Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / VICTIM TRAPPED IN STORAGE CONTAINER, BOUND, ABUSED BY BIBLE GROUP FLUNKY

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VICTIM TRAPPED IN STORAGE CONTAINER, BOUND, ABUSED BY BIBLE GROUP FLUNKY · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: She is trapped inside a storage container, bound hands and feet,
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: abused by a Bible group flunky, and she lives to
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: tell the tale, and she joins us tonight. I'm Nancy Grace.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: being with us.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Samantha was a well liked college student with a steady job,
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: close friends, and a future wide open until a chance
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: encounter on campus sets off a chilling chain of events.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Her life just starting friendly, outgoing, polite, and caring. She
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: befriended an awkward acquaintance. She'll probably never do that again.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: First, I think he's just lonely for some reason, finds
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: me an approachable person to talk to, and then at
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: some point.
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: It changes.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: That was from stalking Samantha.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Thirteen years of Terror streaming now on Hulu and Hulu
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: on Disney. Joining me right now, Samantha, Samantha stites, joining us, Samantha,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: thank you for being with us.
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: Thanks for having me, Samantha.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: How difficult is it for you to talk about what
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: happened and relive it?
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: I think having significant therapy, you know, the last few years,
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: it's not as difficult as one might think. For me
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: to kind of discuss my experience at this point.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Tell me about you befriending the guy that turned out
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: to be your stalker. What led you to befriend him?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I would have done the same thing.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: I think the word befriend is maybe a bit strong.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't ever say we were actual friends. I think
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: it was an acquaintance at best, and he was someone
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: I was, you know, friendly too. He was awkward, you know,
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: I introduced myself at this sort of group setting at
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: this Christian organization, and it kind of spiraled from there.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: I mean he quickly became obsessed with me and stalked
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: me for years.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Also, you enter into a Christian Bible group thinking you
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: would make like minded people, like we all do when
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: we enter into like Sunday School or NYF that is
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Youth Fellowship or you know, Family Night Suppers. Was there
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: a red flag at all?
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Not initially. I mean, he was an awkward person. I
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: don't know that that in itself is a red flag.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: There was nothing that really indicated to me that he
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: was potentially dangerous or that I ever could have seen
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: this coming, even when he began stalking me.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: When you say he was awkward, what do you mean by.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: That he had difficulty carrying on conversation in groups. He
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: would ask some basic questions, but he was just kind
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: of shy, you know. He wouldn't make a lot of
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: eye contact. He'd sort of look down. He didn't really
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: have too many close friends from what I could see.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: M And that's just this kind of person that I
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: would reach out to in a group to try to
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: make them more comfortable and engaging. I guess I would
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: feel a little bit sorry for them, want to help
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: them out and include them guys. The next thing, you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Samantha finds a red rose on her car.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Listen.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: One day after the group meeting, Samantha finds a rose
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: on her car. Christopher Thomas event tells Samantha he left
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: it for and asks her on a date. Samantha politely declined,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: but Thomas continues to pursue her, frequently striking up text
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: conversations and bringing flowers to her work. Samantha continues to
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: echo no to date requests, eventually telling Thomas she is
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: not romantically interested.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: He was following me to my work, following me to
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: my internship there at Frisbee Practice.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: You're seeing clips from stalking Samantha, thirteen years of terror
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: on Hulu and Hulu Disney Plus. Tell me how it
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: escalated and all started with a single rose on your
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: vehicle when you came out to your car. Yeah.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: I found a rose on my car after my internship
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: at Grand Valley State, and I thought it was odd.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: You know, I didn't know many people who knew where
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: my internship was. I had just started that. I kind
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: of went on this quest to figure out who it was.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: You know, it was something I thought could be exciting,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: maybe somebody I had romantic interest in, potentially, and.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: I couldn't figure out who it was for a few days.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: You know, I was texting anyone in everyone I could
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: think of, and I felt silly, and finally I looped
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: back to Christopher after he initially said no, and he
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: admitted that it was him, and he admitted that he
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: had followed you from my house to my internship and
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: that's how he knew.
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: Where it was.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: And I thought, that's really weird. That's not a normal
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: thing somebody would do.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Oh my stars, Samantha. So he tells you, to your face,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I followed you from your home to your internship.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: What was that on the phone? Or did he tell
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you that to your face?
