A Michigan woman endured years of terror at the hands of a man who ultimately kidnapped and tortured her.
Now, following her stalker’s sentencing to decades in prison, Samantha Stites is speaking out about her ordeal.
In an interview with ABC News ahead of the Hulu documentary series Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror, Stites shared how she initially underestimated the danger.
“At first I think he is just lonely and for some reason finds me an approachable person to talk to,” Stites told the outlet. “And then at some point, it kind of changes.”
According to Michigan prison records, Christopher Thomas, 41, is serving a minimum of 40 years behind bars and could face up to 60 years. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping, torture, and aggravated stalking in December 2023.
ABC News reported that Thomas began stalking Stites in 2011 after attending the same Christian group she did as a college student. Over time, he escalated his actions, going so far as to place GPS trackers on her car.
In 2022, WPBN reported that Thomas was arrested after kidnapping Stites and holding her in a soundproof storage unit for nearly 15 hours. Stites was able to escape by convincing him to let her go, promising not to report the crime.
Thomas was sentenced in 2024 after his December 2023 guilty plea.
“Justice is a funny thing. It doesn’t necessarily come in the form of prison years,” Stites told ABC News. “I can’t ever go back to before I was kidnapped. And that’s something I had to grieve. But knowing that I’m finally turning the page on this and that I should feel safe with him off the street and that I am protected meant a lot. I felt free.”
