NC Case Files: A Girl Under The Bed In A Box

Enough, is enough! I want more, you probably want more too, so I'm giving you more! 
Nitecap Case Files is a one on one listener experience, where I tell you a case, you will surely hope to forget. 

First up we have the case of Colleen Stan, a story about a girl, under the bed, in a box. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

911, what is your emergency? I just found a body. I don't know what to do. Government official. You are listening to Nightcap Case Files, a solo storytelling sidecar episode. Be warned, this podcast does contain explicit content along with graphic descriptions of real-life accounts and cases. Listener discretion is definitely advised. Hi guys, Gavin here. I've decided that I couldn't stop with the true crime. So here we are. You and me. That's right. Just you and just me. Don't worry, Susie and Britt will join in when they can. But for now, I'd like to tell you some chilling tales of my own. Tonight I'm gonna tell you about a girl under the bed in a box. The story of Colleen Stan. It all began May 19, 1977. Twenty-year-old Colleen Stan was hitchhiking from her home in Eugene, Oregon, down to Northern California in hopes to surprise her friend for her birthday. Colleen had managed to get herself about an hour away from her destination in Red Bluff, California, when a young family stopped to give her a ride on the side of Highway 136. Colleen stated that she had passed up two different rides, but felt comfortable hitching a ride with these people, because there was a woman and a baby in the blue van. Colleen was a very seasoned hitchhiker. It was the 70s after all, and here a hippie, there a hippie, there's a hippies everywhere. Hitchhiking was a pretty common way for wanderers to get from place to place, up until this particular adventure, and even during her travels to California, Colleen had passed up rides from strangers, if they didn't feel quite right. However, this was a family. The situation seemed rather innocent from first glance. Colleen hopped into the van and was met by her driver, 23-year-old Cameron Hooker, a lumber mill worker, and his 19-year-old wife Janice. Both seemed relatively normal for the moment. The couple would ask Colleen questions like how old she was, where she was headed, who she was meeting. Colleen was apprehensive to ask them any questions. She just wanted to get to her destination in one piece. As they traveled, the couple stopped at a roadside gas station. Colleen went to use the restroom, and while she was in the restroom, she felt what she described as an inner voice, almost godlike, telling her to run and never look back. But Colleen was just trying to get to her destination, and didn't want to ruffle any feathers. Not knowing if she would be able to find another ride, she decided to get back in the car with Cameron and Janice. When she returned to the car, she noticed that there was a strange wooden box with a hole in the bottom. This strange box was not there before she left the restroom. Choosing to ignore it, Colleen continues on with the couple and their baby. As they drove further and further down the highway, Colleen began to feel uneasy. She glanced into the rear view mirror to find Cameron eyeing her from the front seat, studying her, looking her up and down. They eventually ended up stopping in a desolate area where Cameron and Janice told Colleen they were going to go check out an ice cave, and they would get on their way. Colleen recalls not seeing any signs for an ice cave, but chalked it up to these people must know where they're going, and I don't. So she brushed it off. The three got out of the car, but Colleen remained seated. Janice and the baby went down to a little stream just near the road. Suddenly, Cameron swiftly opens the back door and jumps into the back seat with Colleen. Brandishing a large knife, Cameron puts the knife to Colleen's throat. Colleen freezes in a panic. Cameron grabs Colleen's hand and handcuffs her wrists. Colleen can't believe what is happening. After Cameron restrains Colleen, he presses the knife to her throat once more and begins to order her to be compliant. In fear of her life, Colleen agrees to cooperate. Cameron then places a terrifying head constraint, almost gag-like device made of leather, picture like a dog muzzle, but for humans, that cinches up in the back and keeps your chin from moving and opening your mouth, muffling any of her screams. He then lays Colleen down in the back seat. Cameron grabs the box and opens it. The box opens somewhat like a clamshell. The box is lined with padding and carpet, not for comfort, but for silence. He then closes the box around her head. Cameron then unrolls Colleen's sleeping bag and lays it on top of her. Well, because you can't drive around with a woman with a box on her head and not catch some unwanted attention. Janice and the baby get back to the vehicle and they began their drive down the mountain, back to Red Bluff. Several hours later, still in the car and gasping for air, Colleen could faintly hear the sound of passing cars and figured they were back in the city. And this is just the beginning of Colleen's nightmare. Cameron and Janice take Colleen to their home, a small unsuspecting house on a calm street in Red Bluff. Cameron takes the headbox off of Colleen and blindfolds her, escorting her to the back door. They walk through the washroom, through the kitchen, and down a flight of stairs into the basement. Colleen could only make out glimpses of her surroundings from the bottom of the blindfold. Cameron then coaches Colleen onto a riser of some sort, all the while uncuffing one hand at a time, undressing her as he went. He placed the handcuffs with leather wrist restraints connecting each one to eye bolts in the ceiling. Bound by the wrist and completely naked, Cameron pulled the platform Colleen was standing on