Marie Spannhake's Alleged Killer Could Go Free Despite A 104-Year Prison Sentence For Another Crime

Marie Spannhake was angry. The 18-year-old from Chico, California, had gotten into an argument with her boyfriend while they were shopping at a flea market on January 31, 1976, and stormed off, according to RadioTimes.com. She decided to hitchhike instead of walking, per The Chico Enterprise-Record. A couple pulled over and offered Spannhake a ride. It was the last time she was ever seen.

Eight years later, in 1984, there was a break in the case, or so the Chico Police Department believed. But to this day, Maria Spannhake's body has never been found, and no one has been charged with her kidnapping and murder. The police continue to suspect that Cameron Hooker, the perpetrator of the infamous "Girl in the Box" case — in which he kidnapped a young woman and kept her as a sex slave for more than seven years — was behind Spannhake's disappearance. A lack of evidence prevented them from bringing charges, and as of 2022, Hooker may be on the verge of going free, according to The U.S. Sun.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Cameron Hooker — a Red Bluff, California mill worker — and his wife Janice had been in Chico shopping when they picked up Marie Spannhake. But instead of taking her home, they kidnapped her and drove nearly an hour northwest to their house, according to Janice Hooker 1984 testimony to police, per The Chico Enterprise-Record. Cameron Hooker then suspended Spannhake from the ceiling by ropes and chains, tortured, and eventually killed the teenager, Janice alleged. She told police that she helped her husband dispose of the body, but during several searches in 1984, she could not show investigators where Spannhake was buried.

A little more than a year after Spannhake disappeared, Hooker kidnapped another woman, Colleen Stan (aka the "Girl in the Box"), from Eugene, Oregon. She had also been hitchhiking. For more than seven years, Cameron Hooker kept Stan captive and raped her, keeping her in a wooden box under his bed for as long as 23 hours at a time and sometimes forcing her to wear a wooden box over her head (via the Daily Mail). Janice Hooker eventually helped Stan escape in August 1984 and told authorities about both victims.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

In 1984, investigators were convinced Janice Hooker was telling the truth about Marie Spannhake, so much so that they told the victim's mother Marie was dead, according to The Sacramento Bee. There just wasn't enough evidence to move forward with the case; to this day, it remains officially unsolved. In October 1985, a jury convicted Cameron Hooker of multiple kidnapping and sex crimes related to Colleen Stan (pictured), and Judge Clarence Knight sentenced him to 104 years in prison, calling Hooker "the most dangerous psychopath I have ever encountered," according to the Associated Press.

Now 68, Hooker remains in prison. He first became eligible for parole in 2015 because of California's Elderly Parole program but was denied. In June 2022, a probable cause hearing found there was enough evidence to move forward with a jury trial to determine whether Hooker is a sexually dangerous predator, according to KRCR. If he's determined to be a sexually dangerous predator, he would be held in a mental health facility. The case remains pending.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).