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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Special Edition: Hoaxes
Aired May 02, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Tonight we begin with a simple fact, my friend, people who are facing embarrassing or awkward situations, sometimes plain and simple, make bad decisions. Dr. Phil was just talking about that. And as a result other people can get hurt. Usually these dramas, thankfully play out in private. But over the last six days the saga of Jennifer Wilbanks has unfolded in the most public way, starting with one story and ending up as something completely different.
She isn't the first bride-to-be to get cold feet. So why then the uproar? We'll spend the next hour on her story and other fantastic tales. In some cases the media and police were fooled, at least for a while. We begin with the young woman who seemed to have it all and CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If Jennifer Wilbanks was unhappy, it was very deeply hidden.
MIKE SATTERFIELD, UNCLE: Very happy and very festive about what all was going on. And that was the mood. And she was Jennifer. She was a smile from ear to ear. You see a picture with Jennifer smiling, that's not a pose. That's her natural personality.
ZARRELLA: The brunette with the ear-to-ear grin, Wilbanks grew up in Gainesville, a serene Georgia town on the banks of the Chatahuchi River (ph). A cheerleader and a cross country runner, someone you remember says teacher Jim Lofton.
JIM LOFTON, TEACHER: Vivacious, you know, full of life, involved.
ZARRELLA: In a way, Wilbanks ran into the arms of John Mason, another runner. A meeting that was, like most of her life, part of a web of loving friends and relatives. John Mason's father told Nancy Grace about an introduction made by an aunt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says, oh, I've got a niece that runs a marathon. They might have something in common. My wife said, don't do it. Don't do it. I don't want you to play matchmaker. But she did anyway. And they hit it off immediately.
ZARRELLA: Mason came from a prominent well-heeled medical family with deep roots in the nearby town of Duluth. Everybody there knows the name Mason. CHERYL HENNING, DULUTH RESIDENT: John's grandfather delivered me in the hospital here in Duluth.
ZARRELLA: The 32-year-old Wilbanks had a good job as a medical assistant, commuted daily. She seemed in love and was planning to get married.
(on camera): Jennifer Wilbanks appeared to have everything. Duluth, Georgia, is an idyllic southern town, all about community and family. And a relationship appeared to be everything she wanted. The church wedding would be special. Indeed, it would be spectacular, 600 invited guests, 14 bridesmaids, two families who could afford to spoil their children. But was it too much too fast?
MELINDA LARSON, MASON'S FRIEND: No deep dread. Stress, absolutely. Weddings are extremely challenging, overwhelming. A wonderful occasion, but tend to consume your time, your life and all of your energy in the actual planning. So stress is a definite.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): But to friends and family, the young woman with the ear-to-ear grin kept smiling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our top story at 11:00, a family prepares for a prayer vigil in place of a wedding.
ZARRELLA: Tuesday Wilbanks went jogging and did not return. Frantic calls were placed to anyone who might know where Jennifer had gone. Very quickly, worry evolved to fullout panic. The search was on.
MAJOR DON WOODRUFF, DULUTH POLICE: We started by interviewing family and friends and trying to backtrack her movements and see what was going on in her life.
ZARRELLA: The tightly knit community dropped everything to join in the search for Jennifer. The owners of the park cafe...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The least we could do was provide food and water, you know for the volunteers.
ZARRELLA: And a meal for Wilbanks' mother and step-father who came in for a few moments of peace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came in with one of the sheriffs just to get away from everything and relax. You could just see the anguish and despair on their face. And it was very sad.
ZARRELLA: In days, the small town of Duluth was searched end to end. Nothing. Police began to wonder.
RANDY BELCHER, DULUTH POLICE CHIEF: That's a very good possibility that she did get cold feet and run off. You know, how many husbands have gone out to get a pack of cigarettes and never come back home?
ZARRELLA: But this was a woman who was completely happy. Everyone said so. So the search continued, flyers went out, posters went up. The bridegroom questioned, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He stated in the beginning of the investigation that he would voluntarily submit to a polygraph.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My son took a polygraph examination this morning, a private one. He passed.
ZARRELLA: Together, the families put up a $100, 000 reward.
HARRIS WILBANKS, FATHER: We love Jennifer very much. We would give our life and everything that we own to have her returned.
ZARRELLA: By week's end, a day before she was to be married the mystery and the misery deepened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, please call us. I've got on your shirt that you gave me for father's day. And I'd love to walk you down the aisle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Albuquerque 911 operator 44, what is your emergency?
JENNIFER WILBANKS: I'm at the -- I don't know where I am. I'm right here (INAUDIBLE) Street at the 7-Eleven.
ZARRELLA: From a pay phone at a 7-eleven in Albuquerque, more than 1,200 miles from her emotionally shattered family, Wilbanks called 911.
WILBANKS: I was kidnapped earlier this week. And I'm here now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your name, ma'am?
WILBANKS: Jennifer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you hurt, Jennifer? Do you need medical attention?
WILBANKS: No, I don't need any medical attention.
ZARRELLA: She also called home, collect.
JOHN MASON, FIANCE: I was crying, I was laughing. I was trying to stay calm to talk to her to keep her calm.
ZARRELLA: New hope that life would return to normal, that everything could be as it was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's invited to the wedding. I'm not sure when it is going to be or -- like I say, we're going to get Jennifer home and make sure she's okay. And then we'll go from there.
ZARRELLA: Then another twist in the story. Wilbanks admitted to police she had lied.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At approximately 4:00 a.m.this morning, Ms. Wilbanks informed agents that she had not been abducted as she had originally claimed.
ZARRELLA On the 19th, police say, Wilbanks purchased a bus ticket to Texas for the 26th, the day she disappeared. Wilbanks came to this office park, this is where she cut her hair. This is where a taxi met her. The taxi took her to the Greyhound Station at the Atlanta Airport where she boarded a bus first to Texas.
She rode the bus to Dallas, Texas, changed buses, went to Las Vegas, Nevada. Spent a little time in Las Vegas got another bus ticket, took it to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
ZARRELLA: There was no kidnapping. Just a runaway bride who flew back to Georgia hiding her emotions behind a beach towel. A flight attendant read a statement from Wilbanks to reporters on the plane. She has spoken to her fiance, the statement read, he cannot wait to see her. She says the wedding is not called off, just postponed.
Ryan Kelly (ph), one of the owners of the Park Cafe -- who had given so much to the search, was in a way glad for the turn of events. He feared Wilbanks had been hurt or worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, I thought the absolute worst at that particular point in time.
ZARRELLA: For the town of Duluth, there is a degree of embarrassment to deal with, anger, too. Mayor Shirley Fanning- Lasseter has heard plenty from townspeople.
MAYOR SHIRLEY FANNING-LASSETER, DULUTH: They had suggested in e- mails that she do community service or pay back some of the debt or even one suggested she work at a crisis center and a hot line to see how other people deal with situations.
ZARRELLA: It will be tough, the mayor says, to decide what, if anything to do.
FANNING-LASSETER: Whatever is legally correct and proper is what we'll do. What is improper, we won't do. It doesn't make any difference if it's myself or an ex-mayor or anyone else. Wrong is wrong.
ZARRELLA (on camera): The name isn't above the law, bottom line?
FANNING-LASSETER: Absolutely, no. No name is.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): So the young woman with the ear-to-ear grin, the marathoner who ran a thousand miles, has to confront the fears she can't hide behind a smile. Face a future, even she may not be able to outrun.
