Cameron and Janice Hooker were, to the eyes of twenty-year-old Colleen Stan, a “nice couple” that was offering her a ride on that fateful May 19 of 1977.
Cameron invited her to hop in their car as Janice smiled at her from the co-pilot’s seat while holding her infant son, and Colleen, who had let go another two rides before theirs, felt “safe” as she stepped into the vehicle.
It would be the beginning of a real hell for her, as she would be kidnapped and repeatedly raped, abused, and tortured by Cameron with Janice’s assistance for the next seven years.
Before her, they had abducted and killed Marie Elizabeth Spannhake in January of 1976. But who were these pair of criminals?
Little is known of their early lives (especially from Janice’s) and how their murderous and sadistic appetites (especially Cameron’s) developed.
Keep reading and find out more about who was (and where are) Cameron and Janice Hooker, a couple straight from a Stephen King novel.
10 /10 Unremarkable Evilness
Like so many other criminals, Cameron and Janice’s beginnings had the advantage of placing them in relative obscurity, with not many people around to sense that something was profoundly wrong.
Born in Alturas, California, on November 5, 1953, Cameron Hooker moved alongside his family to Red Bluff (where he and Janice would kidnap Colleen) in 1969.
After graduating from high school in 1972, he began working at a local lumber mill. Janice was fourteen then, later fifteen when they met in 1973, while still living with her family.
9 /10 A Background Of Abuse
In many ways, Janice’s family turned her into Cameron’s first prey: thoroughly abused by her parents, already submissive and very much inexperienced as to how interpersonal relationships should work, Janice’s background of abuse made her into Hooker’s ideal partner.
At first, she allowed Hooker to abuse her and perform his sadistic fantasies, even though he nearly drowned her during one of their sadomasochistic sessions.
He would also hang her from her wrists and whip her; all of these were things that he would later do to Colleen after her kidnapping.