UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN Student is found; questions remain

Police weren't giving out much information about the abduction.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
MADISON, Wis. -- A 20-year-old University of Wisconsin student, whose disappearance early Saturday triggered a wide search and alarmed the city, was found cold and dehydrated but unharmed Wednesday near a hotel where volunteer searchers were staying.
Once Audrey Ruth Seiler was safe, police turned to finding a suspect, and later, handling questions about the still-puzzling events.
With guns drawn, 150 officers combed a marshy area Wednesday afternoon on the south side of Madison near where the sophomore was found and where she said the suspect might be still be hiding.
At one point, an arrest seemed imminent as police called into a bullhorn for a suspect to give himself up.
Few details given
Madison Police offered little information about Wednesday's search or what happened to Seiler during the four days she was missing. They said Seiler reported she was taken at knifepoint by a man she did not know. He implied he had a gun but never showed it to her, police said.
Seiler described the suspect to police as a white man in his late 20s or early 30s, 5 feet 11 inches to 6 feet tall, wearing a black sweat shirt, jeans and a black hat, with a gun and a knife.
Dr. Philip Shultz, who cared for Seiler, said she had muscle aches from being confined. Police declined to elaborate.
After a few hours at St. Mary's Hospital, Seiler was released to her family who had gathered in Madison during the search.
"Right now, we're just focusing on being together and holding each other, and hugging each other, and just reaffirming to each other that we are here for her and she is here for us," her mother, Stephanie Seiler, said.
Police said they spoke with Seiler for only a "short time." A Lutheran pastor from Madison who had befriended her parents, the Rev. Greg Fairow, said the daughter, her parents and brother would stay at an undisclosed location Wednesday night and Audrey was expected to meet with police investigators again today.
The first session "wasn't an in-depth interview," Madison Police Officer Shannon Blackamore said.
National attention
Wednesday's drama was the latest chapter in a case that had already attracted national news media attention. Cable news networks and Milwaukee TV stations carried the action live Wednesday afternoon.
Seiler, of Rockford, Minn., had been last seen at 2:30 a.m. Saturday leaving her apartment in The Regent, where 500 students live in the shadow of Camp Randall Stadium. Her friends reported her missing the next day.
Security video showed Seiler waiting in the lobby and looking outside before leaving the building. Police launched an all-out search because she left her apartment door open and didn't take any personal items with her. Friends and family said it would be completely out of character for Seilers to go somewhere and not tell others.
Students skipped classes and friends came from Minnesota to search the area around Seiler's apartment building and nearby wooded areas, led by her brother, Kyle Seiler. Missing-person posters hung in the windows of hundreds of businesses across Madison.
Earlier assault
Detectives interviewed sex offenders, Seiler's boyfriend and others about her disappearance. They also re-examined an earlier assault on Seiler. On Feb. 1, she was hit from behind and knocked unconscious near her apartment. She said she didn't see the attacker. Seiler was moved a block but was not sexually assaulted or robbed, police said.
At 12:50 p.m. Wednesday, a state Department of Revenue employee on her lunch break spotted Seiler in a marshy area near the department's headquarters and a Holiday Inn Express where out of town volunteers in the search had been staying.
An officer arrived at the Holiday Inn and told Stephanie Seiler that her daughter had been found, according to people there. The lobby erupted into cheers as police whisked her away.
Audrey Seiler's boyfriend, UW freshman Ryan Fisher, also from Rockford, said he was "overjoyed" at her being found safe and "very thankful" at the effort of police and volunteers to search for her.
"I don't think you guys can imagine" how the last four days have felt, Fisher said.