She's Alive!

It's great to be able to say that. Jennifer Wilbanks, the Duluth GA bride-to-be, went for a jog on Tuesday evening and never returned. Of course, the first thing everyone thought was that she had been abducted. I know that's what I thought.

Jennifer apparently had bought a bus ticket to Las Vegas and then to Albuequerque New Mexico where she called 911 to report that she had been abducted. Later she admitted to authorities in Albuequerque that she had not been abducted at all, but just got cold feet. She talked to her family and fiance. Her step-father and, I believe, an aunt, are on the way to Albuequerque to take her back to Georgia.

Some are saying she should be prosecuted for filing a false report in Albuequerque. Some are saying that she should be civilly sued for the cost of manpower that local Georgia authorities expended in the search for her. Normally, I would be right there with them, saying that she has to "pay" for what she's done. I'm not so sure. Let's wait and see what is going on here. I have a feeling that there may be issues beyond just "cold feet." Ok, I'm saying that there might be some mental issues here; maybe she wasn't in her "right mind" and Jennifer may not be entirely responsible for her actions. Maybe she is. I'm just saying, let's give Jennifer, her fiance, and her family and friends some time. Let's give the authorities involved time to decide their actions.

After the tragedies that befell young girls in Florida over the last couple of months, I, for one, am glad to be able to write the words, "She's Alive!"

Let's enjoy that fact for awhile before we start vilifying her.

Update: I heard a talking head on Fox asking a guest how she could go from Georgia to Nevada to New Mexico and not know that she was a national news story. Why didn't other riders know about her? The answer? The few times I've been on bus, I didn't read newspapers and there was no TV. People tend to be involved in their own lives on buses and don't pay alot of attention to other riders. She had changed her appearance somewhat (cut her hair for one). If someone paid attention to her, the odds are that they thought she looked familiar and left it at that. And finally, when you are travelling by your own vehicle or commercially by plane, bus, train, or however, do you expect to see someone in the national news who statistically should be dead?