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Police Find Missing Wisconsin Student

Aired March 31, 2004 - 14:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips.
A breaking news story we continue to follow right now. A missing University of Wisconsin student has been found alive, live pictures here via WITI out of Wisconsin; 20-year-old Audrey Seiler vanished from her apartment in Madison just four days ago. You may remember the surveillance tape that showed her leaving the building without a coat, without a purse. A police officer in Madison now tells us that she is -- quote -- "fine."

It's not clear whether her disappearance was related to an attack on February 1 that had left her unconscious. We're going to update you on this story as soon as we get information in a news conference that's supposed to happen at the top of the hour. You can see through these live pictures that police are gathered looking at a map of the area.

Earlier, we'd seen live pictures of a number of police officers, guns drawn, around a fielded area here in Wisconsin near her home. But they possibly could be searching for a suspect.

On the phone with us now, Lieutenant Pat Malloy of the City of Madison Police.

Lieutenant, as we look at these live pictures, we see that they're pulling out a map of the area. Do they believe the suspect is somewhere close to where we're seeing these live pictures?

LT. PAT MALLOY, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: We want to check that and try to determine that. So I think there's some information that would lead them to believe that.

PHILLIPS: What we do we know about Audrey Seiler's condition?

MALLOY: I can just tell you that she was found alive and she appears to be OK and that she was conveyed to a Madison hospital, where she was reunited with her family.

PHILLIPS: And do we know how she located? Was she able to contact somebody? Did somebody find her?

MALLOY: A citizen apparently spotted her in a marsh area and thought it was suspicious or unusual and called the police department. And that's how we happened upon this.

PHILLIPS: Did the citizen hear anything or were there cries for Audrey Seiler that brought the citizen...

MALLOY: That, I'm not aware of. This is just unfolding now, so there are a lot of details that I'm not familiar with.

PHILLIPS: Was she -- was Audrey Seiler able to get out, walk herself, come out of this marsh area, and is that when a suspect possibly fled the scene?

MALLOY: We contacted her, I believe. And I'm not sure whether she walked out without assistance or with our assistance or an a stretcher. I can't answer that for you, ma'am.

PHILLIPS: OK. So what is the game plan now? Tell me what police officers are doing right now and where you go from here.

MALLOY: Well, right now, we want to make sure that there's no one that is out there that may be involved with that. And that will be the first priority.

And the second priority would be to continue the investigation. But the most important thing is that she is found alive and that she's been reunited with her family.

PHILLIPS: Now the surveillance tape that we had showed, showed her leaving the building without a coat, without a purse. Do you believe that she went to go meet somebody or that she was abducted as she left her apartment?

MALLOY: I can't answer that question, ma'am. I just don't know.

PHILLIPS: Do you know if, indeed, it was an abduction?

MALLOY: That, again, I don't know the answer to that.

PHILLIPS: OK.

Lieutenant Pat Malloy, City of Madison Police, thank you for your time.

MALLOY: OK.

PHILLIPS: You're watching live pictures via WITI. A sheriff's deputy actually running to his vehicle and heading off. We can continue to follow this live picture. We don't know if, indeed, they got word that possibly a suspect or suspects could be in this area.

But as you heard from Lieutenant Pat Malloy the City of Madison Police, that Audrey Seiler, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, the University of Wisconsin student who has been missing since Saturday, was found in this area, this actual area, a marsh area. Just a citizen who happened to come across her whereabouts contacted police. We don't know if Seiler had cried out to that individual or this citizen had just noticed that she was in the marsh area. But she contacted police.

Police immediately responded, and now you're seeing the live pictures of how everything has unfolded. Police have sealed off the area. They have pulled a map out of this area, including the marsh area where the 20-year-old was found. And they are getting ready to conduct a massive search, looking for someone who could have been involved on what could possibly be an abduction.

But right now we are told that Audrey Seiler is safe, back with her parents, actually at a hospital right now. She was taken by stretcher to a local hospital to be treated and checked out. Right now, police still looking for a suspect, possibly suspects in her disappearance. It's not clear whether her disappearance has been related to an attack that happened on the same student back in February. That attack left her unconscious.

This, however, situation that happened over the weekend. She was last seen on surveillance tape outside of her apartment there in Madison, Wisconsin. And it showed her leaving without a purse, without her coat. And the next thing you knew, she was nowhere to be found.

Jonathan Freed has been following this story for us. He joins us in our Chicago bureau.

Jonathan, what more can you tell us, as these live pictures, and we continue to watch these live pictures? Give us some background about the Seiler case and what you know up to this point.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you that Audrey Seiler is known as an A student, the type of person with a very close-knit group of friends, the type of person that was never known to miss school. And the fact that she's been involved in two controversial incidents in the space of two months now is something that has taken her family and friends, and frankly everybody that knows her, very much by surprise.

Audrey Seiler is somebody that never missed class, A student. And what's been going on in the past couple of days is we had a good 100 people from her hometown of Rockford, Minnesota, show up in Madison, Wisconsin, helping police, helping the -- helping the dogs, helping the FBI, putting up posters, doing whatever they could to try and find her.

Now, back on February 1, it was about 12:45 in the morning when she was hit from behind by an unknown attacker, and then she woke up later, a couple of blocks away, behind a building. Now, the thing that police found quite baffling about that case is that she was not found to be harmed, aside from having been hit initially and knocked unconscious. She wasn't otherwise hurt. And she -- and there was nothing missing from her purse or otherwise. She wasn't robbed.

So police were trying to figure out exactly what that meant. And then here we are. We fast-forward a couple of months, and then Saturday morning at about 2:30 in the morning was the last time that she was captured on video by her apartment security camera, heading outside. We've all seen the pictures for the last couple of days. It wasn't clear what type of state that she was in, although her family yesterday, at a news conference, where they were continuing to ask for help and remaining confident that she would eventually be found, her family was quite adamant that she was well adjusted or as well adjusted as somebody could be to this type of AN incident, that she was not depressed. That's what they said.

And they didn't feel that perhaps she had run off as some kind of a delayed reaction action and fallout from the attack of early February.

PHILLIPS: And, Jonathan, now we continue to watch these live pictures via WITI. I don't know what you know up to this point, but, evidently, according to Lieutenant Pat Malloy, City of Madison Police, a civilian just in the area came across Audrey Seiler in this marsh area.

I don't know if you know this area very well. Can you -- do you by chance -- is this near the university, do you know? And I don't know if you can even see this live picture that we're following, if you've got a monitor next to you. But can you give us some type of perspective of this area where police are?

FREED: I wish I could. I can see the pictures that all of us are looking at. But I can tell you that aside from the fact that it's described as a marsh area, I can't fill you in any more than to say that yesterday police were saying that parks and areas like this were areas that were areas that were being looked at. And when asked whether they had specific leads as to whether that pointed them in that direction, they said not specifically, but that -- not specifically, but that they were obviously types of more remote areas that in a case like this with a missing person, where there is a potential for foul play, that that's where they were looking for.

I'm told that this is two miles east of the university. This is just in to us here at CNN Chicago, that this area that we're looking at right now is two miles east of the university.

PHILLIPS: OK, two miles east of the university. So it could be an area close to her apartment complex possibly. And, of course, we're talking about the University of Madison, pretty small area, too, pretty condensed area.

Once again, if you're just joining in, if you're just tuning in to CNN, you're also listening to Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau there.

Let me know, Jonathan, too -- pipe in if you get any more information there as you continue to work this story.

Meanwhile, we'll kind of update viewers on what you're seeing, a number of police cars here on the scene via WITI, kind of an active story unfolding right now as you are seeing this live. Audrey Seiler, who had been missing since Saturday, 20-year-old college student from the University of Wisconsin, we got word here in to CNN that she had been found, she was back with her parents. And immediately the live pictures popped up.

Actually, when we had first tuned in, you actually saw police officers' guns drawn on a marsh area that Jonathan is now telling me about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These are now taped pictures of earlier, when police had found or come across Audrey Seiler after a citizen found her in a marsh area, contacted them. She's now at the hospital, told to be doing -- quote -- "just fine."

But now police officers taking out a massive map of the area and getting ready to seal off a certain number of miles here where Audrey was found in the marsh.

I'm going to bring our Mike Brooks in. Jonathan, stay with us there in our Chicago bureau.

I'm going to bring our Mike Brooks in, who does a lot of analyzing when it comes to situations like this, former law enforcement officer, of course.

Mike, it looks like pretty standing operation -- or standing operating procedure here with the maps, sealing off the area, believing possibly that a suspect could be close by.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right.

Well, I tell you, this is a big break, Kyra. Yesterday I spoke with a law enforcement source of mine in Madison. And he was saying basically they didn't have any clues whatsoever, any leads in the case. He said they were starting basically from the very, very bottom working their way up, sifting through all the leads they could get, looking at her telephone records, security videotapes that we've seen, all these, but they basically didn't have any really positive leads in the case.

So this is a huge break. And as we know, there had been hundreds of volunteers from her hometown and also from the University of Wisconsin that had spanned out across this marsh area. And now with law enforcement sealing this area off, most likely -- again, speculation -- but as a former law enforcement officer, I can tell you that most likely they would want to seal that area off believing that there could be possible evidence within that area of where she was found.

And that's another thing. Whether they have a suspect in custody or not, they still want to comb this area to see if there's anything of evidentiary value that would help them in this case, because right now it looks like, you know, that they are, in fact, trying to put some kind of plan together with that large map as you were pointing out that we're seeing now. And...

PHILLIPS: Well, it's pretty amazing, too, when you think that she got away, she got away alive. Let's talk about situations like this. We don't know right now whether she knew this abductor or not.

BROOKS: No, and we go back just recently she had been the victim of an attack. And that was still an open case, also. They didn't know who was involved in that. So, again, they don't know whether or not that case is linked with this. When I was talking to the source yesterday I asked him specifically if they thought that the two were linked. He said right now there's nothing to say that they are, but they definitely weren't ruling it out.

PHILLIPS: Well, how do these cases usually turn out, from your experience? Let's say, for example, she knew the abductor. Are they more than likely to get away alive vs. someone who could have been stalking her or targeting her?

BROOKS: Well, most of the time, when someone knows their abductor, really, the statistics say, yes, it's better if they know their abductor. Or, no, it's not. There's statistics going both ways, especially when you talk about child abductions.

But in adult abductions like this, it could have gone either way. And we go and we look in the same general area, Minnesota and the Dakotas there, where Dru Sjodin has been missing for so long and they have someone under arrest, but they still have not found the body of Dru Sjodin.

PHILLIPS: All right, now, if you are just tuning in, we are awaiting a news conference at any time from the City of Madison Police. What you're looking at here are pictures via our affiliate WITI out of Wisconsin, as police detectives pulling out maps, sealing off this area.

