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 was thinking the exact same thing when Fox showed that video. At approximately the same time this evening, she was supposed to be walking down the aisle in her white gown and veil. How humiliating to be stumbling through the Albuquerque airport with a stupid blanket on your dumb head?!
......and I agree with you, Alice. Someone at Fox just said, "She will probably be thinking about moving out of Decatur.".........well......yeah. After causing so much commotion in that town and putting so many hundreds of people through all of that effort, including the kindness and generosity of people like the café owner..... I guess that she most certainly will be "thinking about moving out of Decatur.".....get out of Dodge, or stay indoors forevermore.
Amen! Great comments, KateatRFM! I'm still very suspicious of the Vegas part of this. If she'd gone in a straight line from Atlanta to Albuquerque before getting tired and running out of money, I'd be inclined to believe that she's just a rattled, immature, messed up young woman who doesn't really know what she wants and can't handle much, if any, pressure in her life.
But.......the Vegas angle leads me to think that this was supposed to be a rescue scenario........"white knight waiting by the slot machines to wisk her out of her dreary, unstimulating, unsatisfactory little backwater existence in Georgia." Instead, she was stood up, and it was a rescue fantasy gone bad. There is more to this Vegas angle than we know........yet. Possibly an examination of her hard drive will provide the answers.
Item: the tears flooding the phone lines to the 911 operator may have been REAL!! She might have been frustrated and in total despair because the Slot Machine White Knight never showed up to waltz her off to Shangri-La.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1394456/posts
"Double Std. for Jennifer Wilbanks According to Ms. Pat Brown, criminal profiler and CEO of The Sexual Homicide Exchange, there is no excuse for letting Jennifer Wilbanks -- the 32-year-old runaway bride from Duluth, Georgia -- off the hook. Wilbanks, who obviously wants and needs a lot of attention, committed a crime -- including a fraudulent 9-1-1 call to claim she had been kidnapped -- and should be charged as a criminal, claims Brown. Wilbanks put her family through hell and wasted precious police resources. Furthermore, she had many chances over five days to let her family and the police off the hook. One account is that she had bought a bus ticket five days before fleeing Georgia to Las Vegas and then Albuquerque, NM, where she was found.
Instead of acting like an adult and just calling off the wedding, Jennifer behaved like a little girl. Worse, the media are treating Wilbanks like a little girl who got cold feet and should get nothing more than a "there-there-my-little-sweet" pat on the head.
Had this been a guy, said Pat Brown, he would be going to jail, without a doubt. The double standard looms, my friends."
PERMALINK posted by NoNonsenseMan @ 6:29 AM
Man!
I had no idea when I posted this thread at 6:30 a.m. that 10K hits would be made...
Looks like little Miss Attention got what she wanted! LOL
I hope they lock her up for a month(making a false 911 call) and make her do at least a year of public service...
They ought to make her pay for all the police costs too but being a nurse she probably can't even afford to "pay attention." We know she hasn't got the sense of a jackass...
Make your selection from the vast collection shown below.
This is a difficult test, hence you have 30 minutes to decide.
[ ] 1. Jennifer Wilbanks is a charming, clever conservative !!!
[ ] 2. Jennifer Wilbanks is a wacky, loony liberal (hint hint) !!!
.
The Chinese have been around for 5000 years so maybe they're onto something.
=======
Random Chinese Intelligence ---
Crowded elevator smell different to midget !!!
Man with one chopstick go hungry !!!
Man who run in front of car get tired !!!
Man who run behind car get exhausted !!!
Man who eat many prunes get good run for money !!!
Baseball is wrong: Man with four balls cannot walk !!!
War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left !!!
Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement !!!
Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house !!!
Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night !!!
It take many nails to build crib, but only one screw to fill it !!!
Man who drive like hell, bound to get there !!!
Man who stand on toilet is high on pot !!! ;-))
Lest ye without sin cast the first stone.
Yes and...just heard on the TV that she possibly has done this before prior to weddings! Wow. A flake...
She leaves to go jogging.
Is not heard from.
Hair is found.
Jogging clothes are found.
Parents, Fiance and Future in-laws all on TV crying
She didn't know it would be so blown out of proportion? What is it with this Pastor anyway? She knew it would be just as it was. She's playing people for fools. I do NOT think John will marry her. Isn't he lucky to have found out the truth before he ruined his life?
If he married her, wouldn't he then become liable for her debts she will incur as a result of her being billed by the police for the resources expended in her search?
Could be. But...I do not think he will marry her. Maybe I'm wrong but if he had any sense he would get as far away from her as he could. I know I would.
Just heard on CNN a moment ago that Mason still intend to marry Wilbanks, that the wedding is "just postponed", not cancelled.
My, if he goes through with this, just think what a lever he will have to hold over her head. If she feels pressure now, I wonder what she'll think later on?
Her parents should pack her off to a convent to become a nun.
Trajan88
Just a heads up, We had 2 kids over today helping out.
Nicer kids, I never met.
All teens aren't bad.
I'm beginning to think that both of them were in on this, in the hope of selling their story.
Maybe she heard good reviews of the Chama River Brewing Company and wanted to check it out.
Correct...but the ISSUES are between her ears. Men make excuses...women have issues. There are huge differences between these two concepts.
Agreed...however She won't be charged a DIME. Even if there is an attempt to collect money to cover the cost of searching for her DAD will get stuck with the bill.
You watch. This next week the media - 20/20, 60 Minutes, Dateline, and others are all going to air special investigative reports on the stresses a Bride goes through when planning a wedding. I guarantee that they are working on that as we speak. Remember - we are now in a ratings sweep and it's very close to "Wedding Season" (May, June, July)
The MSM will milk this for all it's worth.
Agreed. When the woman killed her 5 kids in the bathtub in Houston she has issues, then the MSM suggests that her Husband was really at fault. I suppose this 32 year old princess will be suffering from Pre marital depression or some other "ISSUE". Geez it must be nice to do all sorts of terrible things today and pass it off on some kind of ISSUE. If thge guy would have run off his only issue would be trying to get out of jail.
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