I don't know how I feel about this.
http://www.stephanieslater.org/
At the time she was "kidnapped" my nan was living in Booths Farm Road (the road next to Turnberry) and had lived there since the street was built! She was one of the first residents and the oldest (in length of time there not age although she was close on that one!).
Mu cousin knew Stephanie and as a family we knew what had gone on days before it was on the news. Two coppers in an unmarked car were sat on my aunts driveway as from there you could have a great view of Shipways and the other shops and so, with her permission, they used it as a point to keep an eye on the goings-on. She got very irate when she took them coffee out and a few minutes later the cups went flying out the window and they car sped off at high speed.
Anyhoo, Stephanie came back and my cousin suddenly became convinced that she (Stephanie not my cousin) was "in on it!"
The more I read about it the more I agreed with her. Now, sixteen years later, after seeing her website and watching the interview on This Morning I think I'm even more convinced that she was.
Violent crime has always been something I've been interested in. I'm amazed at what goes through someone's mind to make them do something so horrific. What has made me look her up today is that I've just re-read Paul Britton's book "The Jigsaw Man" and he was involved in this case. He gave the police a psychological breakdown on the person(s) involved and as usual he was on the nose with his description.
I'm going to write to him I think and ask him his thoughts and feelings on this case but I doubt I'll get a reply and if I do I guess it'll be something along the lines of "I cannot comment, sorry."
Michael Sams, the man currently serving time for kidnapping her and the murder of Julie Dart had one leg! He over-powered Stephanie and managed to get her down the stairs, out of the house and into his Metro in broad daylight without any problem at all!
My mother, who is 5ft1 and petite, could have battered crap out of him, even now as she's turns 61! So why couldn't the young Birmingham lass (most of them have a voice to get out of most things let alone the fists) get away from a one legged men?
And what the fuck is the going on in the This Morning interview? She was blind and couldn't see anything but then suddenly she wasn't blind it was just very blurred. I know the road she used to live on and if her vision was as bad as made out there is no way she'd have found her house. They all look the bloody same! Quite literally! If she was blindfolded how did she know she was "in a coffin inside a wheelie-bin" Fair enough she might call any small cramped boxed you're forced into a "coffin" but with a blindfold on how did she know it was then pushed into a wheelie-bin? (By a man with one leg!)
Something about this whole story just doesn't ring true but she's "the victim" and I'd be shot for saying these things! How can I be so callous when she's been through so much! Well what if she hasn't!
Apparently she suffered short-term short-sightedness which just righted itself overnight a few months later! It's a pity the police didn't get cured as well!