Murder, Mystery & Makeup - The Woodworking Wacko - Psychopath Cameron Hooker
Episode Date: April 2, 2024Hi friends, happy Tuesday! Today we’re talking about Cameron Hooker: was everything terrible you can imagine. The worst part, nobody even did anything about it for years- not even his wife. What do... you guys think should have happened to Janice after all of this? Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian ________ : : F O L L O W M E : : Discord: http://discord.gg/baileysarian Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d RECOMMEND A STORY HERE : cases4bailey@gmail.com Business Related Emails : Baileysarianteam@wmeagency.com Wanna Send Me Something? Bailey Sarian 4400 W Riverside Dr Ste 110-300, Burbank, CA 91505 _________ We have a special deal for our audience: Get your first visit for only five dollars at https://www.Apostrophe.com/MAKEUP when you use our code: MAKEUP. Stop wasting money on things you don’t use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to https://www.RocketMoney.com/MAKEUP.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Everyone's got a pro. Need tires? I've got a pro. Car making a weird sound? I've got a pro. So who's that pro?
The pros at Tread Experts. From tires to auto repair, Tread Experts is always there, helping you with Michelin tires you can trust.
Until May 30th, receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard with purchase of four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires.
Find your pro at your local Tread Experts.
From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca
Did you know that many products for pregnant women do not have their own clinical trials
for safety or efficacy? That's because pregnant women are often excluded from clinical studies.
Ritual is aiming to set a new standard with their
essential prenatal multivitamin. It's the number one best-selling prenatal and the only leading
prenatal backed by its own human clinical trial. Essential prenatal is proven to deliver key
nutrients, including folate, biotin, and vitamin D during pregnancy. Moms taking essential prenatal had a lower overall cortisol level during pregnancy
than those taking a leading prenatal.
Plus, it's designed to be gentle on the stomach.
Ritual doesn't just have your back.
They have the receipts.
Get 25% off at ritual.com slash clinical.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug
Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Hi, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian,
and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. I'm already nervously
laughing in my head because today's story...
You know how you guys are like,
Hey Bailey, Bailey! What's like the one story that keeps you up at night?
This one. This one right here. This one's sick.
It's always the ones that are crafty, right? Right? They're so sick!
Okay, so today's story, it takes place in the year 1976.
Yeah. Prime serial killer time, right?
So we first start off our story with a young woman
named Marie Elizabeth Spanicki.
Now, Miss Marie Elizabeth,
she mainly went by the name Marliz,
which is like a combination of her first name
and her middle name, Marliz.
Marie Elizabeth.
I thought it was cute.
So Marliz is from Cleveland, Ohio.
It seems like she had just a really nice situation,
a good home life.
In her family, she's the second born out of five kids.
So Marliz and her older sister,
I mean, they were like super close.
And I don't know, apparently Miss Marlis
was just a really well-known, well-liked young lady.
You know?
In school, Marlis was very popular.
She's pretty, she's smart.
And again, everyone just really seemed to have
nothing but good things to say about her.
They would describe her as just being someone
that you would wanna be around, you know?
Oh my God. I just thought that that you would wanna be around, you know? Oh my God.
I just thought that's literally every true crime story, huh?
Damn it.
Marliz.
According to her older sister, Marliz
had like a secret passion or a secret desire, you know?
She wanted to get out of Cleveland
and go on to become a movie star, you know?
So she wants to become a movie star, Okay. I mean, she's cute.
She's bubbly. Everyone likes her. Just go for it. They're telling her, go for it. Why not? You can
do it. If anyone could do it, Marliz could do it. In 1976, Marliz is fresh out of high school. She's
18. And then she quickly finds a job at like a local camera store. And while she's working there,
she meets a guy named John, John B.
I forget his last name, sorry.
So he's a few years older than her.
And I mean, truthfully, he's her supervisor, okay?
But the two, they end up hitting it off, you know?
And eventually they actually decide to become official
and start dating.
Yeah, good for her.
So the guy she's dating, John,
he lives in Ohio, kind of, sort of. And the company they both work for had him go out to Ohio for a
while, right? So he was gone all the time. But his next plan was to move back to California,
where he was originally from. Well, time passes a little bit, not long, but you know, the two end up
falling in love and they decide to get married. You know, when John proposes to Marliz, he's like,
hey, look, let's move back to my home state, California. And Marliz, I mean, she said she
loved him, but also in the back of her mind, I mean, I don't know for sure, but many speculate
that she's like, California,
you know, like that's where the movie stars are at, okay? It's like one step closer to achieving her dreams. So of course, I mean, she wants to go to California. Hell yeah, I'm in. And the two of
them end up moving to John's hometown of Chico, California. Have I been in Chico? I think on accident. Never intentionally. So Chico, if you
don't know, is in Northern California and it's like a little, it's not little. Yeah, it's kind
of, it's quaint. There you go. But there's like plenty of restaurants and things to do over there.
Their downtown area is so cute. Well, this time, I haven't seen it recently. It could have changed.
But like, you know, it's like a college town.
There's lots of stuff to do, whatever.
Marliz and John, they end up renting an apartment
in the downtown area and they start to settle
into their new lives in Chico, California.
Now, according to Marliz's sister,
she said that Marliz would often call and she was having like a difficult time transitioning into this new life, right?
I guess when they had first moved to Chico, Marliz and John, they started to argue in a bit.
It was nothing major, but, you know, it wasn't all rainbows and lollipops.
It was a relationship.
And sometimes they suck.
Exactly.
And the reason I bring this up is because Marliz
and her fiance, they ended up going to a local flea market
on January 31st, 1976.
The two of them, they end up going together
and they're just like looking at all the bric-a-brac,
you know, and while they're there,
they end up getting into some kind of an argument.
And Marliz is like, you know what?
Screw you, screw this, I'm leaving.
And she decides to go home.
She's leaving and like, you know, in a huff, right?
When you're frustrated, you just gotta,
I don't need you, I'll walk.
It's one of those moments.
You know when you do that,
but low-key you want him to like fight for you, whatever. Anyways, but John's like fine. And he ends up driving off.
Okay. So he's like, fine, walk home, whatever. He heads back to the apartment and he just waits.
He's like, you know, she'll come walking in that door, but maybe she just needs some time to think
a little bit. But really she's probably way more pissed. Like he really drove off. I told him to
leave and he actually left. I don't know who this man thinks he pissed. Like, he really drove off? I told him to leave and he actually left?
I don't know who this man thinks he is.
Anyways, so John is waiting at the apartment, right?
He's just kind of sitting there waiting for her to come home.
And more and more time is passing.
And Marliz, she wasn't walking in the door.
He's like, okay.
So in the beginning, you know, when Marliz wasn't really showing up,
John's like, you know, no big deal.
She probably just needs her space.
I'll let her cool off.
You know?
And this part made me roll my eyes.
But who am I?
I'm not judging.
But I'm low-key judging John.
Because he lets a full day go by.
And by the end of day two, John is starting to think, huh.
It's not funny. It's just like, really? Okay. Like, yeah. Day two,
end of day two. He's like, you know, maybe she left. He started thinking maybe she went back to
Ohio, like back to her family's home. It wasn't impossible, right? She was telling her family how
unhappy she was. So he's like, yeah, maybe she went back to Ohio. But here's
the thing. None of Marliz's stuff was packed or even gone. Nothing was gone. Everything was the
same, right? So nothing is really making sense. And John is thinking at the end of day two,
maybe something is actually wrong, right? Like where is she? So two full days go by and then John goes
and files a missing persons report.
He's really upfront with the police.
He tells them like right away,
the last time he saw Marliz was when they had a fight.