John Zarrella, CNN, Duluth, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On the first day that Jennifer Wilbanks disappeared, 400 volunteers -- 400 -- combed the area where she was last seen looking for clues. Police and other city workers in Duluth, Georgia worked frantically, as you saw, to find her. The mayor says the search cost the city as much as $75,000. Ms. Wilbanks' decision to run away turned out to be costly for those who assumed the worst. But did she commit a crime? And if it was a crime, at what point did it become a crime?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BELCHER: I asked her then, what had happened? She stated to me that she was jogging, she had her head phones on, she wasn't exactly sure where she was at, but an Hispanic male and a white female jumped her from behind and placed her in a van and drove off. And she was not sure where she was at. At this point, she did violate Georgia law by advising me of this situation that she was kidnapped. Based on that information, I will defer all criminal investigations or prosecution to Danny Porter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, just to be clear on this, what is criminal in life and what is not, we talked to Danny Porter, who is the district attorney in the county where Duluth is, the man who will decide on whether or not to press charges against Ms. Wilbanks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Is it a crime in any way, shape, or form, for an adult to run away from home?
DANNY PORTER, GWINNETT COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Absolutely not. There's no crime involved in that at all.
BROWN: So, if I, just, for whatever reason -- I've had enough, and I decide to get on a bus and go someplace and not tell anyone and they worry sick about me and the county spends a lot of money looking for me, the only thing I'm really guilty of is being a jerk, aren't I?
PORTER: Or being a self-absorbed narcissistic individual who doesn't care about the consequences, but you're not guilty of a crime.
BROWN: That's essentially -- that's a technical way of saying a jerk I think, but yes, I'm with you on that.
PORTER: That -- I think you're right. I think you're right.
BROWN: So, if in fact there was a crime committed here -- and I think that's sort of an open question -- but if there was, it is only at the point, essentially, where it's all over, where she calls and says she's been kidnapped, is that right?
PORTER: That's right. At the instant that she gave the false statement to Chief Belcher, the crime was complete, and all the rest of it -- all the rest of it merely has to do with the state of mind in her actions, in the lead-up to it. Everything else has to do with her state of mind, whether she was predisposed to lie, whether it was all sort of a plan to evade responsibility. And that's all the rest of it has to do with.
BROWN: That's not the crime.
PORTER: There's no crime if -- but, what I'm saying is, even though I acknowledge that it's not a crime, that's going to be important to me in making the decision whether to charge her with a lie, because I want to know something about her state of mind. I want to know what she was really thinking, and you can only know people's state of mind through their actions.
BROWN: I agree with that. You're absolutely right about that. If the crime is -- would be -- more, might be filing a false police report, is that what we might be talking about?
PORTER: It is actually called false report of a crime or the felony crime is actually called false statements. That's the Georgia term.
BROWN: And sir, realistically, is this a felony? I think a felony, that's a big deal, if I get a felony on my record, that's more than I was stupid one week?
PORTER: Well, it could be a felony, but it doesn't necessarily mean that that's a case that justifies imprisonment. I think that's why I'm trying to insist that I'm gathering all the evidence because if I charge then, yes, I'm going to have to weigh between a misdemeanor and a felony.
BROWN: Final question, when all is said and done, will you be just as happy to get back to the business of prosecuting bank robbers and all sort of -- and drug dealers and those other thins you literally spend every day thankfully doing and letting this moment, this kind of wacky sad moment end?
PORTER: Yes. But, I told somebody earlier today, this is not really any more trouble for me than anything else, because I would be here whether I was trying bad check case or murder cases. I go to work every day, I try the same cases. As hard as it is to believe, in most respects, this is just another case to me.
BROWN: Well, we appreciate -- I can't imagine all these other cases require as many television appearances. I hope they don't.
PORTER: No, they don't.
BROWN: As this one does. We would like to think you are able to spend most of your time actually in court or heading that way. We appreciate you talking to us tonight, thank you, sir.
PORTER: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Danny Porter, the prosecutor down in Gwinnett County in Georgia. In just a bit on the program, why it is that police first look at the immediate family, the boyfriend or the husband, when someone is reported missing.
Right now, around a quarter past the hour, Erica Hill is in Atlanta with some of the day's other headlines.
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron.
A search is under way tonight for the pilots of two Marine Corps FA-18 fighter jets that the Navy believes collided on a mission in Iraq. The Navy says the jets were flying a routine mission. The weather though, was bad. There is no indication at this point hostile fire was involved.
Meantime, a violent day in Iraq: eight car bombs killed at least 23 Iraqis and wounded dozens more. Six of the bombs exploded in Baghdad. Violence has intensified since Iraq's transitional government named a new cabinet on Thursday. More than 100 Iraqis have died since then.
The army is having a tough time reciting soldiers. April was the third month in a row the army failed to reach its monthly recruitment target. Officials acknowledge the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are keeping young adults away, but summertime is typically the army's best season for recruitment.
And in Ft. Hood, in Texas, today, a guilty plea if a key figure in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. Army Reservist Lynndie England pleaded guilty to seven charges. She told a judge it was wrong to pose in photos next to naked Iraqi prisoners. Now, under the plea deal, she could face as little as two years in prison.
And, that's the latest from Headline News at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you. Nice to see you.
More to come tonight on the runaway bride, starting with the reason everyone was so worried.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: : They run the entire gamut. From, I simply do not want to pay for a divorce, money matters, jealousy.
BROWN: He's talking about motives for murder and who is usually first suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's become about the party and how we can impress and how grand it can be and how much money we can spend and how competitive we can be with our friends.
BROWN: She's talking about her wedding, and why she would have run if she had the chance.
Also tonight, those other moments when the story that looks like one thing...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: : We put it on the front page with the headline "Backyard Bonanza."
BROWN: ...turned out to be something else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: : I call it a Hardy Boys adventure that turned into a Larry, Curly and Moe misadventure.
BROWN: This, on the other hand, will always be NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Back now to the runaway bride. Here is the truth of this: whatever she did was silly or thoughtless. Whatever happened afterward was something else, because when someone disappears, our first instinct is to suspect foul play. When a woman disappears, cops' first suspicion is on the husband, or the boyfriend. That was true in this case: the boyfriend had to take a lie detector test. So, why do they suspect the boyfriend or the husband? Experience. Here's CNN's Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's smiling, but his message is sobering.
LT. DONALD BENDER, INDIANAPOLIS POLICE DEPT: Those are fingerprint kits for your family. OK? Follow the instructions on those.
ARENA: Lieutenant Don Bender is handing out fingerprint and DNA kits, important to have if someone in your family turns up missing. He helps run the Indianapolis police department's missing persons unit and says simply knowing the facts could save your life. The most important, that people closest to you are the most likely to do you harm.
BENDER: Tragically, we know that missing persons cases many times involve a family member or a friend.
ARENA: Bender is still emotional when he talks about Karen Jo Smith. Her ex-husband, Steven Halkon (ph), was recently convicted for her murder, but her body is still missing.
BENDER: If Steven Halkon got out of jail and said, can I come back, I love, you, I need you, all those things that he told her, despite the threats, that she was giving him another chance.
ARENA: The minute someone is reported missing and foul play suspected, Bender says that everyone in that person's inner circle is considered a possible suspect.
BENDER: Well, we check everything that we can find: insurance policies, mortgages, who owns what, who gets what, wills, phone records. ARENA: The investigation of the Jennifer Wilbanks' case was no exception with focus immediately placed on her fiance, John Mason.
JOHN MASON, JENNIFER WILBANK'S FIANCE: Her being gone and not knowing where she was -- is tough enough to deal with, and then to have people point the finger at you.
ARENA: While Mason and others were the victims of deception, too often that early attention on loved ones pays off as demonstrated by the Laci Peterson case.
BENDER: Within a matter of hours, there were law enforcement officers who were looking at Scott Peterson as a major person of interest, developing him as a suspect. Simply because of his actions.