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: It was over the phone. We had this conversation.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: What did you say what he told you? He followed you.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: I, I don't know that I really said.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: I had a big reaction at the time.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: I you know, inside, I was kind of thinking, Wow,
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: that's really strange. I think my kind of what I
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: ended up saying to him was something like, you know,
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: I'm not interested in you in that way. I you know,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: don't please, don't ask me out, you know. And he
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: kind of kept trying, and I ended up blocking him
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: and asking him to leave me alone shortly after that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: How did he respond when you would tell him, look,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I'm not interested in you in that way.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: It's not romantic, we're just friends. How would he react?
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: He kind of just would not and say you know sure,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: or you know.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: Often this was kind of via some sort of messaging,
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: either texting or Facebook or something like that in that era,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: and he sometimes just wouldn't respond and then would act
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: a few days later like everything was fine and message
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: me again, you know, something innocent and just kind of hey,
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: how's your day going sort of thing.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: A lot of times I wouldn't even respond, so he
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: would mix in the crazy with the normal, like Hey,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: how's your day, And it would start off innocently and
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: then suddenly get weird.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: I mean it wasn't like he was asking me out NonStop.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: I mean it would often be like, Hey, are you
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: going to this event on campus? Or I'll be studying here,
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: I'm having lunch here if you happen to have a
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: break and want to join, you know, very casual types
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: of things. And then after I sometimes after i'd kind
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: of turn him down, he would, you know, kind of
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: throw out different Bible verses and things that you know
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: he was thinking about in terms of faith or even
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: framing it in terms of a potential relationship with me.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: And this was even after I had blocked his number
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: on my phone and email and tried to get like
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: other guy friends and stuff involved.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Wait did he know he had been blocked?
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: Uh? Yeah, I mean he wasn't couldn't, wasn't able to
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: text me anymore.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: I blocked his phone number, and I.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: Think he I think I maybe left that method of
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: communication open, like on Facebook or something, or maybe I
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: think it must have been Facebook that was where most
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: of the messages were.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I guess he thought persistence would be the key to
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: winning you over.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Well. The text messages continued.
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: Listen when he was not at work or sleeping, he
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: was tracking her.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: He was following me to my work, following me to
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: my gym, grocery shopping.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: He was everywhere.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Don't talk to me, don't text me, don't show up
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: where I am.
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: Lead me alone. This guy's stalking me.
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: Thomas continues incessant text messages, showing up at work, staying
• 9:21
  Speaker 7: glued to her at church, and now he seems to
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: show up wherever sam is, even finding her out with friends.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: He was following me. But at that point I was like,
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: I just want to graduate. I just want to get
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: through and do the things I'm going to do next.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: I felt like it was just something I could deal
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: with on my.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Own, that I'm stalking Samantha. Thirteen years of terror on Hulu.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Tell me where all Samantha. He would show up unsolicited.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: At the beginning in college, it was like, you know,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: my internship. It would be you know, just commonplaces around campus.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: I'd pass him in the hall headed to class, and
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: then every week from there I'd pass him. At that
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: same kind of time period, I began seeing him at
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: the gym, in the grocery store, at a bar, him
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: meeting a friend for a drink, anywhere.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: So where would he be at the grocery store, in
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the parking lot, in one of the aisles, He'd.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: Usually be like in the in the actual store, like
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: in the aisles. I never noticed him like in a vehicle.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: Toward that last summer before I was abducted, I was
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: trying to kind of figure out what sort of vehicle
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: he drove because I never actually saw him in a car.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: He was often on foot or.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: I never actually saw him try to get into a vehicle,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: which was something I was to do, so I knew
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: at least what his car looked like.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Samantha, think about it.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: How would he realize she's going to the grocery store,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: get to the grocery store, and get in the grocery
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: store before you came in, and be wandering the aisles
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: for you to find him in there.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: That took a lot of planning.
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, essentially, it seemed like he was everywhere
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I was. And initially I thought maybe it was kind
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: of a coincidence, because it would happen, you know, once
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: every couple of weeks, and then it was every week,
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: and then you know, it seemed like it was more
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: than a coincidence at that point, and my friends and I,
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: you know, started looking for a tracker on my vehicle
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: and we couldn't find anything.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: And where would he be at the gym?