And even though he was being honest, police, of course,
what are they gonna do?
They have to, he's suspect number one.
They're like, bro, you were probably involved.
So police were thinking to themselves like, okay, so you took this girl away from her family, moved her out here.
You guys get into a fight and then she disappears.
And you have nothing to do with it?
Sure, buddy. Sure. So again, John, he had nothing to do with it? Yeah, sure buddy, sure.
So again, John, he had nothing to hide, right?
Like he's insistent with the police
that he had zero involvement, right?
And I mean, of course it takes some time,
but the police, they end up clearing him.
Now after that whole mess,
police officially declare Marliz as a missing person.
Now, this is when they realize that they have zero leads as to where she went or like what might have even happened to her.
Plus, she never showed up back home in Ohio or anywhere else for that matter, right?
Like Marliz just poof, vanished, gone. No trace, nothing.
Did you know that many products for pregnant women do not have their own clinical trials
for safety or efficacy? That's because pregnant women are often excluded from clinical studies.
Ritual is aiming to set a new standard with their Essential
Prenatal Multivitamin. It's the number one best-selling prenatal and the only leading
prenatal backed by its own human clinical trial. Essential Prenatal is proven to deliver key
nutrients, including folate, biotin, and vitamin D during pregnancy. Moms taking essential prenatal had a lower overall cortisol level during pregnancy
than those taking a leading prenatal.
Plus, it's designed to be gentle on the stomach.
Ritual doesn't just have your back.
They have the receipts.
Get 25% off at ritual.com slash clinical.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
You can't rely on blind faith to get the pregnancy support you deserve. Ritual's essential prenatal
multivitamin is the only leading prenatal backed by its own human clinical trial. Essential prenatal
is proven to deliver key nutrients, including folate,
biotin, and vitamin D during pregnancy. Get 25% off when you visit ritual.com slash clinical.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is
not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I mean, after this, the case ends up going cold.
We'll circle back later, but now we go on to Colleen.
So a year goes by.
It's now May 20th of 1977,
and we are in the Eugene, Oregon area.
Now this is where 20 year old Colleen, Colleen Stan,
is on the side of the road trying to catch a ride
to a small town called Westwood, California.
And yes, this is definitely a bad story
that starts with a young woman hitchhiking,
but it's the 70s and it was normal then, you know?
It was normal.
It was like the 70s way of getting an Uber, okay?
So I don't want to hear in the
comment section that she shouldn't have been hitchhiking. Ask your mom. She probably did it.
So Miss Colleen, she's just, she was your average 20-year-old. She grew up in Riverside, California
in a pretty loving household. Well, actually like two loving households, really. Her parents had
divorced when she was pretty young, but her parents, they did a really
great, they took high priority of like really doing co-parenting correctly or like making it
work the best that they could. So much so that like the parents had lived down the street from
one another. So Colleen and her siblings had both parents super close. Her dad ended up remarrying and she ended up being
the oldest of a like new big blended family. And I guess it really like worked out for them. And
honestly, I was like, wow, you just don't always hear that. And it was nice to hear or read,
I should say. Good for them. So with this new blended family, Colleen, she inherits like a
bunch of step-siblings. and since she's the oldest,
they all really looked up to her, you know? And her sisters seemed to like really adore her
and they all seemed very close from the outside, right? When Colleen turned 19, she was looking
to spread her wings and fly, as we do when we're that age. And that's when she ends up moving to Eugene, Oregon with like some friends
of hers. So May 20th was one of Colleen's like best friend's birthdays, okay? And Colleen, she
really wanted to surprise her by showing up to her house, which was in Westwood, California. This
wasn't super easy to get to, but Colleen, she wanted to make it happen, right? So on the morning that she was supposed
to head out, she goes out to her car, you know, she's planning ahead, all that jazz. She goes out
to her car, dead, right? So I guess at this point, she's like, I guess I can just hitchhike to Westwood.
I mean, it's not impossible, not ideal, but it's not impossible, you know? But Colleen, she was
really set on this idea and ends
up hitchhiking her way there so colleen she ends up getting some rides with like a bunch of long
distance truckers who were able to get her all the way to northern california where she finally
makes it to a town called red bluff yeah red bluffuff, it wasn't a big city at all.
I mean, at the time it had a population of around 9,000,
but it was conveniently located like right off the freeway.
So it was like just an easy stop.
So now the challenge for Colleen was to hitch a ride east
up into the hills.
So this mission would be a little bit harder for her
because the few ride offers that she did get,
she said like left her with a really uneasy feeling,
you know, which led her to just end up passing
on these rides instead.
But then this car pulls over and inside is a couple
and they're like, hey, do you wanna ride?
Colleen would take a peek inside
and it's like this younger guy, maybe around her age,
looked to be his wife,
who looked maybe a few years younger than him.
And then with them was a little infant baby, you know?
You know, when Colleen takes a peek inside,
she's like, oh, they're just like this cute little family.
Right?
The one thing Colleen did notice
was that the guy, the guy that was driving,
he looked kind of dirty, like he had
worked with his hands a lot. And it seemed like maybe he had just like gotten off of work. But
overall, Colleen had a safe feeling about this family, you know? So she ends up telling them
where she's headed to Westwood. And who wouldn't you know it, this couple tells her they were going there too.
What are the odds?
I mean really, what are the odds?
She's like, wow, that's crazy.
Honestly though, like if I saw a family, like this cute little family driving, I too would
get in because it's like, you know, they got the whole family there.
It just feels safe.
Ooh, bad.
Damn it.
Doesn't end well.
Anyway, so she gets into the car and they end up taking off. It just feels safe. Ooh, bad. Damn it. Doesn't end well.
Anyway, so she gets into the car and they end up taking off.
The guy, he seems super friendly
and he's just asking Colleen a bunch of questions like,
where are you from?
Where are you going?
And Colleen said that she felt comfortable enough
to share her plans with him.
And then Colleen tells the couple
that she wanted to surprise her friend for her birthday and that nobody knew she was coming.
She was like, yeah, it's going to be a surprise.
I think she said too much, you know.
But the ride continues.
Colleen, no.
So time passes as they're all heading to Westwood.
And at one point, they end up stopping to get some gas, you know?
So while the guy who was driving is pumping the gas, the mom and baby go into the gas station to pay.
And that's when Colleen takes some time to freshen up in the bathroom. And Colleen would say that when she was in the bathroom, that's where she gets like
this overwhelming feeling, just a really strong feeling that she needs to get the hell out of
there. You know, there's that voice in her head, in her gut, somewhere saying, bitch, run. But you
know, so often we just don't listen to ourselves. Point blank, period. Facts, hunty.
You know?
It's so true, though.
So she ignores that voice and pushes it aside and continues forward.
You know, when you're in your early 20s, I don't think you know the difference between, like, that inner voice.
I'm not trying to, like, put this on her or anything.
I'm saying in general.
It's like we just don't know how to listen to that voice yet. Or maybe you do. I don't know your life,
but I sure didn't. Still to this day, I'm like, is that my inner voice saying that? Or is that
the bad milk I drink? Could be either. Or sometimes you feel like you're just being ridiculous for
feeling like you're not supposed to be somewhere. And you're like, shut up, boys. You're fine. Just anxiety. Like, it could be so many other things. I get it. I get it. So when Colleen gets
back to the vehicle, she gets into the backseat, you know? And that's when she notices, like,
there's this weird box in the backseat with her that wasn't there before. This box, it looked
like it was handmade out of wood. It had a hole on like one side and
two lashes on the other. So it like opened up like a suitcase. It is a big box. Colleen, she's like,
okay, box. And then just doesn't really think much about it, you know? So they're driving again,
right? The couple tells her that they're just going to make it like a quick little pit stop
because off the road were some like ice caves that they wanted to see. And I that they're just gonna make it like a quick little pit stop because off the road what
were some like ice caves that they wanted to see and I guess there really are like ice caves over
there it checked out just thought that was random but okay Colleen's like great I was kind of hoping
we could just like go uh-huh but okay ice caves cool uh-huh So they end up turning off onto a dirt road and they pull over right next to a little creek.