ARENA: The most unnerving thing about all that this is that no one can decisively say why it happens, just that it does.
BENDER: They run the entire gamut, Kelli, from, I simply do not want to pay for a divorce, money matters, jealousy, insurance -- domestic violence is a very large cause.
ARENA: Lieutenant Bender says, as shocking as these cases seem, there are usually warnings.
BENDER: As human beings we broadcast warning sign just like animals. When a cat gets ready to attack, the hair on its back goes up, it arches, the claws come out, the ears go back. There are warning signs that we as humans give off.
ARENA: But love, as we've heard, is often blind.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Indianapolis, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The story that began in the small town of Duluth, Georgia, ended more than a thousand miles away in New Mexico. We're joined in Albuquerque by FBI special agent Bill Elwell. It is good to see you.
How long after the agents met Ms. Wilbanks did they kind of suspect that she had made the whole thing up?
BILL ELWELL, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, Aaron, that initial interview took about an hour, and what they allowed her to do is two things. They allowed her to basically put her story on the table. Another thing it allows a victim to do or an alleged victim is to kind of vent, especially if they've been the victim of a violent act, and they were allowing her to do that. After about an hour of her putting out her story and us trying to get the information for investigative purposes, the agents and the Albuquerque police officers that were in on the interview, confided and realized that there were some very big inconsistencies in their story.
After they put together their method as to how they were going to attack the story they went back in. Probably about 20 minutes into the second interview or the second contact with her, they were able to get her to basically do the right thing and tell the exact story as to what had transpired.
BROWN: What do they say? Do they say, this doesn't make -- is it like Columbo, one more thing, this doesn't quite make sense? Or you said this but that doesn't quite square with that? Do you know how literally that conversation went?
ELWELL: Well, basically what you do -- and all officers and our agents are taught, you want to give the victim a chance, especially if you think they're not telling you the truth, you want to give them an opportunity or an out, so to speak, to kind of be able to give the response you're looking for with as little embarrassment as possible. Give them an opening, so to speak.
And in this case, I thing one of our agents looked at her and said, we shouldn't be looking for a blue van, should we? And at that point, I think she realized, you know, I've got to come clean, and she did.
BROWN: Oddly, sort of like parents with children, isn't it? I mean, it's important to give them the chance to tell the truth without sort of pounding on them?
ELWELL: Exactly. And we were dealing with an adult here. And I think realistically, she was kind of having to deal with this stressful situation, and, eventually, to relieve that stress, the agent gave her the opportunity to do that.
BROWN: Was she relieved?
ELWELL: I think so. And you mentioned a child. I think, even a child, when they finally have to come clean with what they've done, there is a big sense of relief. And I think it was a lot easier for her to disclose what had really transpired. I think it's just a burden off of her that, OK, now I can really tell what's happened and then go on.
BROWN: I don't know to ask this question sort of delicately. But on a scale of one to 10, was it a well-constructed lie or was it pretty easy to see through?
ELWELL: Well, the agents and the police officers, after that initial interview, I think when they came out, they were pretty well convinced that there were just too many inconsistencies. I don't think this was something that was well rehearsed on her part.
BROWN: You know, I -- and I'll bet you do, too, I wish they all ended so benignly in tend as this one did. Mostly, of course, in life they don't, not the stuff you deal with. So, it is nice when the worst thing we're dealing with is a kid that got scared, ran away and lied about it. Thank you for your time.
ELWELL: Thank you. BROWN: When we come back, what another woman paid for scaring her friends and family half to death and how she's still paying the price for that today.
And later, the case of buried treasure, not. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It's probably not fair to say that Jennifer Wilbanks perpetrated a hoax. She just ran away, and we suspect was overwhelmed by the events that followed, even if she no doubt could have and should have anticipated them. Audrey Seiler, on the other hand, is something else. She too disappeared, was found, talked about kidnapping. But her case, whatever the motives, there was more. Here's CNN's Keith Oppenheim.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the very point Noble Wray became police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, a major case erupted. Audrey Seiler, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, had vanished.
KEITH SEILER, AUDREY'S FATHER: We'll continue to look for Audrey for as long as it takes.
OPPENHEIM: With her parents giving interviews and the national media pouncing on the story, the pressure to find the missing woman was intense.
NOBEL WRAY, POLICE CHIEF, MADISON, WI: We had anywhere between 60 to 80 officers in the general vicinity looking for her.
OPPENHEIM: For four days, the search continued, with relatives and classmates worried Seiler could have been kidnapped.
Then a major break and a major twist.
(on camera): Audrey Seiler was found in these woods, ironically right near the hotel where her family and search parties were gathering. According to the police report, two officers responded to a sighting of Audrey and approached her here. They said she was frantic, turning her head back and forth, looking over her shoulder, making statements like "he's out there. You've got to help me." Saying her abductor had a gun.
That fabricated story was a turning point, because suddenly a missing persons case mushroomed into an all-out manhunt.
(voice-over): The search for a kidnapper went into high gear. A composite sketch was made. Traffic in Madison practically came to a halt.
But to detectives, many things didn't add up. Audrey Seiler was seen on security tapes leaving her apartment, but there was no sign of a kidnapper. Another tape showed her at a Target store, where police would learn she bought duct tape and rope.
In less than two days after police found Audrey Seiler, the new chief announced this on live TV.
WRAY: That, in fact, she had not been abducted at her apartment at all. Audrey stated that she just wanted to, quote/unquote, "be alone."
OPPENHEIM: Audrey Seiler had faked the story of her abduction, and the price was high. Chief Wray estimates the cost to police agencies and the public was $97,000.
Police records explain why Seiler left her life without notice. She was upset about a potential breakup with her boyfriend.
She later pled guilty to two counts of obstructing justice and is now serving three years probation, paying a fine of $250 a month, or $9,000 for her actions.
(on camera): Do you think that Audrey Seiler had some understanding of what she was doing while it was happening, or she was disconnected from the consequences?
WRAY: I think she had some sense that people obviously were looking for her, but I don't think that she had any idea that the situation would escalate to the point that it did.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Chief Wray says the price of lying goes far beyond the impact on law enforcement agencies.
WRAY: Those that get involved in these things, they also have to realize that this is going to stay with them for the rest of their life, especially when they get this type of attention.
AUDREY SEILER: I plead guilty, your honor.
OPPENHEIM: Attention which means in the end, the person who lied has to live with the results.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to Massachusetts and another story that was unfolding last week as the search for Jennifer Wilbanks was under way, a story that also ended with an incredible twist. It's indeed a reminding that boasting can sometimes backfire. From Boston tonight, CNN's Dan Lothian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What was not to like about this tale? Antique cash dug up in a Massachusetts backyard by a group of friends. The little guys suddenly striking gold. But sometimes truth has a way of turning an amazing story upside down.
BILL KEITER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, EAGLE-TRIBUNE: I call it the Hardy boys adventure that turned into a Larry, Curly and Moe misadventure.
LOTHIAN: "Eagle-Tribune" editor-in-chief Bill Keiter says his local paper broke the story when one of the treasure finders called.
KEITER: Saying they had a great story to tell us, and they're sure we'd be interested.
LOTHIAN: The paper jumped at the scoop.
KEITER: We put it on the front page with the headline "Backyard Bonanza."
LOTHIAN: The story spread from the paper to local stations to national television.
Tim Crebase, Barry Billcliff, Kevin Kozak and Matt Ingham gushed about their find.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was like, wow.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was like, this is just my dumb luck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: A box of rusting cans filled with 1,800 bank notes and bills, some more than a century old, unearthed in the backyard of the house Crebase rented from Kozak. The value to collectors?
