Tara Stassen, a home day-care operator and neighbor of the Seilers, said she felt no resentment over the days of worry and all the yellow ribbons strung, only compassion for the Seiler family and for the girl who used to cycle by her house with a wave.
"I think she just needs a big hug," Stassen said.
"From all of us," said Marianne Kraft, another neighbor.
A few blocks away, however, on Main Street, Colleen Sakima, a flower shop manager, said she hoped Seiler would do "the honorable thing" and apologize to her city. "To cry wolf like this, in a nation where we all help each other find missing people, is horrible," she said.
Laughter could be heard at Woody's bar when a live TV report from Madison, Wis., revealed that police believed Seiler's alleged abduction was a hoax and that she had been caught on videotape buying the cold medicine, duct tape and rope she had alleged were part of it.
"I thought something was fishy," pulltab operator Terri Lindbery shouted from the other side of the room. Only two days earlier, she said, she had been in tears when Seiler was found, thinking to herself then: "What a joyous ending."
Across the street, the bank that took donations for the Help Find Audrey Seiler Fund said that it would refund contributions to anyone requesting them, and that anything not returned would be given, at the Seiler family's request, to the Jacob Wetterling Foundation.
As afternoon turned into evening, what originally was billed as a prayer vigil turned into a community rally as dozens stood side-by-side in support of the Seilers outside their home.
Rick Martinson, a neighbor and longtime family friend, echoed the sentiment of others when asked about how some people might deem the search a waste of money and resources. "I don't care what it costs. It's money. They make more every day," he said. "The important thing to remember is that Audrey is alive, and we're going to help her come back and be with us."
For others who knew her, too, however, the question earlier in the day was how a person so gifted could do such a thing.
Carlene Boyle, from whom Seiler studied dance for about eight years, said that perhaps all Audrey Seiler's time in the spotlight, and her success in always taking "that next step higher," made her crave attention, and that desire just snowballed.
"That dear girl," Boyle said. "That dear girl."