Rescued From the Trunk of a Car: The Night That Changed Everything
How traffickers took Victoria Cameron back to the Kansas City area and held her in the basement room of a house where she had previously been trafficked. Believing she was about to die, she spent the night praying and worshiping God. After receiving a warning in a dream that told her exactly what would happen and what to do, she escaped from the trunk of a car and helped secure the rescue of other victims.
THE LAST NIGHT
Victoria Cameron believed she was going to die.
Alone in a locked basement room in a house in the Kansas City area, she stood at a small basement window watching men work outside in the darkness. From what she observed, she believed they were digging her grave.
Every attempt to reason with the people holding her had failed. The life she had built had been abruptly taken from her. She believed she would never leave the house alive.
The people holding her had been engaged in repeated telephone negotiations with Joseph Cameron, the man who had legally adopted her years earlier. Several hours before she fell asleep, she was handed the telephone and spoke with him directly.
Joseph Cameron was attempting to persuade the people to take her to the United Kingdom’s local Embassy. They told him they agreed to do so, but never intended to follow through.
Faced with what she believed were the final hours of her life, Cameron made an unexpected decision.
She picked up a guitar.
Instead of spending those hours pleading for her life or surrendering to panic, she says she began to worship God.
Years later, she still remembers what was going through her mind.
“I didn’t even know if I would be heard.”
She has often reflected that, believing she was about to die, she wanted the last thing she did before seeing God to be worship Him.
She sang until exhaustion overtook her.
Then she fell asleep.
THE MESSAGE
According to Cameron, what followed was unlike anything she had ever experienced.
She says Jesus appeared to her in a dream and spoke with her before introducing two angels who would guide her through what was about to happen.
Cameron describes the encounter as peaceful and deeply personal. She says she experienced no fear, no condemnation, and no sense of rejection—only the assurance that she was not alone.
One of the angels then began explaining, in extraordinary detail, exactly what was about to happen.
He gave her practical literal instructions that told her exactly what to do moment by moment.
According to Cameron, she was shown the events in the precise order they would unfold.
The angel told her the men would suddenly enter her room shouting that there was a fire.
He told her there would be no fire.
He instructed her to take the blanket from the room and secretly keep possession of the cell phone without allowing anyone to see it.
He explained where she would be taken.
He told her when a gun would be pointed at her.
He told her what to do if that happened.
He warned her that a syringe would be brought.
He told her how to respond.
He explained when she should call 911.
He told her exactly when she would be able to leave the trunk.
He instructed her where to stand after she escaped.
He warned her not to move.
He explained what the men would do next.
He told her when it would finally be safe to leave.
Every instruction, Cameron says, was given before any of those events had occurred.
When the encounter ended, there was no time to process what she had experienced.
Immediately when she woke up, she says, the attack she had been warned about in the dream began unfolding.
THERE WAS NO FIRE
It was approximately four o’clock in the morning.
The bedroom door burst open.
According to Cameron, the two men she refers to throughout her Scotland’s Les Misérablesproject as “Mr. Thenardier” and his brother rushed into the room shouting:
“Fire! Fire! There’s no time! We’ve got to get out!”
The words were repeated over and over as they hurried her from the room.
Cameron says she immediately remembered the first message from the dream.
She quietly picked up the blanket.
She concealed the cell phone exactly as she says she had been instructed.
Then she allowed herself to be rushed outside.
Wrapped in the blanket and wearing only heavy socks, she found herself standing in the freezing February air.
Snow and ice covered the ground.
She looked around.
There was no smoke.
No flames.
No fire trucks.
The angel had already told her there would be no fire.
“I don’t see a fire,” she recalled saying.
She says she started back toward the house, intending to retrieve her shoes.
That was when everything changed.
Mr. Thenardier’s brother pulled a handgun.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
According to Cameron, the trigger was pulled.
The weapon failed to fire.
It was pulled again.
Again, it failed.
The gun had jammed.
She says she immediately remembered another message from the encounter.
The angel had told her, “I will make sure the gun does not fire.” She says she immediately remembered those words as the trigger was pulled and the weapon failed to fire.
Now, from her perspective, both had happened exactly as she had been shown.
THE SYRINGE
The men forced Cameron toward a red Ford Focus parked on the street outside the house.