BARRY BILLCLIFF, TREASURE FINDER: And we didn't know if they were worth the paper they are printed on, or if it's you know, a huge find.
LOTHIAN: A local coin shop owner determined they were authentic, and collectors valued it at more than $100,000.
But if the money was real, at the local newspaper, they were a lot more suspicious of the story.
KEITER: Just some things that, again, caused our sniff meter to sort of start sniffing a little harder.
LOTHIAN: In different interviews, the story seemed to change. For example, what were they digging up in the backyard when they hit pay dirt?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was digging up the tree.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were going there to rip up a bush.
LOTHIAN: The editors noticed other holes.
KEITER: The history of the house where they found it. Where they had dug up the treasure in the backyard, the location of the backyard, the time that they had done it.
LOTHIAN (on camera): It wasn't just reporters and editors at the newspaper who were getting suspicious. Police in Methuen, the city where the friends said they had found the money, were noticing inconsistencies. They began asking questions, and this amazing story began to unravel.
(voice-over): Helped by an anonymous tip, investigators concluded the friends had actually found the treasures while doing a roofing job at a barn on this farm 25 miles away. Police say Crebase confessed that the cans fell out of a gutter.
CHIEF JOSEPH SOLOMON, METHUEN POLICE DEPARTMENT: It would be our belief that it is -- belongs to one of the ancestors of the current family.
LOTHIAN: Last Friday, all four men were charged with receiving stolen property, conspiracy, and accessory after the fact. Despite any evidence to the contrary, some of the treasure finders are sticking to their original story.
MICHAEL RUANE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Our position is basically they found it where they said they found it. It was found in the backyard.
LOTHIAN: Some wonder why they would want to attract so much attention in the first place, if, as police say, the story was a hoax.
MATT INGHAM: I just wanted to be on TV.
LOTHIAN: And according to Keiter, one more reason.
KEITER: And they said, if we go public, we believe that there will be much higher bids coming in, people that value this kind of collection will offer much more money.
LOTHIAN: Big offers for the old bills are coming in. But police say the real owners, who never even knew about the hidden treasures, will be the only ones cashing in.
Well, maybe the local paper, too, which has gotten a lot of ink...
KEITER: This is the one where...
LOTHIAN: ... out of what was to have been a one-day feature story.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The quote of the night, I just wanted to be on TV.
Still to come tonight, what police now say was another kind of hoax. Still the question remains -- how did the finger get in the chili? And how is Wendy's handling it? Also ahead, a hoax that involves racist threats and a young African-American woman that police say was making them. We'll take a break first. For real. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Not every hoax or suspected hoax is goofy or harmless or victim-free. Police in the suburbs of Chicago say that in order to persuade her parents that the college she attended was dangerous, Alicia Harden herself mailed threatening letters to minority classmates. In response, officials at Trinity University moved dozens of black and Latino students off campus last week. Ms. Harden who is 19 and African-American confessed to authorities after being asked to take a polygraph test. She's charged with disorderly conduct and hate crimes.
Now to California and the story that makes nerve the NEWSNIGHT 4:00 editorial meeting cringe. The woman who claimed she found part of a finger in a bowl of chili at Wendy's. We still don't know who that finger belongs to. But here's what we know for certain, the woman is accused of attempted grand theft because once her claim was made public, the public, imagine this, stopped going to Wendy's.
From Los Angeles tonight, CNN's Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're eating breakfast right now, we apologize if this turns your stomach.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a quirky local story at first, a woman eating at this Wendy's in San Jose claims she bit into a human finger that was in a bowl of chili. Wendy's spokesman had their first statement out within hours, but it wasn't always mentioned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other diners who also ate the chili took pictures of it with their cell phone cameras.
BUCKLEY: A Wendy's crisis team was assembled to manage the public relations crisis, senior management, corporate communications, quality assurance, supply chain, security and risk management, legal and marketing all had spots at the table. While local papers were publishing the finger in the chili allegation, local Wendy's employees were taking lie detector tests. The entire supply chain was being examined. Company officials were literally counting the fingerers of employees. And within 48 hours, they say, they knew the finger didn't belong to them.
But when these photos of the finger were released by local authorities, Senior Vice President Denny Lynch told us the world changed at that moment. It became late show fodder for David Letterman.
DAVID LETTERMAN, "THE LATE SHOW": It's so sunny here in Manhattan today. Listen to this. The finger in my Wendy's chili was wearing sunblock.
BUCKLEY: Anna Ayala, the woman who claim shed bit into the finger, appeared on "Good Morning America."
ANNA AYALA, CLAIMED SHE FOUND FINGER IN CHILI: Knowing there was a human remain in my mouth, something in my mouth, it's disgusting. It is tearing me apart inside. It's nasty.
BUCKLEY: The Wendy's finger story had become water cooler talk.
(on camera): And sales at Wendy's restaurants went down across the country. In one police affidavit, senior managers were quoted as saying, "The company was losing $1 million a day." Here in California, sales Were off by up to 50 percent at some restaurants.
TOM MUELLER, PRESIDENT, WENDY'S NORTH AMERICA: This has been an extremely difficult time for all of us at Wendy's. Our independent franchisees and their employees in the San Francisco area are the real victims.
BUCKLEY: Wendy's president went up on satellite with a video news release to tell the company's side of the story. Spokesmen tried to reassure the public.
STEVE JAY, WENDY'S SANTA CLARA COUNTY: We're very confident that it did not come from any employee or any supplier.
BUCKLEY: But the damage continued. Wendy's couldn't test the finger themselves. It was in the custody of county officials. And until an independent authority could say it wasn't Wendy's fault, advertising, the crisis team decided, wouldn't work. We could proclaim it, Lynch told us, but then people in the news media are going to say we're putting corporate spin on it.
Then Anna Ayala herself became the story. Police discovered she had a history of suing people. They went to her home and served a search warrant.
AYALA: I'm sick of it! I'm tired of it! I am tired of it!
BUCKLEY: On Friday, April 22, exactly one month after the story broke, police announced that Ayala was in custody. Investigators didn't believe her story. She was charged with attempted grand theft.
CHIEF ROB DAVIS, SAN JOSE POLICE: Evidence suggests that the truest victims in this case are, indeed, the Wendy's owner, operators and employees here in San Jose who have suffered financially throughout this investigation.
BUCKLEY: Ayala denies the allegation, but now Wendy's is left to regain its reputation, which it started to do immediately after Ayala's arrest. That Friday, Wendy's gave away 100,000 Frosties in the Bay Area. Sales rebounded significantly, according to the crisis team. But they're not where they were before. Still, one crisis management consultant said the public is more likely to forgive Wendy's if it believes the company is the victim. ERIC DEZENHALL, CRISIS MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT: I think Wendy's has been assertive, they've been cooperative with the media for the most part. And I think that, eventually with time, they are probably going to fully recover.
BUCKLEY: But Wendy's is not the only victim, because somewhere out there someone is still missing a finger.
Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Headlines in a moment. The Jackson trial, no hoax that. Morning papers just ahead as well. No hoax that either. A break first from New York. And there is it, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It would be somewhat of a hoax to tell you that it's a quarter to the hour. But it is time for Erica Hill in Atlanta -- Erica.
HILL: Just a couple of minutes late, but we're still here. Thanks, Aaron.
Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson trial spent the day analyzing telephone records that contend that associates of the pop star tried to intimidate and control the family of Jackson's accuser. The prosecution may rest its case as early as tomorrow.
Now a moment from a quarter century of CNN bringing you the news.
Heidi Fleiss "Then & Now."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heidi, do you think you'll give the names in the black book?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the 1990s, Heidi Fleiss was one of Hollywood's most notorious characters. The then 20-something daughter of a wealthy pediatrician used her family's connections to attract and service rich and famous clients as the Hollywood madam.
