# I was kidnapped! No I wasn't! YES I WAS! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 2, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937 "2004-04-02T19:04:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/21 "2004-04-02T22:13:17Z")
**I cannot, in a million years, imagine putting my parents through THAT. I know when I was that age, I put them through a lot, but THAT?!** For real! If I had disappeared while in college (my first time around), it would kill my 80something year old grandmother. It’d probably give my uncle a heart attack and maybe my mother, too ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/22 "2004-04-03T00:12:08Z")
All she needed to say was APRIL FOOLS! oh well. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/23 "2004-04-03T00:29:14Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > My speculation is that she may actually have been attacked in some way the first time - and the resulting “attention” from that incident may have led to a need for continued, more intense attention. They say she’s “surprised” at all the attention generated by her latest disappearance. Who goes missing for four days and is then surprised that there was a lot of concern about it? > [@](#): > > On Feb. 1, she told police that **someone struck her from behind and knocked her unconscious**. She told police that she was then moved about a block from where she was attacked but was not sexually assaulted or robbed, authorities said. In all probability her first story is false, it certainly did not happen as she claims it did. You can not “remember” that someone came up from behind and knocked you unconscious. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/24 "2004-04-03T00:42:13Z")
When I was a freshman in college there was a girl down the hall that showed up in the campus police station with a black eye, saying someone beat her in her dorm room. This sparked a huge backlash of seminars about letting people into the building, beefed up security, etc. A few weeks later the same thing happened. Campus police were suspicious the 2nd time b/c she came away with the same injury - one black eye. The campus doctor measured the wound and determined that it came from the doorknob on the door of her room. When confronted, she confessed to slamming the doorknob into her own eye b/c she wanted attention. She got it. For the rest of her college life, people would knock on doors / desks / etc whenever she was around. She was really pretty and popular too - kinda even looked like Audrey Seiler. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/25 "2004-04-03T01:43:15Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > Well, there is a precedent for making a “missing” person pay back the money it cost to look for them. I don’t know if this means they can’t try but… > [@](#): > > The cost of the search for Seiler and following investigation will exceed $70,000, according to a spokeswoman for the mayor. City officials are basing that cost estimate on comparisons with other cases. There is no provision in state law that allows a city to sue someone to recover the cost of police services. [http://www.channel3000.com/news/2970165/detail.html](http://www.channel3000.com/news/2970165/detail.html) ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/26 "2004-04-03T02:10:52Z")
Well, there **should** be a provision then. I’m sure she’s not the first, she won’t be the last. People like that should have to pay for the things they put people through. The first person I thought of was Patty Wetterling. They had her on the phone (on my local news) right after Audrey was found. I can’t imagine how this must make her feel. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/27 "2004-04-03T02:22:14Z")
I think the cops knew something was fishy within an hour of talking to her. They had a case here recently where they didn’t believe a rape victim, and she turned out to be telling the truth, so they were tying to not make that same mistake again. The video the cops got of her buying the stuff is priceless, but they haven’t showed it yet. D’oh! There could a million mental things she has that may have ‘caused’ this, or maybe she’s a spoiled brat who is no longer the Big Woman on Campus and getting no attention. If it’s the latter, she has plenty of attention now. When she said she had a previous attack, that made us think, then when she said she was ‘surprised by the hulabaloo’ (and some other things that were suspect), that made most residents doubt her… It’s sad though, I hope she can get straightened out. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/28 "2004-04-03T03:26:13Z")
Sometimes Big Brother (cameras everywhere) is not a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/29 "2004-04-03T04:14:41Z")
My 10 o’clock news ([www.wcco.com](http://www.wcco.com), but it’s not on the site yet) says Audrey is now in a mental institution. They also report that “charges are likely”. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/30 "2004-04-03T05:08:33Z")
> [@StinkPop](#): > > The cops don’t tell the public what they know until they have sufficient evidence. Remember the Charles Stuart case in Boston (he said a black man shot him and killed his wife)? The cops all knew that Stuart had done the shooting (my neighbor was a state cop at the time and told us the real deal). They couldn’t say anything until they had the proof. They had to make a show of going after Willie Horton even though they knew he had nothing at all to do with the crime. Willie Horton had nothing to do with the Stuart case. Horton left a Concord, MA prison in 1986 on a 48-hour furlough, and never returned. In 1987, he beat up a Maryland man, raped his fiancee, and stole the man’s car. This was blamed on Massachussets governor Michael Dukakis, because the weekend-furlough program had been his idea. But by the time Charles Stuart killed his wife in 1989, Horton was in prison in Maryland (the judge refused to send him back to MA), serving two life terms. Or did you use “Willie Horton” as a generic term for “round up the usual black suspects”? ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/31 "2004-04-03T05:14:20Z")
