Stalker sentenced to many years in jail after conserving girl in soundproof bunker

A Michigan man was sentenced to 40 to 60 years in jail for kidnapping and torturing a girl he stalked for greater than a decade, in a case that highlighted the possibly devastating affect of stalking.

Christopher Thomas, 39, pleaded responsible to kidnapping, torture and aggravated stalking in December 2023, and was sentenced in 2024. The costs stemmed from a horrific October 2022 incident during which he kidnapped Samantha Stites and held her in a soundproof bunker he had constructed inside a storage unit.

“I puzzled if I might see daylight once more,” Stites mentioned in her sufferer affect assertion throughout sentencing. “I shook and sobbed after he raped me, I wasn’t certain he would cease.”

ABC Information Studios’ “Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror,” a three-part sequence, is streaming in its entirety on Hulu and Disney+ from Tuesday, Aug. 19.

Whereas Thomas was initially charged with prison sexual conduct, these expenses had been later dropped as a part of a plea settlement.

The case gained nationwide consideration as a result of its disturbing particulars, but in addition as a result of Stites had beforehand sought safety from Thomas by way of the authorized system. Simply months earlier than the kidnapping, her request for an ex parte — which means the defendant was not current — private safety order was denied.

The stalking started in 2011 when Stites was a university scholar at Grand Valley State College. Thomas, who’s seven years older than Stites, started showing on the similar Christian group she attended. What began as seemingly harmless interactions shortly developed into one thing extra sinister.

“At first I feel he’s simply lonely and for some cause finds me an approachable individual to speak to,” Stites instructed ABC Information. “After which in some unspecified time in the future, it form of adjustments.”

Regardless of Stites’ repeated rejections and clear boundaries, Thomas’s conduct escalated. He would seem at her office with flowers, present up at her sports activities practices and ultimately started following her actions by way of GPS trackers he secretly positioned on her car and people of her associates.

“She felt sorry for him. So she was a little bit bit good to him,” Charissa Hayden, Stites’ former roommate, instructed ABC Information. “And he took that and he spun it into one thing it wasn’t and ran away with it.”

On Oct. 7, 2022, Thomas broke into Stites’ dwelling early within the morning and kidnapped her. He had spent months making ready for this second, constructing a soundproof room inside a storage unit.

“He spent 1000’s of {dollars} on creating this field so he might spend time with Sam,” Detective Mike Matteucci of the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Workplace instructed ABC Information. “And do God solely is aware of what.”

Contained in the bunker, Thomas revealed he had tracked Stites’ actions for over a 12 months utilizing GPS units, exhibiting her the monitoring app on his telephone. He instructed her she could be held for 2 weeks, exhibiting her provides he had gathered together with meals, water and a bucket for toilet wants.

Stites, fearing for her life, strategically engaged him in dialog. When Thomas expressed concern about going to jail, Stites noticed a possibility. After practically 14 hours in captivity, she satisfied him to launch her by promising to not report the crime. As soon as free, she instantly sought medical consideration and reported the incident to authorities.

The investigation revealed Thomas had a previous conviction for stalking one other girl. Kelli, whose final identify was withheld for authorized causes, instructed ABC Information she had obtained a safety order towards Thomas in 2009 after he engaged in comparable stalking conduct.

“I at all times knew that there could be any individual else,” Kelli mentioned after being contacted by detectives investigating Stites’ case. “Once they referred to as me in 2022, there’s like this responsible feeling like he did do it to any individual else. I used to be proper.”

In the course of the sentencing, Choose Kevin Elsenheimer — who had denied Stites’ ex parte safety order request in July 2022, simply three months earlier than the kidnapping — acknowledged the severity of Thomas’s actions and his probability to reoffend.

The choose pointed to Thomas’s jail conversations together with his mom as proof of his obsession, noting that Thomas admitted “nothing would have mattered, that nothing would have stopped you from doing what you had been going to do.”

If Thomas is ever launched, he might be required to put on a GPS monitor for the rest of his life.

“Justice is a humorous factor. It does not essentially come within the type of jail years,” Stites mentioned. “I am unable to ever return to earlier than I used to be kidnapped. And that is one thing I needed to grieve. However understanding that I am lastly turning the web page on this and that I ought to really feel secure with him off the road and that I’m protected meant lots. I felt free.”

In keeping with court docket paperwork, the case prompted adjustments in how courts deal with safety orders in Michigan. New insurance policies require referees — who take into account PPO functions and make a referral to the choose on what to do — to look at any prior PPOs earlier than making suggestions to the court docket.

In keeping with nationwide statistics introduced within the case, one in three ladies might be stalked of their lifetime.

“I need different ladies, whether or not they’ve been stalked or sexually assaulted or not believed, I need them to see my story and assume issues can change,” Stites mentioned.