A young woman leaves her home in an attempt to go to her friend’s birthday party. It was years before she was ever seen again.
Colleen Stan was born on December 31st, 1956, in Eugene, Oregon. While she resided there in 1977, when she was 20 years old, her family had moved to Riverside, California.
In May of 1977, Colleen decided that she wanted to go to her friend’s birthday party in Westwood, California. When Colleen tried to start her car, she found that it wouldn’t turn over. Undeterred, Colleen did as she’d done many times before. She began hitchhiking.
Colleen was a very experienced hitchhiker, and was savvy enough to refuse rides from a car full of young men, as well as other drivers and vehicles that gave her a bad feeling. When a blue van came around and offered her a lift, she felt comfortable. A man was driving, and young woman was in the passenger seat, holding a baby. Colleen did not waste any time accepting the ride from the young family.
The driver of the car was 23-year-old Cameron Hooker, and his wife, 19-year-old Janice, was in the passenger seat. Janice was cradling their 8-month-old daughter to her. Colleen didn’t hesitate when she hopped into the back seat. However, it didn’t take long for her to feel that something was off. She noticed that Hooker was watching her intently, staring at her in the rearview mirror for long, excruciating seconds.
When they stopped at a rest stop, Colleen got out of the van, and used the washroom. It did not occur to her at the time to cut and run. Instead, she went back to the van, got back in the backseat, and thanked the couple, once again, for giving her a ride. She noticed a strange box sitting on the seat beside her. Shortly after that, Hooker veered off the road into an isolated area. Hooker got out of the car slowly, followed by Janice, who was holding the baby. Janice wandered away, but Colleen couldn’t see where Hooker had gone.
Hooker jumped into the backseat, and held Colleen at knifepoint. Startled, she did as he instructed, and held still. Hooker opened the wooden box, and Colleen saw that it was carpeted inside. He then blindfolded her, and placed the box over her head, latching it closed. He then handcuffed her hands behind her back, and had her lie down across the backseat. Colleen couldn’t see, or hear anything. The box weighed close to 20 pounds.
Janice returned to the car soon after, and Hooker began driving them to their house in Red Bluff, California. They had come to an agreement before kidnapping Colleen. Hooker would search for a young woman to take, and to control. This young woman would take Janice’s place, while Hooker acted out his sadistic fantasies. However, Janice had one rule – Hooker was not to have sex with the woman they would take.
They found Colleen Stan hitchhiking, and put their plan into action. She would remain imprisoned with them for seven years following her kidnapping.
Cameron Hooker met Janice when he was 19, and she was 15. Janice grew up in a very religious, sheltered atmosphere. And Hooker was charming. Allegedly, after a very brief conversation with her father, Hooker was allowed to take Janice out on a date. While on that date, Hooker manipulated her, and coerced her to expose herself to him.
Despite this, Janice was charmed, and the couple married when Janice graduated high school. For the entirety of their relationship, Janice was prey to Hooker’s increasingly sadistic fantasies. With Colleen in the backseat of the van, Janice was relieved. Hooker’s attentions could now focus elsewhere, and she could raise their young daughter.
When they arrived at the Hooker home in Red Bluff, California, Hooker somehow got Colleen out of the car, sight unseen. He took her down to the basement, stripped her, stood her on an ice chest. Then, he suspended her arms above her head, hooking them into a rafter in the ceiling. After that, he pulled the ice chest out from under he feet, and left her hanging there. Then, the torture began.
(Note – I will not discuss any of the horrendous things that Hooker subjected Colleen to. There are many other accounts of his actions, but I refuse to outline his actions here.)
After Hooker finished with Colleen, he beckoned for Janice. When she arrived, the couple had sex on the floor, Colleen hanging limp above them.
When they were done, Hooker took Colleen down, and guided her to what she has described as a ‘plywood coffin’. He hooked her hands to the sides of the crate, and then cuffed her feet as well. She could not lie down. She had to sit slightly up in the box, bound by chains. The box on her head remained while she was placed in the box.
Weeks after Colleen disappeared, her housemates in Oregon decided to call her family in Riverside. Colleen still wasn’t home, and hadn’t made contact with any of them. They figured that she may have decided to visit her family in Riverside after attending the birthday party in Westwood. Colleen’s family grew concerned. They told her housemates that she hasn’t visited them at all. In fact, they hadn’t heard from her in weeks.
Colleen’s family immediately began driving from Riverside to Westwood. Along the way, they stopped at every small town police station and Sheriff’s office in order to report Colleen missing. They were certain that someone must have seen her. This, however, produced no leads.
