The Girl in the Box, a new documentary on Channel 5, looks at the case of Stephanie Slater, a young woman who was taken from Birmingham in 1992.
Michael Sams kidnapped Ms. Slater, tied her up, and took her to a warehouse. He then asked her boss for a ransom of £175,000.
Sams let the 25-year-old go after getting the money, but an ex-wife recognized the culprit’s voice on a tape that was played on Crimewatch.
In 1992, Stephanie Slater was taken from the Birmingham real estate office where she worked at knifepoint. She was 25 years old at the time.
She was kept in Sams’ workshop in Nottinghamshire for eight days in a box that looked like a coffin and was locked inside a wheelie bin. She was handcuffed, gagged, and blindfolded.
Sams let her go after getting a £175,000 ransom, but he was caught when Crimewatch talked about the case.
Her testimony helped convict him not only of kidnapping her, but also of killing Julie Dart, a teenage girl from Leeds who was taken and held in the same way. In 1995, she wrote a book called Beyond Fear: My Will to Survive about being taken hostage.
Ms. Slater said around the time it came out, “I wrote the book for women who are in danger, and I’m trying to speak out for women who are taken by maniacs like Sams.”
