CNN.com - Georgia bride-to-be fabricated abduction story - Apr 30, 2005
Georgia bride-to-be fabricated abduction story
Saturday, April 30, 2005 Posted: 7:50 AM EDT (1150 GMT)
(CNN) -- A Georgia woman, who was found in New Mexico early Saturday and who said she had been abducted, admitted today she had made up the story because she was nervous about her upcoming wedding, police said.
Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, had told them she had taken a bus to Las Vegas, Nevada, and on Saturday had taken another bus to New Mexico.
Earlier, Wilbanks had told family members and police that she had been abducted by a man and a woman in a van. She was to be married Saturday.
"Agents and detectives learned Miss Wilbanks had become scared and concerned about her pending marriage and decided she needed some time alone," Schultz said.
Schultz said no charges would be filed against Wilbanks, saying that would be up to authorities in Georgia.
Wilbanks called her fiance, John Mason, at his Duluth, Georgia, home from an Albuquerque pay phone at 1 a.m. EDT Saturday to say she had freed by two strangers who abducted her Tuesday night, Mason said.
Within minutes, Wilbanks was located by Albuquerque Police at a 7-Eleven convenience store.
Family members are expected to fly to Albuquerque Saturday morning to be with her.
Wilbanks, who was to be married to Mason in Duluth, was last seen by her fiance Tuesday night, when she left the home she shares with him for a jog about 8:30 p.m.
Earlier, Pastor Alan Jones, who was to preside at the wedding said Wilbanks told him her abductors "came up behind her, cut her hair and put her in a blue van," Jones said.
Among the clues found during the search that followed her disappearance was a clump of hair along the route she was believed to have been jogging. Ahrensfield, the Albuquerque Police spokeswoman, said it appeared Wilbanks hair had been cut.
Her father, Harris Wilbanks, said a new wedding date will be set after they talk to her.
He said Friday evening, the hours before learning his daughter was alive, was the lowest point of his life.
Disappearance drew national attention
News of Wilbanks' admission comes just hours after police in Georgia announced they would suspend their ground search for her, saying they've looked everywhere she may have been.
Her disappearance quickly drew national media attention, including talk show speculation sometimes comparing the story to that of Laci Peterson, the pregnant woman who disappeared from her Modesto, California, home on Christmas Eve, 2002. In that case, husband Scott Peterson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Wilbanks' fiance said he tried not to get upset about the media comparisons to the Peterson case since he knew her family had faith in him.
"I never worried that they were going to point their fingers at me," Mason said.
