Stephanie Slater, the Birmingham estate agent who was kidnapped by Michael Sams in 1992, is the focus of a new Channel 5 documentary. The first episode of the programme - titled The Girl in the Box: The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater - airs tonight (February 28) at 9pm.
The programme retells the story of Stephanie Slater’s kidnapping, which saw her abducted at knifepoint by Sims and then held for a £175,000 ransom. Sams - who previously kidnapped and murdered Julie Dart in July 1991 - is still in prison.
According to the Grantham Journal, Sams - one of the oldest serving prisoners in England and Wales at the age of 81 - is due for a parole hearing next month. But who was his kidnap victim Stephanie Slater - and what happened to her?
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What happened to Stephanie Slater?Stephanie Slater was working at Shipways estate agency in Great Barr when she was kidnapped and held for ransom by Michael Sams in January 1992. She was eventually released by Sams after a £175,000 ransom was paid; while £150,000 of the money was later recovered, it is unknown to this day what happened to the remaining £25,000.
Michael Sams, using a false name and posing as a potential property buyer, had arranged to meet Slater so she could show him around a house in Turnberry Road, Great Barr. However, when she arrived at the property, Sams kidnapped her at knifepoint.
She was then blindfolded, gagged and handcuffed before being held in a coffin-like box. Sams only allowed her out of the box to allow her to eat.
After holding Stephanie Slater captive for eight days until the £175,000 ransom he had demanded was paid, Sams released her, dropping her off two streets away from her house. Sams eluded a large police operation in order to successfully collect the money.
In July 1991, Sams had kidnapped Leeds sex worker Julie Dart, who was only 18 years old. After demanding a £140,000 ransom - which he later admitted he had no intention of collecting - for her, Sams murdered Dart and dumped her body in a Lincolnshire field.
In a memoir of her own ordeal published in 1995, Stephanie Slater stated that Sams had raped her while holding her captive. She said that she had not revealed this information earlier in order to spare her mother - who had a heart condition - further strain.
Sams furiously denied Stephanie Slater’s rape accusation and claimed that the pair had a consensual affair. He tried to sue Slater for libel, but his case was thrown out.
After the kidnapping, in 1993, Stephanie Slater moved to the Isle of Wight - feeling unable to return to her old job as an estate agent - and advised police forces on how to help kidnap survivors. She died in August 2017 from cancer, aged 50.
How to watch The Girl in the Box: The Kidnapping of Stephanie SlaterThe first episode of The Girl in the Box: The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater airs tonight (February 28) at 9pm on Channel 5. The second episode in the two-part series, meanwhile, will be broadcast on Wednesday, March 1, also at 9pm.
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