[QUOTE=StinkPop] The cops don’t tell the public what they know until they have sufficient evidence. Remember the Charles Stuart case in Boston (he said a black man shot him and killed his wife)? The cops all knew that Stuart had done the shooting (my neighbor was a state cop at the time and told us the real deal). They couldn’t say anything until they had the proof. QUOTE] Do you have _any_ evidence to back this up? From all I’ve seen on that case (granted, a lot was on A & E), the cops bought the story at first. ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/32 "2004-04-03T07:09:15Z")
I enjoyed the live feed showing a dog roaming around… cars moving on the streets… and people babble on and on for hours together based on absolutely no information CNN anchor: “So, we have the university provost with us… what can you tell us about this?” Provost: “I know as much as everyone knows…” Police Officer:" I have been following CNN and I know as much as you do" etc etc etc all this on a 24 hour serious news channel. Couldn’t they cut to the story if something develops? Do we have to be subject to this sort of moronic reporting everytime someone goes missing or some guy is on trial? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/33 "2004-04-03T08:39:45Z")
> [@StinkPop](#): > > The cops don’t tell the public what they know until they have sufficient evidence. Remember the Charles Stuart case in Boston (he said a black man shot him and killed his wife)? The cops all knew that Stuart had done the shooting (my neighbor was a state cop at the time and told us the real deal). They couldn’t say anything until they had the proof. They had to make a show of going after Willie Horton even though they knew he had nothing at all to do with the crime. Not Willie Horton, that was a different case. The guy who got named as a suspect in the Stuart was William Bennett (yeah, same name as the guy in the Reagan/Bush administrations). Easy to mix them up, I guess, since Horton was in the news so much around the same time. ---
**Author:** ![hansel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/34 "2004-04-03T13:36:07Z")
> [@litost](#): > > I enjoyed the live feed showing a dog roaming around… John Stewart had the best comment on CNN watching the dog roaming around: “Okay, CNN? On Cops, they edit that stuff out.” ---
**Author:** ![StinkPop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@StinkPop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkPop)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/35 "2004-04-03T13:57:07Z")
[QUOTE=spooje] > [@StinkPop](#): > > The cops don’t tell the public what they know until they have sufficient evidence. Remember the Charles Stuart case in Boston (he said a black man shot him and killed his wife)? The cops all knew that Stuart had done the shooting (my neighbor was a state cop at the time and told us the real deal). They couldn’t say anything until they had the proof. QUOTE] > Do you have _any_ evidence to back this up? From all I’ve seen on that case (granted, a lot was on A & E), the cops bought the story at first. Of course I don’t have any evidence. It’s the fucking internet, silly. You’re allowed to make completely unsubstantiated claims. (And don’t tell me it’s not allowed on the SDMB. There is as much stupidity here as anywhere else. And now you have to pay to contribute new stupidity.) You could interview the cop, other people he told, or the people I told. I looked really clever at work because I told everyone, “There’s something fishy about this Stuart thing. I bet it turns out that he shot himself and his wife.” When the truth came out I looked like a genius. Only later did I tell them that the cop had clued me in beforehand. And, yes, I mixed up Willie Horton and William Bennett. ---
**Author:** ![aenea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@aenea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aenea)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/36 "2004-04-03T15:02:59Z")
> [@StinkPop](#): > > Of course I don’t have any evidence. It’s the fucking internet, silly. You’re allowed to make completely unsubstantiated claims. (And don’t tell me it’s not allowed on the SDMB. There is as much stupidity here as anywhere else. And now you have to pay to contribute new stupidity.) Kiddo, you really need to read at _least_ the description of the message board you are posting on, if not the actual guidlines and faq’s. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Anita\_Vacation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Anita\_Vacation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anita_Vacation)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/37 "2004-04-03T15:25:16Z")
> [@StinkPop](#): > > And now you have to pay to contribute new stupidity. No you don’t. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/38 "2004-04-03T16:02:50Z")
…just to clarify, the furlough process was not Dukakis’ idea, it had been invented and passed by the administration of his predecessor as Governor, a Republican. It had been a relative success and none of the furloughed had committed any crimes beyond littering when Horton went wild. I was working for the state during the campaign and was very frustrated at his failure to get these facts out; we told people who called us if they asked, but people still though he’d started the program. ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/39 "2004-04-03T16:49:12Z")
A co-worker related that a girl in her small-town Iowa high school did something similar. She received notes threatening her life and turned them into the principal. She got tons of attention and worry directed toward her. Then the ensuing investigation revealed that she made the whole thing up. Later, she became a nurse in the small town’s hospital. One day, my co-worker read a huge article in the newpaper about a nurse who had been attacked in the hospital while working the late shift. Sure enough, it was the same girl from high school. Once again, fabricated. The hospital told her to leave quietly and they wouldn’t press charges. Supposedly she works in the Twin Cities now. Can you imagine how mentally screwy you have to be to do this? And the funniest part is, it sure worked! She’s garnered national attention which will probably perpetuate itself even more since it’s a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937/40 "2004-04-03T16:49:38Z")
Am I the only one who thought she was faking from the beginning? I heard a blurb about a missing student that had been attacked recently but uninjured and she had been seen leaving without her purse and coat… It just all didn’t add up… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-kidnapped-no-i-wasnt-yes-i-was/237937.md?page=3)