So the woman and the little baby, they get out of the car and they walk down to the creek.
Meanwhile, Colleen is like, I'll just stay here.
So Colleen's in the car.
She's looking out the window, you know, she's watching the mom and the baby play in the water.
And that's when she realizes she has no idea where that guy went. The guy who was driving the car, you know? She's watching the mom and the baby play in the water. And that's when she realizes,
she has no idea where that guy went.
The guy who was driving the car, you know?
She was like, where the hell is he?
She's looking around, trying to figure that out.
And then right in that moment, she finds out.
Because literally seconds later,
he jumps into the back passenger side of the car, okay?
But now this guy, this driver is holding a knife like to her face.
It's upsetting.
So this guy tells her, look,
if you do what I say, I won't hurt you, you know?
And she's like, okay.
I mean, what other choice does she have?
So he ends up tying her up
and then he grabs that DIY box, right?
That weird little fucking box.
And he puts that weird box right over her head.
Now, it turns out this box was made just for that, to place over the head, a head box, I guess.
Oh, it's so gross. With this box over Colleen's head, you know, she tries screaming, crying,
whatever, but nobody can hear her because this box,
for as weird as it is,
it had some serious thought put into it.
Whoever made it had lined the inside heavily,
like a couple layers, with soundproof material.
Yeah, so you could scream all you want.
Nobody was going to hear you.
Why?
Just sucks that there's people out there like this,
you know, like what the hell?
Oh, it only gets worse, don't worry.
So Colleen, she still has hope.
I mean, that lady, that woman, that mom and the baby,
they were still not back to the car yet.
And Colleen's thinking there's no way, you know,
that that woman and that baby are gonna be okay
with like this box over my head and stuff, right? Like there's no way, there know, that that woman and that baby are going to be okay with like this box over my head
and stuff, right? Like there's no way. There's no way. So she's kind of just like waiting, right?
Hoping that something's going to happen. But to her surprise, they come back to the car and they
do nothing. Nothing happened. They start the car. The family continues on their journey as if no box was on anyone's head.
I'm sure by now you can imagine that
they weren't taking Colleen to her friend's house
in Westwood, oh nay nay.
Instead, they were heading right back to the couple's home.
I mean, I guess their home was like placed
on a decent sized piece of land in Red Bluff, California.
And once they arrive, the woman and the baby get out of the car or whatever.
But like the guy grabs Colleen, takes her out of the car, walks her into the home.
And then heads straight downstairs into the basement where nothing good happens.
I've never heard a good basement story. So once
they get into the basement, that's when this loser removes the head box. He blindfolds her
in hopes that she would have zero clue as to where she was, right? Okay. Once in the basement,
he ends up locking her arms into two straps that were
hanging from the rafters from the ceiling. Then he did the same thing, but tying her ankles to
another set of straps. Now this whole setup, it would end up leaving her body fully pulled
out into an X shape with no support underneath her.
Poor thing.
I hate this story.
Colleen would later say that being left in this X shape was extremely painful because her body weight was like tugging on her arms, right?
There's nowhere to put her feet, right?
Yeah.
Which was just leading her to panic more and more, which I'm sure we can all understand.
And in turn, she just was like flailing around.
Colleen also said that she actually could see
through her blindfold and she could actually see a photo
from what appeared to be a newspaper or a magazine,
but whatever it was, it was taped to the wall.
The photo she saw was like of a woman
in the same type of bondage situation she was in.
So she's thinking, you know,
was it a bondage instruction manual?
Yeah. Was it a previous victim?
I mean, the mind is going all sorts of ways, right?
Well, this guy, obviously he was triggered by, and he attempts to get Colleen's panicking and crying to stop.
And the only way he knows how to do this is by whipping her.
Yeah.
So this idiot over here, he grabs a whip that he, like, had ready to go, okay?
And it seems, again, DIY. And he whips her back for about 10 minutes straight,
all while she's hanging in that X position, you know? Well, I guess once he felt like he was done,
he brings a box over so she can finally rest her feet on something. Wow, so kind. Yeah,
he's like, I'm going to give you a break. So Colleen, she
said when she was given this little break, she was able to once again peek from underneath her
blindfold. And that's when she sees, God, that's when she sees the couple that gave her the ride
engaging in sexual relations right at her feet. I don't know, you guys. I don't
have anything for you right now, you know? I don't have any ideas. I don't know. I don't know what
this is. I don't know. What is this? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what this
is. I'm laughing because it's so like, what? What the fuck is wrong with these people? What are you
doing? Obviously, you're not okay, but why do you got to bring other people into it, you know? Poor Colleen. So once the couple is finished, I guess,
the guy gets up and he ends up taking that box from underneath her feet and again leaves her
like that for about 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes, he takes her down. He puts her head back
into that freaking head box. And what she didn't know was
that there was now another box ready for her to use. Yeah. Now, this other box is also awful,
but this one was made specifically for the body. So it's a body box. He's like, yeah. I mean,
this guy had a passion for woodworking and he was making all
kinds of crazy shit. So he ends up getting Colleen down from, you know, hanging from the fucking
whatever. And he places her into the larger body box. He ends up chaining her wrists and ankles to
this box because I guess inside the box there
were like chains set up so he chains her to it this is like literally my nightmare the weird
thing about this was that the chains inside this body box would leave her limbs slightly suspended
so it's like hurting excruciating torture and you're in a fucking box dude bro what the fuck okay so she's now in this box but also
he uh has her head colleen's head is still covered by that head box just an absolute
fucking nightmare like what is this well colleen she would end up spending the rest of her night
in that freaking box yeah so the next day that man comes down,
he takes her out of the body box and puts her on yet another handmade contraption. This guy had
like a full-on workshop of torture devices in his basement. It was giving me toy box killer vibes,
you know? Remember that one? I mean, no likey. The next device he was bringing to the table was called
the rack. Now I could, I didn't really know what this was. Like when I think of the rack, I think
of like the medieval torture device where they like turn a wheel and it kind of stretches you
out. But I couldn't find what his definition of the rack was. All the information I could get was
that he handcuffed her hands and her feet to this rack
while her head was still in the head box and then he ends up like leaving her there for another full
day. For what purpose? You know? Like shit. I guess at one point he's like, hey I should probably feed
her, so he brings her some food. But at the same time, Colleen, she's not really that hungry, you know? Most likely
because she's a little freaked out. I'm not sure. And maybe food was the last thing on her mind,
but what do I know? Well, this made that man very upset. He made her that plate and she was
refusing to eat. He was like, I am deeply upset. And because of this, he ends up deciding to punish her. As
punishment, he chains her back to the ceiling and whips her for not eating. Afterwards, he puts her
back onto the rack and he ends up leaving her there for 10 days. My God. I know. This freaks me out. Torture? Especially when we got little DIY daddy
being all creepy and shit. Just ugh. Anyway, at this point though, Colleen, she was completely
naked with her head in a box tied to this thing for 10 whole days. That should just be the end, I wish.
After these 10 days, it's back to the body box.
And this is where he starts to like establish
Colleen's new routine.
Like she was only allowed out of the box once a day
for about 20 minutes, and that was only to eat
or use the bathroom, only under his supervision, of course.
And as a special treat.
