Unseen - Stalked by Her Obsessed Student: The Disturbing Case of Mary & Beth Stauffer | UNSEEN

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

“I'm not saying it's right, I know it's not right, but that's the way I've chosen it.”  -- On June 15th 1980, 8 year old Beth Stauffer calls her dad to wish him a happy father’s day, the first clue police got after she went missing on May 16th. After quickly hanging up, she returns to the tiny closet where her and her mother Mary have been chained and imprisoned by an obsessed man who has been stalking Mary for years. The captor, Ming Sen Shiue, believes that the longer they are kidnapped, the more chances Mary, his 9th grade teacher, will eventually fall in love with him. “Will we go home?” In the dark, frightened Beth asks her mom. At that moment, Mary, knowing deep in her heart of hearts they might not be able to leave ever, promises Beth with a yes. Footage From: Abducted: The Mary Stauffer Story (Lifetime), All Access, Fox News Digital, Inside Edition, Lifetime, MPR News, ABC News. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Irv speaking. Hello, Dad. Yes, Bessie. Are you okay? The phone call you're about to hear is 8-year-old Beth Stauffer, who was kidnapped with her mother Mary. On June 15, 1980, at 10.14 p.m., the kidnapper allowed Beth to call her dad on Father's Day. The FBI recorded it. Yep.

Is Mommy okay? Yes. That's good. Oh, I'm... Yes. Yes? Happy father. Oh, thank you so much, sweetie.

We can't talk anymore. When can you come home? I don't know. Can I talk to... Can I talk to him? No. Mary Stauffer, 36, Beth Stauffer, her 8-year-old daughter, kidnapped, chained, abused, for 53 days.

But they escaped, and Ming Sen-chu was arrested the same day. During the trial, he attacked Mary, leaving a scar on her face. He even hired a hitman to kill her, but she survived and made sure Ming would never terrorize anyone again. He had 53 days of our lives. He doesn't get another day. In the small town of Roseville, Minnesota, Mary lives with her husband, Irv, and their two children, Steve, and sweet little Beth. The house is packed because the family is moving to the Philippines. It's May 16, 1980, Mary takes Beth for one last errand before the big day. When Beth got home from school, I said, come on, let's go and get your haircuts so we look nice.

As the hours go by with no news from them, Mary's husband Irv and their six-year-old son, Steve, are getting more and more worried at home. What's happening? Where are Mary and Beth? Why haven't they come home yet? Mom's not the kind of run away. Mom loves me. Mom loves dad. loves my sister, there hasn't been any arguments. Around town, the police are searching for a child named Jason, who was kidnapped that very same day. Little boy kidnapped. Jason playing in a park, never came back. Terrifying story. But they have no idea that Mary and Beth are missing. It's nighttime.

Irv finally decides to call the police. That's when he learns about the missing boy, who was abducted by a dark-haired man. The man on FBI's most wanted list. This remains an extremely active scene. Irv fears the worst for his wife and daughter. The search goes national, roadblocks, ground team, air support. They find Mary's car left in a ditch, but no trace of the missing kids, or Mary. Irv is frantic, and as the days pass, his hopes of seeing his family alive are growing thin. It's June 15, 1980. It's Father's Day, and Irv is at home with his son Steve, but still no news of Mary or

Beth. It's been 30 days since their abduction. when the phone rings. Hello, Irv speaking. Yes, Bessie. Are you okay? Yep. Is Mommy okay?

Yes. That's good. Oh, I'm... Yes? Happy Father's Day. Oh, thank you so much, sweetie. Oh, I'm so glad. When can you come home?

To him? No. Okay, you call again. Okay. Bye-bye, sweetie. This cryptic phone call hides a much more sinister truth of what happened to his daughter and his wife. The day of the abduction, Mary and Beth are leaving the beauty salon. The two are walking through the parking lot.

We saw a man walking toward us. And I looked up, I thought perhaps he wanted to ask directions. And he had a gun. He pulled out the gun and put it at Beth's side and said, I need a ride. He forces them into their own car and sits beside them. His gun pointed at Little Beth. Married is everything the man says and drives off. She doesn't recognize the man yet.

She doesn't know she's supposed to. I said, you know, I don't know where you're going, but we need to get there quickly because I have to get home. I have company coming for supper. They stop at a red light. Directly behind them is a police car. We came to an intersection, and I remember him saying, If that police car turns the same way we turn, you're dead. Make Mother's Day even more special at Whole Foods Market.

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for me. I said, please don't put us in the trunk. We won't be able to breathe. We were lying face down, and then the trunk was closed. Gacked, tied, trapped in the trunk of a moving car. The two of them try their best to untie each other, but the noise catches the attention of their captor. And he raised the trunk lid and saw that her ropes were untied. With the trunk wide open, two boys on bikes come near the car. One stays at the front of the car, one walks to the back trunk where he has it open and he looks in and he sees this woman and child duct taped together and his alarms, whoa.

