When Samantha Stites — a bright, outgoing college freshman — met Christopher Thomas in 2011, an unsettling obsession took hold. For the next 11-year period, Christopher constantly stalked Samantha, sometimes stealthily and sometimes openly, showing up consistently where she went — restaurants, grocery stores, sporting events and more — until an early fall morning in 2022, when the harassment turned into something unimaginably dangerous. Christopher broke into her home, kidnapped and restrained her, and transported her to a soundproof bunker he had constructed in a storage unit near her Michigan home. Cut off from the outside world and completely alone, Samantha had to summon every ounce of strength to survive and escape.
In this gripping three-part docuseries, Samantha shares her story publicly for the first time, recounting more than a decade of fear, resistance and resilience. Featuring never-before-seen police interview footage, surveillance from the storage unit, and disturbing images and videos recovered from Christopher’s phone, the series also includes powerful testimony from Samantha’s friends and the investigators who helped bring her stalker to justice.
“Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror” is produced by Bigger Bang for ABC News Studios. Beth Hoppe is executive producer, and David Sloan serves as senior executive producer for ABC News Studios. Iain Riddick is executive producer for Bigger Bang.
