Bride-To-Be Was Faking It

Got Cold Feet, Needed Time Alone, She Tells Police

(CBS/AP)  Distressed, out of cash and in disguise, a missing Georgia bride-to-be turned up on a seedy stretch of Route 66 and told authorities Saturday she'd been abducted, then copped to the truth — she fled the pressure of her looming wedding.

Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, was picked up by police after a cross-country bus trip that took her through Las Vegas to a payphone outside an Albuquerque 7-Eleven where she called her fiance, John Mason, and 911 late Friday and said she had been freed by kidnappers.

As police began searching for the blue van she said her captors drove, an impromptu pre-dawn street party broke out outside the home Mason and Wilbanks shared.

But hours later, under questioning by police, Wilbanks admitted the road trip was voluntary.

She was "scared and concerned about her impending marriage and decided she needed some time alone," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said.

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's obviously very concerned about the stress that she's been through, the stress that's been placed on her family," Schultz said. "She is very upset."

Wilbanks, wearing a blue blazer and a pink striped blanket that completely covered her head, arrived at Albuquerque's main airport Saturday afternoon escorted by about 10 police officers to catch a flight back to Atlanta.

A throng of cameras and reporters shouted questions, but she did not respond, keeping her head down and moving briskly through a security checkpoint.