Report: Missing College Student Found Alive

[stormchazer]

Report: Missing College Student Found Alive

Wednesday, March 31, 2004



MADISON, Wis. — Police have found missing college student Audrey R. Seiler ( search) alive, The Associated Press and WMTV reported Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities in Madison plan to hold a news conference at 3 p.m. ET.

Seiler, a student at the University of Wisconsin (search), vanished from her off-campus apartment Saturday without a coat or purse. A surveillance tape shows her leaving her building and her door was left open, police said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115770,00.html

[Stephanie]

I'm glad that she was found alive. I hope that she's alright.

[GalvestonDuck]

Me too.

Matt Lauer interviewed her family on the Today Show this morning. It was the first I'd heard of her case.

Now if they could just find Dru Sjodin.

[TexasStooge]

I'm Glad too!

[wx247]

Me too.

Matt Lauer interviewed her family on the Today Show this morning. It was the first I'd heard of her case.

Now if they could just find Dru Sjodin.

unfortunately, I think we know that Dru was killed.

[blizzard]

Posted on Wed, Mar. 31, 2004




Audrey R. Seiler




Missing Wisconsin student from Minnesota found alive

BY TODD RICHMOND

ASSOCIATED PRESS


MADISON -- Police found a missing University of Wisconsin-Madison student from Minnesota alive Wednesday, four days after she vanished from her off-campus apartment without a coat or a purse.

Audrey Seiler, 20, had non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital, Madison police spokesman Larry Kamholz said. He refused to give more details about her condition and said he could not say whether Seiler had been abducted.

Police with their weapons drawn were seen walking through the parking lot of a building near the marsh where Seiler was found Wednesday afternoon. Officers searched for a suspect in the marsh from a helicopter, said Carl Saxe, assistant Madison fire chief.

Police were reportedly looking for an armed man.

Kamholz said an employee at a nearby office building called police after she spotted what she thought was a body in the marsh less than two miles from Seiler's off-campus apartment, leading to the discovery.

``Right now it's just an unbelievable feeling in Rockford,'' said Roman Pierskalla, principal of the high school in Seiler's hometown of Rockford, Minn. ``As the days passed on, the hope was there that Audrey would be found, and she would be found safe, and today, the prayers of everyone in the Rockford community have been answered.''

More than a hundred volunteers from Seiler's hometown have flooded into Madison since she disappeared early Saturday.

She was last seen on a surveillance tape from her apartment building leaving without any personal belongings, and her apartment door was left open. Her roommate was not home at the time, and Seiler's car was still at her apartment.

The marsh is less than a mile from a wooded area where people searched Tuesday.

Seiler was attacked Feb. 1 as she walked near her apartment, and police have said there was no evidence to link that with her disappearance.

She was struck from behind by an unknown assailant and knocked unconscious. She then was moved about a block from where she was attacked but was not sexually assaulted or robbed.

More than two dozen investigators involved in the case were reviewing files of sex offenders and others with a criminal history living in the area of Seiler's apartment.

Her uncle, Scott Charlesworth-Seiler, said his niece had no idea who may have wanted to harm her and believed the attack was random.

``Audrey was worried after having been attacked and, as a result, was more careful to walk with friends and make sure she was safe,'' he said.

Seiler was found as police reported that another Wisconsin college student was missing.

Gretchen Lee, 22, a student at Viterbo College in La Crosse, was last seen Monday morning as she left her father's home in Red Wing, Minn., to drive to La Crosse, said La Crosse Police Sgt. Roger Barnes. She was driving a 1997 silver Mercury Tracer with Minnesota plates.

Lee was scheduled to work at the La Crosse Public Library Monday and Tuesday but never showed up, prompting her manager to call police. Barnes said the manager described Lee as a reliable worker.

[Stephanie]

That poor girl! She's been attacked twice! She's never going to want to go anywhere now.

I hope that they find Gretchen.

[breeze]

I'm glad that she was found. I had read that
story in this morning's USA Today, and, I had
such hope that she would be found!

[Firefighter16]

She is deffinetly one of the lucky ones.