Runaway Bride & Walmart in India??
Well, it does not only happen in Julia Robert's movie...it happens in real life as well.
Jennifer Wilbanks fled from her house the week she was supposed to get married. It just took 2 hours for this news to gain media's attention, and in no minutes, this was the headline of every news channel all around the country. Be it CNN, MSNBC or CBS, they were all talking about the missing girl. It was suspected that she has been abducted and/or killed. The localities started searching for her along with the police. The first suspect for the police was her fiancé, since 70% of crimes in US (or maybe all around the world) are committed by the family members. However her fiancé took a polygraph and got out of the umbrella of suspicion. Many volunteers came forward to help in the search. The family offered a reward of $1 million to anyone who found her. Many restaurants in the town offered free food to all the volunteers. Fliers were distributed, pictures were put everywhere. The massive search costed almost 50,000 dollars to the local authorities.
Eventually Wilbanks called authorities from a pay phone in Albuquerque, New Mexico-thousands mile away from her home town in Georgia. She said that two people had abducted her and sexually assaulted her. She was flown back from there to her home town. When FBI started questioning her, she retracted her story several times. The FBI agents felt that the story was not credible, and finally Jennifer confessed that she just ran away because she got hot flashes for the wedding and she said that she was totally pressurized by the wedding day coming up. She was overwhelmed by the list of things she needed to get done before the wedding day,
Today, she was indicted by the grand jury. She is charged with a count of making false statements which is punishable by up to five years in prison, and a count of making a false report of a crime - an offense punishable by a year in jail.
Now what she thought was going to remain only between her and her family, is known to almost everyone in the country. So I guess you really have to think twice before taking any drastic steps – you might end up in jail!
Check this out:
http://people.indiatimes.com/quickies/msid-1122572.cms
Jennifer Wilbanks fled from her house the week she was supposed to get married. It just took 2 hours for this news to gain media's attention, and in no minutes, this was the headline of every news channel all around the country. Be it CNN, MSNBC or CBS, they were all talking about the missing girl. It was suspected that she has been abducted and/or killed. The localities started searching for her along with the police. The first suspect for the police was her fiancé, since 70% of crimes in US (or maybe all around the world) are committed by the family members. However her fiancé took a polygraph and got out of the umbrella of suspicion. Many volunteers came forward to help in the search. The family offered a reward of $1 million to anyone who found her. Many restaurants in the town offered free food to all the volunteers. Fliers were distributed, pictures were put everywhere. The massive search costed almost 50,000 dollars to the local authorities.
Eventually Wilbanks called authorities from a pay phone in Albuquerque, New Mexico-thousands mile away from her home town in Georgia. She said that two people had abducted her and sexually assaulted her. She was flown back from there to her home town. When FBI started questioning her, she retracted her story several times. The FBI agents felt that the story was not credible, and finally Jennifer confessed that she just ran away because she got hot flashes for the wedding and she said that she was totally pressurized by the wedding day coming up. She was overwhelmed by the list of things she needed to get done before the wedding day,
Today, she was indicted by the grand jury. She is charged with a count of making false statements which is punishable by up to five years in prison, and a count of making a false report of a crime - an offense punishable by a year in jail.
Now what she thought was going to remain only between her and her family, is known to almost everyone in the country. So I guess you really have to think twice before taking any drastic steps – you might end up in jail!
Check this out:
http://people.indiatimes.com/quickies/msid-1122572.cms
posted by mannat @ 5/25/2005 02:28:00 PM
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