Runaway Bride

[Karried]

Wow, can you believe this lady faked her kidnapping and split to avoid her wedding??


Her parents and fiance were so distraught, she needs serious help.

Do you think she should be charged for all of the police hours it took to search for her or do you think she should be pardoned?

[Keith]

Wow, can you believe this lady faked her kidnapping and split to avoid her wedding??


Her parents and fiance were so distraught, she needs serious help.

Do you think she should be charged for all of the police hours it took to search for her or do you think she should be pardoned?

She should be charged, because she broke the law by lying to the police about what happened to her. Plus, as you said, there were many police hours wasted on her search. If they don't charge her, then she should at least have to pay for the man hours that were used during her search. I feel for her husband....and her family, because this is such an embarrassment for them.

[Patrick]

Looks like she may be charged....

"Runaway Bride May Face Charges in Georgia By CHARLES ODUM, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 57 minutes ago



DULUTH, Ga. - On what was to be her wedding day, Jennifer Wilbanks wore not a white veil but an orange towel over her head to prevent the media from taking her picture. Instead of being led down the aisle by her father, she was led by police to an airplane that flew the runaway bride home.

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Now officials say the 32-year-old woman's cold feet may have gotten her in hot water. On Sunday, Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter vowed to look into whether she violated the law by reporting a crime that didn't exist.

Wilbanks initially told authorities she was abducted while jogging but later disclosed she took a cross-country bus trip to Albuquerque, N.M., to avoid her lavish, 600-guest wedding.

Porter said Wilbanks could face a misdemeanor charge of false report of a crime or a felony charge of false statements. The misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to a year in jail; five years in prison is the maximum sentence for the felony.

"If there's criminal responsibility, that's something I have to do something about," Porter said, adding that no decision would be made Sunday. "I think it's really going to depend on the circumstances on how this was done."

Meanwhile Sunday, members of Peachtree Corners Baptist Church, where Mason is a member, said prayers and expressed concern for Wilbanks and her fiance, John Mason, who did not attend services Sunday morning.

The Rev. Bob Horner thanked church members who had helped in the search for Wilbanks and provided support for family members.

"Number one, we are so thankful that Jennifer has been found," Horner told the congregation. "Number two, I want to publicly thank all of you who prayed and you who went to Duluth to be with the family."

An FBI spokesman said Saturday that Wilbanks apparently made a sudden decision to flee her looming wedding and did not realize hundreds of people were looking for her. But he also noted she cut her hair to avoid being recognized.

Porter said he would speak on Monday to police in Albuquerque, where Wilbanks turned up late Friday and called her fiance and 911 to report that she had been kidnapped.

Despite angry calls from some residents, authorities in Albuquerque said they had no plans to charge Wilbanks, though they haven't ruled out the possibility.

"We don't have to charge everybody," said Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Ahrensfield. "We have discretion. We are human beings. We have feelings and we are professional at the same time."

By all accounts, authorities in Albuquerque befriended the woman.

Wilbanks boarded her plane wearing a new FBI hat, blazer, polo shirt and pants and carrying a new tote bag and teddy bear, a gift from the aviation police chief. She flew first-class and said she planned to name the bear "Al," for Albuquerque.

"Law enforcement is really making a major move to deal with people in crisis," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schulz said Sunday. "Miss Wilbanks was definitely a person in crisis."

But the Gwinnett County district attorney noted that vast law-enforcement resources were used to look for the missing bride.

After she disappeared last week without her keys, wallet or diamond ring, more than 100 officers led a search that involved several hundred volunteers, including many wedding guests and members of the bridal party.

Porter said he had no jurisdiction over the woman's initial 911 call in Albuquerque, in which she told an operator she was kidnapped by a man and a woman in their 40s who were driving a blue van. Through sobs, she told the dispatcher they had a small handgun.

But Porter said Wilbanks could be charged for reporting her kidnapping story over the phone to Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher.

