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 ...
I'm a nurse. The State Board of Nursing will be interested to know she did in fact perpetrate a crime through false allegations of being abducted.
They may pull her license for that one
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=62443
"A three-day search covering five square miles was conducted. On Saturday morning, Wilbanks called her family collect from a pay phone in Albuquerque.
"She sounded cold and she was crying," said step-father Roger Parrish.
Parrish said that Jennifer told him she was not hurt, she did not know where she was, that she had been abducted while jogging and that her abductors had cut her hair".
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I had to go back to see where you got this from. You would make a statement like this based on someone's feeling that the fiance might be snobby or controlling?
Anyone here ever play the game "Gossip?"
Over zealous Mother-in-law!
That's why I walked away from all of these threads...
Heck, she did not even have to call. All she had to do was leave a note, if she was too immature even for a telephone call.
And some people just keep driving. Go figure. Some people go even father in their escape, and kill themselves.
Anyway, I not defending what she did. I just don't think it makes social sense to criminalize that sort of conduct. We're free to be thoughtless and selfish.
Can you look into your crystal ball and tell me about my future? You seem to know so much about things you have no first hand knowledge of - therefore, you must have a "gift".
/ sarcasm
"That's why I walked away from all of these threads... "
I think I'll join you.
"JSK10 was on FR earlier this week explaining that he knows the players involved, and he said there was just about no way Mr. Mason made Miss Wilbanks disappear.
So yes, to that extent, I grant that he was correct in that assessment. What's wrong with that?"
Yes he did, she decides at the nick of time she dont want to be married to a control freak self absorbed first class jerk! (that has everything to do with it)
As I walk along,
I wonder what went wrong,
With our love, a love that was so strong.
And as I still walk on,
I think of the things we've done
Together, a-while our hearts were young.
I'm a-walkin' in the rain,
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain,
Wishin' you were here by me,
To end this misery
And I wonder--
I wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder,
Why,
Why, why, why, why, why she ran away,
Yes, and I wonder,
A-where she will stay-ay,
My little runaway,
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
I am thinking about the "issues" her uncle mentioned that the family "was not aware of". She could have escaped the wedding simply by leaving a NOTE saying she could not face the wedding and needed time to think, but do not think she had been kidnapped or murdered, and that they would hear from her later. Instead, she let her mother and all the others close to her believe she had likely met with foulplay. The suffered horribly, which is what she must have wanted. Think about it. There are FAR MORE ISSUES here than the wedding or the feelings of her fiancee.
While channel surfing, I must apologize for stopping at CNN. They had a woman criminal profiler discussing the kidnap plot. She was mighty angry at this bride-to-be. She said that Wilbanks must pay for this crime; yes, she called it a crime, with money and jail time.
The two stooge commentators remarked that the profiler was too harsh against Wilbanks. They, naturally, were sympathizing with Wilbanks. We can all count on the liberal love feast that will take place for the next few days. The media dogs have taken the bite. They are not going to let go.
I've seen each of her parents referred to as STEP parents.
What's up with that?
That is a paraphrase, but was essentially an observation made many years ago by an acquaintence who was once successful in business and marriage, and who eventually failed in both because he thought he could beat the odds indefinitely. I consider it to be a fairly accurate statement.
I'm trying to think back to a big, expensive wedding in my family tree, and I can't do it; couples were married in farmhouses, JP's offices, and occasionally in some small-town or country church, but always in the most modest way. You could have easily put our wedding attendees into a typical schoolbus and maybe needed a minivan to hold the parents and grandparents. It may have been a low-key and low-buck bit of hitching, but we have outlasted most of the "fairy-tale" nuptials of our peers.
What are you basing this assumption and description on?
Much of the family struck me as whack-jobs. There was something about the self-serving interviews, the constant apologies for not being media-friendly due to stress, etc., etc....
I'm a conservative, which means I'm slow to pass judgement and refuse to do so at all until I know all the facts. The profiler was very quick to pass judgement. Maybe she's the liberal?
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