Stephanie Slater: The terrifying kidnap which shocked the country

The estate agent, who died aged 50 this week after a short battle with cancer, vanished without a trace and was held for eight days in a makeshift coffin made out of a wheelie bin.

The then 25-year-old had thought nothing odd about going to a property in Turnberry Road, Great Barr, to show a man claiming to be a 'Mr Southwall' around.

MORE: Estate agent kidnapped at Great Barr house viewing dies of cancer

This was her job, after all.

But her appointment on January 22 1992 was really with Michael Sams, who had already abducted and killed another woman.

As Stephanie showed him the bathroom, Sams produced a knife. He blindfolded her and drove her to a workshop in Newark, Nottinghamshire, where she was crammed into a coffin-like box for more than a week.

Sams did it for ransom. The £175,000 he demanded was paid and dropped in Barnsley, Yorkshire, and Stephanie was released.

His previous victim Julie Dart had not been so lucky.

Stephanie told her story in a Crimes That Shook Britain, a documentary screened on Channel 5 in 2014.

"He said if you move again, I'll slit your throat."

Stephanie had been with the Birmingham based estate agents Shipways for six weeks when her ordeal began.

The only difference between her meeting with Sams and any other normal house viewing was the appointment was booked by letter, rather than by phone.

"He was looking around the house," Stephanie said. "I didn't think he was that interested so I waited in one of the rooms. It was one of those mornings. You want to get back to the warm office and a cup of coffee.

"I started to walk down the stairs.

"At this point he took an interest and said 'what's that up there'. I had to walk past him to look. It was a hook on the wall. He suddenly changed.

"He seemed to be flying through the air at me. His face was all contorted."

Describing the sheer terror she felt Stephanie said: "There were flashes of silver in his hands. The flashes were weapons.

"I was in a fight with a grubby little man. I thought he was going to cut or rape me."

Stephanie bent a chisel Sams was carrying. She grabbed a knife he had in his hand, which Sams demanded she let go.

He pulled it back through her hand, jumped on her and grabbed her hair, pushing her over the side of a bath.

Sams, blindfolded her, put a rope around her neck and demanded Stephanie's car keys.

He walked her down the steps. At the time Stephanie had thought he just wanted her car. Sams wanted her.

"I'd gone into shock so much, I couldn't feel my legs," she said.

Sams bundled her into a car and drove her 70 miles, blindfolded.

She tried to recall parts of the journey, noises of trains going by and so on.

Sams made Stephanie record a ransom demand and explained his plan to get money out of Shipways. The recording was played to her devastated parents Warren and Betty.

When they got where they were going, Sams offered her a sandwich.

"I thought 'you've done all this to me and now you're offering me a bloody picnic," Stephanie said.

What did not come out immediately was that Stephanie had been raped by Sams. It was something she had been afraid to reveal at the time for fear the shock would kill her mother.

Stephanie told in the documentary how she had refused to scream after Sams had pushed her down onto a filthy mattress.

"I thought you're not going out in any glory," she said.

"This changed me, the rape," she said. "Because I wasn't scared anymore. I wasn't frightened because I felt so dead inside. As a woman he had done everything he could to me to hurt me. There's nothing else. I feel indestructable now because I really didn't care anymore."

She was kept in agony as she was forced into the wheelie bin coffin and Sams threatened her that a slight move would trigger electrodes and kill her.

But she spotted an opportunity to 'work on' Sams after he became concerned for her condition after a night in her coffin. He rubbed her numb arms and Stephanie thought she might have spotted a crumb of human compassion.

Meanwhile estate agent Kevin Watts was prepared by police to make the ransom drop. He was told to try to keep Sams talking and ask questions when the kidnapped called to make the arrangements.

All the while, as Stephanie was locked up in her coffin, Sams was running a tool repairing shop, opening up to customers who were unaware of his captive. His wife even came by with his lunch.

But Stephanie could not call out. "One wrong move and that was it," she said.

Kevin was made to follow a trail across the Pennines, from phone box to phone box, before leaving the money in a bag for a waiting Sams.

Stephanie was waiting 50 miles away in Newark, thinking she had been left to die.

"I tried to commit suicide that night, because I was so frightened," she said of her attempt to smother herself in her own blanket.

Sams had almost got away with it. He had the money and the police had no trace.

He returned to a terrified Stephanie and said he was going to take her home.

When Stephanie Slater was left outside her home by Sams, her strength of character and presence of mind were immediately apparent.

Within days, she had put herself through the ordeal of appearing at a news conference. She told how she had lived on soup, porridge and Kit Kats, the Express &Star reported at the time.

A nationwide manhunt was launched after Stephanie's kidnap had also been linked to the murder of prostitute Julie Dart. He had smashed her head with a hammer when she tried to escape.

Michael Sams was eventually caught following a BBC Crimewatch documentary. He enjoyed taunting the police and was convinced he was cleverer than they were. But he made a crucial mistake. On one of his telephone calls to negotiate the ransom he forgot to disguise his voice.

That tape was played on Crimewatch and his ex-wife Susan recognised the voice instantly. She tipped off detectives and Sams was arrested.

Sams is still in prison and had his sentenced lengthened by eight years for attacking a female probation officer. He will be eligible for parole in 2017 when he will be 75.

Stephanie has moved on with her life.

"You can analyse Sams until the cows come home," she said. "But he doesn't matter. In this world he doesn't matter."

This is a reproduction of an article first published in October 2014