The Girl in the Box: The Kidnapping of Colleen Stan (Crime Documentary)

  • 5 years ago
"Colleen J. Stan (born December 31, 1956) is an American woman who was kidnapped and held as a sex slave by Cameron and Janice Hooker in their Red Bluff, California home for over seven years between 1977 and 1984. At the trial of her abductor, Stan's experience was described as unparalleled in FBI history.

On May 19, 1977, Colleen Stan was hitchhiking from her home in Eugene, Oregon to a friend's home in northern California, where she was heading to attend a birthday party. Cameron Hooker (born November 5, 1953) kidnapped the then-20-year-old Stan after picking her up. Stan stated that she was an experienced hitchhiker and had allowed two rides to go past before accepting the ride with Hooker. She reportedly ""felt confident climbing into the blue van"", because Hooker's wife, Janice, and their baby were in the car. When they stopped at a gas station along the way, Stan went to use the restroom. ""A voice told me to run and jump out a window and never look back,"" she recalled, but she calmed her fears and went back to the car. According to Stan and Janice Hooker's testimonies, once they were alone in an isolated area, Hooker pulled off the highway and put a knife to Stan's throat. She was subsequently locked in a wooden headbox which was designed to prevent light, sound and fresh air from entering.

Before this, Cameron and Janice had reached an agreement that he could capture a slave to take Janice's place, because up until that time Cameron had been using Janice to act out sexual bondage. There was to be no penetrative sex with Stan according to the agreement, but this later changed. On the first night of her kidnapping, Stan was strung up by her hands and physically attacked by Cameron, being left blindfolded and suspended while the pair had sex below her.

After her kidnapping, Stan stated that she was tortured and kept locked in a box 23 hours a day until she was given a contract and forced to sign herself into slavery for life in January 1978. She further stated that Cameron led her to believe that she was being watched by a large, powerful organization called ""The Company"" which would painfully torture her and harm her family if she tried to escape. Stan subsequently became a slave, referred to as ""K"" (not the name ""Kay"" but the letter), forced to call Cameron ""Master"", and was not allowed to talk without permission. Cameron reportedly wanted Stan to be like the female character in the 1954 French erotic novel, Story of O and soon started raping her, which consisted of oral rape. Cameron did not want to have vaginal sex with Stan because he considered that to be a breach in his agreement with his wife. Instead, he raped her vaginally and anally with implements. Following this, the Hooker family moved to a mobile home in Red Bluff with Stan, where she was kept locked in wooden boxes under the couple's water bed. In 1978, Janice gave birth to a second child on the waterbed above Stan.

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