I'm told it's about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where 20-year-old college student Audrey Seiler had been missing since Saturday. She's now with her parents. She is at a local hospital, getting checked out, after a passerby, according to police, saw her in a marsh area, a marsh area right here next to where these detectives and police officers are, mapping out this area.

Mike, in a situation like this, it's pretty normal procedure to look through parks and marsh areas and kind of I guess desolate areas, yes?

BROOKS: Absolutely, any place at all where someone could have taken, you know, a person, holding them against their will, or if it had turned out worse, to dump someone in this area.

They were also -- investigators were looking at sex offender lists, people who had been arrested for kidnappings, for sex offenses. They were looking at sex offender registries to see if they could get any leads from that. We still don't know whether or not they have. We still don't know of the exact circumstances of whether she was abducted, whether she left of her own free will, or if she was the victim of a random act of violence. We don't know this yet.

Hopefully, we'll hear something from the press conference. But it's got to be either she left on her own, she was kidnapped by someone she knew, or it was a random act of violence.

PHILLIPS: All right, stay with us here, Mike. We're going to go back to CNN's Jonathan Freed in our Chicago bureau. He's been following this case, has a lot of history behind Audrey Seiler.

What more can you tell us, Jonathan?

FREED: I can tell you, Kyra, that we've been looking at a map. And we're told, of course, that where she has been found is two miles east of the university. And I can tell you that where she lives is approximately halfway between those two points.

I'd like to throw something at Mike, though, if I could. Yesterday, when we were listening to the news conference, the police were saying that as of yesterday they were still considering this a missing persons case and that there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing as of that time. Mike, are you surprised at this turn and the posture that we're seeing today?

BROOKS: Very much. In fact, my source told me yesterday that -- now that you mention that -- that right now there didn't seem to be any evidence of any foul play and that it was still a missing persons case. So, again, I think this is a big turn of events that they have found her, and you know there seems to be some immediacy in their actions right now.

Otherwise, if they thought that she left of her own free will, you wouldn't see them scurrying around like this looking at a map. It's a definite sign that they're looking for something or looking for someone.

PHILLIPS: And that there was a struggle.

And the surveillance tape, too, showed that she was leaving and they make the point, without her purse, without her coat, so you wonder if, indeed, she came across a stranger, was abducted by a stranger or maybe was coming out to meet somebody. So it's still kind of up in the air whether she was coming out to meet someone she knows or if, indeed, abducted.

Mike, the situation, did it happen in the same place? It happened in the same apartment, right, where she was knocked unconscious? Wasn't it outside -- it was outside her apartment on February 1. So I'm wondering what type of crime has been taking place around this apartment complex. Do we know the history of maybe crime or possible abductions? Is this a first for this area?

BROOKS: We really don't know. I have not been -- I've not heard anything from my sources about whether there had been any patterns of any abductions or any assaults there. We do know what she was struck from behind by an unknown assailant on February 1. It's still an open case right now.

And they really have not said. And in speaking to my source yesterday, he was saying that he did not know if the two were linked at all. So apparently right now, they don't have any evidence to say that the two were linked. And hopefully they'll be able to find some affirmative or negative information, whether or not these two were, in fact, linked with the same perpetrator. PHILLIPS: All right, if you're just tuning in, once again, I'll brief you on what's taking place; 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, she was the University of Wisconsin-Madison student that had been missing since Saturday, she has been found. She's been found alive. She's with her parents at a local hospital getting checked out right now as we bring this news to you.

This all unfolded kind of within -- I would say within the past 20 minutes or so. We got word that she had been discovered in a marsh area by a passerby. This individual came across her. We're not quite sure if Audrey was yelling out to this individual or if the passerby just saw some unusual activity. But they contacted police. Immediately, the police responded. And Audrey was taken out via stretcher and taken to the hospital.

And then as we were watching it all unfold on live television we did see police officers, a number of them, and detectives responding to the scene, both from the police department and the sheriff's department, guns drawn. We didn't know if by chance they believed there was a suspect still in the area. Now it looks like they are definitely hunting for a possible suspect or suspects in the area. They've got the maps out. They've secured the area. They're looking specifically at the marsh area where Audrey Seiler was found alive.

It's two miles east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And we are told that her apartment where she was allegedly abducted is sort of where she was found is kind of halfway in between.

Here we go, live pictures once again, via WITI, officers once again with guns drawn here, kind of outside the marsh area near the railroad tracks, about two miles east of the university. As you can seek, they're sealing off this area. They've secured this area, pretty large area, a couple of miles. They believe that, indeed, a suspect could be in this area.

Mike, as you look at those pictures, what are you noticing?

BROOKS: Well, I'm noticing the one officer who is crouched down behind the vehicle. Another one who was right in the clearing there was trying to make himself a smaller target if you will by crouching down in a position of defensive posture, if you will. So if that live shot is any indication, it would say to me that they believe that there's someone that they believe is in that wooded area there just off that marsh in those bushes, or somewhere else.

And they could -- you know, they're not rushing in there. They could be waiting for K-9 to come up and put a K-9 dog in that area. I know that's what most police departments would do, instead of putting themselves in danger, send one of the K-9 dogs in there to sweep that area

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: So they could possibly have someone surrounded?

BROOKS: There's a possibility. That live shot was very telling, especially with the one officer on the one side of the area that they have cordoned off down behind his vehicle there and the other one who looked like weapon drawn out in the middle there with another officer who then all of sudden took a crouching position. That's trying to make himself a smaller target. So that would lead me to believe that they believe that someone could be in that particular area.

PHILLIPS: Well, as we continue to follow the story, as you can imagine, all of our affiliates, sister stations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, also following this story.

Ellen Gallus (ph) just recently filed this report. She's with our affiliate KMSP out of Milwaukee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just in the past couple of moments, we've noticed police have moved. We saw three of them run across the highway here. I don't know if you can see over my shoulder, actually, where traffic is stopped. We saw them run across this highway where this traffic is stopped. We saw them rushing towards someone. I'm not quite sure if they're going after the suspect.

But if you're just joining us, police have blocked off this area, certain roads within this area off of the beltline in Madison, Wisconsin. We believe they are still searching for a suspect, somebody who might have been with Audrey Seiler, perhaps the person who is responsible for her disappearance.

She was discovered about an hour ago. She was with someone. Police still have not apprehended the person she was with. And we're told that person could be dangerous and he has a weapon with him. Again, just a couple minutes ago, we saw police move rapidly across this highway here. Don't know what they were running towards or who they were running towards. But certainly, there might have been some type of development here in the past couple minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, I apologize to our viewers. KMSP is our affiliate in Minnesota. Ellen Gallus (ph) works for KMSP out of Minnesota. She's covering that story.

Mike, she mentioned that they did believe there was a suspect in the area believed to be armed and dangerous.

BROOKS: And that would then account for why you see those officers down in defensive position, believing that he could, he or she or they could be armed and dangerous and in that area. So, again, you know, we're glad to see, though, that Audrey Seiler is back hopefully safe and sound, after she's taken to the hospital and examined, that at least they do have her and they're now lacking for the perpetrator who was responsible for her disappearance.

PHILLIPS: Pretty amazing, disappeared on Saturday, found alive in this marsh area. If you look at all the circumstances, marsh area, not a lot of people around, allegedly a suspect believed to be armed and dangerous. I can just imagine she was putting up a pretty tough fight.

BROOKS: And it's also unusual, Kyra, that you would have and find her in that area still after that many days. You know, so it may be someone she knows. It may be someone who is familiar with that area, doesn't know anyplace else to go, felt comfortable staying there.

That's usually what happens. If they feel comfortable somewhere, they'll go ahead and stay in that area. But again with all the volunteers that were scouring the area, and we heard earlier today that they were looking in these marsh areas and in these places and it could have been one of the volunteers that actually did find her, the people who were looking for her, that in fact they did find her. And now hopefully they'll find the person who's responsible for her disappearance.

PHILLIPS: Twenty-year-old Audrey Seiler, University of Wisconsin-Madison student, found alive in a marsh area. Right now police on the hunt for the individual they believed possibly abducted her.

Jonathan Freed following this story also out of our Chicago bureau.

Jonathan, what do you have?

FREED: Well, Kyra, I can tell you that one of the things that I think captured our attention with this story was the disconnect between the rhetoric that we were hearing from police and the actions that we were seeing from investigators and everybody searching, because yesterday, and up until yesterday they kept repeating that this was just being treated as a missing persons case.

Yet when you looked outside, when you saw the images of how many people, this full-scale, wide-ranging, wide-reaching search that was going on, there just seemed to be a disconnect between the two. And they kept saying, no, we don't have any suspects, yet the images were seeming to contradict that. So that's one of the reasons I think that this case garnered the type of attention that it did. And I think that it's interesting to see how it's actually unfolding in this way right now.

PHILLIPS: Mike, what do you make of the direction?

BROOKS: No, he's right. Talking to my sources yesterday, they basically had no leads whatsoever. This is a source that I know pretty well and he said they didn't have many leads at all, if any, that they were just kind of going in the very, very early stage of the investigation and they were just going through all the basic investigative steps, but really he said that they didn't have much.

But, again, we look back. And I think everyone when they see the people, they see the volunteers out there, go back through the Dru Sjodin case from the University of North Dakota, she, too, from Minnesota. The man who was actually held in her death which they have not found the body for, but he has been charged, he is from Minnesota. I think a lot of people are thinking the same kind of thing. They see the Dru Sjodin case and the volunteers there and now you see the large number of volunteers there out looking for -- or they were looking Audrey and the first thing you think of is foul play.

But at first apparently they didn't believe that there was any reason to say it was foul play. And that's why it was still classified as a missing persons case. And it would have stayed classified as a missing persons case until they found something, found some evidence to say that it wasn't, some kind of blood, her shoes or any piece of her clothing somewhere, that then they may have reclassified it as maybe a missing person critical.

Where I come from, Washington, D.C., you could have a missing persons case. If they don't believe that there's any foul play involved, it will remain a missing persons case. If there are people who let's say have Alzheimer's or they believe foul play was involved, they will make it a critical missing persons, which kind of ups it a little bit and gets more people dedicated to the search.

PHILLIPS: You were saying when Audrey Seiler came up missing that of course police and detectives, one of the first things they do, they go through the sexual offender lists (AUDIO GAP) perimeter here.

Possibly, the suspect may be hiding out in this area. You see a lot of activity. You see them sort of scrambling to a certain area and do you see them in sort of the low ready position there. Obviously, they don't want to become a target. They do believe that possibly someone could be in this area. What do you make of what they're doing here?

(CROSSTALK)

BROOKS: Well, you see they're there in the parking lot, and you see just above, on the top of the picture there, officers up on another end. And then you see the car down along the railroad tracks which we were just seeing a moment ago.

