Beauty and the Beast: The Girl in the Box | Colleen Stan
Serial Napper | True Crime for the Chronically TiredShow Notes
In May of 1977, 20-year-old Colleen Stan was hitchhiking through California when a young couple stopped to offer her a ride. With a woman and a baby inside the vehicle, Colleen believed she had found a safe way to finish her journey. She was wrong.
For the next seven years, Colleen would live under the control of Cameron Hooker, hidden from the world even as life carried on around her. But perhaps the most difficult part of her story to understand came when the physical barriers began to disappear. Colleen was eventually allowed outside. She worked. She interacted with other people. She even returned home to visit her family. And still, she went back.
For this episode of Serial Nightmare, we're exploring the dark side of Beauty and the Beast through the story of Colleen Stan, and how fear, coercion and years of psychological control can create a prison without walls. Because unlike the fairy tale, Colleen didn't return to the Beast because she'd fallen in love with him.
She returned because she'd been taught to believe that leaving could be even more dangerous than staying.
Content warning: This episode discusses kidnapping, captivity, sexual assault, physical and psychological abuse, coercive control and torture.
Sources:
https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-the-girl-n-the-box/cat-mcauliffe
https://allthatsinteresting.com/colleen-stan-the-girl-in-the-box
https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/crime-news/girl-in-the-box-where-is-colleen-stan-now
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1771222.html
https://www.aol.com/articles/jury-blocks-release-infamous-girl-160009000.html
https://www.dsh.ca.gov/Treatment/Sex_Offender_Commitments.htm
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1771222.html
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