Mr. Thenardier opened the trunk.
She says she was given a choice.
She could climb into the trunk herself.
Or she would be shot first and placed inside afterward.
Believing the threat was real, Cameron climbed into the trunk.
Before the lid closed, she glanced through the rear window into the back seat.
What she saw appeared to be large objects wrapped in white sheets and secured with duct tape.
She assumed they were rolled-up rugs or office furniture because there had been discussions inside the house about Mr. Thenardier helping his brother move into a new office.
She would later discover they were not.
Before the trunk could be closed, another message began unfolding.
Mr. Thenardier instructed his brother to produce a syringe and inject her with it.
She recalls Mr. Thenardier saying he intended to infect her with AIDS, explaining that this was the purpose of the injection.
“No one leaves my house without getting AIDS,” he said.
The angel had warned her this would happen.
He had also told her she would not be injected.
Cameron says she felt helpless and began trembling as she braced herself for what they were about to do, wondering whether the protection she believed had been promised would unfold exactly as she had been shown.
The angel had told her beforehand that he would be standing there, invisible to the men, and that each time they attempted to inject her, he would physically restrain their arm so they would be unable to strike her, no matter how many times they tried.
Cameron says Mr. Thenardier’s brother raised his arm to strike, to drive the syringe into her knee.
Instead of bringing it down, his arm suddenly froze.
He became unable to move his arm, and said he was having a back spasm.
He even tried transferring the syringe to his other hand but still could not bring his arm down to stab her with it, no matter how hard he tried.
Mr. Thenardier took the syringe and attempted the same thing.
He also became unable to move his arm.
He, too, was unable to bring his arm down to inject her, saying he was also experiencing a strange back spasm.
According to Cameron, after repeated failed attempts to inject her, Mr. Thenardier became visibly frustrated. She recalls him complaining that there was “some kind of force field” in front of her that prevented them from reaching her.
Unable to inject her, Cameron says the men tested the syringe on one another before throwing it into the grass beside the sidewalk.
Only then did they close the trunk.
INSIDE THE TRUNK
The trunk closed.
Darkness.
For a moment, Cameron says there was only silence.
Then she remembered the next message.
According to Cameron, the angel had already told her exactly what the two men would do after closing the trunk. They would remain outside the vehicle for several minutes, discussing where they intended to take her. He told her not to panic. He told her to wait.
She listened.
Outside the trunk, she says she could hear the two brothers talking.
Mr. Thenardier asked where they should take her.
His brother suggested Westport or Oklahoma.
Mr. Thenardier disagreed.
“Not Westport. She knows the area,” Cameron recalls him saying. “Let’s go to Emporia.”
According to Cameron, Mr. Thenardier then described what he intended to do after they reached their destination.
“I’m going to give her AIDS with a good old fashioned rape,” he said.
“Then throw her in the breaking room and let anyone who wants a piece have at it,” he said.
Listening from inside the trunk, she says they were talking about her immediate future as though she had no choice in it.
She remained silent.
They walked away from the trunk over to the center of the driveway.
According to Cameron, another part of the message now came back to her.
The angel had told her that when the two men stepped away from the trunk and began talking together, that would be the moment to use the hidden cell phone.
She reached beneath the blanket.
Carefully, she removed the phone.
Then she dialed 911.
The dispatcher answered.
She quietly explained that she had been forced into the trunk of a car and gave the information she could while trying not to alert the men standing only a short distance away.
Then something unexpected happened.
Until that moment, Cameron says she had believed the large objects wrapped in bed sheets behind the back seat were pieces of furniture or rolled-up rugs.
As she spoke with the dispatcher, she suddenly heard crying.
Then voices.
According to Cameron, two girls began pleading for help.
“I don’t want to die,” said one.
“Please help us,” said another.
It was only then, Cameron says, that she realized the shapes she had seen were not furniture at all. They were two girls.
The realization changed everything.
She now understood that she was not the only victim in the vehicle.
The realization transformed what she believed was an attack directed solely at her into something much larger.
Outside, the conversation continued.
According to Cameron, Mr. Thenardier and his brother began examining the handgun that had failed to fire only moments earlier.
