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.
That's six hundred invitations. Does that mean 1200 people or literally 600 invites? That's a big difference. I can't imagine anyone, even Donald Trump, having 1200 people at their wedding. How many did Trump have?
I was wrong too...my apologies to the husband to be and my sympathies.
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