Wilbanks, wearing a blue blazer and a pink striped blanket that completely covered her head, arrived at Albuquerque’s main airport Saturday afternoon escorted by about 10 police officers to catch a flight back to Atlanta.
A throng of cameras and reporters shouted questions, but she did not respond, keeping her head down and moving briskly through a security checkpoint.
Bill Elwell, an FBI spokesman in Albuquerque, said Wilbanks apparently decided to flee shortly after purportedly leaving for her jog Tuesday without her keys or wallet.
“Based on the information we received, it was a spur of the moment situation,” Elwell told The Associated Press.
She had enough money to take a bus to Las Vegas before going to Albuquerque, where she found herself broke. Elwell said that is probably why she called home and authorities when she did.
In her 911 call, Wilbanks sounds frantic and confused, telling an operator she was kidnapped from Atlanta by a man and a woman in their 40s who were driving a blue van.
At one point, the operator asks if Wilbanks knows what direction her captors went after dropping her off in Albuquerque.
“I have no idea. I don’t even know where I am,” she says.
Wilbanks cut her hair so no one would recognize her, but gave no indication that she had watched news reports of the search or realized the magnitude of the situation, Elwell said.
After police reported the hoax, the mood outside Wilbanks’ home went from jubilant to somber. Family members ducked inside and the blinds were drawn.
They later expressed relief that she was safe.
“Sure, we were all disappointed, maybe a little embarrassed, but you know what, if you remember all the interviews yesterday we were praying, ’At this point let her be a runaway bride,”’ said the Rev. Alan Jones, who was to perform the wedding. “So God was faithful. Jennifer’s alive and we’re all thankful for that.”
Police said Wilbanks was tired, thirsty and “very, very distressed” but in otherwise good physical condition.
Jones said the family had no idea that Wilbanks had fears about the wedding, and he believed she “probably had no clue how it had been blown out of proportion” while she was traveling across the country.
He said Mason had no hostility toward his fiancee.
“I have never met such a strong person in all my life,” Jones said. “He’s an incredible man.”
http://www.timesreporter.com/left.php?ID=41125&r=1
That whole article was hogwash--no way it was a spur of the moment thing....