As she listened from inside the trunk, she suddenly heard gunfire.
The weapon had begun working again.
Cameron says she immediately remembered another part of the message.
The angel had told her the gun would not fire when it was pointed at her.
He had not said it would never fire.
Hearing the shots, she says she realized the weapon had been real all along.
The silence that followed felt even heavier.
THE ESCAPE
According to Cameron, another message now came back to her.
The two men would go back into the house.
They would gather food for the drive.
She was not to move.
They would enter through the front door, not the garage.
They would leave the garage door open.
They would not check the garage before leaving.
She was to wait until she heard both the front door and the screen door close completely.
Only then would it be time for the next step.
So she waited.
She was to remain completely still.
Only after she heard both the front door and the screen door close was she to pull the glow-in-the-dark emergency release latch inside the trunk.
Not before.
According to Cameron, another part of the message concerned the trunk itself.
Before Mr. Thenardier closed her into the trunk, he had shown her what he claimed was the glow-in-the-dark emergency trunk release latch after it had been cut, leading her to believe there would be no way to open the trunk from the inside.
According to Cameron, the angel told her not to worry. Even if the emergency release latch had been cut, he said, she would find it intact when the time came. “No matter what they do,” Cameron recalls him saying, “it will be there.”
When she reached into the darkness of the trunk, Cameron says, the glow-in-the-dark release latch was there.
Outside, the conversation ended.
She heard footsteps.
Then the front door opened.
The voices became quieter as the two men entered the house.
She continued listening.
One door closed.
Then another.
Only after hearing both doors shut did she reach for the glow-in-the-dark emergency release latch.
The trunk opened.
She climbed out.
Then she remembered the next message.
She was not to run.
She was not to call out for help.
She was not to leave the property.
She was instructed to hide in the garage.
She quietly lowered the trunk lid and closed it exactly as she had found it.
The angel had warned her that if anything about the scene looked different, the men might investigate before leaving.
She says she quietly walked into the open garage.
There, another message came back to her.
Stand against the wall. Stand with your body completely flat up against the wall.
Do not move.
Do not make a sound.
She pressed herself tightly against the garage wall exactly where she had been shown.
Then she waited again.
From where she stood, Cameron says she could hear the voices of the two men inside the house.
She could hear cabinets opening.
She could hear them gathering food for the drive.
She could hear ordinary conversation.
The contrast felt surreal.
Only minutes earlier the two men had discussed killing her.
Now they were preparing snacks for a road trip.
She remained motionless.
According to Cameron, the angel had told her there would be no chase through the house.
The men would leave through the front door, not the garage.
She listened as the front door opened once more.
She held her breath.
Footsteps on the porch.
Footsteps crossed the driveway.
It was Mr. Thenardier’s brother. He didn’t even glance backwards at the garage.
She heard footsteps on the porch.
Then more footsteps. Across the grass. Then running across the lawn.
Then came the words she has never forgotten.
Cameron recalls Mr. Thenardier shouted, “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! We finally got the bitch!”
He shouted the words into the dark night air as a loud victory cry while running toward the driver’s side of the car, believing she was still locked inside the trunk.
She heard the driver’s door close.
Then another door.
The engine started.
She did not move.
Moments later, the car pulled away.
She breathed.
Only seconds passed before another sound broke the silence.
Sirens.
According to Cameron, two police cars sped past the house in pursuit of the vehicle.
She remembered the angel’s next message.
Do not run into the driveway and wave for help.
She was not to interfere.
The angel had told her the officers needed to catch the car with the two girls still inside.
She remained where she was.
The police cars disappeared down the road.
Silence returned.
Then came the final message.
Walk into the driveway.
Look to your left.
THE WAITING CAR
She stepped out of the garage.
The cold February air met her once again.
She walked slowly into the driveway.
Then she looked to her left.
According to Cameron, a car was parked along the street.
She says she had noticed the vehicle earlier but had not seen anyone inside.
Now two men were there.
One stepped out.
According to Cameron, she immediately recognized him as the person she says the angel had told her would take her to safety.
He approached.
According to Cameron, he was wearing the same uniform she says men from Joseph Cameron’s office wore, including the same distinctive pins she had seen before.
There was no panic.
No shouting.
No confusion.
