The disappearance and discovery of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student has left one ISU student and friend on an emotional roller coaster.

“It was pretty scary,” said Logan Gerleman, freshman in finance.

“You hear about things like this, and it’s just like, ‘I can’t believe what their family is going through.'”

Audrey Seiler vanished from the Wisconsin campus last Wednesday with little clue to where she might be, Madison police said Thursday.

The 20-year-old student was found alive in a marsh Wednesday after a lengthy search by police and volunteers through wooded areas around campus, police said.

Gerleman and Seiler attended high school together in Rockford, Minn., a small town about a half hour from the Minneapolis area. Seiler graduated one year ahead of Gerleman and had been friends with her boyfriend since first grade.

Prior to her kidnapping, Seiler was struck from behind by an unknown assailant Feb. 1 and was knocked unconscious, Madison police said. She was moved a block from where she was struck, but was not robbed or sexually assaulted.

“When I heard about the February attack, I was just relieved nothing else happened that day,” Gerleman said.

“It just kept getting weirder and weirder,” she said.

Authorities are questioning Seiler about her experience and how she escaped.

“At this point, what we will do is proceed slowly and get all of the information and let the facts lead us to where this investigation will go,” Assistant Police Chief Noble Wray told NBC’s “Today” show Thursday.

Gerleman said the experience has been surreal.

“It was pretty scary to see a whole bunch of my friends on TV,” Gerleman said.

The parallels between University of Wisconsin’s campus and Iowa State has Gerleman thinking about future attacks, she said.

“Madison is supposed to be safe as a big huge school, and Ames is suppose to be safe, and we’re a big school, so the similarities are pretty striking,” she said.

ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said Ames is one of the safest communities in the state and has a low violent crime rate. That does not mean they take kidnappings and assaults lightly.

“Iowa State University Police for years have had numerous contingency plans on various things like missing persons, natural disasters, fires and explosions,” he said.

Deisinger said the ISU Police Help Van and 13 emergency phones on campus have been in place for roughly 10 years to keep Iowa State safe.

Gerleman said she is cautious about being on the street late at night but she doesn’t see others being careful.

“I see a lot of people alone at night, including women,” Gerleman said. “Ames isn’t that unlike Madison.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this article.