Posted on 04/28/2005 10:13:06 AM PDT by varina davis
Hundreds Search for Missing Bride-To-Be
April 28, 2005 10:40 AM EDT
DULUTH, Ga. - A 32-year-old woman disappeared just days before she was to be married, and authorities said Thursday they were expanding their search for her.
Jennifer Wilbanks' fiance told authorities she left home Tuesday night to go jogging. When she did not return in a couple of hours, he began looking for her, then notified police.
On Wednesday, more than 250 people searched for Wilbanks, including volunteers and police using helicopters and tracking dogs. Authorities called off the volunteer search but continued canvassing door-to-door for clues in this northeastern Atlanta suburb. They were treating the disappearance as a criminal investigation but did not elaborate.
"It's a very real possibility she did get cold feet. I mean, how many husbands have gone out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back," Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher said.
Earlier, police Maj. Don Woodruff said friends and family believed "this is totally uncharacteristic of her. We don't believe it was a case of premarital jitters."
On Thursday, about 100 police officers expanded their search a quarter-mile deeper into woods near her home. Police had not asked anyone to take a polygraph test, but her fiance has volunteered to do so, Belcher said.
Friends and relatives have told police Wilbanks seemed happy and was looking forward to her wedding Saturday. Her keys, cash, credit cards and identification were found in her home.
"She left out of here with just a radio and the clothes she has on," said Wilbanks' fiance, John Mason. "Everything she owns is in the home. If this is cold feet, it is the weirdest case of cold feet I have ever seen."
Wilbanks and Mason were to be married in a large ceremony. Six hundred invitations had been mailed, and the wedding was to feature 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen, according to Mason's mother, Vicki.
Investigators checked the banks of the nearby Chattahoochee River, and the state Department of Natural Resources planned to search the river, Woodruff said.
Wilbanks was described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, about 123 pounds, with shoulder-length dark brown hair. She was last seen wearing a gray sweat shirt and blue sweat pants, police said.
I too find it odd that she would not wear her engagement ring.
Maybe the fiance buried her body and didn't want the metal on the engagement ring to set off any metal detectors.
What is his motive?
I wonder if someone pulled her into a car in a crime of opportunity (rape or robbery). Years ago a young woman named Julie Love was abducted while walking along a road in an Atlanta neighborhood in the early evening after her broke down. Of course her car was located, but she disappeared without a trace. Her family and friends papered the town with flyers and looked for her for a long time. Her remains and the story of what happened to her only emerged many years later after the estranged girlfriend of one of the men who abducted Julie ratted out him and his accomplice. She was in the car when the poor woman was kidnapped off the street.
I remember hearing about that at the time - did they ever find her body?
Search for Bride-to-Be Now a Criminal Probe
Thursday, April 28, 2005
DULUTH, Ga. — Searchers looking for a missing Georgia woman who was scheduled to be married this weekend found a clump of hair Thursday and authorities are working to see if a DNA match exists.
WAGA-TV, the FOX affiliate in Atlanta, reported that the hair was found in an office park near the home of Jennifer Wilbanks (search). The station reported that authorities could not say yet if the hair was connected to Wilbanks' disappearance.
Wilbanks left her home Tuesday night to go jogging but never returned, according to the man she was supposed to wed this weekend. Her family told authorities it is "totally uncharacteristic of her behavior" not to let someone know where she is, police Maj. Don Woodruff said Thursday.
So far, police said they have few developments in the case and treating it as a criminal investigation.
"We really don't have any suspects ... We really have nothing at this point," Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher (search) told reporters Thursday morning.
Belcher said searchers would continue looking for Wilbanks, this time with the aid of bloodhounds.
Wilbanks' fiancé, John Mason, said she left the house "in good spirits" with her MP3 player around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday for a jog and said she would return in about 40 minutes. Mason said that after an hour passed, he went looking for her on foot and then checked area hospitals. He called police 2 to 3½ hours after she left the house, he said.