All of a sudden something was placed on my feet. And then I could hear whimpering and I thought, this is a child. Six-year-old Jason Wilkman was just being curious. He saw something he shouldn't have. And for that, he was taken away. And so I started to talk. I said, my name is Mary and I'm 36 years old. And our daughter, Beth, is here, and she's eight years old.

And we don't know who this man is. And we don't know what he wants. And we don't know what he's going to do to us. I think he said, I'm supposed to visit my grandpa and grandma tomorrow. And we just talked about being scared. And then the car came to a stop. And the trunk lid was open. And Jason was removed from the trunk.

And then the trunk lid was closed. And then all was quiet. And I remember thinking, he's left us here to die a slow death in the trunk. But after what seems like an eternity, the man comes back. He takes him out of the car into a van, but there's no sign of Jason. Mary asks what he did with the boy.

He says he left him somewhere where he could be found. He lied. It will take months for the police to find out Jason had been murdered. But Mary is not stupid. She knows not to trust anything the man says, and she's terrified of what he might do to her, or her daughter. We didn't know from minute to minute whether we would be alive the next minute. Then, Mary and Beth are being led into a small house and forced into a tiny bedroom closet.

a closet that's been converted into a prison. There was a light bulb with a pull chain. There was a scatter rug on the floor and two small throw pillows. They took a screwdriver and removed the doorknob from the inside of the door, and we were locked into that closet. Our hands were still tied. We could not reach up and turn on the light. And so the only thing we could do is lie down on that floor.

we just had to try to get some rest because we didn't know what the next day would bring. She knows right away this was not a random occurrence, that this was planned. And their terror, of course, escalated at that point. In the first week of their captivity, Mary is taken into the living room where the man ties her to a couch. He removes her blindfold. She sees that a camcorder is set up and she's being filmed. then she finally discovers what this is all about. He had actually been up in the woods behind our house, probably using binoculars.

He knew that Beth had a little makeup Barbie that was on the dresser top of her room. He knew our son Steve. He knew that my parents had been to visit. He had followed me down the highway one time. In fact, he even knew where the spare key to our apartment was. The man was obsessed with Mary. He had been stalking her for 10 years, and since she was moving to the Philippines,

he wanted to catch her before she got away. This was his moment of triumph. He had found the person he won in all these years, and he had her in his control, and he believed that it was simply a matter of time that if she were with him long enough, she would come to love him. 15 years earlier, Mary is a high school teacher.

In her classroom, a young boy named Ming Sen-Shu becomes infatuated with her. 15-year-old Ming is reportedly violent toward his younger siblings, and his mother is terrified of him. This can only mean bad news for the teacher he locked eyes on. At the end of the year, he gets furious over a grade he claims broke his perfect score. He said, do you remember what grade you gave me? And I said, well, no, I don't, but it must have been an effort. But it must have been an F for you to do this to me. The grade?

B-minus. Ever since, his obsession has only grown stronger. He resents Mary and wants her to love him at any cost. The video discussion lasts for hours. Some weird tactic Ming is using to persuade Mary to fall in love with him. But even if it doesn't work, what he can't have, he just takes... I'm not saying it's right. I know it's not right.

But that's the way. I could tell she was upset when she would come back and see me in the closet, but I didn't know why. He warns them multiple times that if they try anything, he would kill them. He hammered it into us. If I ran away, he'd kill her. If you did anything, he'd kill me. June 7th, Ming takes his fantasy of having a family life with Mary further and rents an RV for a trip to Chicago. He leaves Beth inside the RV, chained, while Mary and him go out in public. his gun keeping her in check. During that trip, both Mary and Beth make attempts to get rescued. Mary uses her traveler's check to pay, knowing it should alert the FBI of her transaction and whereabouts.

The FBI never received the information. Beth, on the other hand, takes the risk of ripping the blinds off a window and peers outside just as teens are passing. For the first time, she has the courage to act, even though Ming has threatened to kill her mom if she tried anything. She yells out to the teens saying she was abducted and asks for their help, but the teens laugh at her and tell her to stop making stories. They leave. July 4th, Ming takes them to see the fireworks.

Before exiting the van, he warns them like he's done many times before, that if they try anything, he would kill them and anyone else who's nearby. At that moment, a police car drives by and stops at the red light. Mary doesn't dare do anything. She says, quote, I couldn't do a thing about it because he always had his gun and he always had Beth.

But she memorizes the phone number written on the back of the police car and large numbers. When they get home later that night, she makes Beth memorize it too. July 6th, as they sit around the table, Mink has them playing out

another fantasy, Family Game Night. That's when he announces the worst news Mary ever heard. He's taking them far away to another home. Mary can feel the excitement in Ming's voice, but she's filled with despair. Quote,

It wasn't until that day that I despaired to the point that I said to Beth, he's never going to let us go. There were times when I questioned my faith. Sometimes I'd be so discouraged day after day, no rescue, no nothing. But Beth was sensitive to that. One day she said, Mom, do you think that God is going to send his angel to open the door for us like he did for Peter and the other guy. And in my deep heart of hearts, I didn't think it was going to happen that way at all.

