In a case that shocked the nation, a young estate agent was lured to a property viewing only to be kidnapped and held captive inside a makeshift coffin for eight agonising days, with her abductor threatening to electrocute her if she tried to escape.
The Fateful Viewing That Became a Nightmare
On a seemingly ordinary day in January 1992, 25-year-old Stephanie Slater, a popular and outgoing agent from Great Barr in the West Midlands, went to meet a potential buyer at a property in Birmingham. The man introduced himself as 'Bob Southall', but he was in fact Michael Sams, a tool maker with a sinister plan.
His ruse quickly dissolved into violence. Sams attacked Stephanie at knifepoint, dragging her into a vehicle and driving her to his workshop in Newark, Nottinghamshire. "His whole body, his whole face, his whole demeanour changed completely. He just looked absolutely evil," Stephanie later recalled of the moment he revealed his true intentions.
Eight Days of Terror in a Wooden Box
Upon arrival at the workshop, Sams blindfolded, gagged, and handcuffed his victim. He then bound her feet and forced her into a wooden coffin-style box, which was itself pushed inside a locked wheelie bin. For the next eight days, this confined, freezing space was Stephanie's prison.
"It was freezing cold. You're in absolute agony, and you're terrified for your life," she described. To enforce compliance, Sams pushed electrodes up her trousers and warned she would be electrocuted if she attempted to break free. Her only reprieves were the brief moments he allowed her out to eat.
Displaying immense courage, Stephanie tried to build a rapport with her kidnapper in a desperate bid to stay alive. Her ordeal only ended after her employer, Shipways Estate Agency, paid a £175,000 ransom. Sams dropped her two streets from her home, where she was found barely able to walk or see due to the tight restraints.
A Killer Unmasked and a Legacy of Survival
Sams evaded capture until his first wife recognised his voice on a telephone recording broadcast on BBC's Crimewatch. He pleaded guilty in 1993 to kidnapping and imprisoning Stephanie and making the ransom demand.
Stephanie's testimony was also crucial in convicting Sams for the 1991 murder of 18-year-old Julie Dart from Leeds. Sams had kidnapped Julie six months earlier, holding her in a similar coffin-like box before murdering her with a hammer. He chillingly later described this as a "practice run" for Stephanie's abduction, admitting he had initially planned to kill the estate agent too.
Michael Sams was sentenced to life in prison, where he remains today, aged 80. Tragically, Stephanie Slater died in 2017 at the age of 50 after a battle with cancer. Before her death, she authored a book about her experience and worked extensively with police forces and fellow survivors, helping them recover from traumatic ordeals.