Every once in a while,
he would keep her out of the box for a little bit longer,
you know, maybe like 30 minutes,
only because he wanted to practice
different bondage techniques on her,
like whipping her with a handmade device,
constricting her breathing.
He tried shocking her with electric cords, submerging her
completely underwater until she almost drowned, and also burning her in her pubic area with a
heat lamp. That was a special treat for him. I know, I don't want to talk about it. I'm already
talking about it. What is there to say? So as you can tell,
things really suck over there. Like it's so fucked. Glad we agree. So guess what? You thought 10 days
was bad? Well, let me tell you something. He would stick to this routine for a full five to six
months. Remember just a few minutes ago, we were like, oh my God, 10 days. Yeah. Wow. Ew.
Now we're at six months. Okay. Colleen, she estimated that he had whipped her and tortured
her at least 90 to a hundred times within those six months. So after those six months had passed,
this absolute demon built Colleen a triangular shaped box, okay? But this box was made specifically
to fit underneath the stairs and this was going to be the box that Colleen lived in. Yeah. So she's
going to live in this box under the stairs. Okay, so it would be around the same time that Colleen
gets her first clue as to who in the hell this demon monster was.
So I guess during one of their torture sessions,
Colleen spotted his belt
and it looked like his belt had a name on it.
And the belt said Cameron.
Honestly, I was picturing like a Paul or something.
Sounds like a thing a Paul would do, right?
Whatever, his name's Cameron, okay?
Fuck that guy.
Why does he have a belt with his name on it?
Is that normal?
Should I get one?
No, you're not a killer.
I mean, what a dummy.
Why is he gonna wear a belt?
Whatever, he's already done, we know this.
So also, it's around this six month period
that this Cameron guy was looking to
like shake things up a bit, you know, to keep
things fresh and exciting, I guess for himself. So he goes to Colleen and he gives her a piece of
paper and he's like, I need you to sign this. So Colleen, she looks over this paper and she realizes
that it's a quote unquote slave contract. The fuck? Yeah. According to Cameron, this contract was backed by a legit
underground society called The Company. I mean, that's at least what he told Colleen. So Cameron
explains to Colleen that The Company was like an underground organization, kind of like a cult.
But this organization specifically bought and sold slaves. And if any
of them escaped, they would be caught and tortured to death. So he tells Colleen that he's a member
of this company and he has been granted his own slave. And well, she's she's it right I don't know how she's taking this all in
this is so much right like how he also ends up telling her that the company members were
everywhere just constantly watching slaves for any sign of escape and that they were always
watching and just waiting I mean say what you what you will, but Colleen, again,
she was only 20 years old. She's malnourished. She's physically diminished and just in survival
mode. So she believes him. I would probably believe him too. He's torturing you and building
fucking boxes. I guess Cameron would spend some time talking about the company. She was like, what else? I don't
know. It could be real. I want to find out. Cameron even told her that his wife, remember the lady?
She had once been a slave who tried to escape from her master. And that's why her knees were so bad.
Because when she got caught, they, whoever they is, damaged her leg so bad she couldn't leave. So that's why she had bad knees.
I just think of that. That's why she's got bad knees. So before she signs, she continues reading
through the contract and notices that there are names on the contract that, I don't know, she's
like, I've never seen these names before. Colleen saw that her name was on there, but the guy with the Cameron belt, he was listed as Michael Powers and his wife was listed
as Janice Powers. So Colleen asked like, I thought your name was Cameron. And he ends up telling her
that his name was indeed Cameron and his wife's name was really Janice, but they both went by the last
name Powers within the company. Now, Colleen is just kind of like reading through the contract
and Cameron's getting a little antsy like, hey, you should really sign that contract because the
company's watching you right now. And if you don't, you're going to cause yourself some bigger problems,
you know, just really scaring her.
So she signs it. Not like that contract means anything, okay?
You can't rely on blind faith to get the pregnancy support you deserve. Ritual's essential prenatal multivitamin is the only leading prenatal backed by its own human clinical
trial. Essential prenatal is proven to deliver key nutrients,
including folate, biotin, and vitamin D during pregnancy. Get 25% off when you visit ritual.com
slash clinical. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
So who are these people, right? This super fucked up family.
What I've learned about Cameron is that his name is Cameron Hooker.
And oh, get this, at the time of the kidnapping, guess how old he was?
Guess how old he was?
23 years old.
Now some of you might be like, why does that matter?
I was shooketh by this because that's young for him to be doing this type of shit.
It's just like, huh?
Like most people at 23 are just partying being shitheads in other ways, like ways that, you
know, you're just dumb.
You're not, if you're 23, don't worry, I'm not coming for you.
It's just, you know. So what I'm getting at though, is that he was only three years older than Colleen.
Yeah. He was born in November, I think like November, early November. So he's a Scorpio,
which kind of makes sense, you know, not like the psycho part, but he was born November of 1953.
He had his mother and father in his life.
He had a younger brother.
The only thing that really stood out was that like his family had moved around a lot in his early years.
So there wasn't like a lot of stability or chances for him to like grow friendships or any type of relationships.
And the family, they didn't end up settling anywhere until they moved to Red Bluff
in 1969. So when they moved to Red Bluff, Cameron was only 16 years old. And then I tried to find
out what his childhood was like, but like, there's nothing really out there, you know? So I think
it's probably safe to say that it was off. He probably had an off upbringing.
A wild guess.
In 1972, when Cameron was 18, he graduated high school.
And right after graduating high school,
he got a job at the local lumber mill.
So he ends up working there for a while.
And that's when he meets 15-year-old Janice, the wifey.
Now, I guess, according to Cameron, Janice was like everything he was looking for. Miss Janice was very shy. She was very codependent. Hell, she was 15,
you know? So at 15, what are you? Everything. Insecure, unsure, just looking for something, someone, anything, really, you know? So seeing Janice's
insecurities, uncertainty, codependency, Cameron saw this as the perfect opportunity to take
advantage of her, Janice. And also, it made it a little bit easier for Cameron to try out all
kinds of bondage stuff on her because she was willing to do anything to make
him happy. Not much to say about Janice, you guys. We'll get back to that in the end. Back to Colleen.
It's 1978, and now that she's like signed the contract, things seem to actually improve for her?
Question mark? You know. First off, she's given a new name by Cameron. Her new
name is Kay. Kay. I know. I was like, wow, creative. Her name's Kay. Kay. Um, okay.
I'm sorry. It was my fault. Okay. I'm just like, I've got to find some humor here because this story sucks. Well, now that she's Kay, she's allowed more time out of the box.
And when she is out of the box, she gets to stay out of there for longer periods of time.
She was allowed to be upstairs and like do housework for them.
Now she was only allowed to call Cameron master or sir.
And she had to call Janice Ma'am. She also had to kneel, bow her head, and ask
permission before doing anything. Up until this time Cameron, he hadn't raped Colleen because one
of Janice's rules was that he was not allowed to have penetrative sex with Colleen. But then that of course changes because it's Cameron
and he's an absolute psychopath.
So after signing the slave contract
and becoming part of the household,
Cameron was like able to talk Janice
into allowing him to have sex with Colleen.
He would even go on to tell Janice like,
the previous engagement is not working for me any longer.
Yeah.
It's just not working for me.
So he decides that he's going to rape Colleen in front of Janice and she's going to watch.
I guess Janice just couldn't handle it.
Like, it literally made her physically sick. So after this, I guess Cameron like puts a pin in it
and I was like, yeah, I guess we'll circle back later, huh?
Can't have you getting sick.
So in April of 1978, at this point,
it had been 11 months since Colleen had been kidnapped.
She's 21 years old.
