Twenty-year-old Colleen Stan was on her way to a friend’s birthday in northern California when her soon-to-be captor Cameron Hooker and wife Janice picked up the hitchhiker. Stan would spend much of the next seven years trapped in a box that let in no light, sound or fresh air, convinced by the Hookers that a mysterious and dangerous organization would kill her and her family if she didn’t comply.

Under an agreement between Janice and Cameron, and eventually through a forcibly signed contract with Stan, the young woman was to be a sex slave for Cameron, though no penetration initially occurred. When Stan was let out of her box—where she spent up to 23 hours a day, eating cold food scraps and using a bedpan—she was tortured and raped using various objects. Several years into captivity, a brainwashed Stan was allowed to visit her family once and even got a job. But when Cameron said he wanted Stan to be his second wife, the entire horrifying situation fell apart. Stan eventually got on a bus and fled to her family, while Janice turned her husband in, receiving immunity for her full cooperation.