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: He'd usually be like running on a treadmill.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So he would already be there.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Did you go the same day every week so he
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: could be there and get on the tread before you
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: got there? I mean, how would he actually make this happen?
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: The mechanics of.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: It, I don't know, you know, I don't know how
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: he spent his time. Really, I'm not sure if he
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: sounded like he spent several hours at the gym from
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: what he told me when he abducted me. But I
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: mean I vary the times I would go slightly. I
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: mean it was usually after work, so it was sometime
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: in the evening. I would never go in the morning,
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: but almost, you know, whatever day of the week i'd go,
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: I feel like I often saw him.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Then the stocking extends to her friends.
• 12:40
  Speaker 8: When Samantha learns Thomas's stalking has extended to her friends,
• 12:44
  Speaker 8: she seeks a restraining order. Three years after their first meeting,
• 12:48
  Speaker 8: the court approves her personal protection order and Thomas must
• 12:51
  Speaker 8: stay away or face arrest. Samantha finishes her degree and
• 12:56
  Speaker 8: moves to Traverse City.
• 12:57
  Speaker 9: Six years later, Samantha's PPO is exped hiring and Thomas
• 13:01
  Speaker 9: was prepared. He transfers to Traverse City, and Thomas is
• 13:04
  Speaker 9: suddenly at Sam's soccer practices and matches, following her around
• 13:08
  Speaker 9: grocery stores and working out across the room from her,
• 13:11
  Speaker 9: no matter how many times she changes gyms. Samantha considers
• 13:14
  Speaker 9: applying for a PBO again, but learns it would require
• 13:17
  Speaker 9: a court appearance that Thomas would also attend. In fear
• 13:20
  Speaker 9: of angering him further, Samantha abandons her plan to renew
• 13:23
  Speaker 9: the restraining order.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Oh my stars, when you say he started stalking your friends,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: what did he do?
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: He ended up.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: Telling me when he abducted me that he had trackers
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: on my roommate's car. You know, all of the in
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: my friend's car. But that purpose was for figuring out
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: who I was with and what I was doing. He
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: wasn't actually stalking my friends.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: I think if somebody puts a tracker on your roommate's car,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: that would.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Be stalking them.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe the motive was to find you, but I would
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: not like it if somebody put.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Trackers on my friend's cars.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: You decided not to see another protection order for obvious reasons.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: What was your thinking?
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: I did seek a second protection order once the first
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: one expired. It was after the first one expired that
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: I began seeing him in Northern Michigan again. You know,
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: all those years later. I got the help of one
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: of my soccer teammates who is an assistant prosecutor, and asked,
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: you know, for help filing another PPO, And essentially the
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: court denied ex parte order, which meant I would have
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: had to appear in court with Christopher for a judge
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: to make a final determination.
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: And I chose not.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: To pursue that option because I thought, if they don't
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: rule in my favor, I potentially am you know, letting
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: this who I think is a dangerous person know that I'm.
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: On to him.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, getting no support from the judge there at all.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Disagree with the juzz. There's a lot of ways to
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: do that, ex party.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: In other words, you talked to the judge outside the
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: presence of the defendant.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: What went through your mind?
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: You leave, you graduate, you leave, you start fresh somewhere else,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: and then after a few years past, there he is again.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: When did you see him for the.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: First time after that period of years.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: I first saw him at a soccer field. I was
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: playing in an adult recreation league and I saw him there,
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: and I was shocked. I never thought he would be
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: living in that city, or that I would see him again.
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: And I had found that my ppo had expired like
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: shortly before that.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And then a cold Friday morning.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: On a cold Friday morning in October, Samantha's roommate has
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: already left for work, but she's still soaking up a
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: few more minutes in d than Sam here's the wood
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: floor's creek and footsteps coming down the hall. Samantha calls
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: her roommate's name, and, getting no answer, quickly reaches under
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: her bed for a hatchet. The intruder throws the door
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: open and is on top of her with his hands
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: around her neck before she can reach it. Samantha immediately
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: recognizes her attacker as Stalker Christopher.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Thomas guys joining us tonight, Samantha stides, tell me what
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: went through your mind when you heard that floor creek?
