Woman Identifies Kidnaping Suspect : Crime: Victim says ‘faith, humor and hope’ helped her survive abduction. FBI is seeking Michigan fugitive.

A Val Verde real estate agent 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 was found tied up Friday morning in a Gila Bend motel room, 68 miles southwest of Phoenix. She said she had felt no fear while showing the man five homes in the Val Verde area Wednesday. But at the last house, 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 similar incidents that have taken place 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 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 news 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, and other family members.

Paula Harrington spoke briefly about the ordeal, which began Wednesday when she accompanied the suspect to view homes in the Val Verde area, a tiny community in the hills northwest of Santa Clarita. Authorities said he drove her to Arizona in a blue Jeep Cherokee.