The Dane County District Attorney’s office has not decided yet if it will press charges against Audrey Seiler. The decision to press charges was expected to be announced Tuesday by District Attorney Brian Blanchard, who is presently refusing to make any public announcements regarding the Seiler case.
Meanwhile, Seiler returned home to Rockford, Minn., last Thursday after receiving psychiatric treatment in a local Madison hospital.
Seiler, 20, a University of Wisconsin sophomore, faked her own abduction earlier this month, costing the Madison Police Department $55,000 as it deployed an intense manhunt for her alleged abductor.
After inconsistencies in her report to police began to surface, Seiler confessed to both making up the story and buying supplies, such as a rope, knife and duct tape, before her disappearance. Seiler initially told police that her “abductor” had used these items to hold her captive.
High-profile Minneapolis attorney Randy Hopper has been hired to represent Seiler and her family. Hopper was a litigator in the national anti-tobacco lawsuits and has been a partner with the Twin Cities law firm Zimmerman Reed since 1991.
Since the news of Seiler’s faked abduction emerged on campus, responses have been mixed. While many have been outraged by the incident, others maintain sympathy and compassion for the UW student.
“I know Audrey. Even without the complete thought process of a mentally stable person, I know that Audrey did not mean for it to go that far,” Andrew Scallon, a good friend of Seiler’s boyfriend, wrote via e-mail, adding he does not condone her actions. “I do not feel that what she did is right. However, I do not think that public humiliation will help the situation at all.”
Scallon feels students overlook the fact that the commentaries and cartoons intended to ridicule the abduction incident are hurtful not only to Seiler, but also to her family and friends.
“Would you still be laughing if it was your sister?” Scallon wrote in the e-mail. “People in general just seem to be ignorant [to the fact] that she is a person. A person with a great need.”
Others, however, point to the fact that the Madison community, along with members of her hometown who traveled to Madison to search for her and the national news media, were concerned for her welfare, since they believed she was in danger.
“People in the community pulled together to look for [Seiler]. Everybody in Madison was genuinely concerned for her safety, only to find out that she had staged the whole thing,” UW senior Archana Bharadwaj said. “[Seiler] deserves all the negative feedback she is getting.”
Seiler transferred to UW last fall from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn. She is a speech pathology major, and reportedly earned a 4.0 grade point average last semester. Seiler has not yet disclosed whether she will return to UW.
