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 happened to be watching when the news broke that it was all a hoax of Jennifers doing. Within minutes, all media was thrown off the family's property. The media was used and then discarded.
The parasite politicians didn't even have a chance to rush through "Jennifer's Law" to punish bugeyed nuts who squander taxpayer money and also don't donate enough loot to politicians.
What kind of fundamentalist Christian lives with someone outside of marriage? I thought I was going to be sick when I heard their preacher droning on & on about what a wonderful couple they were & so happy to be getting married.
Don't preachers preach the word anymore?????? What kind of preacher would gush & condone this kind of lifestyle? If we could get back to an old-fashioned approach to abstinence & getting married before the children are born, social stigmas on people who sleep around promiscuously - especially in front of their children....living together before we get married & then expecting everyone to celebrate our eventual matrimony....
If we could get back to those days, think of all the good things this nation could accomplish instead of having to waste good time & resources on dealing with all the problems that this kind of "modern" lifestyle heaps on society.
I'm angry - I prayed for this woman to be brought home safely - I could have been spending my prayer time on someone who really needed it. I have a low opinion of her - her preacher who acts like their life was just peachy - their families who thought this huge wedding/affair was appropriate in the first place - the press that made such a big deal out of it because "it made such a good story" - & people that think she had the right to lead good people on a wild goose chase.
I'm sick of this story now & I hope she gets the stigma she deserves, people need to quit kissing up to this selfish bimbo & make her pay for her actions somehow/some way.
The money doesn't belong with the police.
It belongs with the taxpayers - they foot the bill for this.
Well for starters because there is no such thing as a "lie detector". Second polygraph tests are not used to establish innocence, rather they are used to establish probable guilt. No primary suspect ever been removed from suspicion in a criminal investigation because they "passed" an FBI polygraph test. And yes, John Mason was the primary suspect and nothing he could do would have changed that. Law enforcement's primary task in an investigation like this is to identify and apprehend the guilty, finding the victim is only a secondary part of that process. Only a fool would ever consent to a police polygraph test or to being interrogated without an attorney present, especially if he were innocent.
The abduction part would have explained her absence, so why the sexual assualt part? There are an unlimited number of possibilities.
Good thing I checked replies before I blasted...
You took the words right out of my keyboard. : )
Where did it say they'd been living together for a year? What I heard was that she'd moved her stuff to his house less than a week before she split; and not a word about her moving in with him at all.
Can you point to something that would disabuse me of this?
Then you marry the bugeyed freak. As of today, she's back on the market.
As for your insight into his character - I think there is not a great deal of information on which to make that projection. There's a lot more information on which to make the assumption that she may be mentally ill, in which case he dodged a bullet.
And, BTW, the prevalence of mental illnesses in women is one of those things that are not politically correct for discussion - as a consequence you see commentators like the "expert" from Seattle on CNN this morning - explaining away this woman's actions.
Anyone has a right to change their mind in anticipation of a wedding - they do not have the privilege of wasting a lot of law enforcement resources on a wild goose chase.
They are still in such demand, it will have no effect on her employability.
No dispute there. But the way she handled it opens up the question. A 600 guest wedding and 14 bridesmaids is pretty extravagant in my book - this had to be planned for months, and unless she objected to details like that (and my guess is that she designed it) she has to take responsibility for not making a decision.
The criminal aspect of it has nothing to do with getting cold feet - it is allowing all those law enforcement resources to be dislocated in a search for her. I'm not buying the idea that as a bus rider - she had no access to information clueing her in to what was being done to locate her.
She's a nurse, without any history of this kind of behavior. It happens. It might make you feel better to think that only outwardly crazy people behave this way, but it's not true.
Just pray she doesn't get the OPRAH treatment. But she'll make the rounds. Hopefully, the Georgia PD will take any money she will potentially make on this stunt as payback for costs incurred. Can you imagine all the attention starved girls who will get ideas from this? It's frightening.
And you know this for a fact? HOw do you know it wasn't she who wanted a big freaking wedding. You truly think she was right in what she did. You're crazier than she is.
Leaving a note couldn't be adequate grounds not to look. A kidnapper could just force a person to write such a note.
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