Colleen’s family began fearing the worst – they believed that she was either dead, or that she’d joined a cult.
Little did they know that Colleen was being kept in a wooden box for up to 23 hours a day, only being let out for brief periods of time when Hooker needed to pay special attention to her. In January of 1978, Hooker told Colleen that they needed to have a very special talk.
Hooker began telling Colleen about ‘The Company’. ‘The Company’ was always watching them, he said. They were an organization that Hooker belonged to. They were watching, and also ensuring that good men like him had good ‘slaves’, like her. Then, he showed her a ‘contract’ that he had drawn up. (In reality, he pulled the really, really terribly worded contract out of a magazine.) Hooker told Colleen that she had to sign the contract, and now be known only as ‘K’, in order to keep ‘The Company’ happy. Hooker outlined all of the terrible things that could happen to her – happen to her family – if she disobeyed. Colleen signed. Hooker also signed, using the obnoxious moniker of ‘Michael Power’.
Once the contract was signed, Colleen now had to follow new rules. She was to be used however, and whenever, Hooker and Janice pleased. Colleen was to refer to them as ‘Master’ and ‘Ma’am’. She would only be referred to as ‘K’. She would also now be subject to Hooker’s domination. Hooker, despite his wife’s protests and reminders of their earlier deal, began assaulting and raping Colleen regularly.
After Colleen signed the contract, the family moved from the house to a mobile home, still in Red Bluff. As the mobile home didn’t have a basement, Colleen was kept in a coffin-like wooden box that Hooker had built under his and Janice’s waterbed. Exerting total control over Colleen, Hooker forced her to crawl inside the box.
Every day, she crawled in, and every day she saw her purse propped up under the bed. She never knew why they had kept her purse. But that wasn’t all she noticed. Colleen also noticed the photo of a young woman, propped up against her purse.
Every single day, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, Hooker instilled the fear of ‘The Company’ into Colleen. Colleen held fast to her faith in God for survival. A voice inside her heart told her that if she listened – if she pretended to be what Hooker wanted her to be, her ‘punishments’ would not be so severe. If she pretended, for a time, to be ‘K’, she could survive this.
The voice was right. Over time, Colleen ‘earned privileges’. She was allowed to clean the home, and care for the family’s children. Janice needed more assistance around the house, now that she’d given birth to a second child. Colleen obeyed, and was allowed to tend to the garden, and jog around the block.
And yet, she was still terrified of ‘The Company’. She was convinced they were watching her, watching her family, and that they would act if she fell out of line. Hooker always promised Colleen that if they deemed her unfit for him, they could take her away – place her with someone who ‘wasn’t as nice’ as he was. Colleen believed him.
In December of 1980, Hooker allowed Colleen to call her family, as a Christmas present for her good behaviour. Colleen’s sister described the call as being quick. Colleen was aloof; vague. She reassured her sister that she was safe, but that she didn’t have a lot of time. This only instilled in her family the belief that Colleen had joined a cult. They wanted to push, but they didn’t. They feared pushing Colleen for information would only push her away.
Colleen’s resolve was reinvigorated. She just had to get through this. Her family knew she was safe, and that was what mattered to her. She continued to live as ‘K’, and to obey every single one of Hooker’s demands.
Hooker was so convinced of his control over Colleen, that he surprised her. They would go visit her family, he said. But there were conditions. ‘The Company’ would be watching, he said, and she could not utter a word to her family. ‘The Company’ was allowing the visit as a reward. So long as Colleen introduced Hooker as her fiancé. Colleen readily agreed.
In March of 1981, they drove to Riverside, California, where Colleen saw her family for the first time in four years. Colleen’s clothes were homemade, and she appeared frail, and far too skinny. But they were ecstatic to see her. They were not fans of Hooker. They found him domineering. There was something off about him. But they kept their concerns quiet – they didn’t want to run Colleen off. Her family took a photo of the two of them together. That photo continues to haunt Colleen and her family to this day.
When Colleen and her captor returned to Red Bluff, Hooker feared that Colleen had been granted too many freedoms. He began locking her in the box under the bed again, for upwards of 23 hours a day. She had very little food or water. She was given a bedpan. Once again, she was left in sensory deprivation, nearly stared, dehydrated, and only taken out of the box to suffer Hooker’s cruel attentions.
In 1983, Colleen was allowed out of the wooden box for longer lengths of time again. She was reintroduced to the children, who’d been told that Colleen had gone away to go back home, and the neighbours were glad to see Colleen tending the garden again. Colleen was also allowed to get a job as a maid at a local motel. Hooker, of course, took all of her earnings.
