A Mother And Daughter Managed To Escape Their Kidnapper And Tell Their Story

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Math teacher Mary Stauffer and her daughter Beth were kidnapped and managed to escape after 53 days locked in a closet. Mary was kidnapped at gunpoint with her 8-year-old daughter in 1980 by Ming Sen Shiue, who had been her student 15 years earlier. Mary had been a teacher to her kidnapper when he was in the ninth grade and Ming wanted revenge on her for giving him a 'B' in her class. "She was very smart, a very capable student," Mary told PEOPLE. "She was a typical ninth-grade boy."

Back then Mary was 36 and Ming 29. Her former student raped her multiple times during her kidnapping. The student became obsessed with her and began to chase her, trying to kidnap her four times before succeeding, without her suspecting anything. Mary and her daughter Beth would live a nightmare at Ming's house in Minessotta, where he kept them chained for almost two months in a tiny closet.

The man also murdered a 6-year-old boy who witnessed the kidnapping. Ming sexually abused Mary while filming her. He threatened to harm her daughter if she did not obey him. The man threatened to kill them and the rest of their family if they tried to flee. "Every day we wondered if that would be our last day of life," said Mary. "We had no security of getting out of there alive."

Her story will be told in the movie Abducted: The Mary Stauffer Story, which premieres on Lifetime in October with actress Alyson Hannigan in the role of Mary. "There are many people who have gone through very terrible things, many women who have been raped," Mary told PEOPLE. "They have to see that there is life after this." What you hope is to be a beacon of hope for other survivors of abuse and trauma.

Ming argued with authorities that the teacher had ruined his life by giving him a B in mathematics, as that had cost him a university scholarship and he had been forced to fight in the Vietnam War, where he became a prisoner of war.

However this was all a big lie. Ming went to the University of Minnesota, never fought in Vietnam, and had a successful life as an electronics business owner.

Mary clung to her Christian faith, telling her daughter biblical stories of survival to keep the girl optimistic and to suffer less emotionally. On her 53rd day as prisoners, while Ming was working Mary noticed that there was a wire connecting her to her daughter Beth and that the wire was secured by a closet door hinge pin. If she could get that pin off the hinge, she could go free with her daughter. As she tried to pull it out, she was surprised at how easy it came out, like it was oiled.

Mary was then able to call the police and tell them everything. After being rescued by the police, they arrested Ming at work. During his trial, Ming was able to enter a hidden knife into the courtroom and attacked Mary while testifying against him, cutting her face. The wound required 62 stitches to close. The man was found guilty of the kidnapping of Mary and Beth and of the murder of the boy he witnessed. A judge sentenced him to spend the rest of his days in prison.