Last year, a Wisconsin college student who faked her own abduction and turned up curled in a fetal position in a marsh was given three years' probation for obstructing police and was ordered to repay police at least $9,000 for their search. "

[Patrick]

Jokingly, I keep telling Megan I'm going to be a run-away groom! lol! Guess that won't happen....Keith is one of my ushers and he'll track me down.

[Patrick]

Strangely, he still wants to marry her. Man, he must really love her. Gott agive him a pat on the back.

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"Groom Still Wants to Marry Runaway Bride

By CHARLES ODUM, Associated Press Writer


DULUTH, Ga. - The jilted groom whose bride-to-be ran away four days before their wedding still wants to marry fiancee Jennifer Wilbanks, saying, "Haven't we all made mistakes?"

"Just because we haven't walked down the aisle, just because we haven't stood in front of 500 people and said our I Do's, my commitment before God to her was the day I bought that ring and put it on her finger, and I'm not backing down from that," John Mason said Monday in an interview with Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" show.

It was Mason's first public statement since he learned on the morning of his scheduled wedding day that Wilbanks had gotten cold feet.

At an evening press conference Monday, Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher provided a chronology for Wilbanks' disappearance. He said Wilbanks bought a Greyhound bus ticket to Austin, Texas, a week before running away April 26. That day, she had a taxi pick her up at the local library and take her to the bus terminal in Atlanta.

She never made it to Austin, instead getting off in Dallas and buying a ticket to Las Vegas. She spent some time in Vegas, mostly hanging out at the bus station, before going to Albuquerque, N.M., authorities said.

It was in Albuquerque that she called Mason and police from a pay phone at a 7-Eleven, saying she had been kidnapped. She later said it simply was a case of having jitters ahead of the lavish, 600-guest wedding planned for Saturday.

Mason said he has given the 32-year-old Wilbanks her ring back — she had left it at the house — and said they still planned to marry. Wilbanks was wearing the ring during questioning Monday, authorities said.

"Some things need to happen first, and we need to talk about a few things and ... she needs some treatment, for lack of a better word," he said.

Mason and his fiancee's father, Harris Wilbanks, who also appeared on the show, said Jennifer Wilbanks is working on releasing a written statement.

"She just needs some space and some time," Mason said. "She just wants the whole world to know she's very, very sorry."

But if Mason and the family are ready to forgive the jittery bride, authorities are still peeved.

Authorities said they are looking into the possibility of suing Wilbanks for the estimated $40,000 to $60,000 cost of searching for her. That option would have to be approved by the city council. The groom's father, Claude Mason, is a former mayor of Duluth and a local judge.

"We feel a tad betrayed and some are very hurt about it," Mayor Shirley Lasseter said.

She added that they want to hear from Wilbanks' family, to see if perhaps there was a good reason for the woman's disappearance. "I would love to hear from the family and know there might have been a problem and know we should work with this lady on some recourse other than legally."

The local prosecutor said Monday he will conduct a thorough investigation, which could take weeks, before deciding whether to charge Wilbanks for falsely claiming she had been kidnapped.

District Attorney Danny Porter said Wilbanks could face a misdemeanor charge of false report of a crime or a felony charge of false statements. The misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to a year in jail; five years in prison is the maximum sentence for the felony.

Carter Brank, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Wilbanks "didn't come right out and apologize" when he interviewed her.

"She was somewhat remorseful for what she had done," he said. "She cried a little bit, showed some emotion."

Wilbanks' father said his daughter claims she did not know about all the media attention surrounding her disappearance. He said she did not see a television during her trip and only once read a newspaper, but it made no mention of her.

Mason appealed to the prosecutor not to bring charges.

"Her cutting her hair and getting on a bus and riding out of here ain't none of (prosecutor) Danny Porter's business," Mason said. "And that's not criminal as far as I'm concerned."

[Midtowner]

Patrick -- look at him, and then look at her.

At least physically speaking, she is hot, physically speaking, he is not.

I'm not sure what the relationship is, but as far as she's concerned, I'd hit it. Without question.