Teenager Maddie Coleman arrived in Oakdale mere months after her brother, Henry, married his long time friend, Katie. Unfortunately, Maddie learned that the Coleman marriage was very shaky when she discovered that Henry was keeping his clothes in his limo. Henry was forced to tall Maddie that Katie was still in love with her former lover, Mike and so they separated. Upon meeting Katie, Maddie realized that Henry loved her completely. Unfortunately, Mike was an unwanted obstacle and Maddie was deliberately rude to him when he came to Kaitie's cottage. Knowing Maddie was going to complicate matters, Henry made plans for her to leave Oakdale, but Maddie was determined to stay and save Henry's marriage and decided to stage a fall so she'd have to stay in town. Though the plan didn't go as planned, with Henry falling instead of her, the result was the same since Maddie elected to stay in town to help her injured brother who was forced to covalence at the cottage with Katie. Mike, however, was still a thorn in Maddie's side since he continued to hang around the cottage to help Katie with Henry. Maddie's attempts to get rid of Mike weren't lost on anyone, especially Henry who figured out that she was responsible for his fall. Knowing Maddie's heart was in the right place, Henry told her to butt out; that Katie and Mike were in love and her plotting wasn't going to change anything.

Maddie refused to be deterred, and when she saw Katie and Mike kissing, she followed them to a hotel and snuck into the hotel's computer to make it seem there were no rooms available. The next day, Maddie broke into Mike's house to get information on him and was almost caught by Katie and Mike! Although she was able to create a diversion by turning on the sprinkler system, Maddie's plan backfired when Mike was forced to stay with Henry and Katie. Meanwhile, Maddie persuaded Henry to let her stay in Oakdale, citing how miserable she was at home. To her delight, Henry agreed to let her stay and despite Henry's acceptance that Katie loved Mike, Maddie stepped up her plot to save her brother's marriage. To accomplish this, she did some investigating and found an old schoolmate of Katie's on the internet named Byron Glass and conversed with him, pretending to be Katie. She then sent Katie anonymous gifts to make Mike jealous. Unfortunately, Maddie's plan backfired when Mike and Katie accused Henry of faking his injury (which he was exaggerating) and of sending the gifts. To protect Maddie, Henry copped to it and he was thrown out. His marriage over, Henry had nowhere to live and lived out in his limo and arranged for Maddie to stay with the Hugheses. Although she and Casey Hughes definitely did not hit it off at first, they became closer as the months went on and eventually shared a kiss. After a few months, they decided to take their relationship to the next level.

Maddie's dark past caught up with her when cop Dallas Griffin came to Oakdale. All set to give herself to Casey, seeing Dallas rattled Maddie to the core. Soon after, Casey and Maddie set out to make love when suddenly she began experiencing terrifying flashbacks and pulled away. Though Casey believed the virginal Maddie was just having cold feet, she insisted she was ready. to make love to him. Stating she was just uncomfortable in his parents' house, Maddie and Casey made plans to go to a hotel. However, Maddie was becoming more and more unsettled and when it came time to make love to Casey, not only did she pull away, Maddie unexpectedly broke up with him. Soon after, Casey began hanging out with a girl named Lia, causing Maddie to become extremely jealous. After spying on the pair, Maddie finally lashed out by slashing Lia's car in a jealous rage. Maddie was quickly arrested. After hearing what had happened, Henry called their sister, Eve, and asked her to come from Chicago. When Eve arrived at the police station, Maddie confessed her darkest secret--while living with Eve and her husband, Louis, the previous summer, she had snuck out to go to a frat party where she was raped. She went to the hospital where Dallas found her. Eve decided to stay in Oakdale to help Maddie with her trauma. Unfortunately, Maddie was uncooperative--often sneaking out without telling Eve or Henry. On one such occasion, Maddie followed Lia and Casey to the Country Club, where Lia was soon found murdered. At the same time, a shell shocked Maddie returned home with no memory of where she'd been. Though both Henry and Eve covered for her, Margo was concerned and suddenly Maddie became prime suspect # 1. Soon after, Maddie's friend, Nate, hit on her, which freaked Maddie out. When he ended up dead, suspicion again fell on Maddie.

Throughout this time, Maddie clashed with Jade Taylor who told anyone who would listen that Maddie was dangerous. Then Maddie discovered that Jade had had an affair with the married Will Munson. After angrily berating the two, Maddie was suddenly attacked by a masked person. Luckily, she was rescued by Will's wife, Gwen. At the police station, a dazed Maddie wondered out loud to Gwen if she was attacked because she knew about Jade and Will's affair. Not long after, Gwen ended up being attacked herself. Though Margo remained certain that Maddie had snapped and was committing these acts, Dallas wasn't so sure and asked his aunt to defend Maddie. Meanwhile, every time Dallas tried to get Maddie to tell him the whole truth about what happened in Chicago, she refused. Finally, Louis came to town and immediately clashed with Henry. Not only that--Maddie seemed terrified of him while Louis seemed overly concerned about Maddie. At the same time, Henry noticed Louis's obsession with Maddie and realized that there was no frat party--Louis had raped Maddie! While a nasty Louis threatened to kill Henry and Eve if she talked, Henry got Maddie to admit the truth. Eve refused to believe it at first, and then realized it was true. Henry went on to theorize that Louis was the slasher and when they found the slasher's attire in his luggage, they realized they were right! With Maddie finally cleared of the murders and an APB out on Louis, Eve made arrangements for her and Maddie to move back to Chicago to live with their other sister.