Before she left, "she talked to her mom … about the different wedding stuff they had to get done for today,” Mason said Wednesday night during an interview on FOX News' "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren."
Mason, who had just returned from a run himself, said Wilbanks prefers to run by herself, but “she doesn’t just go and run and hide.”
Belcher told FOX News in an interview Thursday that Mason was the only person who has told them that Wilbanks went jogging.
"We're not doing a polygraph at the present time but he has volunteered that he would like to take a polygraph," Belcher said.
At a news conference Thursday, Woodruff said the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (search) were assisting in the search. But authorities did not have any suspects, he said.
Speaking on a network morning news program later Thursday morning, Woodruff dismissed the idea that Wilbanks' disappearance was a case of a bride getting cold feet.
"There's been a lot of speculation from that perspective that it could have been a case of the premarital jitters," Woodruff said. "But again, according to all of her friends that have been interviewed, all of her family, that's simply not the case. ... This is totally uncharacteristic of her to have just simply disappeared this way."
Hundreds of volunteers searched Wednesday for the woman. Authorities called off the volunteer search late in the day but continued canvassing door-to-door in this northeastern Atlanta suburb seeking clues in the disappearance.
Woodruff said police had checked the banks of the nearby Chattahoochee River (search) and that the state Department of Natural Resources would be searching the river.
Wilbanks is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, about 123 pounds, with shoulder-length dark brown hair. She was wearing a gray sweatshirt and blue sweat pants when she went out, police said.
"She left out of here with just a radio and the clothes she has on," Mason said. "Her cell phone is in there, her credit cards, her pocket book, her money, her keys to her car, her diamond. Everything she owns is in the home. If this is cold feet, it is the weirdest case of cold feet I have ever seen."
Mason's father, Claude Mason, is a former Duluth mayor and municipal judge.
I remember Julie Love's story! I was in LA on my honeymoon (All the way from Georgia) and the ad for information about her whereabouts was in the newspaper there.
That really made an impression on me.
And when I heard what really happened, it broke my heart. She was snatched and killed just for the fun of it.
Monsters.
Don't know if anyone else saw the interview on Greta, but from what I remember the "she doesn't just go run and hide" statement was in response to a question about how she handled problems wasn't it?
Prayer thread for Jennifer over here.....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392261/posts
However, the fact that she left her rings and cell phone behind is not. My daughter is into running and always removes her rings and never takes a phone along.
Ooh. if his dad's a political figure, that's all the more reason he couldn't go jilting his fiance.
Anyone notice the protruding eyes she has in all the pics?
I wonder if she might have Graves disease which can cause physical hormonal and chemical changes in your brain.
I looked at her neck and did not see a bulging thyroid.
If she is severely hyper thyroid the effects make you super wired and very aware of your surroundings.
Can make you moody too....
adding to my last post.
Her low wieght 123lbs at 5ft 8 is another sign of Graves.
Also later stages can cause grandiose and manic symptoms. Hence huge wedding.
I am going to go with my opinion that she is suffering from late stage Graves disease and it has something to do with her splitting for unknow reasons.
Prayes for her safe return.
Do metal detectors really work or are they just silly gadgets?
Watch out - if he said anything about 'The Purpose Driven Life' - the St. Ashley crowd will FLAME you!!
yes, they do.
Didn't she work for a physician? Would the doctors not see this, too?
Yes, the estranged girlfriend told the authorites that Julie's body had been hidden in an abandoned industrial area on the west side of Atlanta. They searched for her remains there and found her.
Often missed.
High energy, out going,and often mistaken for mental health issues.
Often if treated the fatty tissue that builds behind the eyes from Graves takes years to recede if at all.
Was Emmanuel Hammond ever executed? I know he got the death penalty.
Not if there's another man in her life. Don't discount the possibility that she's in love with someone else and that she ran off with him rather than dumping her fiance and cancelling the wedding. She may have also not worn the ring because jewelery can be annoying and uncomfortable when running and working out because of the sweating and chaffing. She was also running at night and didn't want the diamond ring to make her the target of a robbery.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.