foster mother seen in Anderson’s video.
Leggett says Thompson was initially charged with aggravated kidnapping and injury to a disabled individual, both serious felony offenses under Texas law.
After she was first arrested on Saturday, Leggett reports that Thompson was released on bond and actually returned home to the foster children.
Then, on Tuesday, she was re-arrested on additional aggravated kidnapping charges tied to the same situation.
Chief Graziose told Leggett that for the city of Anson, the case is being treated with the gravity it deserves. He emphasized that the department is “serious about protecting, especially our most vulnerable citizens.”
Given the facts Leggett lays out, it’s hard to argue that point.
“She Was Tearing My House Up”: Foster Mother’s Alleged Excuse
Leggett says neighbors didn’t just watch silently.
They confronted Thompson directly and asked why a disabled woman was locked in a kennel.
According to Leggett’s report, Thompson allegedly answered that the woman was “urinating everywhere and tearing her house up.”
That explanation, offered out loud in front of neighbors, is chilling in its own way. It treats disability-related behavior as justification for confinement in a cage.
Another neighbor, Marcia Bailey, told Leggett she was stunned by what had happened.
Bailey said, “It’s just amazing what somebody who’s in charge of disabled, mentally challenged girls will do to them, I don’t understand.”
Her confusion and anger echo what many people feel hearing this story: role reversal. The person the system trusted to protect disabled young women is now accused of imprisoning one like an animal.
Leggett also notes that attempts to reach other relatives at the home, as well as Thompson at the Jones County Jail, were unsuccessful. No one connected to Thompson offered a public defense beyond the comment about urination and property damage.
The blunt reality is that nothing about torn furniture or messy floors even comes close to justifying locking a 22-year-old disabled woman in a kennel.
A Long Foster History Raises Hard Questions
One of the most disturbing details in Leggett’s reporting is Thompson’s background.
She notes that Kandice “Kandy” Thompson and her late husband, who previously served as Anson’s police chief, had fostered more than 50 children over the years before his passing in 2020.
On paper, that sounds like a life of service.
In light of the video, it raises uncomfortable questions.
Commentator Grascia Hinds, who hosts the YouTube channel AutismMom and Travel, digs into that history in her reaction video and asks what many people immediately wonder: if a cage was already built in the backyard, how many times has this happened before?
Hinds points out that this kennel wasn’t thrown together in a panic. It was a full structure with a tarp over the top, large enough for a human being. In her view, that suggests planning, not a one-time loss of control.
As a mother of a 14-year-old autistic son, Hinds takes an especially strong stance. She tells her audience she cannot understand how any caregiver could “lock a special-needs kid in a dog kennel” and then act calm when confronted.
She notes the tone and body language Thompson shows in the video – not panicked, not ashamed, but almost dismissive.
Hinds argues that if a caregiver feels pushed to the brink, they still have options that don’t involve cruelty.
She says Thompson could have taken the young woman to a hospital, an emergency room, or even surrendered her to authorities and admitted she could no longer cope, rather than resort to what Hinds calls an “inhumane” decision.
That’s a hard point to argue with. Overwhelmed caregivers are real. But so are moral lines that should never be crossed.
“Help Is Here”: The Power Of One Neighbor Who Didn’t Look Away
Grascia Hinds also focuses on Justin Anderson’s voice in the video – not just his camera.
After confronting Thompson, Anderson turns his attention to the young woman in the kennel and tries to comfort her.
In both Leggett’s report and Hinds’ reaction, you hear him calmly telling her that help is there now, that this isn’t going to happen again, and that she’s not alone.
That moment hits hard because it’s the exact opposite of what she’d just experienced.
Hinds tells her viewers that it feels like Anderson was “put in the right place at the right time.” She praises him for refusing to ignore the screams, for confronting the foster mother directly, and for staying with the victim until police arrived.
Neighbor Marcia Bailey also told Leggett she was grateful for Anderson’s actions.
Bailey said, “I just felt sorry for the girls… I’m so glad Justin stepped up to the plate.”
It’s easy to imagine how differently this story could have gone if no one had acted. The kennel might have remained just another unseen backyard fixture. The screams might have been dismissed as noise.
Instead, a neighbor trusted his instincts, hit record, and made a report that authorities could not ignore.
What This Case Says About Disability, Power, And Oversight
Taking Caitlin Leggett’s reporting and Grascia Hinds’ commentary together, a bigger picture starts to form.
On one level, this is a criminal case.
A 60-year-old foster mother, with decades in the system and ties to law enforcement through her late husband, is now jailed on multiple aggravated kidnapping and injury-to-a-disabled-individual charges. The investigation, Leggett notes, is still active.
On another level, it’s about power and vulnerability.
The victim is a 22-year-old disabled woman who depended entirely on the adult in that house for care, safety, and basic dignity. Instead, according to police and video evidence, she was locked in a kennel like a problem animal.
Hinds, speaking as a special-needs parent, drives home just how damaging that kind of treatment can be – not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically.
She argues that locking someone away in fear and isolation is itself a form of trauma that doesn’t vanish just because the cage door eventually opens.
There’s also a systemic question here.
If Thompson and her husband fostered more than 50 children, as Leggett reports, how often were these placements checked? How closely were these homes monitored, especially after the former police chief passed away? Who was making sure the burden on one aging caregiver wasn’t silently turning into danger?
Those are uncomfortable questions, but they’re the ones that cases like this force communities and agencies to ask.
For now, Leggett reports that the victim is safe and that Thompson remains in custody facing multiple felony charges.
Whether this ends up exposing deeper problems in the foster and adult-care systems around Anson will likely depend on how far investigators – and state regulators – are willing to dig.
What is already clear, thanks to Leggett’s reporting and Hinds’ commentary, is that this wasn’t just a “discipline issue” or a messy household getting out of control.
It was a 22-year-old disabled woman locked in a dog kennel, crying that she was scared – and a neighbor brave enough to say, on camera and to her face, that it was wrong.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, John developed a love for the great outdoors early on. With years of experience as a wilderness guide, he’s navigated rugged terrains and unpredictable weather patterns. John is also an avid hunter and fisherman who believes in sustainable living. His focus on practical survival skills, from building shelters to purifying water, reflects his passion for preparedness. When he’s not out in the wild, you can find him sharing his knowledge through writing, hoping to inspire others to embrace self-reliance.
