Harrowing true story of woman trapped in a box under couple’s bed for seven years
A woman was subjected to years of torture and abuse after a couple kidnapped her, which saw her be kept inside a box for a staggering seven years.
In 1977, a then 20-year-old Colleen Stan was hitchhiking in Oregon and had hopes of making her way to California.
She was then picked up by a seemingly-innocent couple who ended up keeping her captive for almost a decade.
After turning down two offers for a ride, Colleen was picked up by Cameron and Janice Hooker as she felt 'confident' she'd be safe with the couple.
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They had a child with them at the time, which is what Colleen later said to be the reason she thought they weren't a danger to her.
But Colleen never made it to California. Instead, the Hookers pulled over in a secluded wood and placed a 'head box' on the young woman.
Cameron, a sexual sadist, raped Colleen and went on to subject her to years of abuse.
As well as a self-constructed head box for Colleen, Cameron also built her a coffin which she was reportedly forced to stay in for 23 hours a day.
Every night the coffin was pushed under the couple's bed and she was kept as Cameron's sex slave.
He gave Colleen a new name of 'K'. He'd told her at the time of her captivity, as per CBS News: "I'm in control and Colleen no longer exists. You are now K. You are my slave."
Colleen's abuser also penned up a contract that she was forced to sign which 'basically said that he owned me body and soul'.
Three and a half years into her imprisonment and Colleen was allowed to visit her family and stay for the night.
But she didn't tell them of the abuse she was suffering at the hands of Cameron, who had posed as her boyfriend.
Apparently the sadist had threatened to have her parents killed if she said anything about what was going on, and Colleen believed him so she didn't utter a word to her family.
Cameron distilled this fear into Colleen by making up something he called 'The Company' - a mysterious organization that would supposedly harm her loved ones if she spoke out.
Colleen's family feared she'd joined a cult, but what she was actually experiencing was much worse.
She went back with Cameron the next day and was his prisoner for another three and a half years.
In the end it was Cameron's wife Janice who helped the young woman escape.
Janice revealed to Colleen that 'The Company' was a lie and that if she were to flee, no one would come after her or her family.
She got to a bus station to catch a bus home and called Cameron to tell him that she was leaving her.
In exchange for helping her escape, Janice asked that Colleen called her husband on a daily basis in the hopes that it might reform him. But it didn't, and three months after Colleen left Janice reported Cameron to the police.
As well as sharing what he'd done to Colleen, she claimed that Cameron had also kidnapped, tortured, and murdered Marie Elizabeth Spannhake.
While Cameron, now 70, wasn't charged for her death as no body was found in connection to Marie's disappearance, he went on to be convicted by a jury of kidnapping, oral copulation, rape with a foreign object, sodomy and six counts of rape in relation to the abuse Colleen was subjected to.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org
Topics: Domestic Abuse, News, US News, Crime, True crime
Niamh Shackleton