ANOKA, Minn. — A Hermantown woman who was a victim of kidnapping and rape 30 years ago was grateful Wednesday to hear her abductor would be committed if released.
An Anoka County judge said convicted kidnapper and killer Ming Sen Shiue should be committed to the state's sex offender program if he's released from prison. Judge Jenny Walker Jasper ruled Wednesday that Shiue meets the legal criteria for indefinite commitment.
In a case that horrified Minnesota in 1980, Shiue was convicted of kidnapping his former ninth-grade math teacher and her 8-year-old daughter and repeatedly raping the teacher. He also was convicted of killing a 6-year-old boy who witnessed the kidnapping.
Mary Stauffer and her daughter, Beth, escaped from Shiue's home in Roseville after seven weeks in captivity. They testified in April that they still fear Shiue, who became eligible for parole this year.
"That was part of what he told us 30 years ago," Stauffer said Wednesday. "He said, 'Don't think that even if I get caught and put in prison for 25 years, don't think I will forget about you. When I get out I will go after you, and if you're dead I will go after your kids.' "
ADVERTISEMENT
That threat has hung over her family for decades, she said. Beth, who was 8 years old at the time of the kidnapping, now fears for her own three children, Stauffer said.
Shiue is in federal prison in Texas, but could be placed in the Moose Lake correctional facility for sex offenders if he is granted parole. Stauffer, who lives in Hermantown, said she's not worried about the possible proximity.
"We just have to trust that Moose Lake is as secure as everyone says it is," she said. "Our faith has always been in the Lord and his rule in our lives, so distance is not really a factor."
Stauffer said she was happy Shiue would receive treatment as a sex offender if granted parole.
"We're pleased with the order," she said. (The judge) has thought very carefully about the whole thing."
Stauffer, 67, was 36 at the time of the kidnapping. Her daughter is now 38.
"This young man was my student," she said. "It's sad to think he was somebody who had such great potential and he made wrong choices. It has ruined his life and affected the life of his family, the family of the boy he killed simply because the little boy just happened to see something that our abductor didn't want him to see, and our family as well."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
