True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(From left: Julie Dart. Centre: Michael Sams. Right: Stephanie Slater. All pictures credited to: ITVx. Collage created by Caledonian Kitty)

In 1992, the UK were still trying to come to terms with the shocking disappearance of 25 year old Suzy Lamplugh in 1986. Suzy was carrying out her role as an Estate Agent, attending a meeting at a house with a potential customer and she just vanished, never to be seen again. 40 years have passed and nobody knows the full story of what happened to Suzy. Her kidnap and suspected murder has always been linked to John Cannan. He passed away in November of 2024. So many questions in that case still remain unanswered. I have previously covered Suzy's story here!!

With what happened to Suzy, people had begun to question their roles in the workplace, asking themselves ''How safe am I at work?'' Especially in customer facing roles where you have to venture out sometimes, maybe go door to door, or have to show members of the public around a particular vacant house or building. A lot of women were still concerned about their safety, not only because of the disappearance of Suzy but with the terrifying knowledge that just years before, serial killer aka The Yorkshire Ripper (Peter Sutcliffe) had been stalking the streets targeting women before finally being arrested in 1981 (I talked about him briefly in this previous post). So there was still an air of vigilance with a lot of the public at that time. 

Stephanie Slater was (like Suzy) a pretty, 25 year old Estate Agent working for the respected Shipways firm in Birmingham, which is still operating today. Wednesday the 22nd of January 1992 was just another typical day at the office for Stephanie and her colleagues. The office had received a letter from a potential customer who was interested in viewing a property. This was a bit unusual because customers often called into the branch to enquire about possible viewings or contacted them by phone. It was very rare that a viewing request would be made by letter but nonetheless, Stephanie (who had just started working at Shipways 6 weeks previously) volunteered to meet the customer whilst her colleagues attended to their own appointments. 

It was one of those days when it was quite chilly outside and Stephanie had a list of important tasks in her diary that she had to do that day. She was hoping that the meeting with this customer would go quickly so that she could go back to her warm office, have a hot cup of coffee and carry on with her work. When she arrived, she was by herself (which may raise an eyebrow considering the fact that the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh still had people on high alert, especially female Estate Agents. So this may have been seen as a bit of a risk for the company to have allowed Stephanie to do this viewing on her own) and it was a case of doing the viewing as quick as possible and going back to the office. Stephanie had carried out 100s of these meetings and viewings so it had become second nature for her and maybe one could understand that confidence and attitude of ''right, let's get this out of the way so that I can see to my other tasks for the day". She'd never had any problems before with anyone during the viewings so she wasn't on her guard and was more focused on her work. 

The older gentleman who she later described as a ''grubby little man who called himself Bob'' was very quiet and seemed to be uninterested. Stephanie felt like it was a waste of time because he clearly wasn't interested in the property but she wanted to do her job properly and give him the same service that she gave to all of her customers. She showed him around the bottom floor of the house and explained where there was storage space etc but he still seemed uninterested. She decided that she would show him upstairs and try to speed things up a bit so that they could end the meeting. Whilst upstairs he did begin to ask some questions about the windows but he still seemed quite a bit odd. Stephanie decided to go into one of the bedrooms and let him have a few moments by himself to explore. He asked Stephanie to come and look at something and without any warning, this strange man just lunged himself at her. He had a knife in his hand and the pair struggled. In the middle of all of this, Stephanie grabbed the knife to which he pulled it roughly through her hands, causing the knife to slice her hand. It must have been horrendously painful but in that moment Stephanie was on auto-pilot and just trying to protect herself and get the hell away out of there. 

He dragged her downstairs towards the front door, which was wide open but Stephanie was in complete shock. Her voice just wouldn't come out so that she could scream or yell and her legs had turned to jelly. He had plenty to say all of a sudden, demanding to know where her keys were and giving her orders. She thought that he was just after money or her car but it soon became clear that this was a deliberate kidnap.

He put a blindfold over her eyes and gagged her before bundling her into his car and driving off. This horrible man was called Michael Sams and he was every bit the weirdo you could imagine. He had a scrunched up face, high pitched voice and one leg. He had lost his other leg previously through illness so he had to wear an artificial limb. Surprisingly this nasty individual and absolute danger to all women and girls, had managed to be married three times!! He was on his third marriage when he kidnapped Stephanie. His wife was at home oblivious, thinking he was at work, she'd even packed him his usual ham sandwiches and a flask of tea (which he later offered to Stephanie). 

