"We do not believe there is a suspect at large, period," said Acting Madison Police Chief Noble Wray. He said he called off a manhunt Friday because of "inconsistencies" in Seiler's statements and a lack of evidence supporting her claims that she'd been abducted.
Seiler, 20, is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a native of Rockford, about 25 miles west of Minneapolis.
She was found Wednesday in a marsh, about 2 miles from her apartment building on the edge of campus. Seiler initially told police she was abducted at the building at knifepoint by a man whom she did not know but whom she described well enough to help produce a composite sketch on Thursday.
Area where Audrey Seiler was foundMike DevriesAssociated PressWray said at a news conference Friday afternoon that Seiler's story did not add up.
He said that videotape from a local store showed that Seiler had bought duct tape, a knife, cold medicine, gum and rope weeks before her disappearance. Police found such items in the marsh area, where Seiler told police she had been held against her will by a white man with a large nose and chubby cheeks who was in his late 20s to early 30s.
A clerk at Your Pantry, a convenience store across the street from Seiler's building, confirmed that police had confiscated the store's video surveillance tapes and that the store sells the items described by police.
Wray also said two people reported to police that they had seen Seiler walking freely during the period she was missing. And a check of her computer showed that someone had used it during the same period, Wray said. "It does suggest that we don't have a person who was held against her will."
He said Seiler's computer also suggested that she had done some planning before she went missing. Information about the Madison area, nearby parks and a five-day forecast were among the things found on the computer, Wray said.
When police confronted Seiler with the findings, she admitted that she had not been taken from her apartment building. She said she left to be "alone." But she maintained that she was abducted at knifepoint from another part of Madison, Wray said.
Police said Seiler and her family were in an undisclosed location in Madison. The "Dateline NBC" news program reported Friday night that Seiler was in a psychiatric facility.
Police spokesman Larry Kamholz said he spoke with Seiler's father, Keith, for about an hour Friday after Wray's announcement. He said Keith Seiler feels bad about what police and everybody else went through but was happy to have his daughter back.
Wray said it was too soon to say whether she could face charges. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard declined to comment.
Police estimated that costs for the intensive manhunt would exceed $70,000, said Melanie Conklin, a spokeswoman for Mayor David Cieslewicz.
Seiler also has reported an unexplained attack in early February, telling police someone struck her from behind and knocked her unconscious.
Little light was shed Friday on why Seiler might fake an abduction.
"It's difficult for me to speculate what was her mental state or why she decided to do it," Wray said. He also said police are trying to piece together exactly where she was during the four-day absence and what she was doing.
A concern for others
At St. Cloud State University on Friday morning, Patty Wetterling and Linda Walker, the mother of missing University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, were appearing at a journalists' forum on covering crisis situations when they agreed to talk about the Seiler case.
Wetterling's son, Jacob, was abducted in 1989 from near his home in St. Joseph, Minn., and since then his mother has been in the national forefront of missing-children's issues.
"It is difficult for us to watch because we do relive it," Wetterling said of the Seiler case. "Plus, I have two kids in college, so for me it is too close to home."
In a way, Wetterling said, Friday's news was a setback "because we're going to have an even bigger challenge" getting people to believe that abductions occur and need to be followed up with vigor.
Walker added, "I would hope this wouldn't affect" how people respond to reports of missing people. "It's just that particular case. There are abductions that do take place."
A Crookston, Minn., man has been charged in Sjodin's disappearance and is awaiting trial in Grand Forks.
The coverage of Sjodin's abduction created "a lot of education and awareness," Wetterling said. "It's a result of Dru and others that Audrey got so much attention."
There are problems in the Seiler case that need to be dealt with, Wetterling said, but "she's home, she's safe. That's the best."