Her arrest and trial became headline news. But she never did reveal the contents of her black book, and was sentenced to three years in prison for procuring prostitution and selling cocaine.
When Fleiss was released from prison, she started capitalizing on her notoriety legally. Fleiss has a line of clothing called Heidiwear and owns a West Hollywood boutique called the Little Shop of Sex.
She also invested in her looks, undergoing plastic surgery.
HEIDI FLEISS: I had the party, did the party, threw the party, was the party, I'm partied out. And I live every day to its fullest. And there's lessons that I've learned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fleiss wrote a book about her experiences called "Pandering." She's also opening a legal brothel in Nevada.
On the personal side, she recently faced off in court against former boyfriend and actor Tom Sizemore, accusing him of abuse.
The Hollywood madam turns 40 this year and would like to be remembered for one thing.
FLEISS: That I took the oldest profession on Earth and did it better than anyone on Earth. That's it, and that's all. Alexander the Great conquered the world at 32. I did it at 22.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Lieutenant Columbo was on to something when he said "just one more thing." TV detectives always have one more question. And after reporting a story, correspondents also can't help getting the itch to say, "just one more thing."
Now they can. We call it "Newsbeat." Stories behind stories. Tonight, CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (on camera): For more than a year now, I've covered at least three cases of missing people, children and those cases. And in all three cases, they did not come out with happy endings.
And so our immediate reaction is to cover the story certainly until you find out what has happened.
For the past several days, I've been covering the Jennifer Wilbanks story. Many details of the story began to evolve over the weekend, and it's time to put it all into one encapsulated form for the viewers so they get a good idea of what this bizarre, very bizarre story was all about.
While people were certainly glad that Wilbanks was alive and well, the mood had changed to one, in some cases, certainly in Duluth, where many of the people who had given of their time in the search for this missing woman, were now, to put it mildly, very angry. It is clearly a strange tale that still requires many, many answers, and who knows how long it will be before we get those.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: I don't know, we'll check morning papers, see if any answers show up. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country, and around the country -- I'm going to talk very fast because we hardly have any time tonight.
We're so pleased to have "The New York Daily News." We never get "The Daily News." Maybe we'll get it now. The headline: "He Does? 'I Do,' Says Jilted Groom of Runaway Bride, Let's Get Married."
I don't know about that, OK?
I also wondered today if Greyhound was going to try and turn this into a promotional spot. Feeling at the end of the -- well, you know.
"The Washington Post," very good story. "Tyrants' Lobbyist Flamboyant to the End." Van Kloberg -- Van Kloberg -- this is Edward Van Kloberg. After a career of image makers for the reviled. He had Baby Doc and Saddam Hussein. He was their PR guy. That would be a task.
"New Arena for Birth Control Battle," the headline in "The Star Tribune." A drug store not giving out birth control pills.
Weather tomorrow in Chicago, "incremental." We'll see you at 10:00 Eastern time. Until then, good night for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 2, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Tonight we begin with a simple fact, my friend, people who are facing embarrassing or awkward situations, sometimes plain and simple, make bad decisions. Dr. Phil was just talking about that. And as a result other people can get hurt. Usually these dramas, thankfully play out in private. But over the last six days the saga of Jennifer Wilbanks has unfolded in the most public way, starting with one story and ending up as something completely different.
She isn't the first bride-to-be to get cold feet. So why then the uproar? We'll spend the next hour on her story and other fantastic tales. In some cases the media and police were fooled, at least for a while. We begin with the young woman who seemed to have it all and CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If Jennifer Wilbanks was unhappy, it was very deeply hidden.
MIKE SATTERFIELD, UNCLE: Very happy and very festive about what all was going on. And that was the mood. And she was Jennifer. She was a smile from ear to ear. You see a picture with Jennifer smiling, that's not a pose. That's her natural personality.
ZARRELLA: The brunette with the ear-to-ear grin, Wilbanks grew up in Gainesville, a serene Georgia town on the banks of the Chatahuchi River (ph). A cheerleader and a cross country runner, someone you remember says teacher Jim Lofton.
JIM LOFTON, TEACHER: Vivacious, you know, full of life, involved.
ZARRELLA: In a way, Wilbanks ran into the arms of John Mason, another runner. A meeting that was, like most of her life, part of a web of loving friends and relatives. John Mason's father told Nancy Grace about an introduction made by an aunt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says, oh, I've got a niece that runs a marathon. They might have something in common. My wife said, don't do it. Don't do it. I don't want you to play matchmaker. But she did anyway. And they hit it off immediately.
ZARRELLA: Mason came from a prominent well-heeled medical family with deep roots in the nearby town of Duluth. Everybody there knows the name Mason. CHERYL HENNING, DULUTH RESIDENT: John's grandfather delivered me in the hospital here in Duluth.
ZARRELLA: The 32-year-old Wilbanks had a good job as a medical assistant, commuted daily. She seemed in love and was planning to get married.
(on camera): Jennifer Wilbanks appeared to have everything. Duluth, Georgia, is an idyllic southern town, all about community and family. And a relationship appeared to be everything she wanted. The church wedding would be special. Indeed, it would be spectacular, 600 invited guests, 14 bridesmaids, two families who could afford to spoil their children. But was it too much too fast?
MELINDA LARSON, MASON'S FRIEND: No deep dread. Stress, absolutely. Weddings are extremely challenging, overwhelming. A wonderful occasion, but tend to consume your time, your life and all of your energy in the actual planning. So stress is a definite.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): But to friends and family, the young woman with the ear-to-ear grin kept smiling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our top story at 11:00, a family prepares for a prayer vigil in place of a wedding.
ZARRELLA: Tuesday Wilbanks went jogging and did not return. Frantic calls were placed to anyone who might know where Jennifer had gone. Very quickly, worry evolved to fullout panic. The search was on.
MAJOR DON WOODRUFF, DULUTH POLICE: We started by interviewing family and friends and trying to backtrack her movements and see what was going on in her life.
ZARRELLA: The tightly knit community dropped everything to join in the search for Jennifer. The owners of the park cafe...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The least we could do was provide food and water, you know for the volunteers.
ZARRELLA: And a meal for Wilbanks' mother and step-father who came in for a few moments of peace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came in with one of the sheriffs just to get away from everything and relax. You could just see the anguish and despair on their face. And it was very sad.
ZARRELLA: In days, the small town of Duluth was searched end to end. Nothing. Police began to wonder.
RANDY BELCHER, DULUTH POLICE CHIEF: That's a very good possibility that she did get cold feet and run off. You know, how many husbands have gone out to get a pack of cigarettes and never come back home?
ZARRELLA: But this was a woman who was completely happy. Everyone said so. So the search continued, flyers went out, posters went up. The bridegroom questioned, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He stated in the beginning of the investigation that he would voluntarily submit to a polygraph.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My son took a polygraph examination this morning, a private one. He passed.
ZARRELLA: Together, the families put up a $100, 000 reward.
HARRIS WILBANKS, FATHER: We love Jennifer very much. We would give our life and everything that we own to have her returned.
ZARRELLA: By week's end, a day before she was to be married the mystery and the misery deepened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, please call us. I've got on your shirt that you gave me for father's day. And I'd love to walk you down the aisle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Albuquerque 911 operator 44, what is your emergency?
JENNIFER WILBANKS: I'm at the -- I don't know where I am. I'm right here (INAUDIBLE) Street at the 7-Eleven.
ZARRELLA: From a pay phone at a 7-eleven in Albuquerque, more than 1,200 miles from her emotionally shattered family, Wilbanks called 911.
