At his high school near Minneapolis, Minn.-area high school, Ming Shiue was on the varsity football and wrestling teams and was voted "Most likely to succeed." But behind closed doors, he was a loner who was isolated from everyone, including his family.

Mary Stauffer was Ming Shiue's ninth-grade algebra teacher in his freshman year. She and her husband, Irv, were Baptist missionaries who were preparing to travel to the Philippines for a four-year missionary stint when Mary, 36, and her daughter, Beth, 8, were abducted.

In May 1980, Ming Shiue kidnapped Mary Stauffer and her daughter, Beth, and imprisoned them in a closet in his home, near Minneapolis, Minn., pictured. At first Mary Stauffer did not recognize Ming, who had been her math student 15 years earlier. It turned out that Ming had been obsessing about -- and spying on -- Mary for years.

The closet where Ming Shiue imprisoned Mary Stauffer and her daughter for 53 days. "There was a scatter rug on the floor and two small throw pillows," said Mary. "He took a screwdriver and removed the doorknob from the inside of the door ... and we were locked into that closet." The closet was just 21 inches wide and 4 feet long.

It turned out that, for years, Ming had been keeping a list of his favorite actresses. He had been writing fantasies in which he raped them, and then they begged him for sexual favors. But at least one of the women in Ming's fantasies was not an actress. In the middle of the list's third column was the name "Mary Stauffer" -- Ming's compassionate and caring math teacher from freshman year.

Ming Shiue tied Mary Stauffer to furniture in his home and quizzed her for hours. He was angry that she did not recognize him. He told her that she had ruined his life and that he meant to take his revenge. "And I said, 'What are you going to do for revenge?'" Mary said. "And he began to re-, remove my slacks and my clothing, put my shirt up over my face and he said, 'I think you can guess.'"

After 53 days of imprisonment, Mary Stauffer and her daughter, Beth, finally broke out of the closet where Ming Shiue had held them captive. With Ming gone for the day, Mary called police, who came to the house and picked them up. This picture was taken shortly after the Stauffers' escape.

The Stauffer family is shown in this August 1980 photo, clockwise from top left: Irv, Mary, Beth and Steve. The picture was taken just weeks after Mary and Beth's kidnapping nightmare had ended.

Today Mary and Irv Stauffer continue their missionary work in the Philippines. They say they even pray for Ming Shiue, the man who kidnapped and abused Mary. With Ming potentially eligible for parole any day, the family has gone to court to try to ensure that he will be admitted to a psychiatric hospital if freed.