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: I knew my house well, Adolph to know that it
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: wasn't one of my pets, like stepping on the floor.
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: I knew that a creek would have had to be
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: likely a person. I assumed, you know, it was my roommate,
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: something normal, potentially, and when I didn't get a response
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: or hear any more movement, I thought there must have
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: been someone on the other side of my bedroom door
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: who was waiting for me. If it was a burglar
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: or something, they would have been taking items, they wouldn't
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: be waiting outside my bedroom door. I you know, was
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: confused whether maybe I was hearing something in a dream
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: or you know, I wasn't sure.
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: Exactly what was going on, let alone.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: Suspecting who it was at this point, but I did
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: strongly believe there was a person on the other side
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: of that door, and that they wanted to me what happened.
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: Then I decided not to reach for the hatchet.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: I figured, you know, if this person doesn't have a weapon,
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: now I'm introducing one, and if they're they're likely more
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: prepared than I am. Bundled up in my bed having
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: just woken up, and I decided to reach to turn
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: on my bedroom lamp and figure out.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: What was going on, And at that point he.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Flung open the door and jumped on me in bed,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: and I be am screaming, and he put his hands
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: around my throat to get me to stop screaming.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Listen.
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: Thomas places a ballgag in Sam's mouth, then wraps duct
• 18:11
  Speaker 7: tape around her mouth, hands, and feet. Thomas blindfolds Sam,
• 18:15
  Speaker 7: loads her into her own car, and drives to a
• 18:17
  Speaker 7: storage unit where he has constructed a soundproof cell. Thomas
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: tells Samantha he was inspired by the Netflix show You.
• 18:25
  Speaker 7: Thomas shows Samantha how he'd been tracking her on his
• 18:28
  Speaker 7: phone and tells her he plans to keep her for
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: two weeks, then dispose of her body. Sam tries to
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: count the terms to work out where Thomas is taking
• 18:36
  Speaker 7: her and maintains a calm demeanor with her captor.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: It's overwhelming to me the terror you must have felt
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: when he gagged you. Did you think he was going
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: to kill you?
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, the moment he jumped on me and began
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: choking me, I thought he was going to kill me, certainly,
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: you know, all those statistics ran through my head once
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: he handcuffed me and ball gagged me and just told
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: me he was planning to take me somewhere I knew.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: You know, when people are abducted and move from one
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: location to another, their likelihood of survival decreases significantly. So,
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: you know, I thought, if he's angry with me, you know,
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: I'm guessing he wants to rape and kill me.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: It's amazing to me that he man is to stay
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: so calm. You were even trying to figure out where
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: he had taken you.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought if I had any chance to get
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: out of the situation that you know, he had blindfolded
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: me while we were in the car. I figured if
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: I could get an idea of where I was in
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: the event I could escape, then I would know maybe
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: what direction is better to run than another, you know,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: things like that.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: When did you realize you were in a storage container?
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: I didn't really know that until he told me. I
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: think I could hear that there was like a garage
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: door sort of opening, and I could see a little
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: bit under the blindfold that it looked like potentially a
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: storage unit or a set of garages or something. It
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: was still dark when he took me there. You know,
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: I wasn't sure exactly which unit it was, but I
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: knew that I wasn't far from home. I was maybe
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: a quarter mile from my house.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: What did he say when he was chaining you to
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the wall? Did he apologize?
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't say he was apologetic. Initially I could tell
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: he was surprised. I think that he had done this.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: He was definitely kind of shaking and you know, thinking
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: about what to do. He seemed a little unprepared.
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: I assumed that maybe he was living there. You know,
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: I had no idea what this structure was. I couldn't
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: see as we entered it. I could tell that we
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: went through two little low like thresholds as you're kind
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: of seeing here into this small room. But I had
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: no idea that he had constructed this whole soundproof bunker
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: just for me.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Take a listen to Stalking Samantha.
• 21:38
  Speaker 8: If you change somebody into a wall, you have no boundaries.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: He's going to do something violent. He's a monster.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: This becomes a fight for my life.
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: It's just this ticking time bomb and we're all holding
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: our breath. My mind is the only thing that's going
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: to get me out of here.
