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TOP JOBS

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

NEWS ALERT: Henderson County Sheriff officials have confirmed Joshua James Cannon has been charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in the case. He was arraigned on each of these new charges this morning and bond was set at $50,000 for each charge.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: It is the policy of the Tyler Morning Telegraph to not name the victims of sexual assault to protect their identities and encourage the reporting of such crimes.

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GUN BARREL CITY - Sitting in her home holding a puppy in her lap, the battered and bruised woman described being beaten, kidnapped and then thrown down an abandoned concrete well - a dank, cold place she prayed would not become her grave.

The 63-year-old spent 16 hours in the well. Her body in pain from the beating and the 20-foot plus fall into the well, she continued to pray that God would send rescuers to find her.

"I just kept praying over and over. I was cold and was trying to stay warm and keep from shivering because it hurt so badly," she told the Tyler Morning Telegraph Tuesday. Her alleged attacker, an 18-year-old sex offender, who registered with the Henderson County Sheriff's Office last week, remains locked behind bars in the county jail.

The woman rests with her family protecting her and watching every car that goes by her home. Her swollen, purple face shows the brutality of the attack and her soft voice filled with emotion defines the fear she still feels.

The woman said the ordeal began shortly after she arrived home from work early Friday morning.

"I got home a few minutes after midnight and was making some coffee when I heard a knock at the door," she said.

The woman said she went to the door and saw a "well-cut" young man standing outside asking to use her telephone.

"He said his truck had broken down and asked if he could use the phone. I handed him the phone and he made a call, but got an answering machine," she said.

She thought the man left, but then he knocked on the door again. When she went to the door the second time and opened it, she said the man, Joshua James Cannon, was holding a rifle.

"I tried to shut the door, but he grabbed it and ripped it from my hands. I ran toward the front door, but he caught me and hit me with the butt of the gun which knocked me to the floor," she said.

As she tried to escape, the man continually asked if she had a debit card while beating her.

"He took my purse and just kept asking if I had an ATM card. I just asked him to take the purse and leave but he wouldn't leave me. I begged and begged to stay here, but he wouldn't let me," she said.

Despite her injuries, Cannon allegedly grabbed the woman up off the floor and forced her outside to her car.

"He pushed me in the car and told me if I tried to jump out that he would kill me. I didn't know what to do," she said.

The woman said Cannon kept saying the ordeal was some type of gang-related initiation and that he was being watched, but she never saw anyone.

As he drove around the area where she lived, they passed her son's home at least twice.

Crying and clutching the puppy closer, she said she kept praying and that was all she could do.

She described passing her son's home and thinking he was in there asleep. She wondered if she would see him or any of her family ever again.

"I just kept thinking of something to do, but I couldn't," she said. "I just kept thinking 'Oh God.'"

Less than two miles from her house was a path into a wooded area where the concrete well stands -- a well with a narrow top protruding from the earth about three feet and the base ballooning out into a cistern 20 feet below.

To the woman's horror, the man she says beat her and kidnapped her pulled her down the little path.

The woman again cried as she told how Cannon pulled her out of the car and walked up an embankment through the woods to the well.

"We stopped at the well and he told me I had three choices. He could strangle me, shoot me, or push me into the well and leave me," she said.

No sooner had he given her the choices than she began tumbling into the well, her body hitting the concrete sides, then splashing into the water.

"I don't remember how I fell, but I remember being scared and cold. I don't know why he left but soon he was gone," she said.

As the woman fought shock, hallucinations and the cold for hours on end, her family began looking for her after hearing a voicemail from the Seagoville Police Department on her cell phone.

The woman's daughter said she had gone by her mother's home and saw a chair out of place and thought it was odd her mother was not home.

However, it would be several hours before the daughter went back to the home and saw her mother's cell phone sitting on a table with the message about her car.

Henderson County Sheriff's Lt. Pat McWilliams said the Seagoville police had pulled the vehicle over with Cannon driving around a 15-year-old juvenile.

The police impounded the car, but let the two youths go pending an investigation.

"When I heard about the car and thought about the house I knew mom was missing and we began looking for her immediately," the daughter said. She then called the sheriff's department to report a possible abduction.

Down in the well, the victim said she continued praying her family would find her.

While family members and friends began searching the area, the woman's grandson was sent to check the well to rule it out as a possibility.

The woman's son and family members in the past had ridden 4-wheelers in the area and knew the well was there.

"I don't know why my brother thought to look there, but he sent my nephew and he found his grandmother down in the well," the victim's daughter said.

The victim said at first she thought she was dreaming that her grandson was looking down at her, but then other family members and neighbors began gathering around the well.

"I heard him saying grandma and I just started crying and thanking God. I knew that God had saved me," she said.

But it would take firefighters with the Gun Barrel City Fire Department to safely retrieve her from what had been her prison for a day.

The victim's daughter said firefighters originally tried a ladder, but it didn't work so they lowered a firefighter down to help the beaten woman out.

"Seeing (the firefighter) I thought he just looked good," she said.

Up on the surface, EMS personnel quickly went to work in securing her for transport to Tyler, where she was treated for a broken nose, dehydration and multiple bruises.

The victim said for now she will stay in her home with her family watching her closely, but she does not know her future plans. Relatives said the area where the woman lives is plagued with crime.

"I don't want to move, but then I don't want to be alone right now," she said. "I hope that (Cannon) gets the punishment he deserves."

Cannon was initially charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon, and was being held in the Henderson County Jail on bonds totaling $17,500.and faces possible kidnapping and aggravated assault charges.

Henderson County Sheriff officials confirmed this morning that Joshua James Cannon has also been charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in the case. He was arraigned on each of the new charges this morning and bond was set at $50,000 for each charge, bringing the total bonds to $167,500.

"The investigation is continuing so we don't know all the charges the investigators will charge him with," McWilliams said.

He added the second juvenile in the car when stopped by police was not charged and was believed to have been picked up by the suspect after the victim was thrown into the well.

Records indicate Cannon was sent to the Texas Youth Commission for molesting a 5-year-old girl when he was a juvenile.

"He just registered with our department as a sex offender last Wednesday," McWilliams said.

Looking at her daughter and then her sister-in-law, the woman forced a small smile on her purple and black face and said, "God let me know with this that miracles do happen."

Updated Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 11:50 a.m. CDT