Girl in the Garage: The Laura Cowan Story (2025 Lifetime Movie)
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Cast: Paige Hurd, Stephen Bishop
Director: Manu Boyer
Writer(s): Avery O. Williams
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
After her husband is arrested and thrown in jail, Laura Cowan finds herself struggling to make ends meet. When a family friend offers to move her and her children into his home temporarily, Laura lets out a sigh of relief, believing this is an act of kindness that will give her time to get back on her feet. Overnight, this blessing turns into a nightmare when Laura and her children realize they’ve been abducted. Held captive in a cold and dark garage, Laura is repeatedly sexually assaulted by her abductor and her and her children are beaten and abused for years. One day, Laura manages to sneak a note to the outside world and authorities are able to rescue her and her family. Much to Laura’s surprise, her note not only lead the police to her and her family, but two other women and their children being held captive in the same house. Starring Paige Hurd, and Stephen Bishop (2025).
Let me know what you thought of the movie in the comments below or @lifetimeuncorked
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie starts with a girl named Laura in a garage. She helps a new victim calm down until they can escape and tells the woman to pray for help.
Ten years earlier, Laura is a new LA resident who is soaking up the sunshine and her new independence. Her sister jokes about Laura coming back home in a few months. Laura hears a man preaching on the street and is attracted to him. His name is Shabazz, and he tries to hard sell her on attending his community meetings.
Shabazz tells Laura he loves his community and wants to lift everyone up. He is impressed by Laura’s fearlessness about moving out on her own. Laura explains that she is taking a leap of faith, and so far, it has worked out for her benefit. The pair start spending a lot of time together. Shabazz rents out a storefront and wants to start a business with Laura. After four months, he proposes and tells her he is a simple man.
Laura and Shabazz run the store nine years later and raise their two kids. Shabazz seems to be dealing with some shady gentlemen, which raises Laura’s eyebrows, but she tries to be grateful to God for the life he has given her. Laura keeps a journal of their memories.
ATF pulls up on the store and arrests Shabazz for illegal weapon dealing. He tells her that he is guilty and willing to accept the responsibility for his actions. Laura is left to run the store along, which sucks cause it is a bookstore. One of Shabazz’s faith-based friends, Musa, stops by to help her close the store. He stops by every day that week and offers to let her and the kids stay with him and his seven kids. (Who are homeschooled by his wife Marva.)
The house is crowded and rigid. Laura tries to make the most of it and have fun with the kids, but Mufa shuts it down quickly. (This is no Maria Von Trap Situation.) He is strict with the children to the point of being abusive and neglectful. (They lock the pantry at night and put kids in time-out for hours.) Laura disapproves and tries to talk to Marva, but she won’t engage.
Laura asks Mufa to let her contribute financially, but he tells Laura she ruined her husband’s business and has no skills. When Laura talks to the neighbors, Mufa tells Laura they don’t talk to people. When she cooks a meal for the children, Mufa calls them gluttons and smashes all their plates. Laura tries to stand up to him, and Mufa raises his stick to her.
Laura knows she needs to leave and tries to say she is going to visit her husband in jail with the kids. Mufa tells Laura that he talked to Shabazz, who wants the children to stay away from him and listen to Mufa as if he were their father. Laura tries to leave, but Mufa tells her she has no means to take care of her family. She can’t go. She has nothing.
Laura tries to call her sister after things get abusive over some potato chips. Mufa listens on the other line with a gun in his hand. He locks Laura and her children in their room at night and takes away her journal. One night, Mufa sits in their room with a knife and rapes her.
Laura becomes pregnant with Mufa’s child and goes into labor. He wants to have a home birth, but Laura insists on going to the hospital. She tries to ask a nurse for help, but Mufa catches her and checks out immediately. Mufa uses the baby to get more food stamps. Mufa separates Laura from her baby and locks her in the garage.
In the garage, Laura and her children sleep on cardboard boxes and go to the bathroom in buckets. They stay there for six days before being let out to bury a hole in the backyard to put their waste. The days pass, and Mufa brings them a mattress to lay on and some food, but not much else. Mufa tries to break her spirit and Laura’s faith.
Laura spends 72 days in the garage, trying to protect her kids from Mufa and his abuse. She continues to write on scrap paper and finds things in the garage to keep her and the kids entertained. They find a tape recorder, and Laura records Mufa’s zealot rants.
Mufa takes Laura to the store, and she looks rough. She goes to the bathroom and tries to write a note for help but gets distracted by what she sees in the mirror and is horrified by her own reflection.
We are back to the movie’s beginning with the other kidnapped woman and her son. Laura knows she must get out and sneaks a note in her waistband. Laura tries to pass the note to the Food Stamp Lady. Mufa is distracted and doesn’t notice, but the Food Stamp lady gets the message. Still, help doesn’t come. Laura sings, “Eye is on the Sparrow,” and THEN the police pull up.
The police open the garage and free the children. They arrest Mufa and free the other women and children. As Mufa is being hauled away, he screams at Laura that he will find her and kill her.
Laura is reunited with Shabazz, and Laura takes her kids to see their dad in prison. He is released from prison and dies a month later of a heart attack. Laura takes the kids to the beach to see it one last time before they leave California for good.
Laura is an activist and is thriving, not surviving. She is an advocate for domestic violence survivors and is educating, empowering, and advocating for justice to end domestic violence.
Stray Thoughts
Faith being used to manipulate people is messed up but common.
Read About the True Story Here.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: N/A (Not that kind of Lifetime Movie)
Lifetime Tropes: Based on a true story, domestic violence,
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 Glasses of Wine)
Should you watch it?
Pour it Up (Give it a shot!)
Put a Cork in it! (Skip it!)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media at @LifetimeUncorked and @patrickmiguel.
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*Photo Credit: © 2025 A&E Television Networks, LLC
Something that totally pisses me off is how some individuals pretend to be pious and God fearing. They have the audacity to claim the way some people live is wrong and that those people will go to hell. These people say all that while their behaving horribly. Committing heinous acts upon people (mainly women and children). And those supposedly pious individuals thunk they’re going to heaven and that they’re the righteous ones. It makes me sick. They’re such hypocrites. Obviously not all people behave this way but those who do are the opposite of righteous. They’re disgusting hypocrites. They destroy so many people’s lives, all in the name of God. Despicable. I’m not any specific religion. I believe in the Golden rule. I try very hard to be a good and decent person. I wish more people would just do that instead of using their religion as a weapon. I honestly believe his country (and the world) would be so much better. Sorry if I’m preachy but hypocrisy, violence against women and kids etc really really make me angry
Thank you Anonymous, I agree totally.
Laura Cowan
http://www.lauracowanstory.com