• 22:00
  Speaker 8: Spite her intense fear, Samantha, a therapist and social worker,
• 22:04
  Speaker 8: keeps calm and uses psychological tactics to negotiate with Thomas.
• 22:08
  Speaker 8: Samantha talks to Thomas like a friend and lets Thomas
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: vent to her.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: While she tries to find a way out.
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: Seeing the rings Thomas attached to the walls, Sam knows
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: exactly what Thomas wants, but she gets out of him
• 22:21
  Speaker 8: that he's also terrified of going to jail. Sam tells
• 22:25
  Speaker 8: Thomas she will never tell anyone about the kidnapping and
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: even be his friend going forward if he takes her
• 22:31
  Speaker 8: home safely. After Thomas agrees to Sam Steele.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: The strength this woman has. You saw a clip of
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: talking Samantha thirteen Years of Terror as now on Hulu.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: You actually were trying to save your life by reasoning
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: with him, bargaining with him.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: How did you come up with that? Most people would
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: have just.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Melted into a pile of tears on the floor of
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: that storage unit, But you kept your wits about you.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: You saved your own life by bargaining with him. What
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: was going through your mind?
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: Survival?
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think anyone is capable of, you know,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: doing what they need to do to get out of
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: a deadly situation, and it was clear that using my
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: mind was the only thing that was really going to
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: get me out of that situation. No one could hear me,
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: no one could see me. You know, I had no
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: means of escape. You know, I looked for different tools
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: or things I might be able to do to potentially
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: injure him. You know, I couldn't find any easy way
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: to potentially get out of this situation other than at
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: his hand. So you know, I took what I knew,
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: which you know was motivational interviewing and speaking with people
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: to try to get to the crux of what motivated
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: him and what he wanted. And I tried negotiating any
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: possible way of you know, getting out of there in
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: a timely manner. And you knowing, time wasn't on my side.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: You know, if people suspected I was missing or went
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: looking for me, that he'd be the first person they
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: looked for.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: So I was also fearful.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: That as time drew on, you know, we'd both become
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: more agitated, and that you know, he'd become really nervous knowing.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: The police were looking for him.
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: So time was also of the essence, and that I
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: needed to come up with something to convince him that
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: we could forget about all this and that we could
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: get out of this situation, you know, quickly. And the
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: only way he was going to let me out was
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: by having sex with me. I tried everything I could
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: do to get out of that situation, and you know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: there was no real way unless I was going to
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: sit in there for days on end.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Everybody, you are seeing the actual place where this beautiful
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: young woman was kidnapped and held by a former Bible
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: group attendee. It's and we showed you where he had
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: prepared this. As she is telling us, long prepared this
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: bunker to keep her, including a way to chain her.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: To the wall. It's just it's almost more than I
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: can take in.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: We run into people every day, Samantha that are awkward,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: that are kind of in the fringe of our lives,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: are not really a player in our day to day.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: He would leave you in there, chained up and just
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: leave right. We've got video of him stride across the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: parking lot.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, at the beginning, especially before he felt like he
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: could trust me, he did cheem me to the wall
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: and drive my vehicle to like a local home improvement store,
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: so that my vehicle wasn't you know, if people went
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: looking for me, they wouldn't find my vehicle at home
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: or you know, at at the location where he had me.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: It seems to me, Samant, that he dumped your car
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: in a Minard's parking lot to make it look like
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: maybe you had gone to Minards had been abducted from there.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: He obviously put a lot of thought into this.
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm not sure.
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, that was probably the closest location that had
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: a decent sized parking lot.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: You know, he had plans to, you know, if we
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: were supposed to be there for two weeks, like.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: He had planned, he had planned to leave my car
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: out by Lake Michigan and have my pas board on
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: the beach somewhere and make it look like potentially I drown.
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: So I'm not sure, you know, other than having my
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: car at some basic parking lot nearby that he could
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: easily walk from there back to.
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: The storage unit.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm not sure, but that was the location that,
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: you know, after he had raped me, that when he
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: followed through with this promise to let me go, he
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: dropped me back off at my car at this parking.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Lot, locked in the bathroom, Samantha manages to make a call.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Most people would be devastated, but she manages to summon
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: up the strength and save herself Listen.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: Still locked in her bathroom, Samantha manages to call a friend,
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: who takes her to a hospital and has police meet
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: them there. Nurses perform a rape kit and give Sam
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: precautionary STI medication. Thomas has arrested just hours later, while
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: officers search the storage unit and track down Sam's car.
