Oxygen/AP Janice Hooker./Cameron Hooker.
Cameron Hooker remains imprisoned today in the kidnap and repeated sexual assault of Colleen Stan, while his wife, Janice Hooker, is a free woman after she testified against her husband.
Cameron Hooker was sentenced to 104 years in prison in 1985 in the kidnap and torture of 20-year-old Stan, who was picked up by the Red Bluff couple while she was on her way to a friend’s party in northern California from her home in Eugene, Oregon, according to the Appeal-Democrat. Stan was kept in a “coffin-like box” under Hooker’s bed, the newspaper said. The case gained widespread media attention.
Snapped: Notorious is digging in to the case in a new episode that airs tonight. “The Girl in the Box” airs at 9 p.m. Eastern time Saturday, July 17, 2021.
Here’s what you need to know:
Janice Was Granted Full Immunity for Testifying Against Her Husband, Cameron
Janice Hooker eventually turned on her husband and notified law enforcement about the crimes committed against Stan, according to the Appeal-Democrat. She testified against her husband at trial, and the prosecution agreed to grant her full immunity in exchange for her testimony, the newspaper reported.
An appeal filed by Cameron Hooker’s attorneys details the crimes and the nature of the relationship between Janice and Cameron Hooker.
The appeal says:
This case, which has attracted great media attention, involves the kidnapping and repeated sexual assault of Colleen S. by appellant Cameron Hooker, an advocate of bondage discipline and sadomasochistic sexual practices, over the course of more than seven years. Hooker had for several years practiced bondage on his wife Janice with her consent. Later, Janice wanted to have a child and to avoid some of her husband’s more painful bondage practices. Hooker fantasized about ‘practicing bondage,’ on a girl that really couldn’t say ‘no’. The couple agreed that Hooker could keep a woman who would become the target of his bondage, but he was not to engage in sexual intercourse with this ‘slave.’
Stan was taken at knifepoint May 17, 1977, according to court documents. Janice and Cameron Hooker picked her up on a ride with their oldest child, the appeal said.
“Colleen was gagged, blindfolded, handcuffed, and her head was encased in a specially-constructed ‘headbox,'” the appeal said. “That evening, Hooker stripped Colleen and hung her by her arms from the basement rafters. It was very painful; when Colleen cried and tried to find something on which to rest her feet, Hooker whipped her. Through her blindfold, Colleen could see a magazine open to a picture of a woman who was hung much like she was. After she had hung for 10 or 15 minutes, Hooker let her rest her toes on a box.”
Janice Hooker helped Stan escape, although Stan told PEOPLE she does not know why.
“I don’t know if [Cameron] was going to kill us and get somebody else to replace us – that’s what news clips said – but obviously he said or did something to her that made her fear for her life and made her decide that we needed to get out,” Stan says of the pair’s escape,” Stan said, according to PEOPLE. “So we did. [Janice] took me to her parents’ home while Cameron was at work, and I called my father.”
Cameron Hooker Became Eligible for Parole in 2014 & Was Denied Parole for an Additional 15 Years
Colleen Stan was kidnapped, her head placed in a box, and she was kept in captivity for 7 years.
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𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬: t.co/9ifevSPt1u
𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲
Cameron Hooker became eligible for parole in October 2014, according to his inmate record with the California Department of Corrections. However, after appearing for a Parole Suitability Hearing April 16, 2015, the parole board denied parole and ruled he not be eligible again for 15 years. Hooker filed a petition to advance his next parole suitability hearing date, and the parole board denied his request on December 7, 2018, his record says.
Here is his prison record:
California Department of CorrectionsCameron Hooker’s inmate record.
Hooker remains incarcerated at the California Institution for Men. He was admitted November 26, 1985. Today, he is 67 years old.