Area Realtor Names Fugitive as Her Kidnaper : Crime: Woman was found tied up at an Arizona motel. She says ‘faith, humor and hope’ got her through the three-day ordeal.

A Val Verde realtor who was abducted last week by a man posing as a prospective home-buyer identified her kidnaper Saturday through police mug shots and credited “faith, humor and hope” with getting her through the three-day ordeal.

Paula Harrington, who was found Friday morning tied to a bed in a motel room in Gila Bend, a small town 68 miles southwest of here, said she had felt no fear while showing the man five houses in the Val Verde area Wednesday. But at the last house, she said, he turned on her. “The gun was in my face and I was on the floor tied up,” she said.

Harrington, 26, identified Timothy Daniel Shue, a fugitive with numerous aliases, as her abductor, said Jack Callahan, an FBI spokesman in the Phoenix office.

Shue also is a suspect in a number of similar crimes that have occurred since he fled authorities last month in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he was wanted in a fraud case, Callahan said.

Authorities would not reveal details or the number of crimes but said Shue is suspected of abducting a Grand Rapids woman and later using her credit card. Federal agents, acting on an unlawful flight warrant issued June 10, had tracked Shue from Michigan to Oregon to California.

Shue is known to use several names, including Timothy Daniel Kriesel, Tim Thayer and Tim Trayer, Callahan said. He was last seen in Gila Bend between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Friday.

“There was some indication when he left that he would travel to the Grand Canyon or into Mexico,” said Steve Chenoweth, the FBI agent handling the case.

At a Saturday afternoon press conference held after her interview and photo lineup with federal agents, Harrington appeared drained and pale.

“I’m happy to be alive and have my family,” she said, flanked by her husband, Chris Harrington, and other family members.

Wearing matching purple and green shorts, Harrington spoke briefly about the ordeal, which began Wednesday afternoon when she accompanied Shue to view a number of houses in the Val Verde area, a tiny community hidden in the hills northwest of Santa Clarita. Authorities said he drove her to Arizona in a teal blue Jeep Cherokee, apparently the same vehicle the pair used to see the five houses.

*

Co-workers became suspicious and contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department when the woman failed to return to her office after 6 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

Sheriff’s investigators suspected foul play when they checked out the residences that Harrington showed and found that the door to the last house was left wide open.

Harrington was found in Gila Bend at the El Coronado Motel by a maid who heard her cries for help. About the same time, authorities said, a man called Harrington’s real estate office in Val Verde and calmly said where she could be found.

FBI agents asked Harrington not to reveal details of the abduction, but she told relatives that Shue went through a number of “excited periods” during the three days.

“She’s good with people,” said Harrington’s mother, Martha Franck of Orange County. “She gets them to talk and to listen. She told me that every time he got excited, she got calmer and calmer.”

An FBI agent working the case said Harrington was composed after she was freed, but was visibly upset when she saw Shue’s face in the photo lineup.

“She’s an emotional wreck now,” Callahan said.

At the press conference, Harrington repeatedly embraced her mother, husband, brother-in-law Roy Harrington and her best friend, Kimberly Pepin, of Castaic, who rushed with family members to Phoenix when Harrington was found.

Thursday was her husband’s 28th birthday, she said, and “all I could think about was what a horrible thing for him.”

Harrington’s disappearance worried residents throughout the small town of Val Verde, population 1,500. Word quickly spread Friday that she had been found. “I want to thank my family and my neighbors and my community,” she said.

The incident has not soured her on her job or on living in Southern California.

“If people still want to buy and sell houses with me after this, I’ll keep doing it,” Harrington said. “I love my career. Hopefully, it will be the same for me.”

She said, however, she will pass up any more opportunities to show residences to single males in the future.

Asked if she had any advice for real estate agents, she said, “I’m not blaming my office, but maybe offices should have a better policy. They knew my general location but maybe we should ask people for copies of their driver’s licenses and post them on the bulletin board--just be a little bit more cautious.”

*

The FBI would not describe the women in other assaults allegedly committed by Shue but said none involved real estate agents. Harrington warned anyone who might encounter Shue: “Don’t take on the guy yourself.”

As she hugged and leaned on family members who sat with her next to the pool at “The Pointe” hotel, Harrington appeared drawn but much more confident than she looked Friday when she was whisked away by FBI agents after she was found.

“I hear there is all this food in our fridge and we’re going to invite everybody over to eat,” she said.

“It’s all downhill from here,” her husband said. “I’m just thankful she was found.”

Time staff writer Chip Johnson contributed to this story.