He simply told her it was time to leave.
Cameron says she got into the waiting car.
Only then, she says, did she finally allow herself to believe she had survived.
As the vehicle pulled away, the house disappeared behind her.
The basement.
The trunk.
The gun.
The syringe.
The waiting.
It was over.
Or so she believed.
Years later, Cameron would come to view that night as far more than a narrow escape.
It became, in her words, the night that changed everything.
WHAT THE TWO MEN TOLD HER
As they drove Cameron away from the house, the two men spoke words she says she has never forgotten.
They quoted Isaiah 54:17:
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper…”
They explained that everything that had happened in the house—the violence, the abuse, and the attempts to destroy her life—were the “weapons” that had been formed against her. They told her that God had declared those weapons would not prevail, and they were there to enforce that.
They then quoted Jeremiah 29:11:
”‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.’”
According to Cameron, they told her that God had a purpose for her life and a future beyond what had happened that night. They prayed for her and spoke words of life over her.
Before leaving, they made one final statement that she says remained with her:
“Everything that happened tonight is now a part of Scottish independence.”
Cameron says they explained that, beneath everything that had happened, her family’s fight for Scottish independence was part of the motive behind what had been done to her.
She says those words stayed with her long after that night and she has never forgotten any of it.
REFLECTION
For Cameron, the turning point that night did not begin with the opening of the trunk.
It began several hours earlier, when she believed there was no remaining way out.
She did not pick up the guitar because she was certain a miracle would follow. She says she picked it up because she believed she was about to die.
“I wanted the last thing I did before I died was worship God because I thought that I would be seeing him any moment,” Cameron said.
As she sat alone in the locked basement room, she remembered the biblical account of Paul and Silas praying and singing to God while imprisoned.
“I did what they did,” she said.
She prayed. She worshiped. She continued singing until she fell asleep exhausted.
Yet Cameron says her decision to worship did not come from unwavering confidence. At the time, she questioned whether her prayers would even be received.
“I didn’t even know if I would be heard,” she said.
She worried that she had not maintained the kind of orderly devotional life she associated with other Christians. Her relationship with God had rarely followed a fixed structure. Prayer, she says, was more often an ongoing conversation woven through daily life.
She had experienced frustration, doubt and moments she regretted. As she faced what she believed were the final hours of her life, she wondered whether any of those things would stand between her and God.
According to Cameron, what happened next answered that question for her.
“I thought I was calling God through prayer, and then he picked up the phone and answered,” she said.
Cameron says Jesus appeared to her first and introduced two angels. One of them then delivered the detailed message that guided her through the events that followed.
She does not describe herself as fearless.
“The person that was fearless was the angel that came and gave the message,” Cameron said. “He was fearless, he was confident, he talked like he was in total control, and I hoped he was.”
That difference remains central to how she remembers the night.
The angel spoke with certainty. Cameron did not possess that same certainty. She was frightened, listening and trying to follow each part of the message as she remembered it.
Then the events began unfolding in the order she says she had been shown.
The false report of a fire.
The gun that would not fire at her.
The syringe the two men could not use against her.
The telephone call from inside the trunk.
The two doors closing.
The emergency release latch.
The hiding place in the garage.
The waiting car.
With each step, she says, the confidence she had witnessed during the encounter was tested against what was happening around her.
Some people who have heard the account, she says, have described her as heroic because her 911 call also brought police attention to the two girls she heard crying inside the car.
That is not how she understands what happened.
“I am not the hero,” she said. “I had faith. I worshiped God that night. I prayed, I had faith. This angel came. I followed the message.”
From Cameron’s perspective, the rescue had already been planned. Her responsibility was to act on what she believed she had been told, despite her fear and uncertainty.
“I just followed the instructions the best that I could, and that’s all I did,” she said. “That was my part.”
WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT ROOM
The hours before Cameron fell asleep were not simply a prelude to the events that followed. They became, in her words, a prolonged struggle against fear, despair, and the growing belief that she might not survive until morning.
Unable to sleep, Cameron reached for her guitar sometime around 10:45 that evening. What followed was nearly four hours of worship, prayer, reflection, and what she describes as a determined effort to keep fear from becoming the final voice in the room.