They definitely have some kind of perimeter set up here, whether they're looking for a perpetrator or believe there's evidence. But if they were looking for evidence, you wouldn't see them holding back. You'd see them probably get together in a line search and search that area. So again, Kyra, speculation, but it looks to me from my experience that that would be an area that they believe someone was in, and they could be waiting for K-9 dogs or maybe -- we don't know. We don't hear what's going on there. Maybe they have contact with someone. We don't know.

But it does look like that they're looking in that area for someone.

PHILLIPS: It sort of gives you the chills, too, because this is the area where she was found alive. And it's such an isolated area, if you get a bigger picture. And then, of course, you see the body of water. Imagine if, indeed, she were not found alive, it's pretty -- you just look at the scene and it kind of gives you chills, taking into effect what's happening with so many other national cases that are going on right now and where missing persons turn up, etcetera.

But the great news here, she was found alive. Police now in this area, have secured this area. They've got -- oh, they've got the dogs out now.

BROOKS: Yes, it does. You can see right there the one officer still maintaining his cover back behind that tree and having his K-9 dog there. You saw the other officers at the other end kind of back off a little bit, because they want to make sure that they wouldn't mess up his -- the dog's track.

Now, we see the dog on lead right now. But you see the officer asking the other officers to get back to make sure that he doesn't mistake them for someone else and get one of their scents. We have had police officers bitten in the past.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: How do you get the dog on the scent of a suspect? Could they have possibly taken something from the victim to kind of give the dog a lead? How does that work?

(CROSSTALK)

BROOKS: That's one possibility. When a dog is on a seek, maybe they have found a car. There might be other things we don't know about, maybe something from the perpetrator that would leave a scent or, also, the scent of where the victim was and try to find out exactly, retrace the steps of where Audrey was in hopes of finding where the perpetrator may have run.

And again, we don't know what kind of statements or what kind of any other witnesses, what they've seen. But apparently they have a lot of interest in this one area here, where we now see a K-9 dog and his handler there. It looks like they're getting ready to do some kind of search in that particular area, with the other officers backing off.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Interrupt me if you see something happen here that we should pay attention to.

I'll just brief viewers right now. If you're just tuning in to CNN, this is a breaking news story that has happened within the past 30 minutes. It has sort of been unfolding live here on CNN. If you've been watching, I'll give you a little background. We got word that this college student, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, who had been missing since Saturday, was found alive right here in this area. As you see these live pictures, sort of a marsh area is where she was found specifically.

Evidently a passerby, we don't know if the passerby heard her or just came across and saw some suspicious activity, but indeed, she was noticed. And this passerby contacted police. And now police have responded to the area. They were able to get Audrey Seiler out of there to a hospital with her parents. Police tell us she is -- quote -- "fine."

And now you saw a lot of things unfolding, a lot of police officers scrambling, sheriff's detectives, also, guns drawn for a bit of time. And now it seems that the focus is on this area by the railroad tracks. It's about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin Madison. Not far at all from where Audrey Seiler was living.

We first told you about this story when surveillance video captured her leaving her apartment without her purse, without her coat. And then she was reported missing. Now she's alive. She's in a hospital with her parents. And police are on this scene.

Dogs obviously getting ready to start tracking what they believe could be evidence here leading them to the individual who allegedly abducted this young college student.

Jonathan Freed also following this story for us out of our Chicago bureau. He knows a lot of the background behind Audrey Seiler. Straight "A" student, never missed class.

Jonathan, bring us up to date.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I can tell you that one of the things that we heard yesterday at the news conference from the family, we heard her uncle saying things like, "Audrey knows how much we love her, and we want everybody else to know that, as well."

And although the police seemed to be sending the signal -- they were sending the signal that this was just a missing person's case, at least officially at that point, we got the feeling that what was coming out of the family was being very carefully orchestrated. Words being very carefully chosen.

Her uncle also went on to say that, "We're very confident and we are determined that if the right person hears this and sees her face, that they will be able to help us find her and bring her back home." So, clearly, although we had one line coming from police calling it a missing person's case, being careful to say that they had no evidence of criminal wrongdoing as of that point, the family seemed to be telegraphing a more subtle message, a different kind of message, perhaps in case indeed it was the fact of the case that she had fallen into somebody's hands.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau.

Mike, go ahead and tell us what has happened now. They released the dog. The dog is actually on a trail right now.

BROOKS: It looks like he's on a track. He or she started over, and you see the dog going back. And it looks like it's on some kind of track right now. We see the handler telling the dog -- trying to give instructions to the dog.

We see officers, though, with -- it looks like some kind of shoulder weapons covering the area where the dog is going to be tracking. And it looked like they were concentrating in that larger triangular area we saw between the marsh area and the railroad track. Back on our live photo right now, on our live pictures, we do see the dog. It looks like the dog has not found anything right now.

PHILLIPS: Well, I'm told we've got Lieutenant Pat Malloy from the City of Madison Police back on the phone with us.

Lieutenant, what can you tell us as we continue to watch these live pictures? Are you with me Lieutenant Malloy?

OK. We'll try and get contact back with Lieutenant Pat Malloy from the City of Madison Police there as we watch these live pictures via WITI.

Mike, go ahead and continue. They obviously released the dog. They believe possibly they might be on to something here.

BROOKS: They must think that they do have someone down in that area, either from some witnesses seeing someone run there, or from the victim herself that was in there. We see back -- we just went out of the camera range -- that there is a dog on a track in that area. So hopefully we can see if we'll be able to see if that dog, in fact, does find someone who's responsible.

PHILLIPS: OK. And we see the cameras zooming in here. As we continue to watch these live pictures unfold, Mike, interrupt me if we need to come back to this.

Meanwhile, we have the provost of University of Wisconsin Madison on the phone with us, Peter Spear.

We sure appreciate your time, sir. Obviously, a bit of a difficult time right now for you. The good news is your student is -- has been found alive. But maybe you can bring us up to date on what you know about what's happening.

PETER SPEAR, PROVOST, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: Well, I know pretty much the same as you know since you obviously have someone on the scene there I can hear from the background. We're just thrilled that she's been found and found alive. And we appreciate all of the concern and help that our students and faculty and staff have given to this, and friends and family and the community. My understanding is that she was seen by someone in the Madison community.

PHILLIPS: I apologize. I'm getting information brought to me, sir, as we are talking right now. I want to ask you a question.

In light of the situation here, what have you done to beef up security there at the university? Obviously, this happened just a couple miles east of the university. There must be a concern for other students at this time, especially if the suspect is still on the loose.

SPEAR: Well, we have a number of procedures that we have in place for campus safety, including orientation for students. We have safe ride and safe walk programs, lighted walkways, tips for students as to how to increase their safety on and around campus.

And, in fact, by and large, it is a very safe campus. So what we've been doing in the wake of all of this is to remind students of things that they can do to make sure that they're safe.

PHILLIPS: Have you had a problem with abductions up to this point? Is this pretty unique for your university?

SPEAR: Yes, this is quite unique for us. In fact, our crime rate here is well below average for universities of our size. And, in fact, last year was the lowest crime rate in 30 years.

PHILLIPS: Peter Spear, provost at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Sir, we appreciate your time today.

If you're just tuning in, live pictures right now via WITI. This is about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin Madison.

The good news is, Audrey Seiler, the 20-year-old missing college student, has been found alive. And now what you are seeing are police possibly on the trail of the suspect who may have abducted Audrey Seiler. We're going to continue to watch these live pictures.

Meanwhile, Ellen Gallis, she's with our affiliate KMSP out of Minnesota doing an incredible job covering this story. She's there on the scene.

Ellen, can you bring us up to date on anything that you know?

ELLEN GALLES, KMSP: Yes. Well, as you said, Audrey Seiler is safe. She's at St. Mary's Hospital here in Madison with her family.

Want to show you what's going on right here, though, where she was found. Police are still searching for a suspect we're being told. You can probably see over my shoulder here along the belt line, which is one of the major highways running through Madison, they've set up a perimeter.

They brought the S.W.A.T. team in. You might be able to see in the distance that officer crouched with his weapon drawn. We understand there is still a suspect out here at large. We're told that suspect could have a weapon.

So, again, while Audrey is safe, this is still a very active scene out here as they continue to look for a suspect. We do not have a suspect description. A family friend told me, confirmed that it was a male.

We don't know if this is a friend from school or an older gentleman. Still not sure exactly on who they are looking for. But, again, they're sort of searching the marshy, wooded area behind those businesses, as you can see over my shoulder.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Ellen, stay with us. Maybe we can bring up the video of the live picture that we have. Here we go. As you and I talk, we're actually looking at live pictures. From where you are, Ellen, behind where you are, I can tell you that they've got the police dog, the K-9 out, and the police officers.

Possibly, Mike, could this be the S.W.A.T. team that Ellen is talking about?

BROOKS: It could be.

PHILLIPS: It doesn't look like they're in S.W.A.T. gear, though.

BROOKS: No, it looked like the one officer that she saw did have a (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which is a weapon. But regular patrol officers use those, too.

We see the dog now. We see officers moving very cautiously, moving against that wall, still with guns up and ready position. You see the dog running around.

It's hard to tell, though, right now, Kara, if the dog is, in fact, on a track. We saw another K-9 dog that was up kind of in the wings waiting. They're trying to motion the K-9 dog over toward that area that we were talking about earlier, where it looked like they had concentrated their search.

And sometimes a dog can get a scent, or sometimes they can take a dog and ask it to seek in a certain area to look for any people that might be in that area. That's why you saw all the officers clearing out of that particular area to make sure there's no one there. They'll usually holler down, "If anyone is in that area, come out now. We're going to send the dogs in."

And that looks like about where we re right now.

PHILLIPS: Ellen, I hope you're still with us as we watch these live pictures. Through your sources there on the scene, do they believe it's one suspect, a male suspect? And do they believe it's more than one?

GALLES: From what I am hearing, it is one suspect that they are looking at. But, again, all of this is unconfirmed. Police have not been able to step aside and fill us in on what's going on. But from what I am told it's one male suspect.

And that family friend that I was talking to said that she was walking with him apparently somewhere in the area. Again, this is all unconfirmed. But someone recognized her because her picture has been out there the past four days.

Someone recognized her and immediately called police. Once they arrived at the scene they were able to get Audrey. Apparently the suspect took off. And that's where they are right now, searching this wooded area, this marshy area off the highway here in Madison, just a few miles away from campus.

PHILLIPS: All right. Ellen, stay with us. Mike has a question for you, too.

But, real quickly, we want to check in with Lieutenant Pat Milloy, City of Madison Police on the line with us.

Can you bring us up to date, Lieutenant?

LT. PAT MALLOY, MADISON POLICE: Well, we're searching for one person in that area where Audrey was found. We have ERT, which is emergency response team personnel, down there. And as your viewers can see, there's a dog there. That is a search dog, and they're trying to use that dog to find the suspect.

PHILLIPS: And what more with you tell us about this suspect? Can you confirm if, indeed, Audrey knew this suspect? Or do you believe this is someone who she did not know that came across her as she was leaving her apartment and truly did abduct her?