out from under her, suspending her by her wrists. From out of nowhere comes a loud crack and a searing pain on the flesh of her back. A bull whip. Terrified and in shock, Colleen turns to silent prayer and hopes that something or someone is listening to her pleas for help. But help never came. At some point in the night, Cameron and Janice began having sex below Colleen as she hung from the rafters of the basement. Eventually, Cameron releases Colleen's restraints and places the headbox back onto Colleen's head. If you thought the boxes stopped here, you were wrong. Cameron then put Colleen into another crate, from the neck down, securing her wrists and her feet to hooks inside of the crate. Cameron then left her there, trapped. Trapped inside of not one, but two different boxes. As the night went on, Colleen struggled to breathe inside of the headbox while her wrists ached in pain from the gravity pulling on the restraints. Panicking and praying for relief, morning finally came. Colleen was completely and utterly exhausted from struggling all night. Cameron returned unshackling Colleen from her crude enclosure and removing the headbox. He then moved Colleen to a table where he once again shackled her ankles to each corner. If that wasn't already bad enough, he placed the head box back onto Colleen and left her there. Three hundred miles away, back home in Eugene, Colleen's family and friends began to worry when they discovered that she had not made it to her friend's house for the birthday party. Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months. It was very unlike Colleen to just ghost everyone she knew. Missing persons reports had been filed in every town along the highway headed down California, and no one seemed to know where Colleen was. Colleen's parents decided to take matters into their own hands by retracing her route and to no avail. Questions filled their minds and sadness poured from their hearts as the time dragged on. It was even suspected that Colleen had joined a cult and had purposely become estranged. Meanwhile, back in Red Bluff, time had passed and the abuse and torture continued. Colleen was slipping into an endless cycle of slavery, rape, torture, and manipulation. One of the devices used on Colleen was a body stretching mechanism that would use tension by chain to pull her appendages apart opposing from each other. So tight in fact that her rib cage would be so stretched that she could not inhale. Cameron always controlled the situation. He controlled when Colleen slept, when she ate, when she could use the restroom, and on that note, she wasn't even given access to a bathroom. He had a chair in the basement with a bedpan on the seat. He would sit and watch her as she took care of her business. For the first couple months of Colleen's imprisonment, she learned that in order to survive, she must obey. Cameron was also learning. He was learning what extremes to take in order to keep Colleen in line, using threats like cutting out her voice box if she ever screamed. Colleen would ask Cameron often when he planned on letting her go, and he would always reply, pretty soon. But after a few months of pretty soon, Colleen just stopped asking. Eventually Cameron built a more permanent enclosure to keep Colleen in, under the stairs in the basement. This new small space would become what he called the workshop. In this space was the first time the blindfold was taken off of Colleen's face. The single light bulb hanging in the makeshift enclosure was the first bit of light she had seen in months. She found relief in the light after months of darkness. Cameron would give her a large bag of walnuts and tell her to get to work, and that would be her job for the night, to crack nuts for this psychopath. The manipulation didn't end there. After time, Hooker handed Colleen a piece of paper resembling a contract, telling Colleen that he was a part of a slade trading outfit known as the Company. The contract stated that Colleen was to be his slave for life, that she was never to wear undergarments, preserve her body for his explicit use, and to fulfill his every desire. Colleen asked Hooker if what if I don't sign it? Hooker responded with if you don't sign it, I'll make you wish that you had. At this point, Colleen had been tortured at the hands of Hooker for at least nine months. She knew what he meant, and she was sure he meant it, so she signed it. He assigned her a slave name, Kay Powers. Her servitude to Hooker allowed for new freedoms. She was allowed to go upstairs and do chores for Cameron and Janice. However, there were new rules as well. Colleen was never to look Hooker in the face or the eyes, to only look down and only speak when spoken to. She was forced to address him as sir or master. If she was ever to cross him or disobey his orders, he would unleash his wrath upon her. Hooker used the company to keep her in compliance. He threatened that if she ever ran away, the company would hunt her down, stake her hands to a ceiling beam, and leave her there until she understood her place, and that they would stop at nothing. The Hookers also used Colleen's family as pawns in their scheme, threatening that if she ever left they would hurt or kill Colleen's entire family. In the beginning, Cameron would not have penetrative sex with Colleen, stating that it was a breach of their contract and that sex was reserved for his wife, but this didn't last long. He began raping her vaginally and analyzed with objects. The situation would also evolve with time. Cameron and Janice came to an agreement that Cameron could use Colleen as a sex slave as long as Cameron provided Janice with another child. I'm going to leave the rest of that to your own devices. Eventually the hookers would move to a mobile home in Red Bluff, with Colleen in tow. With the absence of a basement, Cameron had to come up with a new space to keep Colleen. As