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Run Away Bride

As many of you may know, there was a woman in Georgia who disappeared last week just days before her wedding. Huge manhunt, she turns up days later claiming kidnapping and then almost immediately admits she just had cold feet.

Her fiance is sticking by her.

Everyone was praying for her safe return and searching for her. Now, it seems, they all want to kill her. Would we have been happier if she had been found dead?

Yes, money was spent searching for her, but leaving without telling anyone isn't a crime. So the search would have happened even if she hadn't made the false claim in the end. She very quickly recanted her story so why the rush to find some excuse to charge her criminally?

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One of the articles I read, the police investigator said that they felt "betrayed" by her -- not just that she lied about being kidnapped, but that she disappeared in the first place and let everyone believe she was in some kind of trouble. Three days of huge manhunts was expensive -- they are at least considering financial recourse for the cost of the man hours.

Of course, the agony of her family and loved ones, and even the sadness of complete strangers who felt moved by her story, cannot be compensated for. It was foolish on her part, but I think her family ought to be relieved that she's alive.

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See that is it exactly. We feel betrayed, but what did she do to betray us? I doubt she left expecting a huge manhunt to ensue. She likely just wanted to get away. It is extreme to leave without telling anyone, but it isn't illegal. I imagine once she realized what had happened she panicked. Hence the kidnapping story.

Yes, it was expensive to search for her, but that is what law enforcement does. Again, she had every legal right to simply disappear.

I think we all were so worried, that when she turned up unharmed we felt like we had been used. In reality, we were not used. We worried, we prayed, we searched. Turns out she was fine. Why does it then need to become an issue where we need to punish her for our concern for her well-being? I think everyone should just rejoice in her safety.

Bride Run

As a tax payer, I don't appreciate the use of my hard earned money to be used to fund a search effort for some coward woman who had no nerve to stand up to her family and soon-to-be husband. If she did not want to get married, she should have just said so and be done with it. I was on the verge of having a really large wedding, and I backed out a few months early... and I'm glad I did... it would not have worked. But this woman has faked her own kidnapping! And the feds were actually thinking of not charging her - can you believe that? Yes.. people do have the right to disappear, but not in the manner in which this woman did. In recent reports, I have heard she may be charged. I hope she owns up and takes responsiblity for what she did. I feel sorry for the family that has had to live through this embarrassing ordeal.

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She didn't really fake her own kidnapping. She left. A big scene was created. She likely panicked and then when she called she claimed to have been kidnapped at first, but rather quickly recanted her story.

It isn't a matter of appreciating the expenditure. It is a matter of what crime was committed. If she had simply called home and said I am in New Mexico, I just needed to get away, they would not be able to charge her with anything. Even so, the search would have taken place, money still would have been spent. So, I see the charging of her as simply as way to try to save face. That is why I don't agree with it.

Run Away Bride

Even though I detest what she did, it is true to say that no crime was committed. If anything, have her pay the costs that went into the search, especially since her disappearance was pre-meditated. There was an earlier incident in Wisconsin, I believe, where a college student did the same thing, and she was forced to pay the expenses incurred in her search and rescue efforts. A public apology is also in order, in my opinion.

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I think a public apology would be too much for this girl. She couldn't even face her own family and fiance -- the most important people in her life -- to express her fears about her marriage; how is she going to face the world and apologize? Personally, I think it would go a long way toward appeasing law enforcement and "the public," but I doubt she'll do it.

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A public apology will probably be more than she can handle. I just can't imagine going through with something like that. I have read that this woman comes from a wealthy family, so her having to pay the cost of the search efforts and investigations is probably a drop in the bucket.