But I don't want to destroy the faith of a child. And so I said, well, he certainly could do that, but he might choose a different way. Time is running out. Mary knows she has to risk it all. July 7th, while Ming is out, Mary and Beth are chained tightly to the door inside the closet. Mary's staring at the door hinges, thinking, thinking. She knows Ming can be back any second. She has no tools, just her fingernails to remove the hinge pin. She knows it's unlikely the pin will come off that easily.

But she has to try. So I went over to the door. I held the door with one hand, and I pulled the hinge pin with the other. It came out just like it was greased. The door separated. It was clear that our cable was going to come through. Beth, she panicked right away. She started pulling on my clothes.

She said, Mama, don't do it. Mama, you know what he said. If he finds us escaping, he's going to kill us. You know, I mean, she was really panicked. I slapped her cheek. I sat her down in the chair, and I said, listen, Beth, if God has given us this way of escape, we have to take it. Sure, it's dangerous.

If Ming comes home and finds us escaping, he's going to kill us. We know that. But if this is God's way, he's going to take care of us. But I can't fight against you. We have to work together in this. We're chained together, and we have to work together. Beth understands, and they make their way to the kitchen. Mary grabs the phone, dials a number she memorized on the back of the police car three days prior.

A moment later, a dispatcher from the sheriff's office answers. Mary says, This is Mary Stauffer. I think you're looking for me and my daughter, Beth. Please hurry. We're being held in a house. He has loaded guns here. He'll kill us, and anyone who tries to come in here.

Don't try to come in if he's here. The dispatcher gives Mary strict instructions to stay inside the house and away from the windows. Mary ends the call. Beth then tells her mother that they should wait outside for the police, but they can hide behind the bushes. Mary listens to her daughter going against the dispatcher's instructions. They leave through the back door of the house while still chained together. They crouch behind a car, out of sight,

but they have no idea that at that moment the cops are already there, securing the area. during the area, getting ready to move in on the house. Expecting to see the two of them still inside, the officers break in. At that moment, one of them notices a vehicle parked outside. There's a chance Ming San Chu made it home before the police arrived. The officer moves in on the vehicle. He sees a figure from underneath, crouching, hidden behind the car. Mary and Beth.

Approximately three-pirties afternoon, our Ramsey County Sheriff's Dispatcher received a phone call from a woman who identified her. as Mary Stauffer. She stated she had freed herself from a shackled position. The day we escaped, the air smelt sweet like I remember the feeling of the sun. There's nothing like just feeling the freedom. When we were taken to the sheriff's office and I first saw my husband Irv and our son Steve, it was just so marvelous to hug each other. The police arrest Ming that very same day, but the relief is met with tragic news. When the officers escort Mary and her daughter to the station, they ask if the boy Jason is still inside the house.

This confirms what Mary feared all along. Jason is dead, and they still haven't found his body. Before long, Mary and Beth are called to testify against Ming in court. It's not uncommon for kidnappers and criminals to admit or pretend that they regret their actions once they're caught. Dennis Earl Bradford, the man who took little Jennifer Shewitt from her bedroom at night, broke down during his interrogation. Bobby Joe Long confessed he didn't feel good about what he'd done to Lisa McVeigh or his other victims. And the worst thing is I don't understand why. I don't understand why. But Ming Sen-Shu is not like most kidnappers.

He said even if I get put in prison for a very long time, when I get out, I'll go after you, and if you're dead, I'll go after your kids. While in prison, Ming hires one of the inmates and promises a sum of $50,000, if he kills Mary and Beth before the trial. But the inmate goes directly to the FBI and tells them everything. Ming is furious, but he knows he'll see Mary one last time during the trial. In 1980 and 1981, there were two trials. One was for the kidnapping of Beth and me,

and the other was for the murder of Jason Wilfman. Our abductor jumped up from his place at the defense table. He grabbed me by the neck and held a knife in front of me and said, get back girl killer. I was cut on my face. He made a choice. He had 53 days of our lives. He doesn't get another day. On May 16, 1980, Ming kidnapped the wrong women. Now, they're making sure Ming Sen Chu will never harm anyone ever again. Our abductor was found guilty. The judge gave him a life sentence. Parole was denied. We were very satisfied that he would remain incarcerated.

Even after everything Ming has done to her and Beth, Mary survived and helped her daughter get back to the life she deserved. Beth is now married, has children of her own. As for Mary, she did go to the Philippines with her family. With time, the scars of her kidnapping made her strong and resilient. She just recently became a great grandmother. No matter what has happened, no matter what anybody has done to you, That isn't the thing that defines you.

There is healing, there is love, and you can even leave the resentment behind and just go on with your life. It's been 40 years since their escape, and even after all this time, they still share their story, in the hopes that it will help others overcome their own trauma. Mary and Beth are living proof that after tragedy, no matter how dark things,

seem to get, there is a life worth living.