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DULUTH, Ga. -- The hunt for Jennifer Wilbanks consumed this tight-knit town when she went missing four days before her wedding. Still, despite a safe return welcomed by family and close friends, some residents of this Atlanta suburb feel betrayed by what turned out to be an elaborate hoax.Volunteers searched woods and alleys, crawled in sewage drains and stayed up late looking for the 32-year-old local woman who initially told authorities that she had been abducted while jogging. Jennifer Wilbanks, is escorted off an airplane at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport Saturday, April 30, 2005 as she returns from New Mexico. Wilbanks, who had been missing since Tuesday night when she told her fiance she was going for her routine run, initially told authorities in New Mexico she had been kidnapped, but later acknowledged she left Georgia on her on, getting cold feet about her pending wedding that was to have had 600 guests. But Wilbanks was picked up late Friday by police in New Mexico after a cross-country bus trip that took her through Las Vegas, Nev., to Albuquerque, where she eventually admitted her kidnapping story was fabricated. When Duluth residents learned that Wilbanks ran away because she had cold feet, they thanked God she was safe _ then shook their heads at her act. "I'm glad that she's alive and OK, but it was a dirty trick," said Louise McCoy, waiting in line at the Duluth post office Saturday - the same day Wilbanks was supposed to be married in a lavish ceremony that included 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen. Police said there would be no criminal charges, although more than 100 officers led a search that involved several hundred volunteers, including many wedding guests and members of the bridal party. She was "scared and concerned about her impending marriage and decided she needed some time alone," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said. "She's obviously very concerned about the stress that she's been through, the stress that's been placed on her family." Wilbanks returned later Saturday by plane to Atlanta, where she was picked up in a squad car on the tarmac - with a towel covering her head - to avoid the media. There were no family members at the airport to greet her, but her stepfather and an uncle had flown to Albuquerque to escort her home, authorities said. Wilbanks decided to call her fiance and police with the story about the kidnapping when she found herself broke in Albuquerque, according to authorities. In her 911 call, Wilbanks sounds frantic and confused, telling an operator she was kidnapped from Atlanta by a man and a woman in their 40s who were driving a blue van. Through sobs, she tells the dispatcher they had a small handgun. At one point, the operator asks if Wilbanks knows what direction her captors went after dropping her off in Albuquerque. |
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http://www.allinfo-about.co.uk/graphics/bullet.gifConsequences: The Disappearance of Jennifer Wilbanks http://crime.allinfoabout.com/missing/wilbanks.jpghttp://crime.allinfoabout.com/missi...banks-mason.jpg[May 2, 2005] Jennifer Wilbanks, a 32-year-old Duluth, Georgia woman, disappeared on the evening of April 26, four days before she was scheduled to be married to John Mason. Following a three-day search (which included the inevitable suspicion cast on Mason, who took and passed a private polygraph test and was pressured to take another one given by a police expert), she phoned Mason from New Mexico to tell him she'd been kidnapped. She almost immediately changed her story, telling police she'd gotten pre-marital jitters and run off. This is where things stand now:
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'Runaway Bride' apologizes, says she was fleeing fears http://www.indystar.com/graphics/clear.gif By Andrew Metz Newsday The Georgia woman known to the nation as the Runaway Bride on Thursday offered a public apology for the frenzy she caused. Facing the threat of legal and financial retribution, Jennifer Wilbanks enlisted a family pastor to read a statement of contrition. Wilbanks insisted she had been excited about her nuptials but "had a host of compelling issues which seemed out of control." The 32-year-old medical assistant went on the lam last week, then turned up three days later in Albuquerque, N.M., claiming she had been abducted by a Hispanic man and a white woman. Her disappearance prompted a massive search and had been ascribed to second thoughts, but she said, "I assure you that my running away had nothing to do with 'cold feet.' " Without elaboration, she said she has "started professional treatment voluntarily." "I was simply running from myself and from certain fears controlling my life," she said in the statement read by the Rev. Thomas Smiley. Wilbanks' fabricated explanation riled Hispanic leaders, who said it reinforced unfair racial stereotypes. "What really speaks to me is that we were a plausible scapegoat for her," said Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the National Council of La Raza. "I am glad that there is at least recognition that there is something wrong with her latching onto an Hispanic male as her scapegoat. If that gets as much attention as her cross-country bus ride, I'd be happy." The mayor of Duluth, Wilbanks' hometown, is threatening to take her to court to recover as much as $60,000 spent in the search effort. Prosecutors are considering whether to charge her for making false statements. |
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Runaway Bride Pleads No Contest To Falsifying Abduction, Assault Associated Press Friday, June 3, 2005; Page A03 LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., June 2 -- Wearing her engagement ring and walking at her fiance's side, Jennifer Wilbanks made it to the courthouse on time Thursday. But she was not there to say "I do." Instead, the bride-to-be who skipped town before her wedding day tearfully pleaded no contest to faking her own abduction. http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-...enlarge_tab.gif http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...05060201912.jpg"I'm truly sorry," said Jennifer Wilbanks, left, with her attorney, Lydia Sartain. (By Ric Feld -- Associated Press) Free E-mail Newsletters
"I'm truly sorry for my actions, and I just want to thank Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth," said Wilbanks, 32. Judge Ronnie Batchelor sentenced her to two years' probation and 120 hours of community service as part of a plea bargain on a charge of making a false statement. He also ordered her to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff's office $2,550. That is in addition to the $13,250 Wilbanks previously agreed to pay the city of Duluth, Ga., to help cover the overtime costs incurred in searching for her. "She's done everything that we would ask of her," said her attorney, Lydia Sartain. "She has accepted responsibility." Wilbanks's relatives and her fiance had no comment. Wilbanks arrived at the courthouse in a casual, hooded black outfit and running shoes, with a new bobbed hairdo. Wearing a black suit, John Mason, the man she was supposed to have married April 30, was by her side as she strode past a crowd of reporters. After the sentencing, the lawyers approached the bench to discuss the case and Wilbanks sat alone at the defense table, hugging herself and sobbing quietly. Mason sat several rows behind her, watching in silence. The two did not share any words or glances as Wilbanks's attorney escorted her out a back door of the courtroom. District Attorney Danny Porter called the plea "a good resolution of the matter under all of the facts of the case and taking into consideration Ms. Wilbanks's prior criminal record." Wilbanks was convicted of shoplifting in the 1990s. Wilbanks disappeared from her Duluth home on April 26, four days before she was to be married at a lavish ceremony with 600 guests and 28 attendants. She cut her hair and climbed on a bus to Las Vegas and then went to Albuquerque. She called police three days later saying she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. She quickly recanted and said she fled because of unspecified personal problems. After returning home, she entered psychiatric treatment at an unspecified facility. |
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Originally Posted by forwardone
Judge Ronnie Batchelor sentenced Jennifer Wilbanks to two years' probation and 120 hours of community service as part of a plea bargain on a charge of making a false statement. He also ordered her to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff's office $2,550.
Geoff |