if things couldn't have gotten any worse for poor Colleen, she found herself spending years in the space underneath Cameron and Janice's waterbed. To curb any further consequences and punishment, Colleen complied with Cameron's every command, eventually earning her way into allowances like jogging, yard work, and caring for the hooker's children. Even with the front door unlocked, the family phone plain in sight, and neighbors right next door, Colleen made no attempt at an escape in fear of the company. Four years into her ordeal, Cameron allowed Colleen to visit her family on her own. Imagine her family's shock when she ended up on their front door after four years of nothing. During her visit, Colleen didn't mention one single thing about her current situation. Her family assumed perhaps she was part of a cult because of how she was dressed in homemade clothes, her lack of money, and the sheer lack of communication over the last four years. Her family was afraid to ask too many questions or pressure her into staying in fear that she would run away and never come back. The next day, Colleen returned to the family home with Cameron posing as her boyfriend. They even captured a photo of Colleen and Cameron, happily smiling together. Colleen draped over Cameron's shoulder. Cameron and Colleen headed back to California where she was once again locked in the box under the bed. Afraid he had given his slave too much freedom, she remained in there for twenty three hours a day for the next three years. The only thing she had in that confined space underneath the bed was a bedpan and her thoughts. Cameron and Janice kept their secret by convincing their children that Kay had gone home every night. However, this was far from the truth. Cameron would drag Colleen out from under the bed at night to rape and torture her, then force her back under the bed. In the box. She was to remain silent and motionless during her confinement. The summer months were relentless, with little air to breathe and the confined space under the bed reaching temperatures over a hundred degrees. It is shocking that Colleen was even able to survive. Colleen had wasted away surviving only on scraps of food for years. Imagine. In 1983, Hooker reintroduced Colleen to his children and neighbors. She was also allowed to go out and get a job. She landed a job at a local motel as a maid. At this time, Hooker wanted Colleen to become his second wife, which ruffled Janice's feathers quite a bit. By 1984, Janice had reached her tipping point, fed up with Cameron and his bullshit, decided to inform Colleen that the company did not exist, and that everything she had been told was a lie. Colleen left the Hooker's home for the last time. She went to a local bus station, called Cameron at work from a payphone, and told him she was leaving and never coming back. Cameron responded to Colleen bellowing in tears. Poor fucking Cameron Hooker. Boohoo. Colleen busted home and began her road to recovery from her experience. In the months after Colleen returned home, she never called the police. She would later tell the court that she wanted to give Cameron the chance to reform. Three months later, it wasn't Colleen that would turn Cameron into the police, it was Janice. During Janice's conversation with police, she informed Lieutenant Jerry Brown of the Red Bluff Police Department that Cameron had kidnapped, tortured, and murdered Marie Elizabeth Spanhake, who was last seen in Chico, California January 31, 1976. Unfortunately, no charges were brought up at the time due to the fact that they never located her remains and there was a huge lack of physical evidence. Cameron testified on his own behalf, admitting to kidnapping Colleen and keeping her in a box as well as engaging in some bondage acts with her. He insisted that Colleen consented to all the charged sex acts put against him. He also stated in court that Colleen could have left whenever she wanted and that she stayed because she loved him. He acknowledged lying to Colleen about the company but had rescinded their contract. Cameron's trial began in 1985. Janice, of course, testified against Cameron in exchange for full immunity. The jury found Hooker guilty of kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, forcible oral copulation, penetration with a foreign object, forcible sodomy, and six counts of rape. Hooker was sentenced to a total of 104 years in state prison. He was originally denied parole and was deemed ineligible for parole until 2023. However, due to COVID, California officials recently contacted Colleen advising her that they were looking into the possibility of giving Hooker parole March of 2021. But thankfully, there are some very dedicated people trying to make sure that doesn't happen. District Attorney Matt Rogers has begun a campaign to have Hooker evaluated as a sexually violent predator, would mean he doesn't just get to walk out of prison a free man. For now, Hooker will be moved to a locked state hospital where he will have to complete a very involved treatment program that could potentially take years to complete to even be considered for release. As for Colleen, she is now 65 years old. She lives in California, and after the trial, she studied for an accounting degree. Colleen also joined and volunteered for Reading's Women's Refuge Center, an organization built to help abused women. And that's the case of Colleen Stan, the girl in the box under the bed. Thanks for listening. I hope you guys hated every second of that story. If you like what you hear, please like, share, and subscribe to Nightcap True Crime on all platforms Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, you name it. If you'd like to recommend a case or would like to give us feedback, please check out our website at nightcaptruecrime.com or email us at nightcaptruecrime at gmail.com. Tune in again for some more True Crime Mayhem.