MALLOY: I can't confirm anything, ma'am. I'm down in the city county building, and other people are out at the scene where all of this is transpiring. So I don't know those details.

PHILLIPS: Any evidence been found? Any type of vehicle?

MALLOY: I don't have any information about a vehicle being involved, and I don't have any information about any evidence being found.

PHILLIPS: All right. Lieutenant, keep us up to date, please as you do get more information. Thank you so much.

MALLOY: OK.

PHILLIPS: Mike, you actually had a question for Ellen. Ellen's still with us. What was your question?

BROOKS: Yes. Ellen, this is Mike Brooks. I was just curious if you've heard anything there whether or not the victim knew the person who they're looking for right now.

GALLES: We have not heard. Again, police have not been able to step aside and confirm anything. But we are hearing from family and friends that, yes, this was her. That she was found safe with some minor injuries.

She's at the hospital with her family right now. That's what we've been told. But, again, we haven't gotten a chance to check with police yet. Any of the details we're hearing have not necessarily been confirmed.

But, again, she has a group of about 100 people from her hometown of Rockford, Minnesota, waiting, who have been here searching. And they confirmed, they said that it was Audrey and that she was OK. She was found, taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, and she's with her family right now.

That's the latest we've heard. But, again, police have not been able to step aside and confirm those details for us yet.

PHILLIPS: Ellen, did you say it was a family friend that found her in that marsh area or just a passerby that happened to be in the area?

GALLES: From our understanding, it was a citizen of Madison who saw her in the area. It was not the group that is here from Rockford searching for her. In fact, about 90 of them were out earlier today. They've been searching some of the public parks in the area. But I don't believe they were searching this area.

In fact, what's ironic, where she was found behind me is just about a block away from the command post where her family and friends have been staying the past couple of days, and where police had sort of set up a makeshift command area. So she was found very close to where her family has been staying and where her family has been headquartered the past couple days.

PHILLIPS: A bit ironic. You're there on the scene. Directly behind you -- we're showing live pictures now -- Ellen, can you tell us what exactly this building is and these railroad tracks? Is this an active railroad track here? And where the police are, I mean, do you have any idea what these buildings are? Are they businesses?

GALLES: Yes. It's kind of a mixed bag here in this area. There's a lot of hotels in this area. It's not too far from the convention center, from what I understand.

But as you can probably see, there is still some wooded areas and kind of a swampy area, from what we understand. Kind of some undeveloped ditches alongside the highway.

This area is right off the highway, one of the main highways that runs through Madison. So not a residential area, but a lot of businesses and a lot of traffic, as you can probably see from behind me as we've been talking here.

PHILLIPS: Ellen Galles, please stay with us with our affiliate KMSP out of Minnesota there, following a story that's actually happening in Madison, Wisconsin. Right now, live pictures WITI as police with their search dog on possibly the trail of the suspect believed to have a weapon, believed to have abducted the young lady that you see here on the screen who was found alive within the past hour, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, the college student from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Jonathan Freed, one of our reporters in our Chicago bureau, also been trailing this story for us. We're going to continue to watch this live picture, because it looks like the dog's getting pretty active.

Jonathan, what are you finding out from your end?

FREED: Well, I can tell you that the AP is reporting that there are, "tears of celebration" in Audrey Seiler's hometown of Rockford, Minnesota. They've spoken to her high school principal. He says the entire town, there's an unbelievable feeling running through there right now, saying that the prayers of everybody in that town have been answered.

And the sense that we've had covering this story for the last couple of days is that it really is a tight-knit community. And at least 100 people from that town came to Madison to try to help with the search. So no surprise that there's that kind of feeling there today, that kind of relief.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau there.

Just real quickly, before we take a quick break, pretty active pictures right now via WITI out of Madison, Wisconsin. The search dog getting active here alongside with the ERT team that is looking for an armed -- what they describe as an armed suspect, the individual they believe was involved in the disappearance of the 20-year-old college student you're seeing here on your screen, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Good news is she is alive. She is at St. Mary's Hospital with her parents. But the hunt continues for the individual that caused her disappearance just four days ago.

We're going to take a quick break. We're on this story. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Breaking news unfolding here on CNN out of Madison, Wisconsin. The good news is the missing college student, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, from the University of Wisconsin Madison has been found alive right here in this area, in a marsh area not far from this building.

And, right now, what you're seeing unfolding live is a search dog with the ERT team looking for a possible suspect who is believed to be armed and dangerous in this area. You can actually see the police officers here trying to secure this parking lot, obviously spreading out and taking cover in low ready position there in the back.

Our Mike brooks, of course former law enforcement officer, works with us now, particularly on these types of stories.

Why don't you tell us about the search dog and the procedure that's taking place. You were saying the dog looked a little concerned or distracted.

BROOKS: It's hard to tell, Kyra. But the dog, when he was running around, his handler was trying to tell him to seek back out towards the wooded area. But maybe he has an interest in this area there for some reason.

But a lot of variables can come into play when you're using a search dog. They're fantastic tools. Having worked with a lot of dogs myself, search dogs during my police career, I can tell you they're excellent tools. But the wind, if the wind isn't blowing the right way, if he or she, the dog can't get a scent from the area where they are, looking for someone who might be in that wooded area, sometimes it can throw the dog off, too, and scents can kind of swirl depending on the wind.

It doesn't look like a lot of wind. But not being there on the scene, it's really tough to -- to say. But, again, these K-9 dogs are excellent tools.

We see the officer still down. They're still in an area there spanning out, looking in that that parking lot area in hopes of finding who is responsible for the disappearance of Audrey.

PHILLIPS: Our affiliate helicopter had to refuel so it lost our live picture for the moment. So you are seeing a tape here of what just happened minutes ago.

The ERT team and actually the search dog has already sort of moved around the corner into a parking lot there in the area where they do believe possibly that an armed suspect may be hiding out, the suspect that was involved in the disappearance of 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, the University of Wisconsin Madison student. The good news is she's alive. She's at St. Mary's Hospital; she's with her parents.

Police say her condition is described as fine. But, right now, police still looking for the suspect involved in her disappearance.

They have secured a pretty large area around where you are looking at right now. This is about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin Madison. Not far from Audrey Seiler's apartment.

You may remember when we first told you about this story over the weekend, it was on Saturday that surveillance tape actually captured Audrey Seiler leaving her apartment. And we were told from police without a coat, without a purse. And the next thing you know, her disappearance became national news.

Now we are told she has been found alive, but the search continues for her suspect. Possibly right here in this area where the search dog is looking.

Police also trying to determine whether Seiler's disappearance has anything to do with someone who had attacked her near her apartment back in February. That happened at the beginning of the month. She was hit from behind from an unknown attacker and knocked unconscious. She was not abducted, but she was attacked.

Now, obviously, not long after that, sort of an interesting situation. But the same type of incident out in front of the same apartment building. This time, she disappeared.

But she has been found alive. She is at St. Mary's Hospital with her parents. And police continuing to look for the suspect.

At this point, we don't know if any evidence has been found. We don't know if police have come across any type of suspicious vehicle. These are all questions that we have been asking.

Mike Brooks has been following this, of course, since the beginning of the case on Saturday. And you were telling us -- we are expecting, by the way, a news conference any minute now. We will bring that to you live as soon as it happens.

We are told the police will be talking with us. So we're waiting for that. We are on standby.

But Mike, when this first went down, police immediately started checking the sex offender lists in the area. Tell us how this search has continued. A lot of volunteers came out looking for this "A" student, one who never missed class.

BROOKS: Right. Almost 100 volunteers from her hometown of Rockford, Minnesota, came out in the search, as well as people from around Madison, Wisconsin.

And, again, investigators had been searching sex offender registries, going back, looking at crimes that were similar to this. Trying to see exactly if there was, in fact, a link two the February 1 assault, where she was hit from behind by an unknown assailant.

So I'm going to be anxious to see after the conclusion of this whether or not it was someone she knew, whether it was a random act of violence. And it looks as if now that she didn't leave of her own accord. That -- and I will also be interested in seeing, Kyra, whether or not she knew her assailant.

PHILLIPS: You know, we've talked about stalking incidents. And usually the victim of a stalker knows their stalker. In a situation like this, you know, considering her age, considering that she's a college student, what do you know from your law enforcement experience?

BROOKS: Well, there's different kinds of stalkers. Sometimes you'll have a love-obsessed stalker who may know the victim. You may have someone who doesn't even know the victim who has been admiring that victim from afar. Just knows them from seeing them, walking in and out of their apartment at the gym, around campus, around town.

You know, they talk about what is the most dangerous kind of stalker. Many times the love-obsessed stalker can usually be put off by the victim having someone intercede in her behalf. But, again, stalking has become a crime in most jurisdictions now. And it's a crime that's taken very seriously.

You look at the Los Angeles Police Department. They have a unit that deals with nothing but stalking cases and threat assessments of movie stars. It's so prevalent there that they have a whole unit that has been just designed and put into effect just to deal with those kind of cases.

So, again, stalkers, we can never rule out anyone at all. And if someone thinks they're being stalked, you know, let the police department know. Some people say, well, I don't know, you know, if this person just likes me. If you're not sure, let the police know.

PHILLIPS: Our Jonathan Freed out of the Chicago bureau also following this story.

Jonathan, what can you tell us from there?

FREED: Well, I'm looking at an AP report right now that's saying there was a broadcast report that says Audrey Seiler has told police that she was held against her will by an armed man. And that's coming from WTMJ TV in Milwaukee. It says the UW Madison student told police that the man had a gun and a knife.

Now, I'll caution this is an initial report that we're getting from the AP, which is being attributed to WTMJ TV in Milwaukee. That is the latest that I've got right now as you look at these pictures that continue to come in.

PHILLIPS: So the report's coming forward, this television station out of Milwaukee, Jonathan, reporting that she's told these reporters or she told police that she was -- that this man came up to her outside of the apartment with a gun and a knife and held her against her will?

FREED: What it says here is that she has told police that -- "Audrey Seiler has told police that she was held against her will by an armed man, and that the man had a gun and a knife." And they're referencing here Madison assistant fire chief Carl Sax (ph). He says numerous law enforcement officers, of course, have surrounded the area.

And that nugget at the top seems to be the newest piece right now. And, again, that's coming from WTMJ TV in Milwaukee, saying that Audrey Seiler has told police that she was held against her will by an armed man who, according to the report, had a gun and knife.

PHILLIPS: Our Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau, thank you.

If you're just tuning in, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler found alive. The 20-year-old University of Wisconsin Madison student, that's the good news. And right now, police, search dogs looking for the man believed to be in the area we just showed you, armed and dangerous. Police looking for that suspect at this time.

