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Report: 'Missing' Student Now At Psychiatric Facility

Police Cite 'Continuing Inconsistencies' With Wis. Coed's Abduction Stories

Posted: 9:20 am CST April 2, 2004Updated: 11:30 pm CST April 2, 2004

A University of Wisconsin student who said she'd been abducted at knifepoint is reportedly at a psychiatric facility, a news network program reported.

AUDREY SEILER
VIDEO
RESOURCES/TIPS

Police in Madison said Friday that Audrey Seiler's story of being abducted doesn't add up and they don't believe there is an abductor at large. They said there was evidence she planned her disappearance.

Police held two news conferences 90 minutes apart Friday, the first to announce that Seiler, 20, or Rockford, Minn., made up her original abduction story and now says she was abducted from a different location in the city. At the second, Assistant Police Chief Noble Wray told reporters that detectives have uncovered "continuing inconsistencies" related to Seiler's new account, leading them to believe there is no abductor.

"We do not believe there is a suspect at large in connection with the second abduction. We do not believe there is a suspect, period," Wray said, referring to Seiler's revised account as the "second abduction."

Seiler was found Wednesday -- two days after her strange disappearance at 2:30 a.m. Saturday -- in a marsh about 2 miles from where she lives. Wray said that during the investigation, inconsistencies arose between Seiler's account, witnesses' accounts and evidence obtained by police, who then confronted the UW sophomore.

Wray listed several "inconsistencies." First, he said, two witnesses told investigators they saw Seiler walking freely during the time she told police she was confined by an abductor.

Also, Seiler told investigators she was confined by her abductor with the use of several materials, including cough medicine, rope, duct tape and a knife. Wray said investigators discovered store video of the UW sophomore buying those items.

"She bought these items ahead of time," Wray said.

Added to the evidence was the discovery by police that Seiler had been on her computer before the abduction to check Web sites on Madison parks and the weather forecast. Wray said such "inconsistencies" suggest the woman planned her abduction.

"It's the totality of the picture," Wray said.

Seiler Changes Abduction Location

At the first news conference Friday, Wray said that when questioned about inconsistencies, Seiler admitted making up the account of being abducted at knifepoint from her apartment, saying she left her apartment early Saturday because she "wanted to be alone."

Wray said Seiler then told them she was abducted at knifepoint by a man depicted in a sketch released Thursday "at a different location in the city."

Seiler left her apartment early Saturday -- as shown on a surveillance video -- without a purse, cell phone or coat. The surveillance tape shows Seiler mysteriously peering out a window at the apartment complex lobby before walking out the door.

Seiler had also reported that she was attacked two months ago while walking near her apartment. She said someone hit her from behind and knocked her unconscious. Wray said police have no comment on that case.

On Wednesday, Wray described the "suspect" as a white man in his late 20s or early 30s, about 6 feet tall, last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, jeans, and black hat and armed with a gun and a knife.

Seiler was treated and released after arriving cold and dehydrated at a Madison hospital. Dr. Philip Schultz said during a late-afternoon news conference Wednesday that she also had muscle aches from being confined.

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