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Bride-to-be Jennifer Wilbanks Found Alive(Latest as of 09:30AM ET on the Bimbo Alert)
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution ^ | 04/30/05 | Staff and wire reports

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: bride; hoax; liar; theworldisheroyster; wilbanks
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To: KateatRFM
she'd deliberately planted false clues (e.g. the joggin gsuit and the hair she had cut herself); I think this woman is mentally ill

a massive distraction of LE resources could easily have resulted in people getting killed; fraud and reckless, negligent behavior at the least. worse than reporting fake fires anyway.

381 posted on 04/30/2005 11:57:51 AM PDT by alrea (HELP WANTED. New Jersey Director of Homeland Defense: must be willing performer)
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To: randog
It's too bad that so many couples saddle themselves with the debt of a huge wedding before they even get a foot off the ground.

There's NO way this chick was gonna have to pay for this monstrosity of a wedding. I'd bet $100 that Mommy not only planned it, but micro-managed it down to every minute detail. She probably made out the guest list, picked out the invitations, selected the wedding cake, chose the decor, and created the gift list. Then she picked up the tab for every single red cent.

Heck, she probably even picked out the groom.

Is it true that the future bride and groom shacked up for over a year? If so, it takes a lot of gall to throw a 600-guest wedding, complete with 8 wedding showers and a $250 ice bucket on the Macy's gift list. Just my old-fashioned opinion, of course.

382 posted on 04/30/2005 11:58:00 AM PDT by Nita Nupress
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To: kellynla
If she had not turned up the fiance would have eventually been charged for murder. The police would searched the home and found many "suspicious" items. Her family would have started remembering "not so happy times" that they had.

Eventually the fiance would have stopped looking for her and would had to start defending himself from growing suspicions. Then the public would start saying that he is acting "very guilty".

It may have been her plan to put her fiance through the Scott Peterson treatment. I hope he runs as fast as he can from her.
383 posted on 04/30/2005 11:58:38 AM PDT by JeffAtlanta
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To: Taffini
When I saw her photo on TV the first time I thought that she looked nuts. Every picture they put up on the screen she had that insane look in her eyes so it wasn't just a one bad photograph.

Yeah and remember that they always give out the person's BEST photos. If that is the best she has ever looked then I'd hate to see her bad photos.

384 posted on 04/30/2005 12:05:55 PM PDT by JeffAtlanta
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To: JRochelle

Next time someone goes missing, people are not going to take it seriously. And it was horrible what she made her parents and others who love her go through. She did a serious disservice to real victims - perhaps took a page from the antics of that woman in Milwaukee (I forgot her name) who staged her own kidnapping and nothing was ever done to her except provide her with the publicity she sought.</p>


385 posted on 04/30/2005 12:06:26 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: LPStar
Leaving a note couldn't be adequate grounds not to look. A kidnapper could just force a person to write such a note.

I assume that people who leave notes that amount to "don't look for me" don't have their wishes respected either ;-)

386 posted on 04/30/2005 12:10:06 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: tutstar

She should definitely be made to pay for the cost of the search. NO WAY this lady did not know what a stir she caused. And if the guy marries her now he should have his head examined.


387 posted on 04/30/2005 12:10:31 PM PDT by commonasdirt
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To: Paige
The groom to be needs to think long and hard before he says "I do" to this one.

I went to bed right after hearing she was found in New Mexico last night and was quite elated. When I woke up a learned she pulled a hoax and planned this all along that's what I thought.

If I were the fiance (Mason) I would put off the wedding indefinately, seriously considering never going through with it. Odds probably 3 to 1 I would find another life mate. Who knows when she might snap again in the future?

Nam Vet

388 posted on 04/30/2005 12:12:08 PM PDT by Nam Vet (MSM reporters think the MOIST dream they had the night before is a "reliable source".)
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To: KateatRFM

I heard one of this woman's friends say that this big wedding was Jennifer's lifelong dream. This was her fantasy wedding, and she's no teenager. So why push the blame onto others?


389 posted on 04/30/2005 12:14:14 PM PDT by joylyn
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To: redheadtoo
When I first saw that photo, even before you altered it, I thought that she looked nuts.

Me, too. I said the same to my boyfriend. She just LOOKS crazy. There was some FReeper who knows her (I would ping him/her if I could remember the name - I am not being intentionally rude) who was saying that she's a great beauty. I couldn't believe it! She just plain looks crazy, and I wouldn't want to go near her.

I doubt that it's drugs, though. Just plain old, garden-variety nuts.
390 posted on 04/30/2005 12:16:30 PM PDT by small_l_libertarian (Snuggled back down into my cozy duvet of rage...)
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To: KateatRFM
I heard the same thing as you - that she had just started to move in her things because they were going to live in his house after the wedding.

Some have commented about always carrying a cellphone when jogging. My daughter and a friend of hers (who is a marathon runner) never carry a cell phone when going running, nor do they wear their jewelry.

391 posted on 04/30/2005 12:17:52 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: OldEagle
so why the sexual assualt part?

Where'd you get this from ???

392 posted on 04/30/2005 12:26:51 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: kaylar
I read that she's a nurse

She is (or was) a Medical Assistant at an OB-GYN facility.

393 posted on 04/30/2005 12:30:35 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: diverteach
I thought that this case smelled fishy from the get go and suspected the "cold feet" made her run

I thought there was a lot fishy here too, but I didn't think it was cold feet. If I were her fiance I'd be livid at her and there'd be no way the relationship would be saved. At best she's an immature spoiled brat and at worst she's mental. Isn't much of what she did a crime?

394 posted on 04/30/2005 12:31:50 PM PDT by Fudd Fan (Theodore: the GOOD Roosevelt)
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To: kennedy

I feel sorry for her fiance too but he still looks wierd to me as well. Maybe they deserved each other. Who knows.


395 posted on 04/30/2005 12:33:44 PM PDT by Fudd Fan (Theodore: the GOOD Roosevelt)
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To: Nita Nupress
I'd bet $100 that Mommy not only planned it, but micro-managed it down to every minute detail.

Just for the record (anyone?) just where do the bigger bucks lie ... her family or his?

396 posted on 04/30/2005 12:35:23 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: Nita Nupress

Then you've got those couples looking to retire right after their wedding...;^)

PS: I'm kinda partial to those $180 candlesticks, so if you want to get randog a belated wedding gift....;^)


397 posted on 04/30/2005 12:38:08 PM PDT by randog (What the....?!)
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To: Neets

The family just got totally "punked"


398 posted on 04/30/2005 12:39:10 PM PDT by bedowin
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To: Taffini
When I saw her photo on TV the first time I thought that she looked nuts. Every picture they put up on the screen she had that insane look in her eyes so it wasn't just a one bad photograph.

I've seen so many women with this look in the last few years that I've concluded it's related to contact lenses.

Can anyone verify or invalidate my conjecture?

399 posted on 04/30/2005 12:39:45 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: hflynn
This morning on CNN there was a twit anchor who had that former FBI profiler, the woman whose name I forget. Anyway the FBI-er was furious that this girl would do all these things, said she had to know there would be a huge search, had to know they'd fear she was dead and the fiance would be suspect #1, how she could have her family not know WHAT had befallen her... Well the CNN twit kept trying to make excuses and the FBI lady was having none of it. I loved watching and listening to her. The kicker was, after the interview (it was pre-taped) the twit says, "well we TOLD you she'd be blunt!" Then twit and her co-anchor heaved large sighs. I'm shocked they didn't roll their eyes.

I hate CNN.

400 posted on 04/30/2005 12:40:25 PM PDT by Fudd Fan (Theodore: the GOOD Roosevelt)
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