How Samantha Stites tricked her stalker and escaped from the soundproof bunker

Samantha Stites survived a 13-year stalker, a 14-hour captivity, and a soundproof bunker by using psychology, not force. Samantha Stites talked her way out. She kept him talking, spotted his fear of prison, and promised not to report him if he drove her home. She went directly to a hospital before reporting the incident to the police.

The case is featured in Hulu’s Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror, produced by ABC News Studios, which began streaming on August 19, 2025. The series reconstructs the abduction and the escape, then tracks the legal outcome: a 40-60-year sentence and lifetime GPS if he is ever released.

This piece breaks down the timeline, explains the negotiation within the bunker, and outlines what changed afterwards, with Episode 2, Trapped, as the core reference.

The 13-year timeline and missed protections

Samantha Stites met Christopher Thomas in 2011 through a campus Christian group. The contact escalated from unwanted messages to following, surprise appearances at work and sports, and GPS trackers on her car. In 2014, a judge granted Samantha Stites a personal protection order for six years.

After it expired in 2020, the stalking resumed. In July 2022, a new PPO request was denied. Three months later, on October 7, 2022, he broke into her home. As per a People.com report dated August 19, 2025, Samantha Stites stated in Hulu’s Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror,

“I saw him at different events the Christian group was doing. He friended me on Facebook one day. At first I thought he was just lonely and for some reason saw me as an approachable person to talk to.”

How Samantha Stites tricked her stalker and escaped the soundproof bunker

Episode 2, Trapped, shows the abduction and the bunker. He cuffed her wrists, bound her feet, gagged her with a ball gag taped around her head, and transported her in her own car. Blindfolded, Samantha Stites counted turns and noted landmarks to help police later. The destination was a storage unit with a box lined in soundproofing and stocked with supplies.

As per the ABC News report dated August 19, 2025, Detective Mike Matteucci stated:

“He spent thousands of dollars on creating this box so he could spend time with Sam....And do God only knows what.”

The detail signals intent and planning.

Inside, he boasted about placing trackers on Samantha Stites’ car and on the cars of her friends. He said he modelled the bunker after Netflix’s You. He outlined a two-week plan and a cover story: he would stage her paddleboard near Lake Michigan to suggest she drowned. These specifics appear in the episode narration and are mirrored in case reporting.

Samantha Stites shifted to survival thinking. She stayed calm. She observed. She kept him talking. Then she found leverage. He admitted he feared prison. She promised she would not report him if he brought her home that evening. As per a People report dated August 20, 2025, Samantha Stites said,

“I know enough about Christopher to know his integrity is important to him, and I was banking on that.”

It was a calculated statement, not trust. The episode places the negotiation as the pivot from restraint to release.

He assaulted her before agreeing to drive her back. Once home, Samantha Stites avoided her GPS-tracked car and called a neighbour for a ride to the hospital. She completed a forensic exam, received prophylactic medications, and delivered a detailed account to detectives.

The precision from her turn-counting and scene recall helped police arrest him and locate the storage-unit bunker the same night. Devices and packaging later tied him to the trackers. As per the ABC News report dated August 19, 2025, Samantha Stites stated:

“Justice is a funny thing. It doesn’t necessarily come in the form of prison years.”

The point lands only because she first chose the tactic that kept her alive.

Arrest, plea, sentence, and where to stream the docuseries

Police arrested Christopher Thomas in October 2022 and seized the ball gag, cuffs, and tracker receipts. He initially denied the abduction, then called it role-play. In December 2023, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping, torture, home invasion, and aggravated stalking after prosecutors dropped criminal s*xual conduct counts as part of the deal.

In February 2024, a Michigan judge sentenced him to 40-60 years. If he ever gets out, he stays on GPS for life. Local reporting and court records show the court system also updated internal PPO checks to ensure staff review prior orders when new petitions mention them. These steps followed scrutiny over the July 2022 denial.

For viewers, Hulu’s Stalking Samantha presents a three-part arc with Episode 2, Trapped, as the abduction-escape centrepiece. The series includes police interviews, storage-unit surveillance, and recovered media from the defendant’s phone, plus testimony from Samantha Stites, friends, and investigators.

It began streaming on August 19, 2025, on Hulu and on Hulu within Disney+. The press pages and platform listing confirm the format and logline:

"Kidnapped and chained in a soundproof box, Samantha must outwit her stalker to survive."

The show contextualises the years before the bunker and the system fixes after it.

Stay tuned for more updates.