Interest in Samantha Stites’ case has spiked with the release of a new docuseries from ABC News Studios, Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror. The program follows a long timeline that started with contact on a college campus and ended in a 2024 sentence for the offender. Viewers want clear details on where and when to stream, plus a brief outline of what the series includes.
The production centers on Stites’ own account and folds in police materials and other records. It is framed as a limited, three-part story that tracks years of stalking, a 2022 abduction to a soundproof storage unit, and the investigation that followed. ABC News Studios partners with Bigger Bang on the series and lists senior producers Beth Hoppe, David Sloan, and Iain Riddick.
All three episodes stream in the United States on Hulu. The title is also available through Hulu on Disney+, per ABC’s preview coverage that lists the start date and distribution in plain terms, according to ABC7 (Aug. 18, 2025).
The premiere date is August 19, 2025. ABC News Studios and Bigger Bang produce the limited series. The listing identifies three episodes and a documentary format built around survivor narration, police interview footage, surveillance from the storage unit, and images and videos recovered from a phone. U.S. access is set, while separate international timings have not been confirmed in the provided material.
The program follows Samantha Stites through a long record of unwanted contact that began in 2011 while she was a student at Grand Valley State University. A personal protection order was granted in 2014 and later expired. After new sightings in public places, events escalated in October 2022, when Christopher Thomas broke into Stites’ home and transported her to a sound-dampened bunker built inside a storage unit near her Michigan community. The structure, described in interviews, included restraints. The series presents Stites’ account of that day along with police video, storage-unit surveillance, and digital evidence.
Producers keep the story on verifiable elements. Interviews with friends and investigators are used to mark locations, filing dates, and steps taken after the release from the unit. Reporting tied to the show also notes that Thomas cited the TV drama “You” as an influence, a point referenced in ABC7’s pre-airing segment that previews the series’ content and its source material from case files and interviews.
The program also touches on court filings related to protection orders and the later criminal case. By organizing footage and testimony over three parts, the series sets out the pattern of sightings, the break-in, the trip to the storage site, the hospital exam, and the arrest that followed.
Producers listed include Beth Hoppe and David Sloan for ABC News Studios and Iain Riddick for Bigger Bang, in line with standard crediting for ABC News Studios projects.
Also read: Where is Samantha Stites now ahead of Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror? Explained
Key dates frame the viewing. First contact occurred in 2011. A six-year protection order was issued in 2014. The order expired in 2020, with new public sightings recorded afterward. The kidnapping took place in October 2022, followed by an arrest within days based on location details provided to investigators.
In 2024, Thomas was convicted of kidnapping, torture, and aggravated stalking and received a 40 to 60-year sentence. These milestones and the Michigan setting are summarized in a report by The Telegraph, which also describes how the storage unit was outfitted and how the case moved to sentencing, as reported by The Telegraph.