He drove for a period of time before stopping and offering Stephanie the sandwich and tea. She was confused and later said that she felt like laughing (obviously due to shock and trauma) because he had treated her so brutally and now he was trying to give her some lunch. It all made no sense but he made it clear that she was being kidnapped for ransom money. Stephanie couldn't understand, her family didn't have that much money but Michael Sams explained, he wanted her employer, Shipways to come up with the cash. He made her record a cassette tape informing her family and colleagues that she was ok but that her kidnapper demanded that they pay him £175,000.

Back at Shipways, her colleagues noticed that she hadn't been back to the office for hours. Her car was still parked outside the house where she was supposed to be having the viewing. Alarm bells started to ring and everyone was worried. 

This cassette tape was later played over the phone to the police, Stephanie's family and colleagues. Michael (or 'Bob' as Stephanie was told to refer to him as) drove Stephanie all the way to Nottingham to his workshop in Newark. 49 year old Michael Sams was originally from Keighley, a small market town in West Yorkshire. As I mentioned before, he had been married three times, had two sons and was at this point, living with his third wife in Sutton-On-Trent in Nottingham. 

Stephanie was still blindfolded when the car stopped once they arrived at the workshop. He took her inside this cold, cluttered, dirty and uncomfortable place. He told her he wanted her to undress because he had some clothes for her, she refused. Michael aka Bob, was not only married but his workshop was right next to his business, he was a heating engineer and toolmaker who had regular customers. Stephanie could hear him talking and laughing with his customers whilst she was locked up in that depressing workshop. There were two mattresses on the floor and he laid Stephanie down on one of them, she was terrified and just wanted to go home. Michael aka Bob would switch from being nice to being terrifying. Whilst Stephanie was laid on the mattress, terrified, he climbed on top of her and proceeded to sexually assault her. He then moved of f of her and said ''That won't happen again. Not that it was much.''

Stephanie had already been through enough hell up to that point, she was in pain, she was bleeding, she was cold, exhausted, had enough but the moment he sexually assaulted her, she later said, that was the moment when she said she just didn't care any more. 

He threw some men's clothing at her and ordered her to put the items on. At some point he made a catty comment about Suzy Lamplugh and this understandably terrified Stephanie, wondering what he meant, was he behind Suzy's disappearance? He told her he hoped that she wasn't claustrophobic, she replied that she wasn't. He replied ''Good! Cause you're going into a box within a box''

The sick monster then ordered Stephanie to get into a wheelie trash bin which was laying on it's side with bricks on top and other things which Stephanie was trying to make sense of. She said she couldn't fit inside but he dismissed her and said that he had tried it out earlier that day and that he could fit in perfectly fine. Eventually she was able to get inside and Michael placed some electrodes inside the box. He told her if she dared to move, she would be electrocuted. So she was inside this box, blindfolded and gagged in total darkness. This was where he had kept her for the majority of the 8 days that she was in his captivity. He would let her out to use the toilet or to give her some food and drinks.

Stephanie was so intelligent that she was fast-thinking, she tried to talk to him when she was out of the box. This did soften him at times but he kept changing his personality so she never knew where she stood.

He would give her food and drinks, let her out of the box for a little while and then he would switch up being evil and sadistic. 

On the eighth day, Michael aka Bob, told Stephanie that they were going to give him the money and he promised to let her go once it was in his possession. Stephanie did what she could to try and keep on his good side by trying to talk to him when he allowed her to eat. At one point she made him laugh about something, she thought this was a breakthrough, that maybe he would let her go but the evil sadist pointed to a wheelie bin and said ''I was going to use that to take out your dead body.''

He left the workshop as Stephanie was trapped in the make-shift coffin. He told her he was going to get the money and then he'd come back and set her free. As the hours went on and on, Stephanie began to panic and felt that he wasn't going to come back. She later said that she tried to bury her head in the corner of the box in an attempt to smother herself because she couldn't cope any longer. She said that she thought she had seen the face of Jesus in a hole in the box, shining through but later realised that she had passed out in the box and that this was just a dream. On a personal note, it could have been a sign not to give up hope and that she was going to get out of this. To her surprise, he returned but not for a very long time afterwards. When he pulled her out of the box she couldn't stand or hardly move, she collapse and her arms and legs were numb. She cried and all of a sudden he was acting like he was concerned. He tried to help her with her circulation by rubbing her arms and legs. He promised he would let her go home. 

Whilst Stephanie was in the box for those very long, torturous hours, Michael Sams had arranged through a bit of a cat and mouse game, to get the ransom money. Stephanie's boss was chosen by Michael to be the one to deliver the money to a certain location. Michael had left notes at certain places and communication was done at various phone boxes until he finally had his hands on the money. 

A popular TV programme in the UK called 'Crimewatch' featured the case whilst Stephanie was missing. They played the tape on air and Michael's ex wife recognised the voice straight away and contacted authorities. 