We're on the story. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired March 31, 2004 - 14:58   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips.
A breaking news story we continue to follow right now. A missing University of Wisconsin student has been found alive, live pictures here via WITI out of Wisconsin; 20-year-old Audrey Seiler vanished from her apartment in Madison just four days ago. You may remember the surveillance tape that showed her leaving the building without a coat, without a purse. A police officer in Madison now tells us that she is -- quote -- "fine."

It's not clear whether her disappearance was related to an attack on February 1 that had left her unconscious. We're going to update you on this story as soon as we get information in a news conference that's supposed to happen at the top of the hour. You can see through these live pictures that police are gathered looking at a map of the area.

Earlier, we'd seen live pictures of a number of police officers, guns drawn, around a fielded area here in Wisconsin near her home. But they possibly could be searching for a suspect.

On the phone with us now, Lieutenant Pat Malloy of the City of Madison Police.

Lieutenant, as we look at these live pictures, we see that they're pulling out a map of the area. Do they believe the suspect is somewhere close to where we're seeing these live pictures?

LT. PAT MALLOY, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: We want to check that and try to determine that. So I think there's some information that would lead them to believe that.

PHILLIPS: What we do we know about Audrey Seiler's condition?

MALLOY: I can just tell you that she was found alive and she appears to be OK and that she was conveyed to a Madison hospital, where she was reunited with her family.

PHILLIPS: And do we know how she located? Was she able to contact somebody? Did somebody find her?

MALLOY: A citizen apparently spotted her in a marsh area and thought it was suspicious or unusual and called the police department. And that's how we happened upon this.

PHILLIPS: Did the citizen hear anything or were there cries for Audrey Seiler that brought the citizen...

MALLOY: That, I'm not aware of. This is just unfolding now, so there are a lot of details that I'm not familiar with.

PHILLIPS: Was she -- was Audrey Seiler able to get out, walk herself, come out of this marsh area, and is that when a suspect possibly fled the scene?

MALLOY: We contacted her, I believe. And I'm not sure whether she walked out without assistance or with our assistance or an a stretcher. I can't answer that for you, ma'am.

PHILLIPS: OK. So what is the game plan now? Tell me what police officers are doing right now and where you go from here.

MALLOY: Well, right now, we want to make sure that there's no one that is out there that may be involved with that. And that will be the first priority.

And the second priority would be to continue the investigation. But the most important thing is that she is found alive and that she's been reunited with her family.

PHILLIPS: Now the surveillance tape that we had showed, showed her leaving the building without a coat, without a purse. Do you believe that she went to go meet somebody or that she was abducted as she left her apartment?

MALLOY: I can't answer that question, ma'am. I just don't know.

PHILLIPS: Do you know if, indeed, it was an abduction?

MALLOY: That, again, I don't know the answer to that.

PHILLIPS: OK.

Lieutenant Pat Malloy, City of Madison Police, thank you for your time.

MALLOY: OK.

PHILLIPS: You're watching live pictures via WITI. A sheriff's deputy actually running to his vehicle and heading off. We can continue to follow this live picture. We don't know if, indeed, they got word that possibly a suspect or suspects could be in this area.

But as you heard from Lieutenant Pat Malloy the City of Madison Police, that Audrey Seiler, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, the University of Wisconsin student who has been missing since Saturday, was found in this area, this actual area, a marsh area. Just a citizen who happened to come across her whereabouts contacted police. We don't know if Seiler had cried out to that individual or this citizen had just noticed that she was in the marsh area. But she contacted police.

Police immediately responded, and now you're seeing the live pictures of how everything has unfolded. Police have sealed off the area. They have pulled a map out of this area, including the marsh area where the 20-year-old was found. And they are getting ready to conduct a massive search, looking for someone who could have been involved on what could possibly be an abduction.

But right now we are told that Audrey Seiler is safe, back with her parents, actually at a hospital right now. She was taken by stretcher to a local hospital to be treated and checked out. Right now, police still looking for a suspect, possibly suspects in her disappearance. It's not clear whether her disappearance has been related to an attack that happened on the same student back in February. That attack left her unconscious.

This, however, situation that happened over the weekend. She was last seen on surveillance tape outside of her apartment there in Madison, Wisconsin. And it showed her leaving without a purse, without her coat. And the next thing you knew, she was nowhere to be found.

Jonathan Freed has been following this story for us. He joins us in our Chicago bureau.

Jonathan, what more can you tell us, as these live pictures, and we continue to watch these live pictures? Give us some background about the Seiler case and what you know up to this point.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you that Audrey Seiler is known as an A student, the type of person with a very close-knit group of friends, the type of person that was never known to miss school. And the fact that she's been involved in two controversial incidents in the space of two months now is something that has taken her family and friends, and frankly everybody that knows her, very much by surprise.

Audrey Seiler is somebody that never missed class, A student. And what's been going on in the past couple of days is we had a good 100 people from her hometown of Rockford, Minnesota, show up in Madison, Wisconsin, helping police, helping the -- helping the dogs, helping the FBI, putting up posters, doing whatever they could to try and find her.

Now, back on February 1, it was about 12:45 in the morning when she was hit from behind by an unknown attacker, and then she woke up later, a couple of blocks away, behind a building. Now, the thing that police found quite baffling about that case is that she was not found to be harmed, aside from having been hit initially and knocked unconscious. She wasn't otherwise hurt. And she -- and there was nothing missing from her purse or otherwise. She wasn't robbed.

So police were trying to figure out exactly what that meant. And then here we are. We fast-forward a couple of months, and then Saturday morning at about 2:30 in the morning was the last time that she was captured on video by her apartment security camera, heading outside. We've all seen the pictures for the last couple of days. It wasn't clear what type of state that she was in, although her family yesterday, at a news conference, where they were continuing to ask for help and remaining confident that she would eventually be found, her family was quite adamant that she was well adjusted or as well adjusted as somebody could be to this type of AN incident, that she was not depressed. That's what they said.

And they didn't feel that perhaps she had run off as some kind of a delayed reaction action and fallout from the attack of early February.

PHILLIPS: And, Jonathan, now we continue to watch these live pictures via WITI. I don't know what you know up to this point, but, evidently, according to Lieutenant Pat Malloy, City of Madison Police, a civilian just in the area came across Audrey Seiler in this marsh area.

I don't know if you know this area very well. Can you -- do you by chance -- is this near the university, do you know? And I don't know if you can even see this live picture that we're following, if you've got a monitor next to you. But can you give us some type of perspective of this area where police are?

FREED: I wish I could. I can see the pictures that all of us are looking at. But I can tell you that aside from the fact that it's described as a marsh area, I can't fill you in any more than to say that yesterday police were saying that parks and areas like this were areas that were areas that were being looked at. And when asked whether they had specific leads as to whether that pointed them in that direction, they said not specifically, but that -- not specifically, but that they were obviously types of more remote areas that in a case like this with a missing person, where there is a potential for foul play, that that's where they were looking for.

I'm told that this is two miles east of the university. This is just in to us here at CNN Chicago, that this area that we're looking at right now is two miles east of the university.

PHILLIPS: OK, two miles east of the university. So it could be an area close to her apartment complex possibly. And, of course, we're talking about the University of Madison, pretty small area, too, pretty condensed area.

Once again, if you're just joining in, if you're just tuning in to CNN, you're also listening to Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau there.

Let me know, Jonathan, too -- pipe in if you get any more information there as you continue to work this story.

Meanwhile, we'll kind of update viewers on what you're seeing, a number of police cars here on the scene via WITI, kind of an active story unfolding right now as you are seeing this live. Audrey Seiler, who had been missing since Saturday, 20-year-old college student from the University of Wisconsin, we got word here in to CNN that she had been found, she was back with her parents. And immediately the live pictures popped up.

Actually, when we had first tuned in, you actually saw police officers' guns drawn on a marsh area that Jonathan is now telling me about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These are now taped pictures of earlier, when police had found or come across Audrey Seiler after a citizen found her in a marsh area, contacted them. She's now at the hospital, told to be doing -- quote -- "just fine."

But now police officers taking out a massive map of the area and getting ready to seal off a certain number of miles here where Audrey was found in the marsh.

I'm going to bring our Mike Brooks in. Jonathan, stay with us there in our Chicago bureau.

I'm going to bring our Mike Brooks in, who does a lot of analyzing when it comes to situations like this, former law enforcement officer, of course.

Mike, it looks like pretty standing operation -- or standing operating procedure here with the maps, sealing off the area, believing possibly that a suspect could be close by.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right.

Well, I tell you, this is a big break, Kyra. Yesterday I spoke with a law enforcement source of mine in Madison. And he was saying basically they didn't have any clues whatsoever, any leads in the case. He said they were starting basically from the very, very bottom working their way up, sifting through all the leads they could get, looking at her telephone records, security videotapes that we've seen, all these, but they basically didn't have any really positive leads in the case.

So this is a huge break. And as we know, there had been hundreds of volunteers from her hometown and also from the University of Wisconsin that had spanned out across this marsh area. And now with law enforcement sealing this area off, most likely -- again, speculation -- but as a former law enforcement officer, I can tell you that most likely they would want to seal that area off believing that there could be possible evidence within that area of where she was found.

And that's another thing. Whether they have a suspect in custody or not, they still want to comb this area to see if there's anything of evidentiary value that would help them in this case, because right now it looks like, you know, that they are, in fact, trying to put some kind of plan together with that large map as you were pointing out that we're seeing now. And...

PHILLIPS: Well, it's pretty amazing, too, when you think that she got away, she got away alive. Let's talk about situations like this. We don't know right now whether she knew this abductor or not.

BROOKS: No, and we go back just recently she had been the victim of an attack. And that was still an open case, also. They didn't know who was involved in that. So, again, they don't know whether or not that case is linked with this. When I was talking to the source yesterday I asked him specifically if they thought that the two were linked. He said right now there's nothing to say that they are, but they definitely weren't ruling it out.

PHILLIPS: Well, how do these cases usually turn out, from your experience? Let's say, for example, she knew the abductor. Are they more than likely to get away alive vs. someone who could have been stalking her or targeting her?

BROOKS: Well, most of the time, when someone knows their abductor, really, the statistics say, yes, it's better if they know their abductor. Or, no, it's not. There's statistics going both ways, especially when you talk about child abductions.

But in adult abductions like this, it could have gone either way. And we go and we look in the same general area, Minnesota and the Dakotas there, where Dru Sjodin has been missing for so long and they have someone under arrest, but they still have not found the body of Dru Sjodin.

PHILLIPS: All right, now, if you are just tuning in, we are awaiting a news conference at any time from the City of Madison Police. What you're looking at here are pictures via our affiliate WITI out of Wisconsin, as police detectives pulling out maps, sealing off this area.

I'm told it's about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where 20-year-old college student Audrey Seiler had been missing since Saturday. She's now with her parents. She is at a local hospital, getting checked out, after a passerby, according to police, saw her in a marsh area, a marsh area right here next to where these detectives and police officers are, mapping out this area.

