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 ...
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Thank you for posting, John. I wish this woman, her fiancee and family the very best.
Just saw her with a police escort and a Blankie over her head...Wonder why she's hiding her face??? LOL..
sw
Oh, that's funny :) .......I didn't know they were living together.
Not only the cost of having police launch a search for her (paid for by the ever-suffering taxpayer), but I read about a restaurant owner down the street that handed out free coffee & sandwiches to searchers - out of their own pocket. A beauty salon owner nearby said her customers were scared to death to walk out to the parking lot alone...multiply this over & over in the city of Duluth.
Martha Stewart went to jail for lying, I don't see why this spoiled princess shouldn't have to. She should have at least the cost of the searches garnished from her paychecks for a long, long time.
That's assuming she can ever find anyone to hire her again.
Wedding veil?
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Congratulations! There are some who are lucky enough to meet the love of their lives when they are in their twenties, but that didn't happen for me. Still, my husband and I have been married for twenty-one years. We never know when we are going to meet that special person. It's much, much better to wait than to marry the wrong one.
Just prior to reading your post, I was thinking, 'Even my 9-year old niece has enough sense to not try something like this.'
Leno and Letterman will get a week of jokes out of the Runaway Bride caper!
It is a criminal offense to make false reports to law enforcement authorities. It is prosecutable.
Of course, the wealthy parents will whisk her off to a private nuthouse for a few weeks.
Then she'll be let loose to terrorize men again. ;)
And for women, if he's 40 and unmarried, particularly if he still lives in the town where he grew up, RUN LIKE A RABBIT!
No, she didn't have every right to do what she did. She behaved very immaturely and with no thought to how this was going to effect her family and friends. A grown up would have called off the wedding not just taken off without a word.
She needs to act her age and take responsibility for her actions.
Obviously no one misses you when you take off for a "weekend bender in Vegas" & frankly, I can see why. This woman was very much missed - & she knew she would be. It isn't a crime to skip out on a wedding - but if it isn't - it should be a crime to let your family & police think you've been abducted.
When she called 911 in New Mexico & said a couple in a blue van kidnapped her - that pretty much confirms it - she knew that's what people would think. Defend her if you want - I think what she did was sleazy & "all about her".
And yes, by what I understand - Martha Stewart was sent to jail for lying.
LOL! No animals or humans were harmed in the making of this soap opera!!
sw
"There's still alot, I think, that we don't know yet. A bus trip to Las Vegas when you want to be alone & think? An ex-cheerleader taking a bus....PERIOD... "
You can get on a bus without showing any ID; you can't fly without ID. And if you want to get out of town as far as you can go, to a place where nobody will think of looking for you, Vegas is a pretty good choice. She had to go to Albuquerque because calling from Vegas and telling people she didn't know where she was would have been very hard to pull off.
The woman is mental. Mama and Daddy will slam her into a high class nut house for 30 days while the fuss dies down, then probably take her to France for the summer to restore her nerves. Meanwhile we'll find out all the sordid details of her narrow little life, or we will if Michael Jackson doesn't get convicted first.
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