Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found.
Before we get started, I just wanted to say that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against animals and or humankind.
Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences due to the content nature of this podcast.
Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Deb, your host of Dying to be Found True Crime Podcast.
And today my daughter Shelby is here, ready to help me get back into my routine.
Shelby, we have not recorded all summer long. Can you believe that?
I can't. It's just been so busy for everybody.
It really has. We've had a lot of life changes between you and me.
The last time we really had a long conversation besides the car ride home is when we went to the beach a month ago.
Yes, I'm ready to go back.
I think I am too. Well, I want to give a huge shout out to my summertime co-hosts who all agreed to record with me this year.
You are my saving grace because I've had a lot of unexpected things going on.
So I actually had a little vault and dug out all of my collabs that I've been saving up to spread throughout this season.
So listeners, if you've noticed that we've had a lot of featured guests is because I've added a summertime list from some of my favorite podcasts.
So be sure to go check those out. Let me know what you think.
And I'm just going to throw in here now, if anybody is a true crime podcaster and you want to showcase your podcast here on Dying to be Found,
email me at dying the number two, the letter B found at gmail dot com.
And I'll get you on an episode of The Dash. Other than that, Shelbs, let's get back to you.
What's going on with you? Kids are about to get back into school.
We are starting a restaurant, very small salad and sandwich shop.
So that's what's been filling up my weekends this summer. Super exciting.
I think we're maybe about two to three weeks from opening.
And we have done all of this in the last 25 days.
Wow. Have you been planning for this for longer than that?
Or was it just a last minute thought? What's going on?
We've been talking about it for a very, very, very, very long time.
And it was just right place, right time.
We found the perfect landlords for the owner of the building.
And we are just we're so excited. Oh, good.
Do you want to tell anybody what the name of it is, where it's located?
Are we going to still keep the mystery of our location?
We're still going to keep the mystery of our location.
Well, Shelby, I'm excited for you.
Believe it or not, I have an extra week later in September.
I might have to come check out that new restaurant of yours.
I'll do a review about that.
Absolutely. We're going to do a soft opening.
So we'll we'll see. Very good.
All right. Well, speaking of adventures,
we're going to be talking about a very adventurous young woman today.
And Shelby, I'm getting a little bit of contradiction
on the location on where she's at.
We're talking about Colleen Stan.
And I'm just going to say that Colleen is based out of Eugene, Oregon,
because a lot of the articles that I found,
some of them said that she lived in northern California.
Others said that she lived in Eugene, Oregon.
So the more reputable ones are saying that she was in Eugene.
And that's where I'm going to be saying that she's based out of.
If any of our listeners can correct me and actually verify that,
that would be great. Just make sure you DM me on Instagram.
I'd love to hear from you.
It's kind of funny because we were literally just talking yesterday about
if I moved to California, then you can move to Oregon.
Yes, we did have that conversation.
And as a matter of fact, let me just tell you this.
We were out in Oregon last summer visiting Emily and Jessica.
Hi, ladies. Hi, Emily.
Hi, Jessica. I flew into Eugene, Oregon.
It is a beautiful area of the country.
It's very rural.
Honestly, it reminds me a lot of Georgia.
All the hills, all the trees.
The only difference is, is that you are trading in the pine trees
that I have here in Georgia with fir trees out in Oregon.
So it's just a beautiful area.
Very rural, very isolated, very small airport.
But it is a beautiful part of the country, regardless on where it's at.
I mean, northern California.
All right, Shelbs.
So we're going to go back to the 1970s.
And what do you know about the 70s? Anything?
I know you weren't around.
I was ultra young.
But what do you know about the 70s and the lifestyles, especially in California?
It was the era of love.
Peace and love.
Yes, free spirits everywhere.
Lots of hippies. And yeah, peace and love.
We saw the movie Jesus Revolution in theaters.
And that was literally it was 70s hippies hitchhiking, singing Kool-Bai-Yah.
There you go. I haven't even heard of that.
Is that new? Oh, it's so good.
It's so good. It came out over the summertime.
OK, cool.
All right, well, I have a question for you.
You know, I always like to start things off that way.
All righty.
