A twisted version of Candid Camera played out in South Dakota this month as a nursing home worker pleaded guilty to abuse charges after being caught on a hidden camera feed suffocating a wheelchair-bound resident.

The hidden camera was placed by relatives of the victim after several curious injuries aroused suspicions of abuse.

The abuser pleaded guilty to three counts of elder abuse and neglect last week.

The Rapid City Journal elaborated more on the case, including the legality of the hidden video camera:

Sturgis police were alerted to the abuse when relatives Brittany Boyd and Vicki Hullinger decided to place a hidden camera in the woman’s room at the senior care facility. The videos were streamed live online using a commercial “nest” cam and archived so that police could view them.

The alleged abuse happened in the fall of 2015. Brittany Boyd said the camera caught Donald Brown hitting and suffocating the victim on numerous occasions.

“I just felt terrified at what I was seeing,” Boyd said.

Only three states in the United States — Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico — have laws allowing hidden cameras in nursing homes. Although not legal in South Dakota, the video evidence was allowed in this case. It’s the first of its kind to come through Meade County under Krull.

“I don’t know what the nursing home rules are about that, and frankly, don’t really care,” he said. “This is one of those cases you know that this type of thing happens, but you just fear it.”