A Michigan man was sentenced to 40 to 60 years in prison for kidnapping and torturing a woman he had stalked for more than a decade, bringing a years-long nightmare for Samantha Stites to a legal conclusion that still leaves unanswered questions about how the system failed her. Christopher Thomas pleaded guilty to kidnapping, torture and aggravated stalking in connection with an October 2022 incident in which he broke into Stites's home and held her in a soundproof bunker he had built inside a storage unit.
The stalking began in 2011, when Stites was a student at Grand Valley State University, according to ABC News. Thomas would appear at her workplace with flowers, show up at her sports practices, and eventually began tracking her movements using secretly placed GPS trackers, the outlet reported. As People detailed, Thomas followed Stites at her job, school, social outings and frisbee practice, and continued sending her frequent messages even after she told him to leave her alone.
A Protective Order That Expired, Then a Denial
Stites filed a petition for a restraining order against Thomas on September 18, 2014, and was granted a six-year protective order, according to Yahoo News. That order expired in September 2020, and the same report notes that Thomas started following Stites again as soon as it lapsed. Stites sought a new personal protection order in July 2022, but the request was denied — a decision made by Judge Kevin Elsenheimer just three months before the kidnapping, per the same ABC News account.
On October 7, 2022, Thomas broke into Stites's home early in the morning and kidnapped her, holding her for nearly 14 hours before she managed to persuade him to let her go, ABC News reported. She was taken to a soundproof bunker Thomas had constructed inside a storage unit near Traverse City, where police later found a ballgag, handcuffs, receipts and GPS-tracker boxes at his house, along with photos and videos of Stites on his devices, according to People's reporting on the case.
Guilty Plea, Dropped Charges and a Lifetime of Monitoring
Thomas was arraigned on kidnapping, first-degree home invasion, torture, aggravated stalking and four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, per People. He later pleaded guilty to kidnapping, torture and aggravated stalking in December 2023, and the sexual conduct counts were dropped as part of that plea agreement, ABC News reported. He was sentenced in 2024 to 40 to 60 years in prison. If he is ever released, Thomas will be required to wear a GPS monitor for the rest of his life, a condition ABC News confirmed was part of the sentencing.
Sources differ on exactly when that release could occur. Primetimer reported his minimum release date as July 2062, while Moviedelic put his earliest possible release at October 7, 2062. As of August 2025, Primetimer reported that Thomas, then 41, remained housed at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility.
Case Prompted Changes to Protection-Order Policy
The case has had ripple effects beyond Thomas's sentence. ABC News reported that new policies now require referees to examine any prior protective orders before making recommendations to the court. The outlet also noted that Thomas had been accused of stalking another woman, identified as Kelli, who obtained a protection order against him in 2009, well before he ever targeted Stites.
The ordeal has since become the subject of Hulu's 2025 docuseries Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror, which premiered on Hulu on August 19, 2025. The series has renewed public attention on how protective-order systems handle repeat offenders and on the years Stites spent trying to get authorities to take the threat seriously before the kidnapping finally happened.