Have you ever taken a ride from a stranger?
Maybe your car broke down.
Have you ever hitchhiked, anything like that?
Go ahead, Shelby, enlighten your mother.
Tell me all about it. Now's the time to confess.
I don't think this is a story you should know.
It was not one of my best moments at all.
Give me the abridged version of you taking a ride from a stranger.
Was I living in the same town with you?
No, you were not. OK.
OK. And my friends and I had taken an Uber to Atlanta.
Well, the night didn't end so well.
Somehow we all got broken up.
My wallet was stolen and I had no money or phone.
Oh, wow. To call anybody.
Oh, wow.
So I somehow had the right person at the right place
and the right time and a kind heart get me back home.
OK. Safely. Wow.
OK. Did your spidey senses ever go off or you just I mean,
you weren't desperate for the ride.
You used your judgment, I hope.
I got home very safely.
OK, I'm glad to hear that.
I mean, I've taken rides from people because my very first car
was a Renault Alliance.
I don't even know what that is.
That is a French vehicle.
If anybody knows what that is, it's a French vehicle.
And that thing broke down every other day.
That was in my flight attendant years.
And I used to have to drive to the Atlanta airport in it all.
The time and it would break down every other day.
Well, I always used my judgment.
There were a lot of nice people.
There was one time when I actually broke down in the town that you lived in.
And I don't know, it was probably a four mile walk home.
And I did have people stop along the way.
Although I was grateful and I didn't have any weird vibes
of getting in a car with anybody.
I literally said, you know what? No, I'm I'm walking.
It's a nice day.
I'm just going to walk home today. And they're like, are you sure?
I was like, yeah, thank you anyway.
So I wouldn't say that I've ever gotten in the car with a stranger
that I ever felt like something weird was going to happen.
But, you know, you just have to be careful, especially in today's day and age.
That's right. Because back in the 70s, everybody was hitchhiking.
Everybody was, you know, like we said, kumbaya.
But what else was happening in the 70s, though?
I think they were like, oh, I'm going to go to the beach.
So I think there were a lot of serial killers back in the 70s.
So, yeah. All right.
Well, let's talk about Colleen.
You had mentioned to me, I don't know if it was before we started recording,
but you have not heard about this case.
No. Colleen is also known as the girl in the box.
So back in May 1977, Colleen set out to see one of her girlfriends.
She was traveling from Eugene, Oregon to northern California.
And she was very careful about who she would take rides with.
Apparently, Colleen was not a stranger to hitchhiking.
It was just the times.
She was very careful, like I said.
Even at one point, there was a car full of young men who had pulled over to offer her a lift along her path.
And Colleen politely declined.
Now, she probably knew enough.
OK, there's a bunch of guys in the car.
I probably don't want to get in that car.
She used her judgment, so she would kind of scope people out before she said yes.
As she was making her way out of town, a young couple by the name of Cameron and Janice Hooker stopped to offer Colleen a ride.
They were young.
They smiled sweetly at Colleen at all the right moments during their conversation.
And best of all, Colleen saw that they had a baby in the backseat.
So what can go wrong here, Shelps?
Yeah, I mean, it looks like they just look like the normal, normal family.
There's a baby in the car. What could go wrong, right?
Absolutely. And I don't know about the 70s.
They didn't have a lot of car seats.
I don't know how old the baby was, maybe a toddler.
But there was enough for Colleen to look around and say, OK, well, there's that baby in the backseat.
Should be no problem.
Let's go ahead and jump in.
She decided that this couple was probably safe and that everything was going to be fine.
So she went along for the ride.
But I want to kind of pause here for just a moment because I want to give you a back story on Cameron and Janice,
just so you kind of get a good indication of the type of people they were.
The Hookers were married two years earlier in 1975.
Well, once they were married, Cameron practiced bondage on his new bride.
But at some point, Janice was ready to give all that up and to have children.
Obviously, they did because there was one in the backseat.
And what does Cameron do?
He presents Janice with the idea that he would love to bring a slave into this relationship so that he could do with her whatever he wanted.
Mainly, he just wanted a little bit of help around the house, sort of like a maid.
