Claustrophobia, the fear of tight, enclosed
spaces, is one of the most common phobias in the world. Studies have shown that from seven to ten
percent of the world population experiences it – that’s an average of 616,000,000
people. And if you’re one of those people, then
the horrifying ordeal of Colleen Stan, also known as the “Girl In The Box Case”, would
probably be your worst nightmare. Though the story of kidnapping, confinement,
brainwashing, manipulation, and sexual abuse you’re about to hear would be quite literally
anyone’s idea of a living hell. This is the story of the woman who was kidnapped
and forced to live in a coffin-sized box for seven years. Warning: This video is definitely not for
the faint of heart. We’re in Redding, California. The year is 1977. 20-year-old Colleen Stan has spent days hitchhiking
down the Interstate 5 from her home in Eugene, Oregon, to reach a friend’s birthday party
in Northern California. Colleen didn’t know it yet, but she would
never reach that party. It was May 19th - a pleasant but slightly
overcast day. Nothing in the air that day gave Colleen any
indication of the horrors yet to come. Colleen described herself as an experienced
hitchhiker, and she had already turned down two rides before accepting the ride that would
change her life forever. A seemingly-innocent blue van pulled up next
to her, with a friendly-looking young man in the driver’s seat, and his young wife
riding shotgun. In the back seat, the couple’s baby was
fasted safely in its baby chair. To Colleen Stan, these seemed like the least
sketchy people she’d seen all day. This couple were Cameron and Janice Hooker,
a pair of honest, working-class lovebirds from Red Bluff, California. They were a young couple; Cameron was only
23 at the time of their meeting and Janice was 19, even younger than Colleen herself. Seeing these friendly young parents put her
at ease, so she accepted their offer and climbed into the car. The couple drove. What Colleen didn’t know was that she’d
just walked into one of the most dangerous cars in the state, because Cameron Hooker
was a sexually-sadistic psychopath with some truly terrifying fantasies. What’s more, Janice Hooker was ready to
help her twisted husband make those fantasies a reality. For years, Cameron, a lumber worker, had been
physically and sexually abusing his wife with whippings, beatings, electrical shocks, and
even near-drownings. Janice loved Cameron, in spite of the horrific
violence, and wanted to have a baby with him. That’s why this couple from hell made a
dark compromise to keep their marriage afloat. Cameron would let Janice have her baby, if
she allowed him to kidnap a young girl to be his “slave.” On the condition that Janice would never have
penetrative sex with the girl, she agreed to help him find his perfect slave girl. It’s even believed that the couple had previously
been responsible for the disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Marie Elizabeth Spannhake,
whom they’d allegedly imprisoned, tortured, raped, and eventually killed. Little did Colleen Stan know, they had the
exact same fate planned for her. At first, things seemed innocent. There was no immediate aggression, though
Colleen did feel slightly uncomfortable with the way Cameron was looking at her during
the drive. They stopped at a gas station and allowed
Colleen to go get snacks and visit the restroom. It was while she was standing in the restroom
that Colleen felt a strange chill pass over her, and some small part of her told her to
just run, jump out a window, and never turn back. Sadly for Colleen, she didn’t follow that
instinct, and she instead returned to the car to resume her journey to her friend’s
birthday party in Northern California. The peaceful drive didn’t last long. Cameron soon veered off the road and pulled
out a knife that he held up to Colleen’s throat. He told her not to move or scream, or he’d
kill her. He then forced a home-made, twenty-pound wooden
soundproof “head box” onto Colleen Stan and bound her to the chair with the help of
Janice. When she was finally bound in place, they
drove her thirty-one miles back to their home in Red Bluff – stopping once to grab some
fast food during the journey. This was almost three-hundred-and-fifty miles
from her home town of Eugene, Oregon, making it even less likely the police would search
for her there. Back at the Hookers’ Red Bluff home, Colleen
Stan’s seven years of hell would begin. The “head box” she’d been forced to
wear during the drive was tight, confining, blocked out all light, and most of the flow
of fresh air. In hindsight, it was probably this first terrifying
experience that prepared Colleen for the horrors to come. When the Hookers returned home with their
new victim, they wasted no time in dragging Colleen down to the cellar for the first battery
of brutal assaults. She was stripped naked and suspended from
the ceiling by her wrists and tortured by Cameron, who whipped and beat her mercilessly
while Janice watched. It was important for Cameron’s fantasy that
his victims remained silent, and so he threatened Colleen with violence if she made a sound
during the beatings. Janice even alleged that during the previous
murder of Marie Elizabeth Spannhake, Cameron had slashed her vocal chords to keep her quiet,
though this fact was never confirmed. Colleen’s torture continued for several
hours, while the Hookers’ infant daughter sat upstairs, totally unaware of her parents’
monstrous behaviour. Once Cameron had had his fill of violence
for the night, he and Janice had celebratory intercourse right underneath Colleen’s suspended
body. Recounting the incident, Colleen said, “I
was terrified. Janice watched as Cameron tortured me and
then they had sex in front of me. I was convinced they were going to kill me.” But perhaps even worse than this being a reality,
Cameron and Janice had no interest in killing her – they just wanted to dehumanise, objectify,
manipulate, and torture her for years to come. After the Hookers were done with their first
night of sick games, Colleen was chained up and hogtied inside a crate-like box for storage
– the more coffin-like box that made this case famous would come a few years later. Though in many ways, the conditions of this
cramped, sweaty crate were no better, and Colleen was forced to spend twenty-three hours
of the day trapped inside it. The couple would only drag Colleen out of
the box in order to use her in their depraved sex games. While Cameron was clearly the most enthused
in the violence, exactly how much pleasure Janice derived from all this is still unclear
today. It’s extremely possible that Janice was,
