Posted on 04/30/2005 6:35:35 AM PDT by kellynla
Duluth bride-to-be who vanished just days before her wedding turned up in New Mexico and fabricated a tale of abduction before admitting Saturday that she had gotten cold feet and "needed some time alone," police said.
Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, was in police custody more than 1,420 miles from her home on what was supposed to be her wedding day.
"It turns out that Miss Wilbanks basically felt the pressure of this large wedding and could not handle it," said Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher. He said there would be no criminal charges.
Wilbanks, whose disappearance set off a nationwide hunt, called her fiance, John Mason, from a pay phone early Saturday and told him that she had been kidnapped while jogging three days before, authorities said. Her family rejoiced that she was safe, telling reporters that the media coverage apparently got to the kidnappers.
But Wilbanks soon recanted, according to police.
Ray Schultz, chief of police in Albuquerque, said Wilbanks "had become scared and concerned about her impending marriage and decided she needed some time alone." He said she traveled to Las Vegas by bus before going to Albuquerque.
"She's obviously very concerned about the stress that she's been through, the stress that's been placed on her family," he said. "She is very upset."
The scene at the house Wilbanks shared with Mason went from jubilant, with Mason hopping from one TV interview to the next and joking about meeting Sean Hannity, to more subdued.
Everyone but immediate family was told to leave the house, and the blinds were drawn and the front door closed. Police put up crime scene tape to keep people away.
"Having cold feet is a joy compared to what the alternative might have been," friend Melinda Larson, who had planned to attend the wedding...
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Yes, adults can just get up and leave without telling someone. There ARE mothers who let their fears take over and believe that their kid's fallen victim to foul play when they're just working late or decided to take a trip and don't answer phone calls. There ARE controlling parents out there who want to vicariously live through their kids.
She is an adult. She left town. She didn't initiate the search.
Imagine the humiliation...rejected and the world watches! But her problems are far worse, she must be one of the most selfish people imaginable. I hope women's groups don't come running to her rescue...not post-partum depression this time but pre-wedding apprehension?
And you are a smart woman.
(I'm 43 and the same - so I know of what I speak-eth!)
Yes, but are you a selfish, immature witch?
I don't think so. : ) You have GOOD reasons.
I know. The thing is too the pastor got on TV and SANG her praises. He couldn't say enough about her. How jubilant she was and how happy she was and how she was looking forward to this wedding and yada, yada, yada.
She played a dirty rotten trick on those who loved and cared for her. Evidently she didn't love and care enough for any of them or she couldn't have done this.
She's not the victim here...her fiance and the families are not to mention the out of town guests who flew in to be part of this wedding, their dresses and accessories, etc. s Just think of all the money those people put out too to help make her day a beautiful one.
No, everyone here is a victim (even us...praying for her safe return) and I resent her thinking of only herself. Yes, it's always the blame game.
The criminal here --
if there is one -- is TV!
I bet local police
wondered if this case
was kidnapping or just flight.
If not for TV,
nothing might have come
of this, and the woman might
have just returned home.
If you ran away,
would you expect the whole world
to shine a spotlight
on your private life?
(Heck, I know a young woman
who disappared. She
turned out to have gone
to Milwaukee with a friend
for some kind of fair.
Of course, in those days
the media didn't care.
Those were better days . . .)
Read post #123.
Or Peterson, gee is there anything anyone can write in a book that no one already doesn't know. And who would want to read it
THIS should be a wake up call to all the women out there who think getting married is the ultimate goal.
Marrying the RIGHT GUY at the RIGHT TIME is the goal.
I've heard so many 29 year olds that MUST get married before they're 30 or they will...? what? Embarass their families?
I bet the Wilbanks family is mighty confused and embarassed right about now.
Marriage is FOREVER... Think before you leap.
/soapbox
I have payed for three weedings in three years. I could have bought a top of the line corvet. But Hey it's only money!!! Sob!!!
I heard somewhere on FR that she had purchased the Greyhound tickets a week ago, not two days ago...
I mean, what is in Albuquerque that she wanted to go there for? Nothing against Albuquerque!! I have been there, it is beautiful! I'm thinking she planned on going there for some reason, but what for, I do not know.
I confess that I thought her fiance had something to do with her disappearance because when they first interviewed him, he made what I thought was a strange remark, "If this is a case of cold feet, it's the coldest feet I've ever seen".
I thought, what a weird thing to say when you think someone has abducted your fiance. I think, deep inside, the man had some suspicions that that was exactly what happened. He knows her well enough to suspect she was capable of it.
Just to throw my two cents worth in - I think she should be arrested. Sure, it's no crime to go to Las Vegas without telling your mommy - but to leave your cut hair & sweat suit behind - she was purposely trying to make it look like she had been abducted. This was premeditated to the max!!!
Heck yeah, she should be arrested & prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 32 years old is old enough to take responsibility. All she had to do before she took off, was leave a note saying she needed time to herself. Problem solved. The poster is right, talking about her eyes & the whites showing above her iris - dead giveaway. UNSTABLE NUTCASE.
My spidey sense started tingling the first time I saw her picture. (Don't ask me why - - that's why it's called "spidey sense".) My theory is that she told this "big teddy bear", this "nicest guy in the world" that she would marry him because she didn't have the heart to say "no" when he proposed. I think she saw the rest of her life flash before her eyes and simply freaked out.
It is entirely possible that she was unaware the first couple of days about the national media interest in the story.
bttt
My fiance and I sent out wedding announcemnts, not invitations, and then flew to Hawaii to get married in a park. No guests, not even family.
Our parents held receptions for us upon our return, so we still got all the loot without the costs of a wedding or the pressure.
Interestingly, we got MANY thanks from the people who would have had to travel to wherever we might have been married for doing it the way we did.
After the interview and the sharp condemnation by the criminal profiler CNN went back to the desk shot and the CNN bimbo's co-anchor was actually smiling about the "Smack-down" his co-anchor just received. The CNN bimbo was not smiling. It was a classic interview that I would love to see again.
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