What do you think of that? Interesting.
Mm hmm. Well, here's the kicker.
Janice agreed, but she had terms in order for this agreement to take place.
OK, what would you do, Shelbs, if you were presented with this proposition? What would you do?
I would politely say no, thank you.
I think Janice kind of had reservations as well, but she did agree.
I think my words would be a little spicier, though, than politely saying no, thank you.
I'm not going to say how spicy, but. Yeah, I think so, too.
I'm not sure how spicy they were for Janice, but she did agree, although she had some terms they negotiated in this little arrangement.
The big one here, Shelby, was that under no circumstances could her husband have sex with anybody that he brings into the house.
I mean, yeah, I know, right? OK, under no circumstances can you have sex with her?
And I mean it now. You can do this, but no sex.
So moving on, naturally, Cameron agrees to this. What a deal, right?
Absolutely. Voila, the hooker's hatch is planned and all they have to do now is go find an unsuspecting victim.
Let's fast forward to May 19th, 1977, where Cameron and Janice were out trolling.
I'm going to say trolling is a good word for this.
When they came upon Colleen Stan hitchhiking to her girlfriend's birthday party.
Now, Shelby, I looked this up, the distance between Eugene, Oregon and northern California,
the border there is about 200 miles or 321 kilometers driving distance.
So that would be somewhere around three hours away.
And I don't know why the hookers would be that far from home unless they went the distance to make sure that I don't know what to kind of cover their tracks.
Was that the right phrase there?
Possibly go to a town where nobody knows them and find someone to pick up there. That makes sense to me.
Yeah. So Colleen had made that judgment call to get in the car because of the baby in the backseat.
Everything's harmless here. Colleen hops into the backseat next to the kiddo. Everyone heads on down the road.
Now, Shelby, you and I have been on enough road trips to know that when there are multiple people in the car, we have lots of pit stops, eh?
Of course, especially when there are children.
Yes. Even when you say go to the bathroom before you leave, you know somebody's going to have to stop.
Well, Cameron makes a pit stop at a gas station to use the restroom.
And it was during that time, Shelby, that just for a split second, Colleen's gut instinct told her to run and don't look back.
I mean, go with your gut. Go with your gut here, girl. Go with your gut. Have you ever had that feeling?
Oh, yes. Did you listen to it?
I did. It used to happen to me quite often, especially when I was in high school and it was kind of like a almost like a warning.
Mm hmm. And I knew what it was for and why it would happen. And sure enough, within two days that.
Oh, I remember that. Do you remember that? Yeah, it would be like within two days. I do.
I would run across why I had that gut feeling. It was a premonition. It was so weird.
I swear I have a sixth sense or something. I don't know.
Mm hmm. I think we all have that, to be honest with you. I mean, it's our gut feeling.
Everybody knows what that is. Either you listen to it or you don't.
Usually when you don't listen to it, you get repercussions from it.
I'm a full advocate for that. So I do. When I get a gut feeling, I go with it for sure.
Yeah. And I am not discrediting Colleen's instinct here. I've done it.
I've ignored it. So you just kind of have to go. I don't know.
The older you get, you just kind of know. All right.
I really need to listen to my gut instinct here. And she was young.
It was the 70s. She was free. All that stuff.
What she didn't notice before she got into that car is that there was a weird looking wooden box
with a hole in one side laying in the back seat next to her.
And I'm thinking it was probably on the other side of the baby.
She wasn't looking deeply around, but when she was sitting there waiting for Cameron to use the restroom,
that's when she noticed this box. And that's when the gut instincts had run,
but she just didn't listen to her instincts that day.
Now, the trio headed on back down the road about 30 minutes into that next leg shelves.
Cameron turned down a dirt road telling Janice and Colleen that he wanted to do a little sightseeing.
Colleen thought nothing about it because that entire area of the West Coast,
especially, you know, 40 years ago, was very outdoorsy. It still is.
And so he stopped the car to go sightseeing.
And this is when Cameron pulled out a knife and threatened to kill Colleen if she tried to run.
Oh, yeah. He went on to bind and gag her.
But also to make matters worse, he installed that weird looking box from the back seat around Colleen's head.