Rather than playing through a collection of songs once, Cameron says she often remained on a single song for twenty minutes or longer until she felt ready to move on, repeating verses and choruses, reflecting on the meaning of the words, and trying to believe what she was singing was still true despite the circumstances she was in. As she sought to draw near to God, she says she wasn’t simply singing songs—she was trying to connect with His heart.
When she reached the end of her songs, she began again.
The repetition, she explains, was not a ritual. It was born out of necessity.
“I was trying very hard not to doubt. I would also speak scriptures out loud about faith and would repeat them over and over until I felt I could assert them without doubt.”
She says the fear did not disappear immediately. Even after two hours of working through every song she could remember, she still felt the same nervousness and uneasiness that had been with her throughout the evening. Instead of giving up, she returned to the beginning and sang through the songs again.
“I was trying to get it out of my system so I could just have faith and believe that I would be okay.”
Looking back, Cameron says the worship was not about trying to remind God who He is. It was about reminding herself.
“I wasn’t reminding God who He is. I was reminding myself who He is.”
Throughout those hours, Cameron says she continually returned to what she already believed about God. She remembered previous times she believed He had rescued her and other moments in which she believed He had worked in her life and tried to hold onto those memories while uncertainty pressed in. At the same time, she wrestled with questions that had no immediate answers. She wondered whether God knew where she was, whether He heard her prayers, and whether He would rescue her again.
She also found herself thinking about the future she believed God had spoken over her life. As the night wore on, she questioned whether any of it would ever happen.
“I was thinking of everything in my life that I believed God spoke to me about, and then I thought, ‘Well, I guess it won’t happen.’ I thought that maybe it was important to Him for it to happen, but then this happened.”
According to Cameron, worship became the way she fought those thoughts.
“I was trying to convince my own heart not to give up.”
She says worship became the way she kept returning her thoughts to what she believed to be true when fear kept pulling them in the opposite direction.
She says she did more than sing.
“I also prayed every spiritual warfare prayer I could think of against Satan and demons. I was also praying in tongues a lot.”
She describes those hours as an ongoing battle against fear and despair.
Cameron also says she found herself asserting something she felt she needed to remember.
“I was asserting that I belong to God. I was singing, playing that guitar for four hours. Whoever was in the house could probably hear it loud and clear through the vents. And I did not care.”
As the hours passed, Cameron says something inside of her gradually began to change.
She emphasizes that the fear did not suddenly disappear. Instead, song after song and prayer after prayer, her attention slowly shifted away where she was toward who God is.
Looking back, she believes something was changing spiritually during those hours. From her perspective, the worship, the prayers, and her drawing near to God were part of what preceded the encounter she had with Jesus.
By the end of nearly four hours of singing, praying, and wrestling with fear, exhaustion finally overtook her.
She fell asleep.
She says she had no way of knowing that everything was about to change.
MUSIC FROM THAT NIGHT
“I thought I was going to die. I prayed. I worshiped God. I had a dream that told me what to do. I followed it, and it saved my life.”
— Victoria Cameron
Cameron says these are the worship songs she sang during the nearly four hours she spent praying, worshiping, and seeking God before she fell asleep that night.
INSIDE THE HOUSE: THE ESCALATION
In the hours leading up to her rescue, Cameron says the atmosphere inside the house changed dramatically. What had begun as an uneasy captivity became increasingly volatile as tensions rose between the members of the household. She recalls overhearing phone calls, arguments, and conversations that left her with the growing belief that the situation was rapidly escalating.
According to Cameron, one source of tension was a series of telephone calls involving Jeffrey Epstein. She recalls that he contacted the house more than once during the days leading up to her rescue, while other conversations took place that she was not privy to. Although she did not hear every call, she says she noticed that they appeared to leave Madam Thénardier anxious and increasingly unsettled. Around the same time, Cameron says Joseph Cameron also began calling the house, adding to what she perceived as a growing sense of pressure.
As the atmosphere became more strained, Cameron recalls overhearing arguments between Mr. and Madam Thénardier that appeared to be about what to do with her. During one exchange, she says Madam Thénardier suggested, “Let’s just sell her.” When Cameron asked who they were talking about, she says the comment was immediately dismissed as referring to a dog. By that point, however, Cameron says she had previously overheard conversations in which women and girls appeared to be referred to as “cats” and “dogs” in conversations she understood to involve trafficking.