in many ways, a victim of Cameron’s violent and manipulative behaviour, too. While it doesn’t excuse the seven years
Janice was complicit in the kidnapping and torture of Colleen Stan, it’s clear that
Cameron Hooker was a master of mind games. Early on in the process, he established a
twisted power structure between himself and Colleen. He conditioned her into silence using the
head box, and straps across her chest that constricted her breathing. When just breathing became a challenge, screaming
started to feel pointless. Cameron had spent some time meticulously constructing
boxes and planning his manipulation tactics in advance. His addiction to violent pornography had given
him plenty of ideas in terms of confinement and control. Cameron selectively starved Colleen over time,
giving her occasional meals of water and potatoes. She was forced to urinate and defecate in
a bed pan. He made sure that Colleen would fear his presence,
and his tortures grew even more painful and elaborate. Colleen was stretched on a medieval-style
rack, and left there for hours. She was then fed water and egg-salad sandwich,
then tortured for being perceived as ungrateful for the meal. This was the routine Cameron established:
Isolation, fear, starvation, one meal a day, and torture. Colleen was beginning to feel like she was
losing her sanity as the days turned to weeks and months. On the outside, nobody suspected a thing. The Hookers’ neighbours always thought of
them as the quiet types (as is often the case with murderers and maniacs), and never even
imagined they’d be doing the things they were doing now. Meanwhile, back in Colleen’s hometown of
Eugene, Oregon, the Stan family had reported Colleen’s disappearance to the local sheriff’s
department, but any attempts at finding her were hopeless. The police thought that Colleen had been kidnapped
or killed by someone in Oregon, not a couple almost four hundred miles away in Red Bluff,
California. Tom Smith, a man who Colleen had impulsively
married at seventeen before breaking it off, was considered a prime suspect. Back in Red Bluff, Colleen was being kept
on the rack for hours at a time, punctuated by occasional torture and sexual assault from
Cameron. It was during this time that Cameron built
the infamous coffin-sized box that would act as Colleen’s prison for years to come, fitted
with a sleeping back, ear plugs, and a rudimentary ventilation system. The box became Colleen’s world – she wasn’t
allowed to bathe, she lost over twenty pounds, she stopped menstruating. Her faith, memories, and will to survive were
the only things keeping her around. Cameron had total physical control over Colleen,
but he wanted total mental and legal control, too. Eight months into her confinement, Cameron
presented the young and terrified Colleen with a “Slave Contract” that appeared
to be legally binding. According to the contract, she forfeited all
rights to freedom and personhood, only going by the name “K” and referring to Cameron
as her master. She was forced to sign the contract under
threat of violence. He also convinced her that he had paid to
register them with a shadowy agency referred to as “The Slave Company”, or just, “The
Company.” Cameron told Colleen that if she ever escaped,
The Company would kill not only her, but her family. Of course, because Colleen was young, disoriented,
and afraid, and Cameron was a charismatic psychopath, she believed him. Over the years of her confinement, torture,
and time in the coffin-sized box under Cameron’s bed, Colleen was moulded into the perfect,
obedient slave – feeling compliance was the only way to secure the safety of herself
and her family. She was forced to do chores around the house
while wearing a slave collar. The level of control Cameron had over Colleen’s
life was truly terrifying. He forced her to go out and get a job, knowing
she was too scared of him to run away. He made her put the barrel of a gun she believed
was loaded down her own throat and pull the trigger, just to show the extent of his power. Years into confinement, he even allowed her
to visit her family – once alone, and once with him as her new “boyfriend.” Cameron had developed such a psychological
strangle-hold on Colleen through literal years of abuse, even without the bindings she was
locked up in his chains. Colleen would say and do nothing, fearing
what The Company would do to her and her loved ones if she rebelled. While her family was suspicious about their
daughter’s new living conditions, they ultimately said nothing, just feeling happy to know she
was alive. After giving Colleen a little freedom for
around a year, it was back in the box. Cameron thought he was invincible. However, what he didn’t account for was
Janice. She may have been afraid of him, but her growing
resentment over his broken promises (Cameron had sworn not to have sex with Colleen, but
had raped her countless times) and guilt over her part in the crimes drove her to action. After consulting with her church, one day
in 1984 she decided enough was enough. On August 9th of that year, seven years after
Colleen’s initial capture, Janice told her the truth: The contract was bogus, and there
had never been a Company. Janice helped Colleen plan her escape from
captivity. She bought a bus ticket out of town with money
sent by her father, and left the next day while Cameron was at work. She called him one last time from the bus
stop and told him she was leaving, and that his lies had no power over her anymore. Cameron cried and begged her to reconsider,
but it was too late. She was gone. Colleen returned to her family and her life,
and with Janice’s testimony – which she gave in return for legal immunity – Cameron
was found guilty of his horrific crimes and sentenced to over one hundred years in prison. Colleen had undergone a fate many people would
consider worse than death, but through sheer willpower, she was able to survive. Though her life since then hasn’t been easy
– the trauma from her ordeal manifested in PTSD and a string of failed marriages – she’s
still made a positive impact, now working as a social worker and a mental health professional. She and Janice both live in California, though
– unsurprisingly – the two do not speak. Cameron had his latest request for parole
denied in 2015, and will be eligible to apply for parole again in 2030. It’s likely he knows a thing or two about
confinement now, too. Thanks for watching this episode of The Infographics
Show! If you want to hear more fascinating True
Crime stories about kidnapping, why not check out “Why 8% Of People Fall In Love With
Their Kidnappers?” and “These People Disappeared And We Still Don’t Know What Happened.” In the meantime, don’t accept any rides
from strangers!