The box weighed about 20 pounds.
It was soundproof and it locked in place around her neck.
Oh, my gosh. I could not imagine.
I know. I would be absolutely terrified.
Yeah. Because for the next seven years, Shelbs, Colleen lived seven years in hell.
Once the hookers had Colleen trapped, they continued their journey down the road to a little town called Red Bluff, California, where the couple lived.
As soon as the hookers got home, Cameron forced Colleen down into the basement.
He stripped her down, blindfolded her and hung her by her arms from the basement rafters.
And I'm not just saying that she was standing there with her arms put up in the air and she was tied to the rafters Shelbs.
I'm saying that her feet didn't touch the ground.
Oh, my gosh. The hookers would spend the next seven years torturing Colleen.
She was whipped during the day and at night she was forced to lay in a three foot by six foot coffin style crate up to twenty three hours a day.
And this crate was stored underneath the hookers bed.
Oh, my gosh. Isn't that crazy?
Yeah. I mean, when you said a slave, I guess I was kind of thinking, did you mention that they wanted the person to clean stuff?
Because that's what I was thinking that they were going to like have her do.
Yeah. Not this.
I had mentioned that Cameron and Janice had participated in bondage, but he may have presented it to her that, yeah, we could use some help around the house.
Oh, by the way, I'd like to continue on with the bondage.
And Janice is like, sure, no problem.
You just can't have sex with her sort of thing.
So I don't know.
You know, we can't get into the minds of wackadoodles.
We just can't. Now, the hookers thought of everything here, Shelby.
As soon as they settled in, they presented Colleen with a contract.
And you know a little bit about contracts.
You just signed one yourself.
There's a boatload of fine print.
Well, the hookers told Colleen that the contract was, quote, managed by an organized crime, unquote, which even had a name.
The hookers refer to this as the company. Very original here.
They came up with a great name, didn't they? The company.
So the company contract that Colleen was presented with was a master slave contract.
In other words, Cameron was the master.
Colleen was a slave.
Cameron forced Colleen to sign this contract, giving the hookers the right to beat, torture, rape and enslave her at any given time.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. What if she just absolutely refused to sign it?
What were they going to do? I know it says that he forced her, but.
OK, so here's the deal. Do you know how he forced her?
No, he threatened her family by saying that the company would go after them if she did not sign it.
They said that Colleen's house was bugged and they were being monitored.
They didn't hold anything back in this contract or the threats.
So that's how they got her to sign it.
And over the next seven years, Colleen cleaned the cookers house.
She babysat for their child and was even introduced to the neighbors as the couple's nanny.
You see what I mean? How there was a little bit of an arrangement here with a little sidebars of different activities.
Yeah. Cameron and Janice always held that threat over Colleen's head for the next seven years.
Obviously, you know, when you're in that situation, they always held those threats over Colleen's head.
They told her if she ever tried to escape, they would go after Colleen's family.
And that's how she ended up there for quite some time.
Now, Shelbs, we've talked a time or two about victims who are eventually brainwashed by their captors.
I don't think that Colleen had any sympathy here.
I don't think that we could compare this to Stockholm syndrome of any sorts.
We've talked about that in the past.
It's more the fact that the hookers were holding that threat of harming her family over her head.
And that's why Colleen stayed.
Oddly enough, about four years into captivity, the hookers allowed Colleen to go visit her family.
In March 1981, Colleen was given 24 hours to go back to Eugene, Oregon, unchaperoned to visit her parents.
How about that? Wow.
Colleen made the trip, then returned to California without incident.
And again, you know, I would be fearful as well.
I would probably want to do everything they're saying if they made it believable enough.
I mean, I'm not going to let anything happen to my family.
And I think you know that.
Oh, yeah, no. And I mean, being with them for four years, you know, they've had to have built some kind of relationship and obviously a trusting relationship.
So, yeah, to an extent, but there remember the contract included torture anytime they wanted to.
And then keeping her in that box under the bed, 23 hours a day.
But then again, hey, we're going out to dinner.
Can you babysit the kids? Yeah, sort of thing.
I don't know. It's twisted.
It's to me unimaginable.
