What should happen to runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks?

That’s certainly the talk of the town in Georgia, so AJC.com is using a “Talk of the Town” blog to solicit reader’s opinions.

May 4, 2005 by
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COMMENTS

  • Linda

    I would hope her fiance dumps her. She did an incredibly selfish thing and has not yet apologized. What a spoiled brat! As far as facing charges, I think her humiliation is punishment enough. Plus she’s a VERY ugly human being (marble eyes) and a long horse-face so it’s obvious her fiance can do better in more ways than one.

  • anna

    We don not have the right to critisize the runaway bride Jennifer. Some people knows what to do and some not. So she had already appologize through her lawyer and people have to accept that. Everybody can do things that are not good, but we have to thank god that she is alive.

  • mary

    I don’t think the community service should be making her provide medical assistance at community events. She should have to wear a name tag that says run-away bride, so people can decline medical assistance. :)

  • lynn

    Why should the taxpayers take on the burden of her personal “Drama Moments?” She should be arrested and charged for lying to the police. The state should get a judgement againist her to pay the fees to cover her little adventure. She did this to herself. She made the choice to run away and lie.People have to be responible for there actions.When our schools and libarys are begging for funds…..why should we waste money on a immature thirty-two year old twit that care nothing about the time or money she wasted. JAIL HER.

  • MizLiz

    Well, at least she’s making some sort of restitution. From what I’ve read, her ex-fiance was there in the courtroom, but never said a word to her. I think that’s over, and he’s a lucky guy to dodge that bullet. The woman is certainly unstable, and I would think has some sort of thyroid problem. Not a good bet for marriage…looks like Mom & Dad are stuck with her.

  • Janet

    Better for Jennifer to fall into the hands of an angry God for her punishment than to be eaten alive by some of your comments alone. At least God has mercy on people who make mistakes. I too believe she should make restitution, but I hardly think hearing and reading slurs about her physical appearance is appropriate restitution .

  • Joanna

    Her crime should be treated as just that, a crime. Sabrina Zerycki, who also filed a flase felony police report, is paying for her crime, why shouldn’t Jennifer too? Put her butt in jail where she belongs, just like anyone else who broke the law.

  • susanilcheff

    I know welfare mothers that work hard and are honest. They will never be worth $500,000 even for a lifetime of goodness and hard work. She should be required to donate that money to a charity maybe a hispanic one. She is a greedy, dishonest person and now our crazy media system will be rewarding that behavior. Does that make you sick?

  • beth

    I agree that she should pay restitution, but I must ask, what does donating to a “hispanic” charity have anything to do with this case?

  • Donna Martin

    I think she should apologize to the hispanic people for not only saying she was kinapped by a hispanic man, but she went the extra mile by saying she was raped by that same man. That was about as low as it gets. She could have said she didn’t know who did it, he wore a mask, and she could have done without the rape.

    Didn’t she think kidnapping was bad enough? This woman definately needs medical help. I agree that the money she makes from any movie, etc., should be donated to some type of charity. This would show she truly is sorry for her careless and selfish actions.

  • Dana

    Inpatient psychiatric treatment is definetly not enough. I saw the Couric interview on TV last night. If her boyfriend stays with her after everything that she did, he is as pathetic as she is. She lied to the Police, caused a lot of people a lot of heartache and then made up some Susan Smith story? She really belongs in prison so she can, “Work out her issues.” She has no place in this society.

  • Mick

    She’s a spoiled BRAT!!! She has never been responsible for her actions because Rich daddy has bailed her out all her life. The Couric interview showed her with a smirky grin when she was asked certain questions. I have no sympathy for her. She needs to grow up.

  • Ellen Richbell

    Jennifer Wilbanks should be treated as any other criminal who lies and then retracts their statements at the cost of taxpayers’ dollars. Financial restitution isn’t enough in this case. She should be forced to do a lot of community work and own up to the harm she has caused. Responsibility is a lesson she hasn’t yet learned. While she is receiving psychiatric help now, it will probably need to be a lifelong treatment in her case. Why does society make excuses for some and not for others? There has to be a demand for justice and equality of punishment.

  • t hamilton

    I cannot believe the insensitivity to this girl. Obviously theres a lot of the population who have “not” suffered from severe depression. I can relate to the state of mind “or lack of” that she was feeling at the time. The girl needs help and i’m glad shes getting it. No, I don’t condone the suffering she put family and friends not to mention the public through but being in the state of mind that she was i’m sure that thought never entered her mind. Her depression
    led to desperation, and desperate people do uncharacteric things.

  • p curtis

    I totally agree with what t hamilton said. I am one of the few who understand why Jennifer did what she did. She obviously had problems & when something goes untreated like that, your cup runneth over eventually and that is exactly what happened to her. Thank God she is finally getting help. If more people understood mental illness, they would agree with us.

  • Ainsley Jo Phillips

    I can tell you what I think certainly should NOT happen to her:

    She shouldn’t marry her fiance out of feeling some sort of guilt or obligation!

    I don’t believe that she’s really in love with him and just, somehow, got on this marriage merry-go-round and didn’t know how to tell someone to stop it so she could get off–so, the did the equivalent of jumping off the merry-go-round with her notorious bus trip.

    Jennifer shouldn’t make any really major decisions at this time.

    She should simply do her community service and, then, go somewhere (a state or two or more away from Duluth, GA would be a great idea) and think her life over in an environment that will give her some space from the pressures of high, Southern society.

    Perhaps, she should volunteer at some sort of mission–such as in the Apalachian Mountains. She could do that in exchange for room and board–or, since she seems to be well-fixed, she could pay for her own room and board.

    Doing this would make a positive difference in the lives of those people she would be helping–and would also give her a better sense-of-self.

    Something else that I hope isn’t happening to her is some sort of pill regiment where she is a patient.

    She doesn’t need to be lobotomized with neuroleptics such as thorazine, navane, etc.

    She has, obviously, been in a kind of people-pleaser prison for a lifetime, and she doesn’t need to add a pill prison to that!

    She needs to remember that she doesn’t “have” to get married by a certain time in her life.

    I’ve heard of women even being in their eighties when they marry for the first time, and the quality time they end up having runs circles around the quantity time endured by some people who have taken the plunge even with red flags going up in their souls.

    As for myself, I’m 52 and still single.

    In spite of this, I’m a hopeless romantic and hope that marriage to Mr. Right-For-Me is still in my future somewhere.

    But, at this time, I don’t really feel ready to take that step, because I have other priorities.

    And I would rather die as a 100 year old “spinster” than to spend the rest of my life feeling “trapped” in a situation that doesn’t feel right to me.

    I don’t know if my eyes would get big and round should something like this happen, but I would definitely feel like a deer trapped in the headlights.

    John Mason will also do better for himself if and when he finds someone who can imagine waking up next to him fifty years from now and still feeling joy instead of someone who would wish that the marriage never happened.

    I have a friend whose wife has left him at least twice and has talked about it even more.

    They are approaching threescore and ten and have been trapped for over forty years in a marriage that, save for their children, never should have happened.

    Both of them have dealt with mental-illness, thanks to this, with the wife even having to be hospitalized on several occasions and being medicated the rest of the time.

    John! Jennifer has done you a favor, along with doing herself a favor!

    I wish both of you the very best, and you have my prayers!