A true crime drama based on chilling real-life events, called The Girl in the Box, is due to air this month in the UK on Paramount+, with some branding it the most terrifying film of the year .
For Colleen Stan, the decision to hitchhike from California to a friend s birthday party in Eugene, Oregon in May 1977 proved to be a fateful one: A couple that picked her up abducted her, raped and tortured her, and held her captive for seven years before she escaped. So, where is she now?
Oxygen special Snapped Notorious: Girl In The Box. She describes how she thought Janice and Cameron Hooker, the young couple that offered her a ride, seemed like a safe option because they had their baby in the car with them. But once she was in the vehicle, Cameron attacked Stan and forced a handmade contraption, a head box, on her. The box weighed about 20 pounds and plunged Stan into a world of heavy, hot darkness.
She never made it to the party.
Stan accepted a ride from a young couple, Cameron and Janice Hooker, who had their baby in tow. It seemed safe, Stan told Snapped Notorious: Girl In The Box, an
Oxygen special about her horrifying story. However, once she was in the car, Cameron Hooker attacked her and place her in a head box, a contraption he designed himself that weighed about 20 pounds and left Stan unable to see or move.
Over the next seven years, Stan lived through a waking nightmare. Cameron held her captive and often kept her in a wooden, coffin-like structure. She was beaten, whipped, raped, and tortured. Eventually, Cameron forced her to sign a contract agreeing to be his slave, telling her he had the backing of a mysterious organization he called The Company. He said The Company would go after Stan and her family if she tried to run. Ultimately, Stan was able to escape when Janice Hooker finally told her The Company was made up.