And I read somewhere else, too, that Cameron had accompanied Colleen home on one of her trips to Oregon, where he was introduced as her boyfriend.
And I'm going to tell you right now, I mean, you know, Colleen was young.
I believe she was 19. Cameron was 19 when he picked her up and Janice was 23.
So over this time period, they're still in their early to mid 20s this whole time.
So, of course, if Colleen shows up with a new boyfriend, I'm sure her parents are not going to ask too many questions.
Colleen was allowed to go jogging in the neighborhood.
And in May of 1984, she began a housekeeping job at the local hotel.
Yeah. So kind of what you said, Shelby, obviously, if she's been there that long, they've got to have some kind of structure.
I'm not going to say she was ever comfortable in the arrangement.
But again, the organized mob crime called the company was always held over her head.
So she's trying to live her life as normally as possible.
Now, let's talk about the day that she escaped.
I'm going to bring Janice Hooker back into the picture here because Janice seemed to have a bit of a conscience.
I mean, first of all, when she was first married, she complied to her husband.
But she spoke up enough to say, hey, I don't want to do this anymore.
I want to have kids. I want to have a family. I want to live a normal life.
In 1984, Janice was faced with a decision because Cameron had just told her that he wanted to bring in Colleen as his second wife.
What do you think she did? Oh, wow. That just gave me goosebumps.
She was probably mad. I think so. Yeah.
Honestly, there's a third wheel in here somewhere.
And I don't know if it's Janice or Colleen, but obviously there is a third wheel.
And now Cameron wants to solidify everything.
And then we're going into an entirely different situation here.
I'm going to say this was her tipping point because she didn't like the idea. Yeah.
By 1984, Janice seemed to want nothing more, like I said, to just simplify her life, settle down, have an everyday, nice neighborhood, family, raise kids, do all that.
Wipe the good fence. Yes, exactly.
Well, it was during this point in time that Janice went and paid her minister a visit to confess what had taken place behind closed doors over the past seven years.
I think clergymen have a moral confidentiality clause or something like that where they just can't go to the police for anything.
I mean, it's almost like going to a lawyer. It's client lawyer privileges.
So they're not obligated to go to the police. Janice ended up confessing everything that had happened over that period of time.
She went on to tell her minister that she had just released Colleen Stan, who had been living in captivity over the last seven years with her and her husband.
Here are Janice's accounts of events during her church host confession here.
This is what she told the minister.
The Hookers had held a young woman named Colleen Stan in captivity inside their home for the past seven years.
But Janice felt compelled to free Colleen after telling her the truth about everything.
Janice confessed to Colleen that this organized crime mob called The Company did not even exist.
Janice continued on to tell her minister that she had driven Colleen to the bus station to get her back to Eugene, Oregon.
Colleen called her parents, had money wired to her, and she boarded a bus.
But not before placing a phone call to Cameron to say that she was leaving and there was nothing he could do to stop her.
Wow, I would probably wait until I was gone.
Or why did she even call him in the first place?
I think that she and Janice probably had a conversation and that was probably what they agreed would be best.
But imagine being in Colleen's shoes right now.
Could you imagine after seven years having the wife of this man who is holding you captive tell you the truth about everything?
I mean, wow, just wow.
I'd be flabbergasted.
I don't even know how I would react to that.
I don't either. She was lucky.
She was very lucky. Yes, absolutely.
Now, during the conversation between Janice and Colleen, Janice begged Colleen not to tell the police because I think that Janice wanted to do this herself.
I think that she felt that she could reform Cameron into going back to the picket fence life and everything would just turn out great.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
She's been married to him for a long time now.
From my understanding, Colleen did not go to the police.
But I will tell you this. Janice is the one that ended up turning him in.
Oh, I don't want to give her props here because she went along with this scheme for seven years.
So long. Yeah, clearly she has a conscience.
Clearly she wanted to do the right thing.
Maybe not from the beginning, but I don't want people listening to this think that I feel sorry for her because she did go along for the ride for so long.
But I'm glad that she woke up and she did have a conscience enough to let Colleen go and to go to the police.
That's all I'm saying, right?