The tension reached a new level when Cameron says Mr. Thénardier erupted in anger. After mocking her Christian faith during an earlier conversation, she recalls him declaring that he was finished with the situation and talking about digging a pit in the backyard to “throw her in it and be done with her.” According to Cameron, he retrieved a shovel from the garage, began digging, and later called his brother, who joined him outside. As the hours passed, Cameron says the pit continued to grow larger. Looking back, she says this was the moment she became convinced that her life was in immediate danger.
Later that day, Cameron says Madam Thénardier was flipping through a three-ring binder containing landscaping diagrams of the property while speaking on the telephone. Cameron says Madam Thénardier was so engrossed in her telephone conversation that she was able to enter the kitchen unnoticed and stand only a few feet behind her, watching as she flipped through the binder. Cameron says she was able to see the pages as the conversation continued.
According to Cameron, the diagrams contained rectangles, circles, and other shapes marked with names. Cameron says Madam Thénardier identified them as burial locations then pointed to a location bearing Cameron’s name, stating that a place had already been selected for Cameron. She also recalls Madam Thénardier stating that their previous property’s yard had become “full,” which is why they moved, and explaining that she was creating a different layout design for her yard at her current residence.
Cameron says Madam Thénardier stated that they were still deciding what to do with her. According to Cameron, Madam Thénardier said Mr. Thénardier wanted to sell her for a profit, while she favored burying her in the yard, discussing both options with the people on the call.
Cameron also recalls Madam Thénardier saying that Mr. Thénardier appeared to be leaning toward selling her, but that the decision had not yet been made. According to Cameron, Madam Thénardier explained that because of how Cameron had been acquired, other parties—including Jeffrey Epstein—were also involved in deciding what would happen to her.
What follows is Cameron’s recollection of portions of the telephone conversation she says she overheard while standing behind Madam Thénardier as she spoke with others.
Cameron recalls Madam Thenardier said:
“We’ve been talking…we’re going to get the old wheel barrow out again and add some “fertilizer” to the yard…I think it’s for the best. She’s been here so long this time, we might as well…it’s the best way to get rid of her…of course she’s the fertilizer. What did you think I was talking about? Chemicals? You know me…she’s so rotten that her flesh may kill the grass…she’s not worth anything…she’s not good for anything…he offered her a massage job, she said no…there’s nothing we can do with her…she’s just taking up space…I don’t even want her breathing the air here…he said all she’s good for now is grass fertilizer…fertilizer for the yard…
…i’m looking at our landscaping diagram right now…at the old house I did rows, but at this house I changed the design. The shape of the yard is different, and we have to work around the tree…I started going around the perimeter at this one. I started by the fence and then I worked my way around…well yeah…sometimes I dig. This time he and his brother are the ones digging…I don’t know I may go out there and get a shovel, but it’s cold. I want to stay inside where it’s toasty warm…
…did you all like the christmas cookies I sent you?…oh, I’m glad…I stopped making the krispy fudge because it was too hard to cut in the pan…yeah, I know people liked it. sorry…I added some new ones this year…
…well I have to check the map first. We haven’t decided…I’m looking at the map right now…You have to be careful when you dig so you don’t disturb anyone, otherwise you get poltergeists…ha! You are hoot! You are a hoot!…no, mom told me that…well I don’t know if we have any or not…well i thought we had some at the old house…that’s not why we moved…no, that’s not why we moved…no, it’s not…no, it’s not…no, I’m not scared of ghosts…don’t be silly. That’s ridiculous!…No, you are a hoot! You really are a hoot!…you both are a hoot! You’re two hoots…
…we had to move from the old house because the yard was full…we have a lot of people in that yard…no, I’m not worried…if anyone ever finds anything I’ll say I didn’t know our house was built on an old Indian burial ground…the builder should have checked. Not me. It’s not my problem. We were oblivious…maybe they can donate the bones to a museum…
…I have to check and see what spots I have open…let me see…I have a spot open right here in the center…just wrote her name on it…we’ll see…I don’t know…
…I’m having problems with arthritis….he may have to be the one to do it….I’m having trouble gripping the knife…but he wants to see if he can sell her first, so we’re waiting to find out what he wants to do…
…Jeffrey called the other day…New York…yeah we know someone in New York…no i don’t like talking to him…I just pass the phone over to him…
…well it may not be over…he may still want to sell her…but I want her in the yard with the rest of them…I want this over and done with…dead as a doornail like Marley…Marley who?…oh, you know, Scrooge and Marley…no, I don’t think she’ll haunt us…”
Then she suddenly looked over her shoulder and saw Cameron standing there and was caught in the moment. She reacted with shock and was upset and didn’t know how much Cameron had heard. Disturbed by what she believed she was hearing, Cameron says she confronted her directly, like she was disciplining a child. She recalls she said, “What are you doing? Are you talking about killing me and burying me in the yard?” Cameron recalls Madam Thénardier responding dramatically and emotionally, insisting, “I would never do that to MY daughter!”
