20/20: Season 2026, Episode 19

2026 - 19: Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror

When Samantha Stites, a bright, outgoing college freshman, met Christopher Thomas in 2011, an unsettling obsession took hold. For many years, Christopher stalked Samantha, sometimes stealthily and sometimes openly. He showed up consistently wherever she went — restaurants, grocery stores, sporting events and more — until an early fall morning in 2022, when the harassment turned into something unimaginably dangerous. Christopher broke into her home, kidnapped and restrained her, and transported her to a soundproof bunker that he had constructed in a storage unit near her Michigan home. Cut off from the outside world and completely alone, Samantha had to summon every ounce of strength to survive and escape. Samantha shares her story, recounting more than a decade of fear, resistance and resilience. Featuring police interview footage, surveillance from the storage unit, and disturbing images and videos recovered from Christopher's phone.