She fled across the country, rather than walk down the aisle with him -- but Jennifer Wilbanks' fiance still wants to marry her.
As John Mason puts it, "Haven't we all made mistakes?"
Wilbanks was reported missing last Tuesday -- and it was feared she'd been kidnapped, or worse. But after she turned up in New Mexico Friday night, it turned out she'd simply gotten cold feet about her weekend wedding.
Mason tells "Hannity and Colmes" on Fox that even though he and Wilbanks haven't said their "I do's," his commitment was made the day he bought her ring. He says "I'm not backing down from that."
A Georgia prosecutor says when a bride-to-be hopped a Greyhound a few days before her wedding, it may not have been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said there's evidence that Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, planned her disappearance last week. He told she may have purchased her bus ticket ahead of time, and set aside some cash.
Wilbanks turned up in New Mexico Friday night, at first claiming she'd been kidnapped, but then admitting she'd just run off as her wedding approached.
A police spokesman said Monday that officials are still trying to decide what charges -- if any --should be brought against Wilbanks.
Porter is checking to see whether she broke the law by reporting a crime that did not exist. He said he would speak to police in New Mexico Monday as he considers whether to file charges against her.
"I'll know tomorrow whether I can," Porter said Sunday. "If I can, it may take me a while to decide if I will."
New Mexico authorities have said they don't plan to charge Wilbanks.
The charges potentially would stem from Wilbanks reporting her kidnapping story on the phone to Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher. She told the chief that she was abducted Tuesday by a white woman and a Hispanic man in a blue van.
After hours of questioning by Albuquerque police, Wilbanks confessed that she faked the kidnapping and took a bus to Las Vegas and then Albuquerque.
"I don't know whether the receipt of the call here gives us jurisdiction," Porter said. "If it doesn't, we're done. But if it does, then the next step will be to decide whether or not this is a case that justifies prosecution. That's going to be a harder decision."
Wilbanks also could be facing some heavy-duty bills.
The mayor of Duluth, Ga., Shirley Lasseter, said she is looking into the possibility of suing Wilbanks to recover the cost of the search undertaken after her disappearance. Lasseter puts the cost of that effort at $100,000.
Lasseter wants to hear from Wilbanks' family to see if there should be some other "recourse."
Wilbanks returned to Georgia Saturday night. Neither she nor fiance made any public comment on Sunday.
Her disappearance prompted an extensive search. After she reappeared, many Duluth residents said she should be held responsible for the cost.
"I've never seen anything like this," Porter said. "When I went to bed on Friday night, I thought we might be working an abduction-homicide. At two o'clock when they called me and said she'd been found, I was surprised, and then once I heard the story I was skeptical."
On Sunday at the church where Mason is a member, worshipers prayed for the couple and expressed their concerns.
Runaway Bride Leaves Albuquerque With Gifts, New Clothes
Wilbanks arrived in Albuquerque on a Greyhound bus with nothing but the clothes on her back, but she returned home in a first-class airplane seat paid for by her family. She carried souvenirs and sported a new wardrobe courtesy of Albuquerque authorities.
Albuquerque Aviation Police Department Chief Marshall Katz said his paternal instinct kicked in. He gave Wilbanks a teddy bear to keep her mind off things.
Katz said Wilbanks clutched his arm tightly as he and a small army of officers led her through a media frenzy to a waiting plane over the weekend.
Wilbanks put the bear in her new tote bag -- which along with her blazer, knit pants and meals -- came from the Victim's Services Unit. She also wore an FBI polo shirt and cap.
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