It seems like Hulu is leaning even harder into the true crime genre recently, and their documentaries and docuseries are on par with streamers such as Netflix. Now Hulu is diving into the true story of the abduction of Samantha Stites, who was taken by the man who had stalked her for 13 years. Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror is now streaming on Hulu.
Samantha’s real-life horror story began in 2011. She was attending college at Grand Valley State University, and Christopher Thomas started showing up at the Christian group meetings she regularly attended. Though Thomas was seven years older than Stites, he would often talk to her, and her attempts to shut him down were in vain.
Thomas would show up at Stites’s job with flowers, watched her practice for sports events, and even planted GPS devises on her car so he would always know where she was.
Though she probably didn’t know about the tracking at the time, Stites did file for a restraining order, and was denied by Judge Kevin Elsenheimer.
Things came to a head when Thomas broke into Stites’ house and abducted her. As it turned out, he had been constructing a human-sized soundproof box in a storage unit, and that’s where he put Stites, placing her in chains. He confessed to her that he had been following her whereabouts for more than a year utilizing GPS devices, and claimed he was going to hold her in the bunker for two weeks. Inside the bunker, he had placed water and food, and a bucket for her to use as a toilet.
Rather than panicking, she talked to him as if he were a friend, and he did eventually confess that he was terrified of going to prison. She managed to convince him that she would not report the abduction if he released her, and he let her go after holding her captive for 14 hours.
Of course, Stites went straight to the police, and Thomas was apprehended. It was discovered that his prior girlfriend had received a protection order against Thomas, citing very similar behavior to what Stites had seen from him.
In all, Christopher Thomas stalked Samantha Stites for 11 years before he abducted her in 2023.
In Hulu’s three-part docuseries, Samantha Stites tells her story in her own words. Viewers will also be able to see footage of Thomas’s police interview, and will see the disturbing photos captured on his phone.