Colleen had also been helping Hooker with another project. She’d helped him erect a shed in the yard of the mobile home, where he subjected Colleen to his awful attentions in private. He wanted to expand the shed, he told her. He wanted to capture more slaves. It was on orders of ‘The Company’. Colleen obeyed.
When Hooker told Janice of his plans to take Colleen as a second wife, and capture more slaves for his own personal pleasures, Janice snapped.
Janice and Colleen had begin building a reluctant kind of friendship when Janice began attending a local church. The two women would often discuss God, scripture, and the Bible. Janice even took Colleen to church with her. Hooker’s desires were not meshing with Janice’s newfound faith.
Janice approached Colleen while she was at work at the motel one day in August of 1984, and she confessed. She told Colleen everything – that she had been engaging in compartmentalization techniques in order to survive Hooker’s torture. She was glad when his attention was being drawn away from her. But enough was enough. Janice wanted Colleen to leave.
When Colleen protested that she couldn’t; that ‘The Company’ was always watching, Janice told her the truth. Hooker had made it all up to ensure Colleen’s absolute obedience. Colleen couldn’t believe it at first. But then something inside her snapped. That voice that had told her to keep her faith, and remain strong told her that this was her chance. She could leave. Janice gave her money for a bus ticket.
At the bus station, Colleen placed two calls. She called her family, and told them she was coming home. Then, she called Hooker and told him she was leaving. According to Colleen, Hooker burst into tears, and begged her to stay. Shockingly, he didn’t try to stop her leaving.
Colleen never spoke a word of her ordeal to her family. They knew that she’d gone through something horrific, but she never discussed it. Hooker called her continuously at her family home. Janice begged Colleen to give him a chance. Janice was certain that if he found faith as she had, he could change.
Janice was wrong. If Hooker couldn’t have Colleen, he could take someone else. Janice feared the worst, and told her pastor about everything that Hooker had done. She also told him about the murder of Marie Elizabeth Spannhake.
Janice told her pastor that in 1976, a year before Colleen’s kidnapping, Hooker had taken Marie. She had been reported missing on January 31st, 1976. Hooker abducted her, tortured her, and murdered her.
Upon hearing all of this, Janice’s pastor encouraged her to inform the police. She did. She even told them that she could lead them to her body. However, law enforcement have never been able to locate her body. Technically, her case remains unsolved, despite Janice’s confession.
When Colleen was contacted by police, and informed that Janice had come forward, Colleen was shocked. The photo they showed her of Marie was the same photo that she had seen propped up against her purse every day that she had been forced to crawl into the box under Hooker’s bed.
On November 18th, 1984, Cameron Hooker was arrested. When news of the arrest, and the events surrounding it, came to light, Colleen became internationally infamous as ‘The Girl in the Box’.
Janice was granted complete immunity for giving her testimony at trial. Colleen was also subject to brutal re-living and cross-examination upon giving her own testimony.
In the end, Cameron Hooker was found guilty of kidnapping, and various sexual assault charges in 1985. He was sentenced to a total of 104 years in prison, serving multiple sentences consecutively.
Hooker was originally not eligible for parole until 2023. However, the hearing was moved up by California’s Elderly Parole Program in 2015. His application for parole was denied, and another hearing set for 2030. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Colleen was alerted by California officials that there was a possibility of Cameron Hooker being granted parole in March 2021.
As of this writing, the fight to keep Cameron Hooker behind bars is still ongoing.
As a result of the long years Colleen spent in captivity, she now suffers from chronic back and shoulder pain. Once her ordeal was made public, Colleen received extensive therapy. She is now part of an organization that assists women in abusive situations. She also earned her accounting degree, married, and had a daughter.
Both Colleen and Janice remain in California, and have changed their names. Janice fell into obscurity following her husband’s trial. She filed for divorce, and moved away from Red bluff. Understandably, the two women are not in contact with each other.
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Sources:
Colleen Stan Was Kidnapped and Kept in a Box for 7 Years – Adam Janos – A&E TV
Clinging to Cameron Hooker: Northstate survivor pushing to keep her captor behind bars – Colton Chavez – KRCR
18 Disturbing Details About Colleen Stan, The Girl In The Box – Cat McAuliffe – Ranker
The Horrifying Story of Colleen Stan, “The Girl In The Box” – Kara Goldfarb – All That’s Interesting
Redhanded Podcast – Episode 23 – The Girl in the Box: Colleen Stan
Kidnapping of Colleen Stan Wikipedia page