She's still being tortured and kept in a box.
Meanwhile, Cameron and Janice, they decided this time
it's a good idea to downsize and like move
into a smaller mobile home.
Why would they downsize, you ask?
That's a good question.
I guess at their old location, they didn't really have
as much land as they really wanted to hide a sex slave.
Cameron was more worried about prying eyes. Honestly, I'm not sure if there was
like any truth behind this. It just seemed like Cameron was getting really paranoid. Well, they
end up moving, but in this new place, they didn't have a basement. And as we know, Cameron, he loves
his basement. Little handy man. So instead of having a box in the basement for Colleen, he decides that he needs
to build a new box, which he does. This time the box is like a, it's pretty much coffin-sized box,
right? It's a little bit bigger. And instead of it being in the basement or like under the stairs,
he decides to put this one under the bed where he and Janice sleep.
What I'm getting at is that he managed to build a box
like into their waterbed frame.
Yes, they had a waterbed.
Well, Cameron had promised to her
that this new box would be much more comfortable.
I mean, he's like, look,
it even has enough room for a radio and a bedpan. Luxury.
Now in this new box, Colleen would spend 23 hours a day under the bed inside this box.
First of all, my thought was how in the hell was she staying sane, right? Colleen said that,
you know, the only way she could keep her sanity while in
the box was by focusing on her happy memories, anything happy, memories from her family,
her friends, and she would just fantasize that she was with them the whole time and essentially
just leave her body, you know? She also said that her faith in God kept her from giving up hope.
Well, at this very same time,
Janice finds out she's pregnant with another baby.
Yeah, so there's a lot going on, great.
And in September of 1978,
Janice actually gives birth in the bed
with Colleen still underneath it.
Dude, what the fuck? gives birth in the bed with Colleen still underneath it.
Dude, what the fuck? I just don't even know what to say.
I don't know what to say.
This is a different kind of fucked.
Could you imagine being stuck in a box
underneath someone's freaking water bed for 23 hours a day?
I wouldn't make it.
There's no way.
How do you not lose your fucking money, you know?
In June of 1980, Miss Janice, she ends up getting a job,
you know, cause they need some extra income
because of their growing family.
While Janice was away,
Cameron would let Colleen out of the box
to like make him dinner and wash the dishes.
Could you imagine being relieved to do the chores and all that? out of the box to like make him dinner and wash the dishes.
Could you imagine being relieved
to do the chores and all that?
Well, the Hooker family was just feeling more
and more comfortable letting Colleen out
and like just gave her a lot more responsibilities
around the house, like babysitting the kids
while Janice and Cameron were away at work,
house chores and all that stuff.
And I know you have something,
you're like, why didn't she just leave?
We'll get to that, shut up.
I hate those stupid people.
Why didn't they just leave?
Oh, fuck you.
We're gonna flash forward a bit and baby,
we are into year three of Colleen's confinement.
So not only has she been literally chained in their house most
of the time, but also she still heavily believes in the company. You remember the company, that
thing that like allegedly they were watching her every move. So Colleen would spend most of her
time watching the kids, you know, house cleaning, all that stuff. And Colleen would say that this was actually like
some of the best times that she had with the Hooker family and that those little kids, she loved
babysitting them. And also they let her know that like there was still good in the world
through these kids. It was just so sad. During this year, Colleen was now allowed to sleep
chained to a toilet in the
bathroom of the mobile home they were staying at, which was an upgrade of some sorts. But also,
there were very few restrictions placed on her. So Colleen would play with the kids and stuff and
have her meals with the family. She would even get to go for a jog. It was like a little breath of fresh air, you know? The downside,
this is also the time when Cameron started raping her a lot. Colleen estimated that around March of
1980, Cameron was like raping her at least once or twice a week. And he also kept this a secret from his wife Janice because, you know,
she knew she would be mad, and women,
so he had to keep it a little secret
because Janice would be mad.
So I think here is where we should talk a little bit
about Stockholm Syndrome.
I'll just give you a quick little breakdown for you,
a Google breakdown for you. Stockholm
Syndrome is when a victim starts to form a deep psychological bond with their captor. It was
named after an incident that took place in Stockholm in like 1973, where a bunch of hostages
of a bank robbery started sympathizing with the robbers and even went so far as to refuse to testify against them
later in court.
It feels very weird to think about it at face value,
but it makes sense as a survival tactic.
When you have zero leverage in a scary situation,
your brain will warp your reality
for you to like try and find a way to keep you alive.
So much so that your brain will you to like try and find a way to keep you alive. So much so that
your brain will start to make you believe that you are in love with your captor in order to
shield you from the trauma of it. There's obviously a lot more to it, but that's just kind of like
a quick little breakdown. I know a lot of us, you hear it all the time. People just don't get it. Why didn't you just leave? But it's one big mindfuck. And unless you experience it,
you just can't understand it. Yeah. Because with Colleen, she stays for quite some time,
poor thing. So Colleen would later say that she told Cameron she loved him, not only to like
keep him from abusing her more, but also because she was genuinely grateful
for like the little freedoms that he gave her that year.
I know, you're at home right now thinking,
what about her family?
What the hell is going on?
We'll get to that.
Calm down.
It's a long story.
And the most important freedom that Cameron gave her
this very year was her family.
You're never gonna believe this.
Oh my God, I was like, what, what, what?
Yes, Cameron allows Colleen to contact her family.
Her family had, as you can imagine,
been through complete hell.
Colleen had disappeared without a trace.
And after a few days, her roommates in Oregon
began to worry about her, right?
So they contacted her friend in Westwood, the one, you know, she was going to go see.
This friend told the other friends that she never showed up.
So her roommates, they call her father to tell him that they haven't seen Colleen in like days and no one has been able to get a hold of her.
So immediately, her dad and her mom get into the
car and they drive up to Eugene. I mean, that's like the natural place to start, right? So they
head up there and open an investigation with law enforcement declaring Colleen a missing person.
Her family was completely devastated. I mean, nobody, no leads. They would say to them, it felt like it was truly impossible to lose all hope
because they hadn't found any of these things.
Well, Cameron allowed Colleen to make a few telephone calls
to her family in 1980.
Yeah, 1980.
He's like, fine.
But like, of course it was only under his supervision.
I'm sure her family was like, what the fuck?
You know, like at least they're hearing
from their daughter.
Once they did hear from her
after two and a half years of silence, she's alive.
But they could tell that she was very guarded.
And the only conclusion that they could come to was like,
you know, she's in a cult.
Wow, she just up and joined a cult.
Yeah, makes sense, checks out, right? I a cult. Wow, she just up and joined a cult. Yeah, makes sense.
Checks out, right?
I would probably think the same thing.
Would I?
I don't know.
Maybe, you know?
But I don't like, I can see their thought process
is really what I'm getting at.
I'd be like, is it Scientology, honey?
I heard about that one.
But regardless, even to hear from their daughter
was like, wow, they were so relieved
and decided it would be
best if they just like played it cool, right? They don't want to spook her. You know, people in cults,
they tend to get spooked easily. Everyone just remained calm and just everything's okay, you know?
They just wanted to make sure that their lines of communication was as open as possible. They did not want to push
her away in any way, shape, or form. Smart. Well, in 1981, Cameron tells Colleen, Colleen, not Colleen,
that he got special permission from the company, the company, to take her and visit her family.
So Cameron tells her that he had to put up a $30,000
security deposit to cover the company's cost of watching Colleen and her family, but
she earned it. So he's like, hey, if you want to see your family, you know, first you have to prove
your loyalty. She's like, okay, how do I do that? You know okay how do i do that you know how do i do
that how does she do that let me tell you because this part's even more fucked up so cameron okay
so he's like you're gonna prove your loyalty to me so he hands her a gun he tells her to put it in
her mouth waits a little bit and then tells her to pull the trigger.