Maddie though, unexpectedly told Eve she wanted to stay in Oakdale with Henry so Eve went back alone. Immediately after telling Eve she wanted to stay with Henry, Maddie made Henry believe she'd left for Chicago. However, Maddie followed a group of teens, including Casey to Raven Lake. Suddenly, people started dying. At the same time, Louis was stalking Maddie and finally caught up with her. Just as Louis dangerously confronted Maddie, he was stabbed from behind by the masked slasher. Just as the slasher was about to kill Maddie, Casey intervened. Though Casey was left gravely injured, the slasher was trapped as well and Maddie finally unmasked the Oakdale slasher--Eve! Eve then confessed that she was jealous that her husband was in love with Maddie. Eve accused Maddie of playing the sweet little girl to get Louis to fall for her. She then admitted that she planned to frame Maddie for the murders and later kill her. As a demented Eve was being led away by the police, she chided Henry for his defense of "poor little Maddie". Henry was there as well and told Maddie to not even try to make sense of it all since it didn't make sense. Later, Maddie finally told Casey everything about the rape and they shared another kiss after professing their love for each other.

Months later, Casey was arrested for stealing money from Crash and didn't deny having set Will up for the crime. Maddie refused to believe that Casey would implicate Will and urged him to tell the truth. After wards, Casey informed his parents. Not long after, Maddie came across Casey's brother, Adam, manhandling Gwen and, believing he was going to rape her, Maddie knocked him out with a stick. The girls were convinced that Adam was dead. Terrified at what she'd done and convinced that Margo would hate her for killing her son, Maddie convinced Gwen to keep quiet and the pair left the body in the woods with only a blanket covering his face. Weeks later, Maddie tearfully confessed to Casey what happened. Casey decided that he and Maddie, Gwen (with Will) had to go on the run. The group prepared to go to Canada and hid out at a cabin for the night. There Gwen was shocked to see Adam—he wasn't dead after all! Obsessed with Gwen by now, Adam attacked her but was pulled off by Will who had to restrain himself from killing Adam. Will and Casey both ordered their brother to leave town and Casey decided to take responsibility for his actions and returned home.

Though it was hoped that Casey would get off with community service, because of his jumping bail he was given a prison term of two months. Before going to jail, Casey bid a sad farewell to his family and finally made love to Maddie. Soon after, Maddie, along with Luke Snyder, began interning at WOAK where they were teamed with a new intern named Noah Mayer. One of the first ideas that Noah came up with was a cell phone broadcast drama with Maddie as the focus written by Luke. As the summer went on, Noah's friendships with Maddie and Luke progressed. Soon, came the arrival of Noah's father which he clearly was not happy about. A military man, Col. Mayer informed Noah that he would no longer be paying for his schooling at Northwestern University and instead wanted him to enlist in the Army to toughen him up. Meanwhile, Maddie was disheartened to learn that Casey would not be returning to Oakdale after his prison stint. Later, she learned that Casey blocked all of her calls.

One day while confiding in each other about their respective heartaches, Maddie and Noah were drawn into a kiss that led to them making love. Unfortunately, Luke walked in on them and immediately became flustered. In the meantime, Maddie and Noah were growing closer. Later, Maddie encouraged Noah to call his dad about going to school, but the Colonel refused to allow him to go to Northwestern. Later, Noah abruptly asked Maddie to apply to Oakdale University instead of Wesleyan. Taken aback, Maddie agreed to think about it. Meanwhile, Noah's father bribed him with cash to get him to enlist in the Army but again he refused. Later, Noah unexpectedly asked Maddie to move in with him. Though she worried they were moving too fast, when the Colonel seemed to approve, Maddie agreed. At the same time, things between Luke and Noah were tense. Henry told Maddie his suspicion that Noah might be gay. Maddie scoffed but soon wondered if Henry was right. Though Noah denied he was gay, Maddie wasn't sure if she believed him. Not understanding how Noah could be attracted to Luke and her, she decided against moving in with Noah. Noah remained in denial for a short time though out of fear of coming out to his father. Finally, after a talk with Maddie, Noah decided that he could not deny his true self any longer and prepared to confess to his dad. As expected, the news did not go well. Noah's father accused him of lying and then angrily disowned him. The episode ended with the Colonel being imprisoned after trying to kill Luke. Weeks later, Maddie decided to transfer to Wesleyan after all and bid a heartfelt goodbye to Henry and her friends.

A few years later, Maddie returned to Oakdale to rekindle her relationship with Casey but he wasn't interested. Months after, a reformed Adam finally returned to Oakdale and, eventually, turned himself in to the police. Maddie testified in court that Adam's violent behavior may have been a result of him having been buried alive. Though Casey later decided that he wanted Maddie back into his life, it didn't take long for Maddie to realize that he was in love with Alison Stewart and she broke things off.