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: I went right to the storage units. We didn't know
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: if he was hiding in the bunker. We didn't know
• 28:06
  Speaker 6: if there were booby traps or anything like that.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Christopher, if you're inside, let us know. I'm man have
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: my dog and find you and he will bite you.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Call out to us now, if you're inside.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: From talking Samantha thirteen years of Terror on Hulu, what
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: went through your mind? What were you thinking when you
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: managed to make that phone call from inside the bathroom?
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: I mean I had a plan from you know, the
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: time I was in the bunker. If I were to
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: get out, I knew he had a tracker on my vehicle.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: I couldn't just drive to the hospital. I couldn't go
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: to the police station for fear of.
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: Him following me. You know, I went.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: I knew I couldn't call my roommate for help or
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: a close friend because he knew who they all were.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: So I called a coworker who was also a neighbor
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: and a nurse, and I knew I needed to get
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: to the hospital to try to recover DNA from a
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: rape kit and hopefully put this person behind bars.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: You know what, I have taken so many victims for
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: a rape kit. It's nothing anybody wants to endure. But
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: you speaking about that tonight can give other people the strength, Samantha, to.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Know they're not alone. They're not alone. Other women have.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Been through it as horrible as it is, and they
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: have survived. And you haven't just survived, you have conquered
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: so much. And by speaking out, I'm just so grateful
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: to you. And because of her, we land here.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Listen.
• 29:54
  Speaker 8: So we executed a search warrant in his house the
• 29:58
  Speaker 8: night that that Christopher was rested.
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: We're able to get a lot of good information from
• 30:12
  Speaker 6: his house. He didn't get rid of anything, really. We
• 30:15
  Speaker 6: found the sheets that were on the bed and sword
• 30:18
  Speaker 6: you in it. At his apartment we'd found the ballgag,
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: the duct tape that we believe he used to secure
• 30:28
  Speaker 6: the ballgag.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: In her mouth, And of course he lies over and
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: over listened.
• 30:35
  Speaker 8: This man is not just obsessed with you, and he's dangerous.
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: I've never seen a stalking case as severe as this,
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: next level psycho.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: This is like a horror film.
• 30:53
  Speaker 7: Stalking Samantha thirteen years of Terror. In an interrogation, Thomas
• 30:59
  Speaker 7: lies over and over. Thomas first claims he was hunting
• 31:02
  Speaker 7: when he kidnapped Sam. When officers tell Thomas they have
• 31:06
  Speaker 7: footage of him at the storage unit with Sam and
• 31:09
  Speaker 7: have been inside. Thomas then claims it was a role
• 31:12
  Speaker 7: play fantasy that he surprised Sam with, but he wasn't
• 31:15
  Speaker 7: happy about it. Thomas initially pleads not guilty, but his
• 31:19
  Speaker 7: trial approaches, Thomas takes a deal that drops the home
• 31:22
  Speaker 7: invasion and criminal sexual conduct charges.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
• 31:36
  Speaker 10: You're believe that you add in such a way as
• 31:39
  Speaker 10: to create severe mental pain on her partner. You believe
• 31:44
  Speaker 10: a reasonable person with supper sejurs and pain based on
• 31:47
  Speaker 10: of those actions.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Trauma was talking Samantha thirteen years of Tearror on Hulu
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: role playing. Did you hear him say you just were
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: surprised and you didn't like it?
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: He sure was right.
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: I sure was surprised by her, him coming into my
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: home and kidnapping me, and I did not like it.
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: But the I mean, that was just kind of a
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: you know, excuse he had, he had to tell the
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: police something that wasn't. Yes, I abducted her because I'm
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: stalking her and have been helplessly in love with her.
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm not surprised, and I'm also disgusted at that,
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: you know, pitiful excuse.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: When you see him, even as showing a clip of
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: him in court, what is your reaction.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Because he totally repulsed me.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I when I tend to talk about
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: the situation or see or you know, see his face
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: or watch the videos, you know, I feel tense. I've
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: kind of come back to that, you know, time that
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: day with him.