Mike, in a situation like this, it's pretty normal procedure to look through parks and marsh areas and kind of I guess desolate areas, yes?

BROOKS: Absolutely, any place at all where someone could have taken, you know, a person, holding them against their will, or if it had turned out worse, to dump someone in this area.

They were also -- investigators were looking at sex offender lists, people who had been arrested for kidnappings, for sex offenses. They were looking at sex offender registries to see if they could get any leads from that. We still don't know whether or not they have. We still don't know of the exact circumstances of whether she was abducted, whether she left of her own free will, or if she was the victim of a random act of violence. We don't know this yet.

Hopefully, we'll hear something from the press conference. But it's got to be either she left on her own, she was kidnapped by someone she knew, or it was a random act of violence.

PHILLIPS: All right, stay with us here, Mike. We're going to go back to CNN's Jonathan Freed in our Chicago bureau. He's been following this case, has a lot of history behind Audrey Seiler.

What more can you tell us, Jonathan?

FREED: I can tell you, Kyra, that we've been looking at a map. And we're told, of course, that where she has been found is two miles east of the university. And I can tell you that where she lives is approximately halfway between those two points.

I'd like to throw something at Mike, though, if I could. Yesterday, when we were listening to the news conference, the police were saying that as of yesterday they were still considering this a missing persons case and that there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing as of that time. Mike, are you surprised at this turn and the posture that we're seeing today?

BROOKS: Very much. In fact, my source told me yesterday that -- now that you mention that -- that right now there didn't seem to be any evidence of any foul play and that it was still a missing persons case. So, again, I think this is a big turn of events that they have found her, and you know there seems to be some immediacy in their actions right now.

Otherwise, if they thought that she left of her own free will, you wouldn't see them scurrying around like this looking at a map. It's a definite sign that they're looking for something or looking for someone.

PHILLIPS: And that there was a struggle.

And the surveillance tape, too, showed that she was leaving and they make the point, without her purse, without her coat, so you wonder if, indeed, she came across a stranger, was abducted by a stranger or maybe was coming out to meet somebody. So it's still kind of up in the air whether she was coming out to meet someone she knows or if, indeed, abducted.

Mike, the situation, did it happen in the same place? It happened in the same apartment, right, where she was knocked unconscious? Wasn't it outside -- it was outside her apartment on February 1. So I'm wondering what type of crime has been taking place around this apartment complex. Do we know the history of maybe crime or possible abductions? Is this a first for this area?

BROOKS: We really don't know. I have not been -- I've not heard anything from my sources about whether there had been any patterns of any abductions or any assaults there. We do know what she was struck from behind by an unknown assailant on February 1. It's still an open case right now.

And they really have not said. And in speaking to my source yesterday, he was saying that he did not know if the two were linked at all. So apparently right now, they don't have any evidence to say that the two were linked. And hopefully they'll be able to find some affirmative or negative information, whether or not these two were, in fact, linked with the same perpetrator. PHILLIPS: All right, if you're just tuning in, once again, I'll brief you on what's taking place; 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, she was the University of Wisconsin-Madison student that had been missing since Saturday, she has been found. She's been found alive. She's with her parents at a local hospital getting checked out right now as we bring this news to you.

This all unfolded kind of within -- I would say within the past 20 minutes or so. We got word that she had been discovered in a marsh area by a passerby. This individual came across her. We're not quite sure if Audrey was yelling out to this individual or if the passerby just saw some unusual activity. But they contacted police. Immediately, the police responded. And Audrey was taken out via stretcher and taken to the hospital.

And then as we were watching it all unfold on live television we did see police officers, a number of them, and detectives responding to the scene, both from the police department and the sheriff's department, guns drawn. We didn't know if by chance they believed there was a suspect still in the area. Now it looks like they are definitely hunting for a possible suspect or suspects in the area. They've got the maps out. They've secured the area. They're looking specifically at the marsh area where Audrey Seiler was found alive.

It's two miles east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And we are told that her apartment where she was allegedly abducted is sort of where she was found is kind of halfway in between.

Here we go, live pictures once again, via WITI, officers once again with guns drawn here, kind of outside the marsh area near the railroad tracks, about two miles east of the university. As you can seek, they're sealing off this area. They've secured this area, pretty large area, a couple of miles. They believe that, indeed, a suspect could be in this area.

Mike, as you look at those pictures, what are you noticing?

BROOKS: Well, I'm noticing the one officer who is crouched down behind the vehicle. Another one who was right in the clearing there was trying to make himself a smaller target if you will by crouching down in a position of defensive posture, if you will. So if that live shot is any indication, it would say to me that they believe that there's someone that they believe is in that wooded area there just off that marsh in those bushes, or somewhere else.

And they could -- you know, they're not rushing in there. They could be waiting for K-9 to come up and put a K-9 dog in that area. I know that's what most police departments would do, instead of putting themselves in danger, send one of the K-9 dogs in there to sweep that area

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: So they could possibly have someone surrounded?

BROOKS: There's a possibility. That live shot was very telling, especially with the one officer on the one side of the area that they have cordoned off down behind his vehicle there and the other one who looked like weapon drawn out in the middle there with another officer who then all of sudden took a crouching position. That's trying to make himself a smaller target. So that would lead me to believe that they believe that someone could be in that particular area.

PHILLIPS: Well, as we continue to follow the story, as you can imagine, all of our affiliates, sister stations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, also following this story.

Ellen Gallus (ph) just recently filed this report. She's with our affiliate KMSP out of Milwaukee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just in the past couple of moments, we've noticed police have moved. We saw three of them run across the highway here. I don't know if you can see over my shoulder, actually, where traffic is stopped. We saw them run across this highway where this traffic is stopped. We saw them rushing towards someone. I'm not quite sure if they're going after the suspect.

But if you're just joining us, police have blocked off this area, certain roads within this area off of the beltline in Madison, Wisconsin. We believe they are still searching for a suspect, somebody who might have been with Audrey Seiler, perhaps the person who is responsible for her disappearance.

She was discovered about an hour ago. She was with someone. Police still have not apprehended the person she was with. And we're told that person could be dangerous and he has a weapon with him. Again, just a couple minutes ago, we saw police move rapidly across this highway here. Don't know what they were running towards or who they were running towards. But certainly, there might have been some type of development here in the past couple minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, I apologize to our viewers. KMSP is our affiliate in Minnesota. Ellen Gallus (ph) works for KMSP out of Minnesota. She's covering that story.

Mike, she mentioned that they did believe there was a suspect in the area believed to be armed and dangerous.

BROOKS: And that would then account for why you see those officers down in defensive position, believing that he could, he or she or they could be armed and dangerous and in that area. So, again, you know, we're glad to see, though, that Audrey Seiler is back hopefully safe and sound, after she's taken to the hospital and examined, that at least they do have her and they're now lacking for the perpetrator who was responsible for her disappearance.

PHILLIPS: Pretty amazing, disappeared on Saturday, found alive in this marsh area. If you look at all the circumstances, marsh area, not a lot of people around, allegedly a suspect believed to be armed and dangerous. I can just imagine she was putting up a pretty tough fight.

BROOKS: And it's also unusual, Kyra, that you would have and find her in that area still after that many days. You know, so it may be someone she knows. It may be someone who is familiar with that area, doesn't know anyplace else to go, felt comfortable staying there.

That's usually what happens. If they feel comfortable somewhere, they'll go ahead and stay in that area. But again with all the volunteers that were scouring the area, and we heard earlier today that they were looking in these marsh areas and in these places and it could have been one of the volunteers that actually did find her, the people who were looking for her, that in fact they did find her. And now hopefully they'll find the person who's responsible for her disappearance.

PHILLIPS: Twenty-year-old Audrey Seiler, University of Wisconsin-Madison student, found alive in a marsh area. Right now police on the hunt for the individual they believed possibly abducted her.

Jonathan Freed following this story also out of our Chicago bureau.

Jonathan, what do you have?

FREED: Well, Kyra, I can tell you that one of the things that I think captured our attention with this story was the disconnect between the rhetoric that we were hearing from police and the actions that we were seeing from investigators and everybody searching, because yesterday, and up until yesterday they kept repeating that this was just being treated as a missing persons case.

Yet when you looked outside, when you saw the images of how many people, this full-scale, wide-ranging, wide-reaching search that was going on, there just seemed to be a disconnect between the two. And they kept saying, no, we don't have any suspects, yet the images were seeming to contradict that. So that's one of the reasons I think that this case garnered the type of attention that it did. And I think that it's interesting to see how it's actually unfolding in this way right now.

PHILLIPS: Mike, what do you make of the direction?

BROOKS: No, he's right. Talking to my sources yesterday, they basically had no leads whatsoever. This is a source that I know pretty well and he said they didn't have many leads at all, if any, that they were just kind of going in the very, very early stage of the investigation and they were just going through all the basic investigative steps, but really he said that they didn't have much.

But, again, we look back. And I think everyone when they see the people, they see the volunteers out there, go back through the Dru Sjodin case from the University of North Dakota, she, too, from Minnesota. The man who was actually held in her death which they have not found the body for, but he has been charged, he is from Minnesota. I think a lot of people are thinking the same kind of thing. They see the Dru Sjodin case and the volunteers there and now you see the large number of volunteers there out looking for -- or they were looking Audrey and the first thing you think of is foul play.

But at first apparently they didn't believe that there was any reason to say it was foul play. And that's why it was still classified as a missing persons case. And it would have stayed classified as a missing persons case until they found something, found some evidence to say that it wasn't, some kind of blood, her shoes or any piece of her clothing somewhere, that then they may have reclassified it as maybe a missing person critical.

Where I come from, Washington, D.C., you could have a missing persons case. If they don't believe that there's any foul play involved, it will remain a missing persons case. If there are people who let's say have Alzheimer's or they believe foul play was involved, they will make it a critical missing persons, which kind of ups it a little bit and gets more people dedicated to the search.

PHILLIPS: You were saying when Audrey Seiler came up missing that of course police and detectives, one of the first things they do, they go through the sexual offender lists (AUDIO GAP) perimeter here.

Possibly, the suspect may be hiding out in this area. You see a lot of activity. You see them sort of scrambling to a certain area and do you see them in sort of the low ready position there. Obviously, they don't want to become a target. They do believe that possibly someone could be in this area. What do you make of what they're doing here?

(CROSSTALK)

BROOKS: Well, you see they're there in the parking lot, and you see just above, on the top of the picture there, officers up on another end. And then you see the car down along the railroad tracks which we were just seeing a moment ago.

They definitely have some kind of perimeter set up here, whether they're looking for a perpetrator or believe there's evidence. But if they were looking for evidence, you wouldn't see them holding back. You'd see them probably get together in a line search and search that area. So again, Kyra, speculation, but it looks to me from my experience that that would be an area that they believe someone was in, and they could be waiting for K-9 dogs or maybe -- we don't know. We don't hear what's going on there. Maybe they have contact with someone. We don't know.

