Horrific kidnapping and rape of US teacher who was snatched along with her daughter, 8, inspires new film ‘Abducted’
THE horrific kidnapping and rape of an American teacher who was snatched along with her daughter has inspired a new film, “Abducted”.
Minnesota teacher and missionary Mary Stauffer, then 36, was leaving a beauty salon with Beth, eight, when they were abducted at gunpoint and shoved in the boot of a car, reports Fox News.
Their kidnapper was Mary’s ninth-grade algebra student Ming Sen Shiue, who had become increasingly obsessed with her as he got older.
The pair’s terrifying ordeal has been turned into a new Lifetime film, “Abducted: The Mary Stauffer Story”, which stars Alyson Hannigan, from How I Met Your Mother.
Stauffer told Fox News that she had no idea that Shiue, who was aged 29 when he kidnapped her and Beth, had been her pupil 15 years prior to the abduction.
She said that five days prior to returning to the Philippines for a missionary trip, they had visited the salon before they were due to fly out.
Mary said: “When we came out of the beauty parlour, and went to our car to unlock it, this man came up with a gun.”
She recalled him being “angry” while holding a gun to her “scared” daughter’s side.
After Mary was forced to drive them all to a secluded spot he tied her and Beth up, and stuffed them into the boot.
PRAYING TOO LOUDLY
Shiue became angry yet again when he became distracted by their loud praying and, after telling them off, covered their mouths with duct tape.
Mary managed to partially untie her daughter – but he opened the boot and threatened to kill them both.
While they were stopped, two young boys nearby became aware that something was amiss.
When one of the pair, Jason Wilkman, six, walked closer to the vehicle and saw Beth and Mary, the kidnapper grabbed him and shoved him into the boot as well, before driving off.
Shiue then heard Jason crying from the back of the car.
He stopped the vehicle, took the boy out of the boot and fatally hit him over the head with a metal rod, before dumping his body in the woods.
Fox News adds that when Shiue eventually arrived at his home, he shackled Mary and Beth and locked them in a wardrobe.
The mum was raped every day, with the sex fiend filming his vile assaults, which at times lasted for hours.
“I’LL KILL YOUR MUM”
They were held at the house of horrors for 53 days.
Beth said: “When he would take [mum] out for the rape sessions, he never had me know about any of that.
“He also threatened to kill us: ‘If you try to escape, I’ll kill your mother’.
“But the reality is, killing us was not his end goal. His end goal was, he was obsessed with my mother and he wanted us to be with him.”
Mary told the broadcaster that her faith – and daily prayer vigils – kept them both alive during those torturous 53 days.
Meanwhile, hundreds of officers and volunteers searched for the missing pair, to no avail.
FINALLY FREE
Beth and her mum were allowed to shower on the 10th day in captivity, although they remained bound together.
Shiue gave Beth a black-and-white TV, and board games, after she tried to be “pleasant” to him, to avoid making him angry.
They finally made a break for freedom on July 7 1980, while Shiue was working at a local electronics store that he owned.
Mary held the door of the wardrobe with one hand, and pulled the hinge pin out with the other.
She recalled: “It came out like it was greased… it was a miracle. Beth, she panicked straight away… she said, ‘Mama, don’t do it. If he finds us escaping, he’s going to kill us. Just wait for the police.”
They eventually managed to escape, and call the cops.
Most read in world news
Shiue was arrested and later found guilty of kidnapping, and sentenced to 30 years’ jail.
He was also caged for 40 years for murdering Jason, whose body was found after his capture.
Shiue was denied parole in 2010.
Beth and Mary said they were determined not to “let the tragedy define us”, as while they had “53 days of hell, where he had us and he had control, he does not get to have the rest of our lives”.
A version of this article first appeared on Fox News