Ming Sen Shiue

Ming Sen Shiue (born October 15, 1950) is an American kidnapper, rapist and killer convicted of murdering a young boy, kidnapping two individuals, and multiple counts of rape.

Early life

Ming Sen Shiue was born on October 15, 1950 in Taiwan. When he was eight years old, he moved to Minnesota with his mother and two siblings. His father, who died three years later, was a professor at the University of Minnesota at the time. Shiue was described as violent towards his younger siblings, often beating them both during adolescence and adulthood. In his teen years, Shiue was reportedly engaged in criminal activity as a juvenile such as starting fires in apartments of three strangers and throwing rocks at vehicles. For his role in the arsons, he was ordered to participate in psychotherapy at the age of fourteen. According to his mother's testimony, Shiue often lied but was persistent about being right, was uncontrollable as a child, and took no responsibility for his physical behavior thus causing her to be fearful. She described him as someone having no "feelings, like a dog".^[1]

From 1965–1966, Shiue attended Alexander Ramsey High School in Roseville, Minnesota where he came to have a "crush" on his ninth-grade algebra teacher Mary Stauffer.^[2] He later admitted during proceedings that due to his "infatuation", he began sexually fantasizing about the teacher. Shiue later wrote stories about his sexual fantasies with fictional characters from the movies and eventually about Stauffer, which included consensual sex, rape and gang rape. In later years, after he realized that he did not find complete satisfaction from his fantasies, Shiue decided to kidnap Stauffer.^[1]

Kidnapping and murder

In 1975, Shiue located what he erroneously believed to be Mary Stauffer's residence in Duluth, Minnesota. He broke into the house with a firearm intending to kidnap the victim, who did not live in the residence. Her in-laws, who owned the house, were forced to the ground, tied up and threatened to be killed if they reported the crime. Because of this, the break-in was not reported until the actual kidnapping of Stauffer took place five years later.^[1]

Shiue's search for the woman continued for the next five years. During this time, Stauffer lived with family in Philippines, where she and her husband worked as Christian missionaries. They returned to Minnesota in 1979.^[1]

A year later, Shiue learned that Mary Stauffer lived at the Bethel University campus and began to stalk her. His stalking continued until May 16, 1980, when Shiue tracked Stauffer down at a beauty salon in Roseville. When Stauffer left the salon, Shiue kidnapped her and her eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, at gunpoint.^[1][2] He tied them up and threw them into the trunk of Stauffer's vehicle. During the trip to his house where he intended to keep his victims hostage, Shiue stopped the vehicle two times because Mary and Elizabeth were making noises. When he stopped for the second time, a six-year-old boy, Jason Wilkman, approached the vehicle to see what was happening. Shuie grabbed the boy and forced him into the trunk. He then drove to the isolated Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge in Anoka County, removed the boy from the trunk and murdered him with a metal rod.^[1]

Rapes

Shiue drove Mary Stauffer and her daughter Elizabeth to his house and locked them in a narrow closet. He then proceeded to take Mary Stauffer out of the closet and tied her to the furniture. Shiue talked to her for hours on the night of kidnapping disclosing who he was before he repeatedly raped her, filming the conversations and rapes on the video camera. When Shiue told Stauffer he was her student 15 years ago, he indicated she had given him a grade B in Algebra which prevented him from going to college. As a result, he was drafted and sent to fight in the Vietnam War where he became a prisoner of war. While kept at his house, the victims were often separated by Shiue. He placed Elizabeth in a box in his van for 8 hours when he was at work, while her mother was left locked in a closet at his residence. Furthermore, Shiue told Stauffer he would kill her husband and son if they ever tried to escape.^[1]

Arrest and imprisonment

On July 7, 1980, after Shiue left for work, Mary Stauffer managed to remove the hinge pin from the locked closet door. Despite being chained to each other, Mary and Elizabeth were able to reach the phone in the kitchen and call the law enforcement. After making the call, they hid behind the car at Shiue's residence until police arrived.^[1] Both were immediately freed after seven weeks of imprisonment. Shiue was arrested at his business on the same day.^[3] He was taken to Ramsey County Adult Detention Center. While in jail, he offered $50,000 to another inmate Richard Green to kill Stauffer and her daughter to prevent them from testifying against him in the court, and to help him escape from jail. Green communicated the information to the FBI.^[1]

Trial and sentencing

Shiue's trial began in 1981. During the trial Shiue smuggled a knife into the court room and when his victim testified in court, he jumped over the table and attacked her, managing to cut her face. It took 62 stitches to close her facial wound. At the same time, Shiue promised to kill Stauffer and her daughter when he would be released from prison.^[2] Psychological evaluations of the defendant showed no signs of mental illness.^[4] When the trial ended, Shiue was sentenced to thirty years to life on the federal kidnapping charge and 40 years on a separate state murder charge. He was declared eligible for parole on July 6, 2010.^[5] On September 28, 2010, the Anoka Country District Judge Jenny Walker Jasper ruled Shiue would not be released and would spend the rest of his life in prison, as he still appeared a threat to society.^[6]

In popular culture

The Stauffers' kidnapping and Jason Wilkman murder was described in Eileen Bridgeman Biernat's book Stalking Mary^[7]

See also

• Brian Dugan
• David Edward Maust

References