Seven Long Years of Terror

This book was written several years ago and I feel still relevant to this decade. I found it while cleaning out an old ware house and once I started reading it was unable to put it down. I was filled with horror at how easy it is for this type of kidnapping to happen as well as following events.

This is a true story of a young woman who was hitch hiking from Eugene, Oregon to visit a girlfriend of hers in Westwood, Northern California. As she waits for a ride, a car pulls over with a young family consisting of Father, Mother and infant. Feeling safe she gets into the vehicle. Who wouldn't? Who would think that this could possibly be a dangerous situation? I never would have!

Once she (Colleen) is in the car everything seems fairly normal until they stop where upon the man jumps into the back seat with her. Holding a knife to her throat he orders her to place her hands above her head, then puts cuffs on her and a blind fold. He then makes Colleen lie down and places her head into a "head box" weighing approximately 20 pounds, and covers her with a sleeping bag. This head box is used on her many, many times during her incarceration.

Later Colleen is taken to the man and woman's home where she is led into the basement. By this time she is absolutely terrified and things only get worse. A coffin like box is to be her home for a long time. In the box with her is a container for relieving herself and a sleeping bag. Inside this box it is completely black completely severing her from any contact with any semblance of reality. The only time Colleen is let out is to be sadistically and sexually abused by her abductor with S&M techniques adapted from magazines and his vivid imagination. After some time she is told horrendous lies and forced to sign a slave contract agreeing to do anything her "Master" commands of her. It is some months before she is even aware of what his name is, which she sees from under her blind fold. It is written across the back of his jacket in bold letters, "Cameron".

Eventually Cameron bought a piece of land with a trailer and they all moved into it. This is where they remained until Colleen was able to break his hold on her.

During all of the time that she was with her abductors family the wife (Jan) was involved in a lot of what was taking place. She was aware of the lies that Colleen had been told but she as well was terrified of her husband. She also was treated in a cruel manner and was abused with S&M tortures as well as dire threats. The psychological damage to these two women is phenomenal as well as the psychological hold Cameron has on them.

Eventually after both women are able to break Cameron's hold on them the police are made aware of what has happened and charges are laid with a long court battle to follow.

The Author's of this book are Christine McGuire and Carla Norton. Christine was also the prosecutor of People v. Hooker, so played a very intimate part in the events during the court case. Both author's have done a commendable job of relating the events from beginning to ending of this true and horrifying story. They were able to get across to the reader the deep set fear, loneliness, sadness and helplessness that both Colleen and Jan had being helpless victims of a very sick, cruel man with a very twisted mind.

I have tried to give the general feeling of what took place over the long period of time that Colleen was held captive, without revealing to many of the facts and events that actually took place. I believe this book is well worth reading for numerous reasons, one being the dangers of hitch hiking. Life can be full of many strange twists and turns and hopefully we can all learn from someone else's misfortunes, so that a stop can be put to this kind of thing.