Could you imagine?
Could you imagine?
This is how fucked this guy is.
I know what he's doing.
I know what you're doing.
Anyways, Colleen proving her loyalty, she pulls the trigger.
Click.
It was empty.
You wanna talk about the mind fuckery right now?
You wanna talk about the fucking mind fuckery?
He's sick.
Could you imagine?
This part, I was just sat there for a solid 30 minutes.
Like, holy fuck, he really did that.
He is that fucked up.
I mean, all of this, right?
Would you pull the trigger?
I don't know, I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, she's been with him for a couple of years
at this point, so.
He was really just working on her, just fucking up that mind.
Wow.
Sorry, I'm still thinking about it.
In mid-March of 1981, Colleen and Cameron, they head out, just the two of them, they head out to Riverside, California.
So he tells Colleen, like, the first thing we have to do is make a pit stop.
We have to stop at the company headquarters.
And their headquarters was in Sacramento.
So she's like, okay, whatever.
And then he goes on to tell her that she has to take a little lie detector test.
Yeah.
I'm not sure what for.
Just to make sure that she was still loyal or whatever.
So they make a little pit stop.
And Colleen is a little nervous because again,
she absolutely 100% believes that the company might kill her, right? And he's obviously crazy.
So Cameron gets out of the car first and he goes into this like, he goes into this little building
and she's just waiting in the car. He goes in and he's in there for a little bit of time,
like quite some time. And he ends up returning and he's like,
hey, I have great news.
Great news.
You've been such a great sex slave
that they waived the test requirement.
The mind fuckery here is unreal.
Never have I ever, never have I.
I don't think I've done a murder mystery makeup
like this where the guy is this,
not only fucked up, but like also the mind, the mind control, the games.
Like he really knows what he's doing and that's really scary.
I don't like this.
And again, she still believes this.
She's like, wow, so glad, you know, because she was so nervous over it.
So the two, they end up making it to Colleen's family, well, to their home. And she's finally
reunited with her family. Oh my God. Could you imagine? Could you imagine? I just wonder if she
was herself. I don't know. Could you imagine? I could not. Her family obviously thrilled,
but they were also being kind of cautious because they, again, did not want to scare her off.
People in cults get spooked easily.
Cameron actually leaves her alone with her family for the full day.
He just is like, okay, you spend your quality time and I'm going to go now.
He trusts that her devotion to him and her fear of the company that much.
I mean, she really proved it with that gun situation, right?
Like, damn.
So he really trusts her and he leaves.
So while he's away,
Colleen tells her family
that Cameron is actually her boyfriend.
Now she would later say, of course,
she wanted to tell her family the truth,
but she was genuinely afraid
that the company would not only kill her,
but also kill her entire family.
So she's, you know, a lot of pressure on her, poor thing.
Cameron eventually comes back to take Colleen back home
and they say their goodbyes and the two leave.
It must have been so hard just for everybody, right?
Well, after this visit with her family,
Cameron ends up kicking it into high gear.
He felt like Colleen was getting a little too
comfortable with her family during the visit and he ends up punishing her for this. So he puts
Colleen back into the box full time. Wait for it. From March 1981 to May 1984,
Colleen would spend most of her time
under that bed in the box.
Honestly, I was just like, wow,
Colleen is just very strong, very brave.
I think on day two, I would try and off myself.
There's no way I would make it.
There's no way, you know, like,
I'm laughing because it's uncomfortable
and probably true for me.
I mean, she's just fucking strong. Well, sometimes Colleen would get out of the box to use her
restroom or whatever. But at some point while Colleen was away, like I guess Cameron had added
a little bit of a little bit of decor inside of her box. Wow. Inside of her box, there was a photo and it was like a photo of a really attractive
young woman, which was like, okay, thanks. You know, like, okay. Colleen did not recognize this
person. She had no idea who they were. And it was like, it wasn't anyone that she knew. And it
wasn't someone that the Hooker family in general had mentioned. Yeah, they had never mentioned anything, right?
It was random, but put a pin in this
because it will come back up.
So in 1982, a few new developments happen.
First, it comes to Janice's attention
that Cameron was having sex or raping Colleen numerous times
and she was not happy about it.
That was her one rule, god damn, well, two.
Number two out of one.
I mean, whatever.
But of course she's mad for all of the wrong reasons.
And second, Cameron had a new trick up his sleeve to control Janice and keep her in her place. The Bible.
He's starting to bring God into the game.
So Cameron would start quoting and using the Bible,
specifically the Old Testament,
as like justification for enslaving and raping Colleen.
He told Janice that it was her wifely duty
to follow her husband's lead.
And honestly, just mind your own damn business, woman.
It says in the Bible.
In January of 1984, Cameron started to let Colleen have more freedom again.
So he starts slowly letting her out of the box at night
so she can have the luxury of sleeping in the bathroom on the floor.
According to him, that was a luxury.
And once again, the family, they really needed more income. So in May, they actually allowed Colleen to get a job as a housekeeper in the Red Bluff area at a place called King's Lodge,
which was only a few miles from their home. Sometimes Janice drove her to work
and sometimes Colleen just would ride her bike there.
Colleen, as soon as she got a paycheck,
she would have to hand it over to Cameron.
And sometimes if she was doing real good,
he would let her keep her a whole $20.
You know, as a little treat.
Wow.
I was gonna say I wanna kill this guy,
but I think legally, I probably can't say that.
Can I?
I wouldn't mind.
I think I could do it.
I hate me.
So shortly after she gets a job, you know,
they're getting more income
and Cameron has this great new idea. What's that? What now, Cameron? What now? Well, he wants to have a threesome with his two
women. I'm smiling because by threesome and sex, I mean he wants to rape his two women. And plus,
it was the closest Janice was going to allow him to have sex with Colleen. You know, if she was
there. Cameron was trying for years to make this happen,
but Janice would just not budge, okay? So this is when he starts bringing the Bible into the game,
you know, because the Bible, he's like hoping that's going to convince her. And I guess Colleen
at night would read them scriptures and, you know, they were just like, they were bonding over the
Bible. There was one scripture they were reading and like Cameron is trying to tell Janice like see it's just like the story of Abraham. Us or
whatever. So if you don't know the story goes Abraham and his wife Sarah they were old and they
didn't think they could get pregnant. So Sarah tells Abraham that he could have sex
with their handmaid, and if a baby is made,
it would be handed over to his wife, Sarah,
and they would raise it as their own.
It's the literal passage used by the characters
in a handsmaid's tale, yeah, to justify sexual slavery.
Cool, awesome, great. Jan is um not stoked about this i mean but she
too is afraid of cameron and she doesn't want to find out what he would do or what would happen
if she said no so at this point something just shifted in janice's mind not sure nobody really
knows why the switch happened. Maybe it's because she
was, she's becoming more mature and she's actually realizing that her reality isn't okay. I mean,
Cameron had been grooming her from the age of 15. And so she's never really had normal, right?
And we can tell by now that this Cameron guy is super fucked so she too is just
a victim of Cameron's right so at this point of the story Janice is now 26 a mother of two
and Cameron starts telling her that he is like really wanting to marry Colleen as in like he
wants to have two wives and Janice is like, no matter how many things she agrees to, he is always going to want more.
And ain't that the truth, girl?
The truth will hit ya.
And it was hitting Janice.
So in July of 1984, Colleen and Janice, they start attending church together. One day, Janice went right up to the church pastor
and shared with them how they had been living
for the past seven years.