But it does look like that they're looking in that area for someone.

PHILLIPS: It sort of gives you the chills, too, because this is the area where she was found alive. And it's such an isolated area, if you get a bigger picture. And then, of course, you see the body of water. Imagine if, indeed, she were not found alive, it's pretty -- you just look at the scene and it kind of gives you chills, taking into effect what's happening with so many other national cases that are going on right now and where missing persons turn up, etcetera.

But the great news here, she was found alive. Police now in this area, have secured this area. They've got -- oh, they've got the dogs out now.

BROOKS: Yes, it does. You can see right there the one officer still maintaining his cover back behind that tree and having his K-9 dog there. You saw the other officers at the other end kind of back off a little bit, because they want to make sure that they wouldn't mess up his -- the dog's track.

Now, we see the dog on lead right now. But you see the officer asking the other officers to get back to make sure that he doesn't mistake them for someone else and get one of their scents. We have had police officers bitten in the past.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: How do you get the dog on the scent of a suspect? Could they have possibly taken something from the victim to kind of give the dog a lead? How does that work?

(CROSSTALK)

BROOKS: That's one possibility. When a dog is on a seek, maybe they have found a car. There might be other things we don't know about, maybe something from the perpetrator that would leave a scent or, also, the scent of where the victim was and try to find out exactly, retrace the steps of where Audrey was in hopes of finding where the perpetrator may have run.

And again, we don't know what kind of statements or what kind of any other witnesses, what they've seen. But apparently they have a lot of interest in this one area here, where we now see a K-9 dog and his handler there. It looks like they're getting ready to do some kind of search in that particular area, with the other officers backing off.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Interrupt me if you see something happen here that we should pay attention to.

I'll just brief viewers right now. If you're just tuning in to CNN, this is a breaking news story that has happened within the past 30 minutes. It has sort of been unfolding live here on CNN. If you've been watching, I'll give you a little background. We got word that this college student, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, who had been missing since Saturday, was found alive right here in this area. As you see these live pictures, sort of a marsh area is where she was found specifically.

Evidently a passerby, we don't know if the passerby heard her or just came across and saw some suspicious activity, but indeed, she was noticed. And this passerby contacted police. And now police have responded to the area. They were able to get Audrey Seiler out of there to a hospital with her parents. Police tell us she is -- quote -- "fine."

And now you saw a lot of things unfolding, a lot of police officers scrambling, sheriff's detectives, also, guns drawn for a bit of time. And now it seems that the focus is on this area by the railroad tracks. It's about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin Madison. Not far at all from where Audrey Seiler was living.

We first told you about this story when surveillance video captured her leaving her apartment without her purse, without her coat. And then she was reported missing. Now she's alive. She's in a hospital with her parents. And police are on this scene.

Dogs obviously getting ready to start tracking what they believe could be evidence here leading them to the individual who allegedly abducted this young college student.

Jonathan Freed also following this story for us out of our Chicago bureau. He knows a lot of the background behind Audrey Seiler. Straight "A" student, never missed class.

Jonathan, bring us up to date.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I can tell you that one of the things that we heard yesterday at the news conference from the family, we heard her uncle saying things like, "Audrey knows how much we love her, and we want everybody else to know that, as well."

And although the police seemed to be sending the signal -- they were sending the signal that this was just a missing person's case, at least officially at that point, we got the feeling that what was coming out of the family was being very carefully orchestrated. Words being very carefully chosen.

Her uncle also went on to say that, "We're very confident and we are determined that if the right person hears this and sees her face, that they will be able to help us find her and bring her back home." So, clearly, although we had one line coming from police calling it a missing person's case, being careful to say that they had no evidence of criminal wrongdoing as of that point, the family seemed to be telegraphing a more subtle message, a different kind of message, perhaps in case indeed it was the fact of the case that she had fallen into somebody's hands.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau.

Mike, go ahead and tell us what has happened now. They released the dog. The dog is actually on a trail right now.

BROOKS: It looks like he's on a track. He or she started over, and you see the dog going back. And it looks like it's on some kind of track right now. We see the handler telling the dog -- trying to give instructions to the dog.

We see officers, though, with -- it looks like some kind of shoulder weapons covering the area where the dog is going to be tracking. And it looked like they were concentrating in that larger triangular area we saw between the marsh area and the railroad track. Back on our live photo right now, on our live pictures, we do see the dog. It looks like the dog has not found anything right now.

PHILLIPS: Well, I'm told we've got Lieutenant Pat Malloy from the City of Madison Police back on the phone with us.

Lieutenant, what can you tell us as we continue to watch these live pictures? Are you with me Lieutenant Malloy?

OK. We'll try and get contact back with Lieutenant Pat Malloy from the City of Madison Police there as we watch these live pictures via WITI.

Mike, go ahead and continue. They obviously released the dog. They believe possibly they might be on to something here.

BROOKS: They must think that they do have someone down in that area, either from some witnesses seeing someone run there, or from the victim herself that was in there. We see back -- we just went out of the camera range -- that there is a dog on a track in that area. So hopefully we can see if we'll be able to see if that dog, in fact, does find someone who's responsible.

PHILLIPS: OK. And we see the cameras zooming in here. As we continue to watch these live pictures unfold, Mike, interrupt me if we need to come back to this.

Meanwhile, we have the provost of University of Wisconsin Madison on the phone with us, Peter Spear.

We sure appreciate your time, sir. Obviously, a bit of a difficult time right now for you. The good news is your student is -- has been found alive. But maybe you can bring us up to date on what you know about what's happening.

PETER SPEAR, PROVOST, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: Well, I know pretty much the same as you know since you obviously have someone on the scene there I can hear from the background. We're just thrilled that she's been found and found alive. And we appreciate all of the concern and help that our students and faculty and staff have given to this, and friends and family and the community. My understanding is that she was seen by someone in the Madison community.

PHILLIPS: I apologize. I'm getting information brought to me, sir, as we are talking right now. I want to ask you a question.

In light of the situation here, what have you done to beef up security there at the university? Obviously, this happened just a couple miles east of the university. There must be a concern for other students at this time, especially if the suspect is still on the loose.

SPEAR: Well, we have a number of procedures that we have in place for campus safety, including orientation for students. We have safe ride and safe walk programs, lighted walkways, tips for students as to how to increase their safety on and around campus.

And, in fact, by and large, it is a very safe campus. So what we've been doing in the wake of all of this is to remind students of things that they can do to make sure that they're safe.

PHILLIPS: Have you had a problem with abductions up to this point? Is this pretty unique for your university?

SPEAR: Yes, this is quite unique for us. In fact, our crime rate here is well below average for universities of our size. And, in fact, last year was the lowest crime rate in 30 years.

PHILLIPS: Peter Spear, provost at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Sir, we appreciate your time today.

If you're just tuning in, live pictures right now via WITI. This is about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin Madison.

The good news is, Audrey Seiler, the 20-year-old missing college student, has been found alive. And now what you are seeing are police possibly on the trail of the suspect who may have abducted Audrey Seiler. We're going to continue to watch these live pictures.

Meanwhile, Ellen Gallis, she's with our affiliate KMSP out of Minnesota doing an incredible job covering this story. She's there on the scene.

Ellen, can you bring us up to date on anything that you know?

ELLEN GALLES, KMSP: Yes. Well, as you said, Audrey Seiler is safe. She's at St. Mary's Hospital here in Madison with her family.

Want to show you what's going on right here, though, where she was found. Police are still searching for a suspect we're being told. You can probably see over my shoulder here along the belt line, which is one of the major highways running through Madison, they've set up a perimeter.

They brought the S.W.A.T. team in. You might be able to see in the distance that officer crouched with his weapon drawn. We understand there is still a suspect out here at large. We're told that suspect could have a weapon.

So, again, while Audrey is safe, this is still a very active scene out here as they continue to look for a suspect. We do not have a suspect description. A family friend told me, confirmed that it was a male.

We don't know if this is a friend from school or an older gentleman. Still not sure exactly on who they are looking for. But, again, they're sort of searching the marshy, wooded area behind those businesses, as you can see over my shoulder.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Ellen, stay with us. Maybe we can bring up the video of the live picture that we have. Here we go. As you and I talk, we're actually looking at live pictures. From where you are, Ellen, behind where you are, I can tell you that they've got the police dog, the K-9 out, and the police officers.

Possibly, Mike, could this be the S.W.A.T. team that Ellen is talking about?

BROOKS: It could be.

PHILLIPS: It doesn't look like they're in S.W.A.T. gear, though.

BROOKS: No, it looked like the one officer that she saw did have a (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which is a weapon. But regular patrol officers use those, too.

We see the dog now. We see officers moving very cautiously, moving against that wall, still with guns up and ready position. You see the dog running around.

It's hard to tell, though, right now, Kara, if the dog is, in fact, on a track. We saw another K-9 dog that was up kind of in the wings waiting. They're trying to motion the K-9 dog over toward that area that we were talking about earlier, where it looked like they had concentrated their search.

And sometimes a dog can get a scent, or sometimes they can take a dog and ask it to seek in a certain area to look for any people that might be in that area. That's why you saw all the officers clearing out of that particular area to make sure there's no one there. They'll usually holler down, "If anyone is in that area, come out now. We're going to send the dogs in."

And that looks like about where we re right now.

PHILLIPS: Ellen, I hope you're still with us as we watch these live pictures. Through your sources there on the scene, do they believe it's one suspect, a male suspect? And do they believe it's more than one?

GALLES: From what I am hearing, it is one suspect that they are looking at. But, again, all of this is unconfirmed. Police have not been able to step aside and fill us in on what's going on. But from what I am told it's one male suspect.

And that family friend that I was talking to said that she was walking with him apparently somewhere in the area. Again, this is all unconfirmed. But someone recognized her because her picture has been out there the past four days.

Someone recognized her and immediately called police. Once they arrived at the scene they were able to get Audrey. Apparently the suspect took off. And that's where they are right now, searching this wooded area, this marshy area off the highway here in Madison, just a few miles away from campus.

PHILLIPS: All right. Ellen, stay with us. Mike has a question for you, too.

But, real quickly, we want to check in with Lieutenant Pat Milloy, City of Madison Police on the line with us.

Can you bring us up to date, Lieutenant?

LT. PAT MALLOY, MADISON POLICE: Well, we're searching for one person in that area where Audrey was found. We have ERT, which is emergency response team personnel, down there. And as your viewers can see, there's a dog there. That is a search dog, and they're trying to use that dog to find the suspect.

PHILLIPS: And what more with you tell us about this suspect? Can you confirm if, indeed, Audrey knew this suspect? Or do you believe this is someone who she did not know that came across her as she was leaving her apartment and truly did abduct her?

