The runaway bride case was the case of Jennifer Carol Wilbanks (born March 1, 1973), an American woman who ran away from home on April 26, 2005, in order to avoid her wedding with John Mason, her fiancé, on April 30. Her disappearance from Duluth, Georgia, sparked a nationwide search and intensive media coverage, including some media speculation that Mason had killed her. On April 29, Wilbanks called Mason from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and falsely claimed that she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a Hispanic male and a white woman.
Wilbanks gained notoriety in the United States and internationally, and her story persisted as a major topic of national news coverage for some time after she was found and her safety was assured. Many critics of the mass media attacked this as a "media circus". Howard Kurtz, an influential media critic for the Washington Post and CNN-TV, wrote that the runaway bride had become a "runaway television embarrassment," and he compared the story to a TV soap opera.[1]
Wilbanks's repeating of the false claims to investigating police officers resulted in a felony indictment against her of giving false information to the police, a charge that could have resulted in up to five years of imprisonment. On June 2, 2005, Wilbanks pleaded no contest to this charge. As part of her plea bargain, she was sentenced to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service, and she was also ordered to pay $2,250 in restitution to the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department. Also as part of the plea bargain, a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report was dismissed. Wilbanks's criminal record was expunged after she successfully completed her period of probation.
On March 15, 2008, Wilbanks's ex-fiancé, John Mason, married another woman, Shelley Martin, in a quiet ceremony at his parents' home in Duluth, Georgia.[2]
Contents |
Since this story had become nationally newsworthy as a search for a possibly kidnapped or murdered bride, it lost some of its importance when it was discovered that Wilbanks had merely run away. However, the coverage by some reporters and news outlets continues, discussing issues such as:
Major Donald L. Woodruff of the City of Duluth's Police Department was the department's Public Information Officer who kept the press advised on the events surrounding the case.
On May 22, 2006, People magazine reported that Wilbanks and Mason had officially called off their engagement.
According to the BBC, Jennifer Wilbanks sold the media rights to her story to a New York City company for $500,000.[6] Wilbanks did not offer to repay the whole cost of the search for her, which totaled almost $43,000.
In September 2006, Wilbanks filed a lawsuit against her ex-fiancé, claiming that while she was hospitalized and under medication, she granted Mason power of attorney to negotiate the sale of the couple's story to a publisher in New York. According to her, Mason negotiated a deal for $500,000 and then used the money to buy a house, in his name only, from which he later evicted Wilbanks. She claimed $250,000 as her share of the house, and another $250,000 in punitive damages. Mason countersued, claiming emotional distress from being left at the altar. In December 2006, both of the parties dropped their respective lawsuits.[7] In June 2010, Wilbanks announced via Facebook that she had been dating twice-divorced landscaper Greg Hutson since early in 2009.[8]
Wilbanks has inspired a "Runaway Bride" action figure and a hot sauce called "Jennifer's High Tailin' Hot Sauce." An auction on eBay of a slice of toast carved with a likeness of Wilbanks closed with a winning bid of $15,400.[9]
Nearly two years after Wilbanks ran away, the incident was used by the Albuquerque Police Department as a means of attracting new recruits to the police force. This police department used the image of a bride in a white wedding dress and veil being apprehended by Police Officer Trish Hoffman, posted on a billboard with the advertisement reading "Running away from your current job? Call APD Recruiting" followed by the police department's telephone number. Hoffman was the officer who was pictured in the media leading Wilbanks through the Albuquerque, N.M., airport after being taken into custody. The Police Department's reasoning for using the image was the fact that many people would recognize the reference to the incident and that people still talked about Ms. Wilbanks.[10]
A musical play based on the story of Jennifer Wilbanks opened on March 13, 2008 at the Red Clay Theater in Duluth, Georgia.[11]
A photo of Wilbanks appears in the trailer of the 2008 movie about professional poker, The Grand, as one of the many women Woody Harrelson's character has been married to in the past.[12]