He May 16, 1980, Mary Stauffer and her daughter Beth lived a nightmare they could never have anticipated. What started out as a normal day in roseville, Minnesota, ended in a kidnapping that would shock the community. As they left a beauty salon, they were accosted at gunpoint by Ming Sen Shiuea man who had been a student in Mary’s math class 15 years earlier and who had developed an obsession with her.
Shiue, with a disturbed mind and an obsession fueled by years of fantasies, forced Mary to drive to a remote location. There, he tied up the woman and her daughter and locked them in the trunk of her car. This was just the beginning of a series of terrifying events that would lead them to face situations of extreme danger and cruelty.
During the journey to the place of his captivity, a chilling incident marked the true level of the threat that Shiue represented. Stopping to punish Mary and Beth for praying out loud, a six-year-old boy, Jason Wilkman, he noticed something strange and approached. In a tragic twist of fate, Shiue captured little Jason and put him in the trunk along with Mary and Beth. This heartless act culminated in the murder of the child, a heinous crime that would add an even heavier burden of horror and despair to Mary and Beth.
Arriving at his home in Roseville, Shiue locked Mary and Beth in a tiny closet, just 21 inches wide and 4 feet long. This claustrophobic space became his prison for the next few years. 53 days. Shiue revealed his true identity and his obsession with Mary, even admitting to breaking into her in-laws’ house years before to threaten them.
During his captivity, Shiue filmed Mary’s daily rapes, which sometimes lasted hours, and repeatedly threatened her and her daughter. Once, upon arriving he tried to suffocate the girl until Mary kissed him to stop him. Despite her brutal abusive routines, Shiue maintained a semblance of normality: every day she went to work at her electronics store and left Mary and Beth chained in the closet. The only time she took them out was to take them to a job fair in Chicago, tied in the back of a Winnebago camper.
Despite constant fear, Mary found ways to keep hope alive. She watched every detail, looking for any opportunity to escape.
The community was unaware of the horror that Mary and Beth were experiencing, until Mary managed to do something incredible. On July 7, after 53 days of terror, while Shiue was away working, Mary noticed that a pin on the closet door hinge was loose. With determination and calm, she withdrew it, thus releasing the closure that kept them prisoner. When he left, he used the house phone to call the police. Within minutes, authorities arrived, finding Mary and Beth hidden but safe. Still chained together.
The capture of Ming Sen Shiue It marked the end of a terrifying odyssey for Mary and Beth Stauffer, but also the beginning of a long road to justice. Shiue faced two trials: one at the federal level for the kidnapping of Mary and Beth, and another at the state level for the murder of Jason Wilkman. During the federal trial, Shiue maintained an eerie silence, but At the state trial, his true violent nature came to light when he attempted to attack Mary in the courtroom, slashing her face with a knife he had managed to sneak in. This act of desperation underlined the seriousness of his crimes and left Mary with a wound that required 62 stitches.
Shiue was found guilty in both trials and sentenced to concurrently serve 30 years to life in prison for kidnapping and 40 years for murder. Despite his attempts to obtain parole in 2010, remains imprisoned
“Every day we wondered if this would be our last day of life”Mary told People magazine about her experience.
In October 2019, the chain Lifetime aired the movieAbducted: The Mary Stauffer Story“, starring Alyson Hannigan Like Mary Stauffer. This feature film not only portrayed the horrors experienced by Mary and Beth, but also their unwavering faith and strength to survive and move forward. The film helped spread Mary’s story to a wider audience, inspiring thousands of people with her bravery and determination.
“I consider that this experience does not define my family“Stauffer stated in an interview with Lifetime.