The police had noticed a stark number of similarities between Stephanie's kidnapping and the kidnapping and murder of an 18 year old girl named Julie Dart from Leeds, just 6 months prior to this. Julie who had a similar look to Stephanie, was a sex worker and had been spending a lot of time in the Chapletown area of the city (notorious for it's red light district). It was later revealed that Michael had abducted Julie and drove her to the exact same workshop where she had been subjected to the same hell as Stephanie had. She had been abused, bound, gagged and forced to spend agonising hours inside that box. At some point, Julie had managed to escape from the box but couldn't get out of the workshop. Michael Sams had returned to find what had happened and chained her up. Julie was also forced to write ransom notes and Michael had also tried to blackmail the British rail by threatening to derail and crash trains if they did not give him £200,000. 

Michael was dyslexic and had a distinct way of writing so investigators could see the similarities with all of the letters. Poor Julie who had been through absolute hell at the hands of this sick madman, ended up being bludgeoned with a hammer and strangled before he dumped her remains in a field in Lincolnshire. Like with Stephanie, he had been carrying out all of these evil acts whilst playing the nice guy in front of his customers in his tool shop and going home to his unsuspecting wife. 

Surprisingly he kept his word that he was going to release Stephanie. He had the nerve to tell her to be careful because he didn't want anything bad to happen to her once he had let her go. Stephanie was able to get home to her family and into the care of the police. She had such an incredible memory and went into minute detail about every single thing. A profile of 'Bob' was created and a public press conference was aired on TV appealing for information. 

With the information brought to the attention of investigators from his first wife, the similarities with the Julie Dart case and Stephanie's information, they arrested Michael Sams. Michael had no choice but to confess to the kidnapping of Stephanie Slater due to the evidence being so overwhelming. He pleaded not guilty to the sexual assault and he denied being responsible for the murder of Julie Dart. He was found guilty of all charged relating to Stephanie, Julie and the extortion attempts and given four life sentences. He was also given extra time for an attack on a female police officer. 

He later tried to sue Stephanie about the claim that he had sexually assaulted her the first night that he had held her captive, obviously this was thrown out. He also tried to sue the prison he was being held in for a number of reasons, he claimed his human rights were being violated and that they had misplaced his artificial leg. All of his ridiculous attempts at bringing lawsuits proved to be futile. 

At the time of writing (October 2026), Michael Sams is still alive at the age of 85. He has tried many times to get parole but at each hearing he is deemed too dangerous to be released. It's highly likely he will die in prison and after what he has done, it is well deserved. 

I knew about the horrific kidnapping of Stephanie Slater for a number of years and always greatly admired her strength. She came across as so strong and to have endured and survived what she did but to also go on to help other people, was incredible. I did look her up quite some time ago and I was saddened to learn that she had actually passed away on the 31st of August 2017 after a battle with Cancer. She was just 50 years old and had been living on the Isle of Wight at the time of her death. It just seemed so unfair that this incredible woman, who had been through hell had come to this end. It angers me that the likes of Michael Sams is still alive at the age of 85.

Michael Sams had put Stephanie through hell at just 25 years old and had murdered 18 year old Julie Dart. Two young women who should have been able to live their lives in peace without a care in the world. Why did he do it? What was it all for? Money? Just being a sick pervert? Maybe both. People who knew him said that he was never the same after he lost his leg. Someone like him, at the age of 49 just doesn't turn into a complete monster, he always had it in him, the mask just fell off. He has been completely ruled out of the Suzy Lamplugh investigation (which remains open to this day) but he was said to have been inspired by what happened. He certainly followed a similar pattern to the perpetrator in that case. 

Whatever the story was with Julie Dart, I understand that she was working on the streets as a sex worker at the age of 18 and that breaks my heart. As you can see from her picture above, she was a beautiful girl, just like Stephanie. I don't know if she had been from a difficult background or had fallen on difficult times but I like to think that, if none of this had happened, she would have had a chance to turn her life around. I thought it was important in this post to talk about Julie as well, not just because she was also a victim of Michael Sams, but because she deserves to be remembered too. It's not right that he's still here and those two lovely women are not. 

RIP Julie & Stephanie, you will never be forgotten. 

Stephanie had written about her ordeal in an incredible book: Beyond Fear: My Will to Survive. The book is no longer in print but you can find second-hand copies from a number of online book retailers. 

This was another difficult post to get though, so as always I appreciate you taking the time to read it and taking the time to join me in this horrific and tragic story about both of these amazing women. I think that when Michael Sams does pass away, I'm sure it will make newspaper headlines, nobody has forgotten the evil that he has done. 

I hope you will join me in my next post, in the meantime, I hope to see you on my Socials.

Take care and stay safe....until next time x