As my commenters indicated, no crime was committed (it seems) until she filed the false police report.  I’m disgusted enough by that act to say nail her for anything you can.  And if that man is dumb enough to still marry someone who is clearly a nutter, well, no sympathy for him either.

Most people, when they need time to think, don’t jump a bus across the country without telling anyone and then fabricate a story… they sit on the toilet, or sit quietly in a room, or go for a walk outside… other people, however, are idiots.

She didn’t try to trick us at first, so she can’t be blamed for our distress or the huge searches. As Andy says, there is no evidence that this was a conscious hoax until she called the New Mexico police, and that was long after the huge searches had already been completed.

She should be charged with filing a false report, fined, and given some community service. Her fiance should dump her, too, but that’s obviously up to him.

I generally agree with Matt and Andy. I have no sympathy for her and even less for the fiance if he goes through with the wedding. She should only face whatever pentalties come from filing the false report and then the rest of us should go back to ignoring her.

But, good God, no sympathy for the woman.

She should only face whatever pentalties come from filing the false report...

My fear is that she’ll be given a ‘ditzy-blonde damsel in distress’ pass and walk away from this without understanding some basic rules of polite society—don’t say you’re in fear for your life, when you’re not.

I think that at 32 years old, she is too old to be so embarrassed about walking out on her wedding that she thinks it acceptable to blame it on a Hispanic kidnapper. Which is, I guess, what really has me upset. She couldn’t do the adult thing, and so blamed somebody else.

I think the fact that she cut her hair before boarding that bus is telling. She knew she was going to be looked for so she altered her appearance in attempts to be incognito. For that premeditation, for lying to the police, for wasting the time and effort of volunteers, for costing the taxpayers $$$ to find a woman who was never really lost...nail her.

I don’t think cutting her hair screams, “I’ve been kidnapped!” It just says, “I don’t want to be found.” If she’d left her hair long would the search have cost any less or been shorter? No.

It’s ridiculous to charge her for a hoax she didn’t mean to commit. It’s no crime for someone to get scared and run away and not want to be found.

It’s no crime for someone to get scared and run away and not want to be found.

Yeah, but it is a crime to say you were kidnapped and then to describe one of the kidnappers.

I have no problem with an adult running away. Is it a crime, though, when they use the police to cover their tracks?

How did she not mean to commit a hoax, Matt? She called 911 and said she’d been kidnapped buy a caucasian female and hispanic male (interracial couples everywhere thank her, I’m sure).

She was free to run as is anyone...but making her disappearance appear mysterious (at night, no ID)and then lying about what happened surely seems like a hoax to me.

Oh, note to Remy...your Utah girl (if you are thinking of Brooke Wilberger) who went to Oregon for a “summer job” actually grew up here; her parents live in a neighboring rural town. Everyone here still has “find Brooke” taped in their car windows and written on bracelets...but seems there are still no credible leads. She’s been missing a year this month.

Jo - You based your need for punishment on the “premeditation” and the expense of the search. I think the hoax portion of this was not premeditated (she didn’t mean for people to think she was kidnapped when she ran) and that 911 call, which is the only crime I see that she committed, was done well after the search was already winding down.

She never meant it to look like a kidnapping. I think she got her wits together, realized her fiance might get charged with murder, and panicked. That’s when she made up the Hispanic kidnapping story. There was no premeditation, and her she committed no deliberately fraudulant acts until the 911 call.

Let me put it this way: If she’d run away, we freaked out and searched for her, then she called up and told the truth, would you want her in prison? We would have spent the same amount of money, everyone would have worried just as much, we just would have known she wasn’t kidnapped a few hours earlier. Is that few hours of lies enough to toss her in jail?

well, for a day or so, maybe. 

I am thinking more in terms of restitution, personally.

Is that few hours of lies enough to toss her in jail?

Yes.

I agree with your point, Matt, that until the 911 call she hadn’t committed a crime. But, the 911 call had much more impact than just a bride fleeing the altar. She could have easily said that she wasn’t missing and not in trouble. The kidnapping story was much more complex and required much more thought. Especially the depth she went to to make it plausible.

Being stupid is not an excuse for committing a criminal act.

I don’t get it. The 911 call was after the searches were already called off. And she didn’t make up the kidnapping story, she just copied what she heard on CNN. There was no premeditation and none of her actions directly caused any damage to anyone but her fiance.

One other way to see it. Suppose she’d disappeared and no one noticed for a week, then she called up and claimed to have been kidnapped but recanted four hours later. In that case no one would have been hurt. In fact, we probably never would have heard of her.

I think the hoax portion of this was not premeditated (she didn’t mean for people to think she was kidnapped when she ran)...

Then charge her with criminal stupidity. How could she not have known that a woman who disappears while jogging would be the subject of a search and a police investigation? Good Lord, it sounded almost exactly like Laci Peterson’s disappearance.

Well, after almost 2 days I have finally thought of the words that express my feelings better than everything else I’ve written.

When Jennifer dialed 911 and claimed to be kidnapped, she gamed the system for personal advantage. Which, in this case, was to get herself out of a bad situation she had created.

Jennifer violated our trust. That’s why I’m upset and want to see her either do time, pay a fine, or get community service. We can’t let people go around thinking that 911 is how you get out of an embarrassing situation. I’ll be upset if she doesn’t go before a judge. After that I’ll accept whatever the judge’s decision is.