WILBANKS: I was kidnapped earlier this week. And I'm here now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your name, ma'am?
WILBANKS: Jennifer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you hurt, Jennifer? Do you need medical attention?
WILBANKS: No, I don't need any medical attention.
ZARRELLA: She also called home, collect.
JOHN MASON, FIANCE: I was crying, I was laughing. I was trying to stay calm to talk to her to keep her calm.
ZARRELLA: New hope that life would return to normal, that everything could be as it was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's invited to the wedding. I'm not sure when it is going to be or -- like I say, we're going to get Jennifer home and make sure she's okay. And then we'll go from there.
ZARRELLA: Then another twist in the story. Wilbanks admitted to police she had lied.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At approximately 4:00 a.m.this morning, Ms. Wilbanks informed agents that she had not been abducted as she had originally claimed.
ZARRELLA On the 19th, police say, Wilbanks purchased a bus ticket to Texas for the 26th, the day she disappeared. Wilbanks came to this office park, this is where she cut her hair. This is where a taxi met her. The taxi took her to the Greyhound Station at the Atlanta Airport where she boarded a bus first to Texas.
She rode the bus to Dallas, Texas, changed buses, went to Las Vegas, Nevada. Spent a little time in Las Vegas got another bus ticket, took it to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
ZARRELLA: There was no kidnapping. Just a runaway bride who flew back to Georgia hiding her emotions behind a beach towel. A flight attendant read a statement from Wilbanks to reporters on the plane. She has spoken to her fiance, the statement read, he cannot wait to see her. She says the wedding is not called off, just postponed.
Ryan Kelly (ph), one of the owners of the Park Cafe -- who had given so much to the search, was in a way glad for the turn of events. He feared Wilbanks had been hurt or worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, I thought the absolute worst at that particular point in time.
ZARRELLA: For the town of Duluth, there is a degree of embarrassment to deal with, anger, too. Mayor Shirley Fanning- Lasseter has heard plenty from townspeople.
MAYOR SHIRLEY FANNING-LASSETER, DULUTH: They had suggested in e- mails that she do community service or pay back some of the debt or even one suggested she work at a crisis center and a hot line to see how other people deal with situations.
ZARRELLA: It will be tough, the mayor says, to decide what, if anything to do.
FANNING-LASSETER: Whatever is legally correct and proper is what we'll do. What is improper, we won't do. It doesn't make any difference if it's myself or an ex-mayor or anyone else. Wrong is wrong.
ZARRELLA (on camera): The name isn't above the law, bottom line?
FANNING-LASSETER: Absolutely, no. No name is.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): So the young woman with the ear-to-ear grin, the marathoner who ran a thousand miles, has to confront the fears she can't hide behind a smile. Face a future, even she may not be able to outrun.
John Zarrella, CNN, Duluth, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On the first day that Jennifer Wilbanks disappeared, 400 volunteers -- 400 -- combed the area where she was last seen looking for clues. Police and other city workers in Duluth, Georgia worked frantically, as you saw, to find her. The mayor says the search cost the city as much as $75,000. Ms. Wilbanks' decision to run away turned out to be costly for those who assumed the worst. But did she commit a crime? And if it was a crime, at what point did it become a crime?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BELCHER: I asked her then, what had happened? She stated to me that she was jogging, she had her head phones on, she wasn't exactly sure where she was at, but an Hispanic male and a white female jumped her from behind and placed her in a van and drove off. And she was not sure where she was at. At this point, she did violate Georgia law by advising me of this situation that she was kidnapped. Based on that information, I will defer all criminal investigations or prosecution to Danny Porter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, just to be clear on this, what is criminal in life and what is not, we talked to Danny Porter, who is the district attorney in the county where Duluth is, the man who will decide on whether or not to press charges against Ms. Wilbanks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Is it a crime in any way, shape, or form, for an adult to run away from home?
DANNY PORTER, GWINNETT COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Absolutely not. There's no crime involved in that at all.
BROWN: So, if I, just, for whatever reason -- I've had enough, and I decide to get on a bus and go someplace and not tell anyone and they worry sick about me and the county spends a lot of money looking for me, the only thing I'm really guilty of is being a jerk, aren't I?
PORTER: Or being a self-absorbed narcissistic individual who doesn't care about the consequences, but you're not guilty of a crime.
BROWN: That's essentially -- that's a technical way of saying a jerk I think, but yes, I'm with you on that.
PORTER: That -- I think you're right. I think you're right.
BROWN: So, if in fact there was a crime committed here -- and I think that's sort of an open question -- but if there was, it is only at the point, essentially, where it's all over, where she calls and says she's been kidnapped, is that right?
PORTER: That's right. At the instant that she gave the false statement to Chief Belcher, the crime was complete, and all the rest of it -- all the rest of it merely has to do with the state of mind in her actions, in the lead-up to it. Everything else has to do with her state of mind, whether she was predisposed to lie, whether it was all sort of a plan to evade responsibility. And that's all the rest of it has to do with.
BROWN: That's not the crime.
PORTER: There's no crime if -- but, what I'm saying is, even though I acknowledge that it's not a crime, that's going to be important to me in making the decision whether to charge her with a lie, because I want to know something about her state of mind. I want to know what she was really thinking, and you can only know people's state of mind through their actions.
BROWN: I agree with that. You're absolutely right about that. If the crime is -- would be -- more, might be filing a false police report, is that what we might be talking about?
PORTER: It is actually called false report of a crime or the felony crime is actually called false statements. That's the Georgia term.
BROWN: And sir, realistically, is this a felony? I think a felony, that's a big deal, if I get a felony on my record, that's more than I was stupid one week?
PORTER: Well, it could be a felony, but it doesn't necessarily mean that that's a case that justifies imprisonment. I think that's why I'm trying to insist that I'm gathering all the evidence because if I charge then, yes, I'm going to have to weigh between a misdemeanor and a felony.
BROWN: Final question, when all is said and done, will you be just as happy to get back to the business of prosecuting bank robbers and all sort of -- and drug dealers and those other thins you literally spend every day thankfully doing and letting this moment, this kind of wacky sad moment end?
PORTER: Yes. But, I told somebody earlier today, this is not really any more trouble for me than anything else, because I would be here whether I was trying bad check case or murder cases. I go to work every day, I try the same cases. As hard as it is to believe, in most respects, this is just another case to me.
BROWN: Well, we appreciate -- I can't imagine all these other cases require as many television appearances. I hope they don't.
PORTER: No, they don't.
BROWN: As this one does. We would like to think you are able to spend most of your time actually in court or heading that way. We appreciate you talking to us tonight, thank you, sir.
PORTER: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Danny Porter, the prosecutor down in Gwinnett County in Georgia. In just a bit on the program, why it is that police first look at the immediate family, the boyfriend or the husband, when someone is reported missing.
Right now, around a quarter past the hour, Erica Hill is in Atlanta with some of the day's other headlines.
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron.
A search is under way tonight for the pilots of two Marine Corps FA-18 fighter jets that the Navy believes collided on a mission in Iraq. The Navy says the jets were flying a routine mission. The weather though, was bad. There is no indication at this point hostile fire was involved.
Meantime, a violent day in Iraq: eight car bombs killed at least 23 Iraqis and wounded dozens more. Six of the bombs exploded in Baghdad. Violence has intensified since Iraq's transitional government named a new cabinet on Thursday. More than 100 Iraqis have died since then.
The army is having a tough time reciting soldiers. April was the third month in a row the army failed to reach its monthly recruitment target. Officials acknowledge the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are keeping young adults away, but summertime is typically the army's best season for recruitment.
