A terrified 22-year-old woman was found locked inside a dog kennel in a Texas backyard after a neighbor heard her chilling screams for help.

The victim’s longtime foster caregiver has now been charged with kidnapping and abusing the vulnerable adult in her care.

Police say the victim, who lives with physical and mental disabilities, had been put into the enclosure on the night of November 22, crying out that she was scared and needed to use the bathroom.

Neighbor Justin Anderson, 24, heard her pleas for help and quickly realized the sounds coming from next door were no ordinary disturbance.

‘I heard something that didn’t sound right at all,’ Anderson told the Daily Mail.

He pulled out his phone, walked toward the fence, and began filming scenes now now described by authorities as a woman caged like an animal, pounding on the door of the kennel, begging to be let out.

The footage, and Anderson’s frantic call to 911, prompted officers to rush to the home of 60-year-old Kandice ‘Candy’ Thompson, a woman known in Anson for fostering dozens of children over the years, and for being the widow of a former police chief.

What officers found behind the wooden fence, Anson Police Chief Daniel Graziose later said, was ‘shocking to the conscience’.

‘Officers responded and they located a 22-year-old female locked in the backyard of the residence,’ Graziose confirmed to Criminally Obsessed.

The victim was cold, visibly distressed, and according to police, wearing only a T-shirt and jogging pants on a 57F night.

Thompson offered excuses for why the woman had been locked outside, but investigators have now charged her with aggravated kidnapping, injury to a disabled individual, unlawful restraint, endangerment, and assault.

Police say Anderson’s video may have saved Emily’s life.

Anderson said it started out as a noise through a fence or a shout in the distance, and while he usually might have tuned such sounds out, he says this time it felt different.

‘Just screaming, “I have to pee, I’m scared,” and then you hear banging, like a chain link fence.’

He went back inside his house to get his wife, Sydney.

‘I was like, “Hey, listen to this. Does it sound right?”‘ he asked her.

The more he listened, the less he could ignore it. Anderson walked toward the fence with his phone camera rolling.

‘I first I yell, “Is everything okay over there?” And I did not hear nothing and you know she keeps screaming continuously,’ he recalled.

‘Dispatchers could hear her screaming in the background and it wasn’t even on speaker,’ Anderson explained to the Daily Mail.

He moved closer to the fence, still recording.

‘I didn’t know if I could reach over the fence then,’ he said. ‘But I did reach over when the cop got there and he saw what was going on.’

From the road, he aimed his phone over the top of the tall wooden barrier and zoomed in on a kennel wrapped in tarps.

‘After I looked at it, the video and zoomed in, you can see chains and her locked inside there,’ he said.

‘My first thought was to keep recording. That way, nothing can be hearsay. Everything is shown. That’s evidence right there of what’s happening and what’s going on.

‘My thoughts were like hey you got somebody here. It’ll be all right baby, breathe breathe, breathe,’ he said to Criminally Obsessed.

On video, his voice can be heard repeating the same phrase over and over: ‘Help is here. Help is here. Help is here. You’re okay. This ain’t going to happen to you again,’ Anderson told her.

He gently introduced himself to the young woman.

‘It’s okay, sweetie. It is okay. We got you help. All right. What’s your name?’ he recalled asking.

‘I’m Justin. Okay. Okay. It’s going to be okay. Here. Can you see me right here?’

From behind the fence, she answered him.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Anderson said he told her. ‘I’m your neighbor. I’m your neighbor and I’ve heard you so many times. I got you help. Okay. This will never happen again.’

Anderson also asked her how often this had happened.

‘In the video you can hear me asking her, “how many times does this happen?” She says, “a lot.” And I say, “Well, how does it happen a lot or does it happen a few?” And she says, “it happens a lot,”‘ he recalled.

In heartbreaking audio, a woman’s terrified voice can be heard telling Anderson, ‘it happens a lot. A lot. And I’m scared.’

When officers from the Anson Police Department pulled up, they could hear the woman’s screams for themselves.

Police attempted to reach the kennel and secure the scene while Anderson stayed outside the fence, trying to offer comfort as officers worked to free her.

‘Just a few more minutes. It’s okay, sweetie,’ he told her. ‘It is okay. We got you help,’ Anderson reassured her.

Anderson said responding police officers were shocked with what they saw.

‘Pretty much his face said, “it’s go time.” Of course, you can see in his face he was concerned with the yelling and the screaming going on.’

