Katie Couric interviews 'runaway bride'

Back in Georgia it was already the early morning hours of Saturday, April 30, the day she was to be married. She finally called John at home:

Wilbanks: Where's John? Where's John?
Stepfather: Right here.

Wilbanks: My stepfather answered the phone. And I mean he was just screaming with excitement and joy and he told me at that point, he said: "You don't know how many people are out there looking for you. You don't know, you know, what-- this has been a national search." And at that moment, I was like oh my gosh. And I just felt kind of backed into a corner at that moment. 

Jennifer says she no idea the search had been so big:

Mason: Baby, where are you?
Wilbanks: I don't know. (sobbing)

By the time John picked up the phone, Jennifer had concocted a cover story. As Georgia police listened in, she described how she had been kidnapped:

Wilbanks: A man and a woman had me.

Her stepfather told Jennifer to call police in Albuquerque to report the crime. Within moments, Jennifer had embellished her tale:

Wilbanks: It was a Hispanic man and a Caucasian woman. It happened in Duluth.
Dispatcher: And the man, was he black, white, Hispanic or Native American?
Wilbanks: Hispanic.
Dispatcher: About how old?
Wilbanks: About, I mean, I would say in their 40s maybe
Dispatcher: And what was his weight, do you think, approximately thin, heavy, medium build?
Wilbanks: It was medium build.

Back in Georgia, at first there was jubilation. She had been the victim of a kidnapping but released alive. By then though, Jennifer had told police even more disturbing details. She had been forced into a blue van and raped -- a heartbreaking story, but not a word of it was true. At Albuquerque police headquarters her story collapsed.

Wilbanks: I think that it just sort of clicked with me and it clicked with them that I wasn't telling the truth. I got really scared. I knew that I couldn't keep that up. I thought, there's going to be this manhunt out there for these people, and you know there's going to be this people that are wrongly accused because of me, and I felt horrible about that. 

Couric: At one point I know one of the detectives reportedly said, "We can stop looking for the van, right?" And you said yes… You know, how did you come up with that story?

Wilbanks: How? Maybe I watched too many cops and robbers movies. It is scary that it came so easy for me. That scares me to death. And I'm trying to figure out why it was so easy for me. 

Within a few hours, the truth became public.

Couric: How did you feel when you found out that Jennifer had made the whole thing up?

Mason: I was angry for about five minutes, and then I realized, well that's the best possible outcome. Because Wednesday morning, I guess, when everybody was gathering, we're like, all right. There's four outcomes to this. We either find her dead, we find her raped, we find her beat-up, or we found out she's just run away. I got the best one. We were all praying for God to bring her home, and he did.

But instead of walking down the aisle, Jennifer was soon walking the media gauntlet. It was April 30, what was supposed to be her wedding day.

Couric: Meanwhile, you're flying back from Albuquerque with a very different kind of veil.

Wilbanks: Yes.

Couric: What were you thinking? Were you terrified to face your fiancé and your family and all those people and the police and everyone who'd been searching high and low for you?

Wilbanks: I was terrified. I was humiliated. Hence, that's why I kept my face covered. And quite frankly, I didn't want to face them. I didn't want to. I was so ashamed. I just wanted to run away again, you know. If I could've gotten away, I probably would have.

But she says her running days are over. Now she's facing up to what happened and lifting the veil on what might have caused it.