And in Ft. Hood, in Texas, today, a guilty plea if a key figure in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. Army Reservist Lynndie England pleaded guilty to seven charges. She told a judge it was wrong to pose in photos next to naked Iraqi prisoners. Now, under the plea deal, she could face as little as two years in prison.
And, that's the latest from Headline News at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you. Nice to see you.
More to come tonight on the runaway bride, starting with the reason everyone was so worried.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: : They run the entire gamut. From, I simply do not want to pay for a divorce, money matters, jealousy.
BROWN: He's talking about motives for murder and who is usually first suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's become about the party and how we can impress and how grand it can be and how much money we can spend and how competitive we can be with our friends.
BROWN: She's talking about her wedding, and why she would have run if she had the chance.
Also tonight, those other moments when the story that looks like one thing...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: : We put it on the front page with the headline "Backyard Bonanza."
BROWN: ...turned out to be something else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: : I call it a Hardy Boys adventure that turned into a Larry, Curly and Moe misadventure.
BROWN: This, on the other hand, will always be NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Back now to the runaway bride. Here is the truth of this: whatever she did was silly or thoughtless. Whatever happened afterward was something else, because when someone disappears, our first instinct is to suspect foul play. When a woman disappears, cops' first suspicion is on the husband, or the boyfriend. That was true in this case: the boyfriend had to take a lie detector test. So, why do they suspect the boyfriend or the husband? Experience. Here's CNN's Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's smiling, but his message is sobering.
LT. DONALD BENDER, INDIANAPOLIS POLICE DEPT: Those are fingerprint kits for your family. OK? Follow the instructions on those.
ARENA: Lieutenant Don Bender is handing out fingerprint and DNA kits, important to have if someone in your family turns up missing. He helps run the Indianapolis police department's missing persons unit and says simply knowing the facts could save your life. The most important, that people closest to you are the most likely to do you harm.
BENDER: Tragically, we know that missing persons cases many times involve a family member or a friend.
ARENA: Bender is still emotional when he talks about Karen Jo Smith. Her ex-husband, Steven Halkon (ph), was recently convicted for her murder, but her body is still missing.
BENDER: If Steven Halkon got out of jail and said, can I come back, I love, you, I need you, all those things that he told her, despite the threats, that she was giving him another chance.
ARENA: The minute someone is reported missing and foul play suspected, Bender says that everyone in that person's inner circle is considered a possible suspect.
BENDER: Well, we check everything that we can find: insurance policies, mortgages, who owns what, who gets what, wills, phone records. ARENA: The investigation of the Jennifer Wilbanks' case was no exception with focus immediately placed on her fiance, John Mason.
JOHN MASON, JENNIFER WILBANK'S FIANCE: Her being gone and not knowing where she was -- is tough enough to deal with, and then to have people point the finger at you.
ARENA: While Mason and others were the victims of deception, too often that early attention on loved ones pays off as demonstrated by the Laci Peterson case.
BENDER: Within a matter of hours, there were law enforcement officers who were looking at Scott Peterson as a major person of interest, developing him as a suspect. Simply because of his actions.
ARENA: The most unnerving thing about all that this is that no one can decisively say why it happens, just that it does.
BENDER: They run the entire gamut, Kelli, from, I simply do not want to pay for a divorce, money matters, jealousy, insurance -- domestic violence is a very large cause.
ARENA: Lieutenant Bender says, as shocking as these cases seem, there are usually warnings.
BENDER: As human beings we broadcast warning sign just like animals. When a cat gets ready to attack, the hair on its back goes up, it arches, the claws come out, the ears go back. There are warning signs that we as humans give off.
ARENA: But love, as we've heard, is often blind.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Indianapolis, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The story that began in the small town of Duluth, Georgia, ended more than a thousand miles away in New Mexico. We're joined in Albuquerque by FBI special agent Bill Elwell. It is good to see you.
How long after the agents met Ms. Wilbanks did they kind of suspect that she had made the whole thing up?
BILL ELWELL, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, Aaron, that initial interview took about an hour, and what they allowed her to do is two things. They allowed her to basically put her story on the table. Another thing it allows a victim to do or an alleged victim is to kind of vent, especially if they've been the victim of a violent act, and they were allowing her to do that. After about an hour of her putting out her story and us trying to get the information for investigative purposes, the agents and the Albuquerque police officers that were in on the interview, confided and realized that there were some very big inconsistencies in their story.
After they put together their method as to how they were going to attack the story they went back in. Probably about 20 minutes into the second interview or the second contact with her, they were able to get her to basically do the right thing and tell the exact story as to what had transpired.
BROWN: What do they say? Do they say, this doesn't make -- is it like Columbo, one more thing, this doesn't quite make sense? Or you said this but that doesn't quite square with that? Do you know how literally that conversation went?
ELWELL: Well, basically what you do -- and all officers and our agents are taught, you want to give the victim a chance, especially if you think they're not telling you the truth, you want to give them an opportunity or an out, so to speak, to kind of be able to give the response you're looking for with as little embarrassment as possible. Give them an opening, so to speak.
And in this case, I thing one of our agents looked at her and said, we shouldn't be looking for a blue van, should we? And at that point, I think she realized, you know, I've got to come clean, and she did.
BROWN: Oddly, sort of like parents with children, isn't it? I mean, it's important to give them the chance to tell the truth without sort of pounding on them?
ELWELL: Exactly. And we were dealing with an adult here. And I think realistically, she was kind of having to deal with this stressful situation, and, eventually, to relieve that stress, the agent gave her the opportunity to do that.
BROWN: Was she relieved?
ELWELL: I think so. And you mentioned a child. I think, even a child, when they finally have to come clean with what they've done, there is a big sense of relief. And I think it was a lot easier for her to disclose what had really transpired. I think it's just a burden off of her that, OK, now I can really tell what's happened and then go on.
BROWN: I don't know to ask this question sort of delicately. But on a scale of one to 10, was it a well-constructed lie or was it pretty easy to see through?
ELWELL: Well, the agents and the police officers, after that initial interview, I think when they came out, they were pretty well convinced that there were just too many inconsistencies. I don't think this was something that was well rehearsed on her part.
BROWN: You know, I -- and I'll bet you do, too, I wish they all ended so benignly in tend as this one did. Mostly, of course, in life they don't, not the stuff you deal with. So, it is nice when the worst thing we're dealing with is a kid that got scared, ran away and lied about it. Thank you for your time.
ELWELL: Thank you. BROWN: When we come back, what another woman paid for scaring her friends and family half to death and how she's still paying the price for that today.
And later, the case of buried treasure, not. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It's probably not fair to say that Jennifer Wilbanks perpetrated a hoax. She just ran away, and we suspect was overwhelmed by the events that followed, even if she no doubt could have and should have anticipated them. Audrey Seiler, on the other hand, is something else. She too disappeared, was found, talked about kidnapping. But her case, whatever the motives, there was more. Here's CNN's Keith Oppenheim.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the very point Noble Wray became police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, a major case erupted. Audrey Seiler, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, had vanished.
KEITH SEILER, AUDREY'S FATHER: We'll continue to look for Audrey for as long as it takes.
OPPENHEIM: With her parents giving interviews and the national media pouncing on the story, the pressure to find the missing woman was intense.
NOBEL WRAY, POLICE CHIEF, MADISON, WI: We had anywhere between 60 to 80 officers in the general vicinity looking for her.
OPPENHEIM: For four days, the search continued, with relatives and classmates worried Seiler could have been kidnapped.
Then a major break and a major twist.
(on camera): Audrey Seiler was found in these woods, ironically right near the hotel where her family and search parties were gathering. According to the police report, two officers responded to a sighting of Audrey and approached her here. They said she was frantic, turning her head back and forth, looking over her shoulder, making statements like "he's out there. You've got to help me." Saying her abductor had a gun.