Because I don't know what's going on in her head.
In 1985, Cameron stood trial for the kidnapping and rape of Colleen Stan.
His defense attorneys argued that Cameron was innocent because the sexual relations between Colleen and himself were consensual.
The prosecution was able to produce damning evidence such as that box that Colleen was confined to,
the contract executed by the Ghost Mafia called The Company,
and also there were photos of Colleen being held in bondage.
So there was obviously enough evidence to prosecute Cameron here.
He was found guilty of all charges and was sentenced to 104 years in prison where he remains today.
Wow. He was denied parole in 2015 and won't be eligible to go back to the parole board until 2030.
So another seven years from now.
Oh my gosh.
Janice did receive immunity for testifying against her husband in this case.
She is a free woman today and she helps get this.
She works as a social worker in California.
Oh, wow.
She does not keep in touch with Colleen.
And I mean, there might be a court order.
I would say I wouldn't want to remain in touch with somebody like that.
No, me neither.
Yeah. And, you know, I guess the good part of this is that Janice does have a conscience
and she's doing good for the world.
And that's kind of the way that I see it.
Right. And there had to have been some kind of...
Trigger?
No, I just don't foresee her being completely forgiven
because she did go along with everything for seven years
unless there was some kind of threats being made from Cameron towards her.
Does that make sense?
Oh, yes. I never thought of that.
You might be right. That's a great concept.
Yeah, it's just I don't think it's just common for a couple to be doing something
for seven years and both of them not serve time.
There had to have been something more in the mix as to why she she was just immune from everything.
But I'm glad. I'm glad she's doing better and has, you know, made some some better choices.
So, yep.
All right. Well, that is the story of Colleen Stan, also known as the girl in the box.
And I'm very thankful that Colleen made it out of the situation.
Extra thankful that she boarded that bus without looking back.
That to me is amazing.
So any other thoughts, Shelbs?
No, I don't think so.
I'm glad she got out of it alive because not all of our stories end up like that.
All right. Well, as always, we would like to hear from our listeners as to what you have to say about our storyline.
Be sure to DM us on Instagram or click on our link tree in the show notes to learn more about our podcast.
There you go. All righty.
What's our teachable moment for today?
Well, Shelbs, I did try to think about a good teachable moment here, but guess what?
I want to turn the tables here a little bit because as I was reflecting on this storyline,
I was thinking, you know what? You have a tween in your house.
What would you tell her about paying attention to her surroundings or getting in the car with a stranger?
Oh, we're going to turn this teachable moment around on you.
It is something we have talked about several times.
You know, we live very close to a small gas station.
They serve sandwiches and a little tiny gas station.
It's locally owned little mom and pop shop.
And it's a two minute walk from our house, not on a main road or anything.
And I've explained you've got to be careful.
You might be two minutes away, but if someone picks you up and grabs you and throws you in their car,
you're going to be gone and I'm not going to know where you went.
So I teach them all the time. Be aware of your surroundings.
Notice what's going on around you.
Are there a lot of strange cars because I would consider that is a touristy area.
Yeah. So are there a lot of tourists coming through?
I would say no, it's more so the locals know about the spot, not the tourists.
But even though it's a tiny town, you don't know everybody.
Yeah. So even if it's two minutes away, I mean, anything can happen in a split second.
Fear based communication here. Is that what I'm hearing?
No, I don't want to put the fear into them.
But I mean, these days you can't just pretend like everything's going to be all right all the time.
I'm not going to skate around the truth.
Yeah, don't sugarcoat it. Absolutely.
Yeah, that's the perfect word. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
Like it can happen. I think you get that from me.
No, we talked about that. I got double whammied between you and dad.
Oh, goodness. All right.
Well, that was a good little teachable moment there, Shelby.
Yeah. I appreciate that.
Thanks. I was unexpected.
I know you're good at just on the spot responses. That was pretty good.
All right. Well, I'm excited about getting back into our routine again.
It has been a wild ride, but I think that we are getting back into it again.
So to our listeners, thanks for hanging with us.
And if you have any storylines you want to hear, make sure you give us a shout
and we will talk to you next week.
Bye.
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