Cameron recalls Madam Thenardier appeared to be in a state of shock, and even produced tears while scolding her and saying, “How DARE you say that about me! That you would even think that about me! After all that I’ve done for you! I can’t believe you would even think that about your own mother! No, get away from me. I just need some space,” before abruptly ending the conversation and leaving the house to tutor students at the local Starbucks.
With the house temporarily quieter, Cameron says she seized the opportunity to examine the binder which she had noticed Madam Thenardier left on the kitchen table. She recalls finding diagrams of the yard of the current property alongside diagrams of the yard she recognized from the house where she says she had been held as a child. She also remembers seeing handwritten financial documents that Cameron says she interpreted as records of criminal transactions, and other notes that she believed related to criminal activity. After only a few minutes, she heard the garage door opening and hurriedly returned everything to its place. Moments later, Madam Thénardier entered the kitchen, looked directly at her, and asked, “What are you doing?” Cameron says the question left her fearing she had been discovered. When Madam Thénardier later left the house again, Cameron says she returned to the binder and spent another fifteen to twenty minutes examining its contents before putting it back exactly as she had found it.
Cameron also recalls speaking directly with Jeffrey Epstein during one of the telephone calls she says he placed to the house. According to Cameron, the landline rang while she was in the kitchen. Mr. Thénardier answered the call and spoke with the caller for several minutes before turning to Cameron and telling her that his friend wanted to speak with “his daughter.” When the phone was handed to her, Cameron says the caller identified himself as Jeffrey Epstein.
According to Cameron, Epstein reminded her that he and Ghislaine Maxwell placed her in the Thenardiers’ family long ago when she was a small child, and stated that they have to maintain that placement. He also insisted that neither he, Maxwell, nor others connected to them had trafficked her. Cameron says he maintained that they had merely transported her to what he described as an adoption and repeatedly pressured her to stop describing them as child traffickers. He urged her to accept the Thenardiers as her family and stop telling others that she had been trafficked to them as a child.
Epstein also expressed concern that she had spoken, or might speak, to journalists about her situation. Cameron says he told her that speaking to journalists was forbidden and that it was a rule she had no choice but to follow.
Cameron says Epstein also encouraged her to participate in what he described as a massage business. She says she refused, a response she recalls that made him livid.
Throughout this period, Cameron says she repeatedly tried to negotiate for her freedom. At times she appealed to Madam Thénardier by asking to be treated as a daughter if that was truly how the family viewed her, arguing that she should therefore be allowed ordinary freedoms, including attending church and having access to transportation. On other occasions, she says she tried to persuade Madam Thénardier to seek help and cooperate with law enforcement. Cameron recalls those conversations ending without success, leaving her increasingly convinced that she could not rely on negotiation alone if she hoped to survive.
Cameron says that after Madam Thénardier returned home from tutoring students later that day, she confronted her about the telephone conversation she had overheard. According to Cameron, she told Madam Thénardier that she believed she had heard a demonic spirit speaking through her and urged her to seek help from a pastor experienced in spiritual warfare and deliverance ministry.
Cameron recalls Madam Thénardier rejecting the suggestion.
“No,” Cameron recalls her saying. “I want her. I need her. I can’t function without her.”