MALLOY: I can't confirm anything, ma'am. I'm down in the city county building, and other people are out at the scene where all of this is transpiring. So I don't know those details.

PHILLIPS: Any evidence been found? Any type of vehicle?

MALLOY: I don't have any information about a vehicle being involved, and I don't have any information about any evidence being found.

PHILLIPS: All right. Lieutenant, keep us up to date, please as you do get more information. Thank you so much.

MALLOY: OK.

PHILLIPS: Mike, you actually had a question for Ellen. Ellen's still with us. What was your question?

BROOKS: Yes. Ellen, this is Mike Brooks. I was just curious if you've heard anything there whether or not the victim knew the person who they're looking for right now.

GALLES: We have not heard. Again, police have not been able to step aside and confirm anything. But we are hearing from family and friends that, yes, this was her. That she was found safe with some minor injuries.

She's at the hospital with her family right now. That's what we've been told. But, again, we haven't gotten a chance to check with police yet. Any of the details we're hearing have not necessarily been confirmed.

But, again, she has a group of about 100 people from her hometown of Rockford, Minnesota, waiting, who have been here searching. And they confirmed, they said that it was Audrey and that she was OK. She was found, taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, and she's with her family right now.

That's the latest we've heard. But, again, police have not been able to step aside and confirm those details for us yet.

PHILLIPS: Ellen, did you say it was a family friend that found her in that marsh area or just a passerby that happened to be in the area?

GALLES: From our understanding, it was a citizen of Madison who saw her in the area. It was not the group that is here from Rockford searching for her. In fact, about 90 of them were out earlier today. They've been searching some of the public parks in the area. But I don't believe they were searching this area.

In fact, what's ironic, where she was found behind me is just about a block away from the command post where her family and friends have been staying the past couple of days, and where police had sort of set up a makeshift command area. So she was found very close to where her family has been staying and where her family has been headquartered the past couple days.

PHILLIPS: A bit ironic. You're there on the scene. Directly behind you -- we're showing live pictures now -- Ellen, can you tell us what exactly this building is and these railroad tracks? Is this an active railroad track here? And where the police are, I mean, do you have any idea what these buildings are? Are they businesses?

GALLES: Yes. It's kind of a mixed bag here in this area. There's a lot of hotels in this area. It's not too far from the convention center, from what I understand.

But as you can probably see, there is still some wooded areas and kind of a swampy area, from what we understand. Kind of some undeveloped ditches alongside the highway.

This area is right off the highway, one of the main highways that runs through Madison. So not a residential area, but a lot of businesses and a lot of traffic, as you can probably see from behind me as we've been talking here.

PHILLIPS: Ellen Galles, please stay with us with our affiliate KMSP out of Minnesota there, following a story that's actually happening in Madison, Wisconsin. Right now, live pictures WITI as police with their search dog on possibly the trail of the suspect believed to have a weapon, believed to have abducted the young lady that you see here on the screen who was found alive within the past hour, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, the college student from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Jonathan Freed, one of our reporters in our Chicago bureau, also been trailing this story for us. We're going to continue to watch this live picture, because it looks like the dog's getting pretty active.

Jonathan, what are you finding out from your end?

FREED: Well, I can tell you that the AP is reporting that there are, "tears of celebration" in Audrey Seiler's hometown of Rockford, Minnesota. They've spoken to her high school principal. He says the entire town, there's an unbelievable feeling running through there right now, saying that the prayers of everybody in that town have been answered.

And the sense that we've had covering this story for the last couple of days is that it really is a tight-knit community. And at least 100 people from that town came to Madison to try to help with the search. So no surprise that there's that kind of feeling there today, that kind of relief.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau there.

Just real quickly, before we take a quick break, pretty active pictures right now via WITI out of Madison, Wisconsin. The search dog getting active here alongside with the ERT team that is looking for an armed -- what they describe as an armed suspect, the individual they believe was involved in the disappearance of the 20-year-old college student you're seeing here on your screen, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Good news is she is alive. She is at St. Mary's Hospital with her parents. But the hunt continues for the individual that caused her disappearance just four days ago.

We're going to take a quick break. We're on this story. We'll be right back.

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PHILLIPS: Breaking news unfolding here on CNN out of Madison, Wisconsin. The good news is the missing college student, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, from the University of Wisconsin Madison has been found alive right here in this area, in a marsh area not far from this building.

And, right now, what you're seeing unfolding live is a search dog with the ERT team looking for a possible suspect who is believed to be armed and dangerous in this area. You can actually see the police officers here trying to secure this parking lot, obviously spreading out and taking cover in low ready position there in the back.

Our Mike brooks, of course former law enforcement officer, works with us now, particularly on these types of stories.

Why don't you tell us about the search dog and the procedure that's taking place. You were saying the dog looked a little concerned or distracted.

BROOKS: It's hard to tell, Kyra. But the dog, when he was running around, his handler was trying to tell him to seek back out towards the wooded area. But maybe he has an interest in this area there for some reason.

But a lot of variables can come into play when you're using a search dog. They're fantastic tools. Having worked with a lot of dogs myself, search dogs during my police career, I can tell you they're excellent tools. But the wind, if the wind isn't blowing the right way, if he or she, the dog can't get a scent from the area where they are, looking for someone who might be in that wooded area, sometimes it can throw the dog off, too, and scents can kind of swirl depending on the wind.

It doesn't look like a lot of wind. But not being there on the scene, it's really tough to -- to say. But, again, these K-9 dogs are excellent tools.

We see the officer still down. They're still in an area there spanning out, looking in that that parking lot area in hopes of finding who is responsible for the disappearance of Audrey.

PHILLIPS: Our affiliate helicopter had to refuel so it lost our live picture for the moment. So you are seeing a tape here of what just happened minutes ago.

The ERT team and actually the search dog has already sort of moved around the corner into a parking lot there in the area where they do believe possibly that an armed suspect may be hiding out, the suspect that was involved in the disappearance of 20-year-old Audrey Seiler, the University of Wisconsin Madison student. The good news is she's alive. She's at St. Mary's Hospital; she's with her parents.

Police say her condition is described as fine. But, right now, police still looking for the suspect involved in her disappearance.

They have secured a pretty large area around where you are looking at right now. This is about two miles east of the University of Wisconsin Madison. Not far from Audrey Seiler's apartment.

You may remember when we first told you about this story over the weekend, it was on Saturday that surveillance tape actually captured Audrey Seiler leaving her apartment. And we were told from police without a coat, without a purse. And the next thing you know, her disappearance became national news.

Now we are told she has been found alive, but the search continues for her suspect. Possibly right here in this area where the search dog is looking.

Police also trying to determine whether Seiler's disappearance has anything to do with someone who had attacked her near her apartment back in February. That happened at the beginning of the month. She was hit from behind from an unknown attacker and knocked unconscious. She was not abducted, but she was attacked.

Now, obviously, not long after that, sort of an interesting situation. But the same type of incident out in front of the same apartment building. This time, she disappeared.

But she has been found alive. She is at St. Mary's Hospital with her parents. And police continuing to look for the suspect.

At this point, we don't know if any evidence has been found. We don't know if police have come across any type of suspicious vehicle. These are all questions that we have been asking.

Mike Brooks has been following this, of course, since the beginning of the case on Saturday. And you were telling us -- we are expecting, by the way, a news conference any minute now. We will bring that to you live as soon as it happens.

We are told the police will be talking with us. So we're waiting for that. We are on standby.

But Mike, when this first went down, police immediately started checking the sex offender lists in the area. Tell us how this search has continued. A lot of volunteers came out looking for this "A" student, one who never missed class.

BROOKS: Right. Almost 100 volunteers from her hometown of Rockford, Minnesota, came out in the search, as well as people from around Madison, Wisconsin.

And, again, investigators had been searching sex offender registries, going back, looking at crimes that were similar to this. Trying to see exactly if there was, in fact, a link two the February 1 assault, where she was hit from behind by an unknown assailant.

So I'm going to be anxious to see after the conclusion of this whether or not it was someone she knew, whether it was a random act of violence. And it looks as if now that she didn't leave of her own accord. That -- and I will also be interested in seeing, Kyra, whether or not she knew her assailant.

PHILLIPS: You know, we've talked about stalking incidents. And usually the victim of a stalker knows their stalker. In a situation like this, you know, considering her age, considering that she's a college student, what do you know from your law enforcement experience?

BROOKS: Well, there's different kinds of stalkers. Sometimes you'll have a love-obsessed stalker who may know the victim. You may have someone who doesn't even know the victim who has been admiring that victim from afar. Just knows them from seeing them, walking in and out of their apartment at the gym, around campus, around town.

You know, they talk about what is the most dangerous kind of stalker. Many times the love-obsessed stalker can usually be put off by the victim having someone intercede in her behalf. But, again, stalking has become a crime in most jurisdictions now. And it's a crime that's taken very seriously.

You look at the Los Angeles Police Department. They have a unit that deals with nothing but stalking cases and threat assessments of movie stars. It's so prevalent there that they have a whole unit that has been just designed and put into effect just to deal with those kind of cases.

So, again, stalkers, we can never rule out anyone at all. And if someone thinks they're being stalked, you know, let the police department know. Some people say, well, I don't know, you know, if this person just likes me. If you're not sure, let the police know.

PHILLIPS: Our Jonathan Freed out of the Chicago bureau also following this story.

Jonathan, what can you tell us from there?

FREED: Well, I'm looking at an AP report right now that's saying there was a broadcast report that says Audrey Seiler has told police that she was held against her will by an armed man. And that's coming from WTMJ TV in Milwaukee. It says the UW Madison student told police that the man had a gun and a knife.

Now, I'll caution this is an initial report that we're getting from the AP, which is being attributed to WTMJ TV in Milwaukee. That is the latest that I've got right now as you look at these pictures that continue to come in.

PHILLIPS: So the report's coming forward, this television station out of Milwaukee, Jonathan, reporting that she's told these reporters or she told police that she was -- that this man came up to her outside of the apartment with a gun and a knife and held her against her will?

FREED: What it says here is that she has told police that -- "Audrey Seiler has told police that she was held against her will by an armed man, and that the man had a gun and a knife." And they're referencing here Madison assistant fire chief Carl Sax (ph). He says numerous law enforcement officers, of course, have surrounded the area.

And that nugget at the top seems to be the newest piece right now. And, again, that's coming from WTMJ TV in Milwaukee, saying that Audrey Seiler has told police that she was held against her will by an armed man who, according to the report, had a gun and knife.

PHILLIPS: Our Jonathan Freed out of our Chicago bureau, thank you.

If you're just tuning in, 20-year-old Audrey Seiler found alive. The 20-year-old University of Wisconsin Madison student, that's the good news. And right now, police, search dogs looking for the man believed to be in the area we just showed you, armed and dangerous. Police looking for that suspect at this time.

We're on the story. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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