CHANDLER, Texas – Officers in the small East Texas town of Chandler say they've found an emaciated mentally disabled man locked in a filthy room.
Henderson County Sheriff's Detective Wick Gabbard says the man's family told officers that they kept him confined so "he wouldn't steal their food."
The man was found clad in an adult diaper hanging to his knees. Gabbard says that when he was freed from the room, he ran to the kitchen and tried to eat frozen bacon and a TV dinner through the box.
Chandler police were on a routine warrant search Wednesday looking for a different man wanted on felony theft charges. A search of the house found a door locked from the outside.
The man locked in the room appeared to be in his 40s. Eighteen-year-old Alyssia Johnson was arrested on a charge of injury to an elderly person. Her 19-year-old boyfriend, Curtis Durham, was arrested on a charge of failing to report a felony.
The man police originally sought, Roy Johnson, and wife Lea Johnson are wanted on felony warrants stemming from the incident.
Chandler is about 80 miles east of Dallas.
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