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: You know, I feel sweaty and nervous.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Samantha, how has this whole thing affected you? I keep
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: talking about how strong and how brave you are, and
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: how you are.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Thinking your way out of this.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: All of that is true, but then you're diagnosed with
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: post traumatic stress syndrome. I know it's got to affect you.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know the murder of my fiance has
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: affected the rest of my life and there's nothing I
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: can do about it except try to move forward as
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: best as I can. From my family, How has this
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: affected you and how do you move forward in life?
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think as you know, you know, your life
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: is never the same after something like that that you've
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: been through or that I've been through. You know, things
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: are always different and you have to make a new normal.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: You know, you have to choose to move forward each day,
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: and you know, decide how you're going to look at
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: the bright side, how you're going to move on. In
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: some days, especially at the beginning, we're difficult. You know,
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: I was having trouble sleeping. I was scared by every
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: little noise. I felt like I was also afraid to
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: be alone. You know, all these things made it difficult
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: for me to go back to work where I had
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: to think on my feet and be empathetic with others
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: while I'm going through this like terrifying situation. I really
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: feel like therapy has helped me a lot in terms
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: of being able to talk about the situation and kind
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: of decrease that sort of stress response I have where
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I'm able to sleep better at night and you know,
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: not feel startled by every little thing or the story
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: of like what's happened to me is, you know, something
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: I can move past. You know, as sad as it
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: is and as difficult as it's been, I feel very
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: thankful overall that I'm alive, very grateful that I was
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: able to get through that situation, because so many people,
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: so many women don't get that opportunity.
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: They die at the hands of their.
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: Stalker or abductor or rapist, and you know, never get
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: to tell their stories, never get the opportunity to recover,
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: and their loved ones never get to see them again.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: You know, I feel like it gives me sort of
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: a different lease on life, knowing that I have survived something,
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: and I'm grateful for every day and want to help
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: prevent this from happening from anyone else.
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: And that's really why I'm.
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: Speaking out, you know, to give a voice to the
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: folks that have gone through this or victims that never
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: got the opportunity to tell their stories, and to encourage
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: those that you know, think they may be being stalked
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: or have been assaulted to report it and try to
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: seek justice.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Samantha, I don't know if anyone has told you this,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: but you're amazing.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: You're amazing. I've dealt with.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: So many kidnap or stalking rape victims. They cannot or
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: will not testify. They don't have the strength.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: They just.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: It destroys their lives forever, and they can't find a way,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: even difficult as it is, to move forward. I've had
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: people ask me how do you stay happy? You seem
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: happy all the time. It's a decision, and sometimes it's
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: a really hard decision about living that day and what
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: you're going to do that day, just this one day.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Could you offer advice to other people that are out
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: there suffering as you have suffered.
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't imagine having gone through something like this
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: and having my stalker rapists still out there, you know.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: I can't imagine trying to face each day not knowing
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: whether or not I'm safe. You know, I can take
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: comfort in that that he's behind bars now. I feel
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: like my one I don't know, piece of advice would
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: be to, you know, get help from therapists, from legal counsel,
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: you know, do what's right for you. There's not there's
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: not one single solution that's right for everyone. In some
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: situations that may not be possible or feasible to find,
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: you know, legal justice, but it's worth trying. It's worth
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: trying to feel safe every day and be able to
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: move on in such a way, and that you deserve
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: that as a victim. You deserve that as a human
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: when someone has wronged you. I feel like that's my
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: one piece of encouragement.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Guys. Joining us tonight is.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Samantha's Tides, who is navigating life after being kidnapped from
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: a bed, held in a storage container, and so much
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: more that could have destroyed anyone, but she is soldiering
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: on and sending a message to other women out there
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: that are suffering tonight. Look at her. She has survived
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: and triumphed. If she can do it, you can do it. Samantha.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you all of us here at Crime Stories, thank
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: you from the bottom of our hearts, and God bless you.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Now we remember an American hero, Sheriff Robert Rogers, Wilcox
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: County Sheriff's Georgia, killed in the line of duty after
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: twenty two years and law enforcement, leaving behind a grieving
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Widowhalley and son Robert American hero sheriff Robert Rogers.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace signing off goodbye friend
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: As