So she literally goes up to this pastor
and lays it all on the table.
And I thought, like at this point, I was like,
oh my God, thank you, finally, right?
Wow, girl, wow.
You know, just, finally, it's gonna be over.
Of course not, Of course not.
That'd be too easy. So the pastor, he ends up giving Janice some sage advice saying, quote,
leave him, get out of there and let Colleen go. And then goes on to tell her, quote, I don't know,
maybe report it to the police instead of me. End quote. That was that. The pastor
did nothing to report this to police or anything. Just go on his merry way. I believe there's some
kind of law in place where like pastors can't. I forget. But um, I think they should. See something,
say something, pastor. I guess that would be too much because they would have to out themselves as well, huh? Well, on August 9th, Janice took Colleen to her job at the hotel.
And once again, she goes back to the church to visit the pastor. He again urged Janice to leave.
And this time she actually listened. She went back to the hotel, found Colleen, and told her for the very first time
there is no company. Now it was said that Colleen was like completely devastated. I mean, once again,
like talk about mindfuck, like everything. What? So much mindfuckery. Oh my god. I mean, Cameron had
told her on numerous occasions about the company and the power that they had, which all seemed very real to her.
And now it was all a lie. What? You know? So the two went back to the home and decided to not tell
Cameron anything, especially about him lying about the company. I mean, they were both afraid. Like,
if he knows that we know, he's probably going to kill us. So that was probably smart. Plus,
I just don't even know how you would sleep at
that night like I would kill him enough about me but I know you would too okay you'd probably snap
and just go fucking in the next day Janice and Colleen they waited until Cameron had headed off
to work and once he was gone Janice and Colleen took the children and headed straight to Janice's parents' home.
I guess, like, she wasn't that far away, which is kind of odd, right?
That's another story.
From there, Colleen was able to actually call her own parents and told them that she just needed help getting out.
So she wasn't able to, like, tell everything, but she's like, I just need money to catch a bus home, okay?
So they ended up wiring her some money, and she was money to catch a bus home. Okay. So they ended up wiring her some money
and she was able to catch a bus the next day.
I know.
Praise God.
So one last thing Colleen did before leaving
was that she called Cameron.
She rings him up.
Thank God though, right?
She didn't like see him in person.
Cause oh, oh.
During that call, she told him that she was leaving and like there's nothing he
could do to stop her.
And according to Colleen, Cameron just cried a lot.
She even said that he was just straight bawling.
I mean, it could have been a mixture of just everything, right?
Maybe he knew it was all over for him.
Maybe he was genuinely going to miss her.
I don't know.
We don't know. But I guess that's all he did was cry. The next morning, Colleen had arrived at her family's home in Riverside, California, where she was finally able to like share her entire
story, which, God, that must've been hard. This is for everyone. After seven and a half years in captivity,
at the age of 27, Colleen was finally free.
Seven years.
Damn.
That's gotta fuck you up real good, poor thing.
So I wish I could say that Janice, she was free
and she, you know, was now on to healing, left Cameron
forever, bleep, blop, bloop.
But remember, she had been with this dude since she was 15 years old.
And at this point in her life, she had like little to no self-esteem.
She had two young children.
Where does she even start?
You know?
She's just unsure, overwhelmed, and scared.
And only after one week of freedom, Janice,
she moves back home with Cameron.
Ugh.
I understand, but at the same time, ugh, you know?
We were rooting for you, Janice.
But this time when Janice came back,
he was like really trying so hard
to make it work with her, I guess, because she was going to go back to
like torturing her now that Colleen was gone. So after a month and a half, Janice would end up
leaving again and she moves back in with her parents. So, you know, we talked a little bit
about Stockholm syndrome. And that being said, Colleen has spent like all of her 20s with these people and developed almost like a family bond
with them. So with that in mind, no judgment here, Colleen, she still kept in touch with Janice and
Cameron. Like they would have phone calls and whatnot. I know many people, many of us, I would
say probably cannot understand this, but at the same time, I understand.
I get it.
It's sad.
But, you know.
Well, over those check-ins, Janice had asked, not even asked, like begged Colleen to please
not turn in Cameron.
Because like, yeah, he's a monster.
But he's still the father of my kids.
Please don't do it.
And that was really her reasoning.
I don't know.
I think also she may have just been afraid
for her own future.
She is an accessory, right?
Or a witness.
She's something.
Colleen, she ends up agreeing to not turn him in.
Her own family initially encourages her to turn him in,
but Colleen is just so happy to be free
and just wants to put the whole thing behind her,
which is a pretty common
trauma response based off of what I read.
Not a doctor, remember that.
Well, this would end up changing because on November 1st, 1984, Janice goes to the mobile
home to see like if Cameron had destroyed the rest of his torture related items, like
she had asked of him.
But as the days and the weeks passed,
she goes and checks and he never did.
She's like, you know what?
That's it.
Cameron was 31 at this point
and he could easily start all over again, right?
And you know he probably would.
There's no way this guy would just stop.
Cute. Anyways, so Janice is like really
thinking this through, okay? And the following week, she ends up telling a friend about what's
really been going on at the home. And this friend somehow was able to get through to Janice
and really talk to her and like get, just get through to her right and something again switches in her head and Janice
was ready well she was feeling ready to go to police I was like oh shit now it's happening
now it's happening people it's happening it's happening but at first and this huge and honestly
really surprisingly smart I was like, okay, Janice.
Janice tells police in order to get the full details, she would need immunity.
She's like, I need that first.
And police say end up granting it. So now that she has immunity, Janice Hooker cannot and will not be tried for any of her
own involvement in the horrific seven years of Colleen's abuse,
which a lot of people out there
have very mixed feelings here, okay?
But there was something else Janice was ready to let go of.
Not only does she tell the authorities
about what Cameron did to Colleen,
but she also mentions another time,
another time when the two of them maybe had kidnapped, tortured, and accidentally killed a woman.
LOL.
You know, I guess this took place just one year before they kidnapped Colleen.
And that woman's name?
Marliz Spanicky.
You remember Marliz?
Yeah, I know.
This literally made me gasperella.
I was like, Marliz! Yeah, from the
beginning of the story. Please tell me you remember. It's been a long journey, but I know.
I have faith in you. We're adults here. We remember. Yeah, guess what? Cameron.
Janice went to tell the police that the couple was driving one day when they spotted Marliz
walking down the road.
I guess Cameron had like pulled over and offered her a ride and they both noticed that she seemed
very upset and tells them that she just had a fight with her fiance. So they offer her a ride
and Marliz gets into the car and quickly Cameron also hops into the back seat where he then put that awful DIY soundproof head box
over her head.
Janice said that the two drove Marliz to their house
where Cameron suspended the woman from the basement rafters
and just like Colleen, he had tortured her.
Janice told police that Marliz was his quote unquote toy.
Okay, all right.
The major difference between Marliz and Colleen
is what actually saved Colleen's life.
I guess Marliz just would not stop screaming.
She was screaming her head off in the car, in that head box.
And then she was screaming in the house.
You know, she was fighting with everything that she had.
But the screaming was something that Cameron
just could not handle.
He did not like it.
I guess it was just too loud for him.
It was too much, okay?
So Cameron, in an attempt to keep her quiet,
tried to sever her vocal cords with a knife.
Yeah, now he's a doctor or whatever.
And when he did this, sadly, he would kill her instead.
Janice told police that they buried Marliz's body
in a shallow grave in a nearby state park.
So she ends up taking the police out there
to where she remembered Marliz being buried,
but there was no body found. It was
either the wrong spot or she was thinking that maybe Cameron had moved it. In hopes that the
police like don't think she's lying, Janice ends up telling them that Cameron for sure has photos
of her that he kept as a trophy. This photo had been propped up in Colleen's
under the bed box.
