Odd Case of Missing Student
MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) -- A university student who was the victim of a baffling attack in February now has disappeared, and police and volunteers were searching for clues Tuesday.
Audrey R. Seiler, 20, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was last seen early Saturday near her off-campus apartment.
A surveillance tape from her apartment building showed her leaving without her coat or purse, and her door was left open, police Officer Jennifer Krueger said Tuesday. She also left her car behind.
Police spokesman Larry Kamholz said there is little information about where Seiler, of Rockford, Minnesota, was headed.
"We are very puzzled by it," Kamholz said Tuesday on NBC's "Today." "It's not typical of Audrey."
Kamholz said Seiler also was walking near her residence when she was attacked on February 1. She was struck from behind by an unknown assailant and knocked unconscious. She was then moved about a block but was not sexually assaulted. Nothing was taken from her.
Police have no evidence linking Seiler's disappearance to the attack, Krueger said.
Kamholz said Seiler had no idea who may have wanted to harm her.
"It's a very, very weird case," Kamholz said.
Seiler's uncle, Scott Charlesworth-Seiler, said his niece was also baffled by the attack.
"That wasn't something she had any explanation for," he told WISC-TV in Madison.
Police have been following up on telephone tips while volunteers, many from Seiler's hometown, have searched the area around campus for clues. Fliers were posted at stores, dormitories and apartment buildings.
The university e-mailed 46,000 users of its computer system to appeal for help and established a Web site.
UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear said the school also offered its counseling services to her family and to students, faculty and staff who know her.
Several other college-age students from Minnesota have disappeared in recent years.
Last November, University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, was allegedly kidnapped from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota. A Crookston, Minnesota, man has been charged with kidnapping but no body has been found.
Erika Dalquist, 21, of Brainerd, Minnesota, was reported missing in October 2002 after she left a Brainerd bar. St. John's University student Josh Guimond, 20, was reported missing in November 2002 after leaving an apartment in Collegeville, Minnesota.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/03/30/missing.student.ap/index.html