Victims of kidnap never get over the horror
Estate agent Stephanie Slater, 50, died last week after a short battle with cancer – 25 years after she was kidnapped, raped and imprisoned in a makeshift coffin – a wheelie bin – by Michael Sams. He snatched Stephanie as she showed him round a house in Birmingham and held her for eight days, before her boss paid £175,000 for her release. Evil Sams was later arrested for Stephanie’s kidnap, as well as the murder of 18-year-old Julie Dart, and sentenced to life. Speaking in 2011, Stephanie said the ordeal had “destroyed” 20 years of her life and that she drank two bottles of wine a night to “sink into oblivion.”
Pals sadly confirmed the trauma of the attack had always haunted Stephanie. Closer speaks to Anita Wooldridge who, like Stephanie, was abducted for eight days and locked in a box…