To the Editors:

GDO Editorial

From an article at Fox News titled Search for Bride-to-Be Now a Criminal Probe - emphasis has been added:
(John Mason) said that after an hour passed, he went looking for her on foot and then checked area hospitals. He called police 2 to 3½ hours after she left the house, he said.

The following is from a transcript of John Mason's interview with Greta Van Susteren on her nightly show on Fox, On the Record:
VAN SUSTEREN: At what point did you finally think, Oh, my God, she's missing? How long was she gone?

MASON: She was gone about an hour and 45 minutes. I didn't figure she would be out there that long. It just didn't feel right. So I hopped in the car and started driving around the different routes that I know that she could have gone. You know, she didn't really know her way down around here as well as, of course, she does back in her hometown, so she's still learning. So I went the basic routes, and then I checked a little park up town, and then finally, I wound up at the emergency room about 11:30-ish -- 11:15, 11:30 -- just to check and see if anybody there had seen anybody fitting her description.

John Mason's fiancee, Jennifer Wilbanks, disappeared Tuesday night, April 26, 2005. What you have just read above represents at least one discrepancy in the tale he has told about his initial worries and subsequent search for Jennifer before calling authorities.

Even in pleasant and safe suburban Duluth, Georgia, even at this time of the year, with the sun setting later, 8:30 p.m. seems rather late for a woman to go jogging alone. Heat was not a factor - at least one online message board already actively discussing this case questioned the reports of Wilbanks wearing sweatclothes - but this week has been extremely cool for Georgia in late April.

John Mason could be utterly innocent of all wrongdoing, though a discrepancy like the one outlined above is troubling. The culprit could simply be inaccurate reporting in the news article, but the transcript is Mason's own words.

Another mild discrepancy is Mason's recounting of Jennifer leaving to run. He stated she told him she'd be gone about 40 minutes, which would have had her home shortly after 9 p.m. In one news report he stated he became worried when she wasn't back by 10, another when she wasn't back by 10:30. Again, possibly just errors in reportage. However posters to those various crime-related message boards have been continually picking apart Mason's behavior in various interviews, as well as asking why Mason and Wilbanks did not run together, considering their mutual interest in the sport. Evaluations of Mason's demeanor in interviews such as the one he gave to Greta Van Susteren tend to find him lacking in affect, a quality noted early in the Scott and Laci Peterson case [Google search] - that is, people seem to think he is not upset enough for the situation.

Whether Mason is innocent or not, there are recent reports about possible evidence found that are ominous. The following is also from a Fox News article:
DULUTH, Ga. — Searchers looking for a missing Georgia woman who was to be married this weekend found a clump of hair Thursday, and authorities were working to see if a DNA match existed.

Additionally, police have now asked John Mason if he will take the lie detector test he offered to take early in the investigation. He has stated that he will let them know by 1 p.m. on Friday, April 29. Thursday evening Fox News reported two computers were removed from John Mason's natural wood-sided house on a quiet side road in Duluth.

Jennifer Wilbanks is 5'8", about 120 lbs. She has dark hair and dark eyes, and was last seen wearing a blue sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. As of the evening of Thursday, April 28, civilian searches were called off and law enforcement was still investigating.

Steve Huff blogs at The Dark Side.

Story posted to BNN 4/28/2005 7:30:12 PM