Remember the photo?
Remember that photo?
Colleen was like, what?
Room decor?
Yeah, I guess they like taped it
to the wall inside of her box.
It was more Liz.
What is this?
You know?
Oh, fuck.
Maybe it was like a warning.
Maybe he just fucked in the head.
Okay?
I think we can agree on that.
So this was instantly a massive high-profile case.
Not only because it was so freaking horrifying, but also because people could just not wrap their heads around any of it.
Many of them were asking, well, how could Colleen have stayed with these nut jobs?
She had many opportunities to escape, you know?
And honestly, this would be one of the biggest hurdles
that the prosecution found themselves having to deal with.
How do you prove?
I don't know.
During the trial, Janice and Colleen were the star witnesses.
I mean, everything was depending on
them. Yes, there was a ton of hard evidence presented to the court, but since both had
simply walked away, walked away after all these years, the case really depended on their testimonies
to help explain it to the jury, right? So Janice's testimony was very emotional. While she's on the stand, she was crying. She was
just, she's just really sad, okay? You get it. But when Colleen took the stand, she appeared to the
jury as flat and unemotional. Ugh, eye roll. I guess they were a little thrown off by this because
they were like, she's not crying. Where are her tears? Yeah, I guess that never
goes well with juries. Well, the court admitted into evidence over 100 pieces of physical evidence,
including the head box. Oh yeah. So they showed that in court. There was tons of photographs of
Colleen in bondage, a copy of the slavery contract, the couple's bed with its concealed
box underneath.
They brought that into court.
And I mean, there was tons more.
But even with all of this, it was still an uphill battle.
Not only was it tough for people, again,
to wrap their minds around all of it,
but one big reason it went on for so long
was because many kept asking the same question.
Why did Colleen stay so long?
She had many opportunities to leave.
I'm not saying this.
It's what the court was really focusing on.
And then, ugh, Janice.
Ugh.
There was one point where Janice, like, threw Colleen under the bus.
Yeah.
When she took the stand, she told the court that back in March of 1981,
she told Colleen she could leave.
She said, be free.
And Colleen told her that, quote,
God doesn't want me to go yet, end quote.
I don't know why Janice,
I think because Janice just didn't want to be painted as the bad guy.
I don't fucking know, but thanks, Janice, you bitch.
So Colleen denied that this conversation ever happened.
And I mean, it just confused everyone else even more.
Like, who do we believe?
Who do we believe?
But one thing that really did get through to the jury
was the expert testimony that they brought in.
And this expert testimony really walked them through
how someone could possibly end up choosing
to stay with their
rapist, kidnapper, abuser, you know, plus his weird wife. A psychologist had explained to the court how
Cameron's abduction of Colleen, it suddenly, it isolated her. It was humiliating to her,
keeping her naked, removing her from daylight, controlling her food and water intake, controlling her urination, and her number two created an atmosphere of total dependency, okay?
I mean, he required her to ask permission for everything, threatened her family, threatened to sell her to another captor,
threatened her with the company, all of that, right?
So the psychologist said that all of this
had established a new life pattern for Colleen
and it was a very effective technique.
And I mean, this really got through to the court.
Well, guess who took the stand in his own defense?
Fucking Cameron, of course.
He came right out the gate
with just full-blown victim-blaming accusations.
Of course he did.
In his testimony, he said,
"'Yeah, I did those things.'
But it was all consensual, and Colleen enjoyed it."
Ah, ugh, nasty.
He's so nasty.
I just wanna chop his head off.
He also started off by claiming
that he started to feel real bad.
And yeah, he used those words in court.
Real bad about keeping Colleen in captivity,
especially around the one year mark,
as if that was supposed to make him look better, I guess.
He said that he didn't release her at first
because he was afraid that she would go to police.
But there was one point where he tried his best
to set her free.
He tried so hard, but he just couldn't get rid of her.
Colleen chose to stay because she was in love with him.
Ugh.
So after two and a half days of deliberation,
the jury found Cameron Hooker guilty, praise God, right?
Of basically all charges, including kidnapping
with the use of a deadly weapon,
forcible oral copulation, penetration
with a foreign object, forcible sodomy,
and six counts of rape. Cameron was sentenced to 104 years
in prison. And after sentencing, the judge even stated that Cameron was the worst, this is a quote,
the worst psychopath I have ever dealt with, end quote. Don't worry, we're not done. What happened
to Marlis, right? The saddest thing is that Cameron was never charged with her murder.
I mean, despite Janice's confession and all of the other circumstantial evidence surrounding the case,
without a body, they could not nail him on it.
And without a confession from Cameron, there was no hard evidence even linking him to the murder of Marliz.
To this day, as of right now
her case remains unsolved. God that's gotta be so frustrating but nothing can be done until her body
is found. Well Janice ended up changing her name and also changed her children's last name. She went
on to become a social worker. I guess like she wanted to really give back to the
community after everything she went through. She also got remarried and her life has gone on. Well
what about Colleen? I guess over the years Colleen has done a lot of healing but really how could
life ever be like smooth sailing after such prolonged trauma? Colleen had sustained long-term injuries from the abuse
in addition to like plenty of PTSD.
She seems to have found some healing by sharing her story.
And Colleen has participated in like a bunch
of different interviews and documentaries.
And she also counsels other women
who have survived various forms of abuse.
Colleen and her family are still very close,
which is a happy ending for all of them.
And you know, as happy as it can be.
And every year, I guess they celebrate the anniversary
of her escape together.
I just really hope she's okay, you know?
We've reached the end.
That was a long one, huh?
Holy shit.
Yeah, holy tits.
That was intense.
To me, torture, captivity is like absolutely horrifying,
terrifying, my worst nightmare, personally.
Stockholm syndrome is not a joke.
And yeah, it's just sad.
It's just sad that like you have to go through the,
why didn't you leave comments?
Oh my God, I would be slapping the shit out of people. why didn't you leave comments oh my god i would be slapping
the shit out of people why didn't i leave bitch why didn't i leave i hope more liz's family gets
closure i hope her body's found did anyone search the property of like their old house i didn't even
look into that well she's still missing her body's still missing but like did anyone check the old
house the grounds they said they had a lot of property. Maybe that's why he wanted to move, because like the dogs were sniffing
around or something. Hmm. Give me a shovel, I'll figure it out. I think we can all agree that
Cameron Hooker is one, is a demon, is Satan himself, and um, this just further proves to me that the
crafty ones are real scary. The ones who like to make shit, they're the scariest proves to me that the crafty ones are real scary.
The ones who like to make shit,
they're the scariest ones to me.
Whatever your thoughts about Janice,
a lot of people have such mixed feelings.
Many see her as a victim as well, right?
Picked up by Cameron by the age of 15, that's all she knows.
But many see the other side of like,
well, she participated in all of it.
Well, she didn't, did she? Kind of,
right? I don't know. What do you think? Is she a victim or should she have paid some time? I don't
know. I think, well, I don't know, man. Because without Janice's confession, you know, who knows
how long this could have gone on for. So if it wasn't for Janice, wow.
You know, who knows?
Oh God, oh God.
I just hope everyone's doing okay out there.
You know, like Janice, Colleen, Marliz's family,
just this horrible man, man.
Well, that is the end my friends.
I really hope you have a good rest of your day out there.
Please be safe.
Please.
Tell your man this is exactly why we're afraid of men.
This right here.
Guys just don't get it.
I hope you have a good rest of your day.
You make good choices.
And I think that's it.
All right.
I'll be seeing you next week.
Goodbye. next week goodbye