According to Cameron, she then began praying and verbally rebuking what she believed was a demonic presence. Cameron says Madam Thénardier laughed and replied, “None of that works here. This is my house.” Cameron recalls her continuing, “It doesn’t work because this is my house.”
Madam Thénardier wanted her to know who had the position of spiritual authority in that house.
THE GUITAR
Though Cameron was rescued from the house, her guitar did not make it out alive.
When Cameron escaped, she fled with only the clothes she was wearing and was unable to return for the instrument. It remained behind after her rescue along with other personal belongings.
Cameron says that after Mr. Thénardier was released on bond, agents who had assisted in her rescue later returned to the house to recover the property she had been forced to leave behind. They found that the guitar had been deliberately smashed into numerous pieces and left on the front porch. Mr. Thénardier openly acknowledged destroying it, and she was told there was discussion of pursuing a destruction-of-property charge against him because of it. Cameron recalls that one of the agents involved in recovering her belongings remarked, “He’s telling us who he is by the way he treated that guitar.”
The comment stayed with her. She believes it captured the spiritual significance of what had happened.
The guitar was far more than a musical instrument. It was the instrument she held during the four hours she spent worshiping, praying, and seeking God before she fell asleep. It was also the instrument she played just before the encounter with Jesus and the message she received from the angel. Every song listed in the previous section was played on that guitar. In her mind, it became inseparable from one of the most significant nights of her life.
Looking back, Cameron believes that, in Mr. Thénardier’s mind, the guitar was the instrument that ultimately led to his arrest. She believes he associated it with the worship that preceded her rescue and viewed it as a symbol of the events that followed leading to his downfall.
Cameron compares this to biblical accounts in which music and worship accompany spiritual deliverance. She points to David playing the harp for King Saul, bringing relief from a tormenting spirit, and to the worship surrounding the fall of Jericho. From Cameron’s perspective, worship has never been merely music. She believes it is a declaration of God’s authority and a powerful expression of faith in the midst of spiritual conflict.
For that reason, Cameron says the destruction of the guitar carried significance far beyond the loss of an instrument. In her view, it represented an attempt to destroy the object that had become inseparably connected with the worship that preceded her rescue. While the guitar itself was destroyed, Cameron says what happened that night—and what it ultimately came to mean in her life—could never be destroyed.
WHAT SHE CARRIED OUT OF THE TRUNK
Cameron says that night did not mark the end of the conflict.
“If you escape them, you still haven’t escaped.”
She says the faith that sustained her that night became the type of faith she has continued to rely on through the years that followed. Cameron says those convictions have remained with her ever since. The conflict, she says, did not end that night. But neither did the message she believes God gave her: that her life had value, that He wanted her to live, and that He had a purpose for preserving it.
Looking back, Cameron reflects:
“I felt like I had been thrown in the trash.”
“Everything about what happened was telling me, ‘We want you to die.’”
“Because of how I was rescued, I believe God has a purpose for my life, and that He wants me to live.”
“That night, I thought I was going to die. The last thing I wanted to do before I saw God was worship Him and pray, so I picked up the guitar in the room and that’s what I did. I just started singing and worshiping God.
“I prayed and worshiped God until I was so tired I fell asleep from exhaustion.
“And then I had that dream that saved my life,” said Cameron.
Looking back, Cameron says that dream became one of the defining moments of her life. She believes that without it she would have been sold into a brothel. Instead, she escaped, survived, and, as she puts it, “I have a completely different life today than I would have had because of how I was rescued.”
American charismatic Christian leader, author, and political activist Lou Engle has often spoken about the significance of dreams, saying that “a single dream can redirect an entire life.” Cameron says that statement reflects her own experience.
“I thought that I’m a person of value to God because this happened—that He didn’t throw me in the trash and abandon me, that He made a way out when someone else sent me a death sentence,” said Cameron.
“I was shocked that He came.”
Editorial Note: This article contains references to allegations, witness testimony, and other reported information. Individuals or organizations named or referred to in this article have disputed or denied allegations concerning their alleged involvement, and their reported responses have varied. Where relevant, those responses are described in the body of this article or elsewhere in this series. The inclusion of an individual’s name should not be interpreted as a finding of civil or criminal liability. Readers are encouraged to review the related articles and supporting source material in this series for additional context.
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