Bodycam and cellphone video captured the officer calling out into the darkness.

‘Hey, what’s going on? Police department,’ the officer can be heard saying in the footage. ‘Okay, I’m with the police department. Okay.’

The officer repositioned his vehicle to the back alley to peer over the fence and get a clearer view of the kennel.

‘And that’s when that five minute video started for that kennel,’ Anderson said.

Inside, barely visible behind tarps, was a young woman who appeared terrified and trapped.

‘She was locked in, in the cold screaming “I got to pee and I’m scared,”‘ Anderson said.

‘The other two kids were inside the home with Candy. But she was outside in a tarped dog kennel all alone.’

The ordeal has left him with a succinct message for others.

‘Keep an extra ear and eye out. If you see something, hear something, say something, obviously, be very mindful and wary. Because once something happens like that, it opens your eyes about how much evil there is out there,’ Anderson told the Daily Mail.

‘We need more caring and loving people, you know. And say if that woman [locked up] did have issues and Candy, couldn’t deal with it, well there’s help out there. She should have got that help instead of locking the kid up in a cage so many times,’ he said.

‘You never, never trust anybody 100 per cent because like just what happened, you never know who your neighbor is,’ he added. ‘Some people have dark sides that are hidden.’

Anson Police Chief Daniel Graziose later confirmed what officers found that night.

‘Officers responded and they located a 22-year-old female locked in the backyard of the residence,’ he said.

‘She was transported to Anson General Hospital for a medical evaluation where she was uh treated for minor injuries and released to a family member.’

He said the woman was not actually chained to the kennel bars but was still effectively locked inside.

‘She wasn’t chained. There was a wire cable keeping the door closed, keeping the door closed so she couldn’t get out,’ Graziose explained.

The chief said the woman’s clothing and the weather only added to the danger.

‘It was cool enough that we needed coats or jackets, but she was not dressed for the weather,’ he said. ‘That was a part of the reason she was sent to the hospital for a medical evaluation.’

As for her condition now, Graziose said she is ‘fine and physically healthy.’

Police say inside the house was Kandice ‘Candy’ Thompson, a woman well known in the community for fostering children and for being married to a former Anson police chief before his death.

Thompson is accused of locking the victim, a disabled adult she adopted as a child,  in the kennel as punishment.

When neighbors confronted her, she allegedly argued that the woman was misbehaving.

According to one account, Thompson told them the young woman was ‘urinating everywhere and tearing her house up.’

Neighbor Marcia Bailey said she was stunned.

‘It’s just amazing what somebody who’s in charge of disabled, mentally challenged girls will do to them, I don’t understand,’ she said.

‘I think it’s a sad situation and I hope that that Candy gets what’s coming to her. I’m a Christian and I know what the Bible says if you harm a child and it’s not good.’

Investigators say Thompson and her late husband had fostered dozens of children over the years.

‘It’s my understanding is that they’ve been doing that for quite some time,’ Chief Graziose said.

‘It’s also my understanding the victim was adopted by the Thompsons when she was two years old. I’ve heard different numbers as far as the number of children that they may have fostered over the [years].’

Chief Graziose praised Anderson’s actions.

‘He’s he absolutely did the right thing. We’re proud of him,’ he said. ‘The one thing I would like to communicate to the community is if you hear something, say something. Him calling us activated numerous programs and resources and ways for us to help.

‘Not only did she get the help she needed immediately by being let out of the kennel and being provided medical aid but it also activated several other resources that will help her in the future.’

The chief emphasized how such a case is not something Anson officers often see.

‘Anson Texas is pretty small town,’ he said. ‘It’s very tight-knit. Good people live here. We don’t see a lot of stuff like this, honestly. Obviously we deal with the same crime that any big city does, but just on a much smaller scale,’ Graziose explained.

‘One of the nice things about the Anson Police Department is we’re small and that we don’t have a detective division.

‘So, the officers that actually helped the victim have had the opportunity to continue working the case and do all the follow-up. They’re making a difference to try and help right now.’

Thompson was arrested the night of the incident and booked into the Jones County Jail.

She faces charges of aggravated kidnapping, injury to a disabled individual, unlawful restraint of a disabled individual, endangering a disabled individual, and assault.

Two other vulnerable adults in her care, a 34-year-old and 27-year-old have also been removed from Thompson’s home.

[H/T Daily Mail]