That fabricated story was a turning point, because suddenly a missing persons case mushroomed into an all-out manhunt.
(voice-over): The search for a kidnapper went into high gear. A composite sketch was made. Traffic in Madison practically came to a halt.
But to detectives, many things didn't add up. Audrey Seiler was seen on security tapes leaving her apartment, but there was no sign of a kidnapper. Another tape showed her at a Target store, where police would learn she bought duct tape and rope.
In less than two days after police found Audrey Seiler, the new chief announced this on live TV.
WRAY: That, in fact, she had not been abducted at her apartment at all. Audrey stated that she just wanted to, quote/unquote, "be alone."
OPPENHEIM: Audrey Seiler had faked the story of her abduction, and the price was high. Chief Wray estimates the cost to police agencies and the public was $97,000.
Police records explain why Seiler left her life without notice. She was upset about a potential breakup with her boyfriend.
She later pled guilty to two counts of obstructing justice and is now serving three years probation, paying a fine of $250 a month, or $9,000 for her actions.
(on camera): Do you think that Audrey Seiler had some understanding of what she was doing while it was happening, or she was disconnected from the consequences?
WRAY: I think she had some sense that people obviously were looking for her, but I don't think that she had any idea that the situation would escalate to the point that it did.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Chief Wray says the price of lying goes far beyond the impact on law enforcement agencies.
WRAY: Those that get involved in these things, they also have to realize that this is going to stay with them for the rest of their life, especially when they get this type of attention.
AUDREY SEILER: I plead guilty, your honor.
OPPENHEIM: Attention which means in the end, the person who lied has to live with the results.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to Massachusetts and another story that was unfolding last week as the search for Jennifer Wilbanks was under way, a story that also ended with an incredible twist. It's indeed a reminding that boasting can sometimes backfire. From Boston tonight, CNN's Dan Lothian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What was not to like about this tale? Antique cash dug up in a Massachusetts backyard by a group of friends. The little guys suddenly striking gold. But sometimes truth has a way of turning an amazing story upside down.
BILL KEITER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, EAGLE-TRIBUNE: I call it the Hardy boys adventure that turned into a Larry, Curly and Moe misadventure.
LOTHIAN: "Eagle-Tribune" editor-in-chief Bill Keiter says his local paper broke the story when one of the treasure finders called.
KEITER: Saying they had a great story to tell us, and they're sure we'd be interested.
LOTHIAN: The paper jumped at the scoop.
KEITER: We put it on the front page with the headline "Backyard Bonanza."
LOTHIAN: The story spread from the paper to local stations to national television.
Tim Crebase, Barry Billcliff, Kevin Kozak and Matt Ingham gushed about their find.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was like, wow.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was like, this is just my dumb luck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: A box of rusting cans filled with 1,800 bank notes and bills, some more than a century old, unearthed in the backyard of the house Crebase rented from Kozak. The value to collectors?
BARRY BILLCLIFF, TREASURE FINDER: And we didn't know if they were worth the paper they are printed on, or if it's you know, a huge find.
LOTHIAN: A local coin shop owner determined they were authentic, and collectors valued it at more than $100,000.
But if the money was real, at the local newspaper, they were a lot more suspicious of the story.
KEITER: Just some things that, again, caused our sniff meter to sort of start sniffing a little harder.
LOTHIAN: In different interviews, the story seemed to change. For example, what were they digging up in the backyard when they hit pay dirt?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was digging up the tree.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were going there to rip up a bush.
LOTHIAN: The editors noticed other holes.
KEITER: The history of the house where they found it. Where they had dug up the treasure in the backyard, the location of the backyard, the time that they had done it.
LOTHIAN (on camera): It wasn't just reporters and editors at the newspaper who were getting suspicious. Police in Methuen, the city where the friends said they had found the money, were noticing inconsistencies. They began asking questions, and this amazing story began to unravel.
(voice-over): Helped by an anonymous tip, investigators concluded the friends had actually found the treasures while doing a roofing job at a barn on this farm 25 miles away. Police say Crebase confessed that the cans fell out of a gutter.
CHIEF JOSEPH SOLOMON, METHUEN POLICE DEPARTMENT: It would be our belief that it is -- belongs to one of the ancestors of the current family.
LOTHIAN: Last Friday, all four men were charged with receiving stolen property, conspiracy, and accessory after the fact. Despite any evidence to the contrary, some of the treasure finders are sticking to their original story.
MICHAEL RUANE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Our position is basically they found it where they said they found it. It was found in the backyard.
LOTHIAN: Some wonder why they would want to attract so much attention in the first place, if, as police say, the story was a hoax.
MATT INGHAM: I just wanted to be on TV.
LOTHIAN: And according to Keiter, one more reason.
KEITER: And they said, if we go public, we believe that there will be much higher bids coming in, people that value this kind of collection will offer much more money.
LOTHIAN: Big offers for the old bills are coming in. But police say the real owners, who never even knew about the hidden treasures, will be the only ones cashing in.
Well, maybe the local paper, too, which has gotten a lot of ink...
KEITER: This is the one where...
LOTHIAN: ... out of what was to have been a one-day feature story.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The quote of the night, I just wanted to be on TV.
Still to come tonight, what police now say was another kind of hoax. Still the question remains -- how did the finger get in the chili? And how is Wendy's handling it? Also ahead, a hoax that involves racist threats and a young African-American woman that police say was making them. We'll take a break first. For real. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Not every hoax or suspected hoax is goofy or harmless or victim-free. Police in the suburbs of Chicago say that in order to persuade her parents that the college she attended was dangerous, Alicia Harden herself mailed threatening letters to minority classmates. In response, officials at Trinity University moved dozens of black and Latino students off campus last week. Ms. Harden who is 19 and African-American confessed to authorities after being asked to take a polygraph test. She's charged with disorderly conduct and hate crimes.
Now to California and the story that makes nerve the NEWSNIGHT 4:00 editorial meeting cringe. The woman who claimed she found part of a finger in a bowl of chili at Wendy's. We still don't know who that finger belongs to. But here's what we know for certain, the woman is accused of attempted grand theft because once her claim was made public, the public, imagine this, stopped going to Wendy's.
From Los Angeles tonight, CNN's Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're eating breakfast right now, we apologize if this turns your stomach.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a quirky local story at first, a woman eating at this Wendy's in San Jose claims she bit into a human finger that was in a bowl of chili. Wendy's spokesman had their first statement out within hours, but it wasn't always mentioned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other diners who also ate the chili took pictures of it with their cell phone cameras.
BUCKLEY: A Wendy's crisis team was assembled to manage the public relations crisis, senior management, corporate communications, quality assurance, supply chain, security and risk management, legal and marketing all had spots at the table. While local papers were publishing the finger in the chili allegation, local Wendy's employees were taking lie detector tests. The entire supply chain was being examined. Company officials were literally counting the fingerers of employees. And within 48 hours, they say, they knew the finger didn't belong to them.
But when these photos of the finger were released by local authorities, Senior Vice President Denny Lynch told us the world changed at that moment. It became late show fodder for David Letterman.
DAVID LETTERMAN, "THE LATE SHOW": It's so sunny here in Manhattan today. Listen to this. The finger in my Wendy's chili was wearing sunblock.
BUCKLEY: Anna Ayala, the woman who claim shed bit into the finger, appeared on "Good Morning America."
ANNA AYALA, CLAIMED SHE FOUND FINGER IN CHILI: Knowing there was a human remain in my mouth, something in my mouth, it's disgusting. It is tearing me apart inside. It's nasty.
BUCKLEY: The Wendy's finger story had become water cooler talk.
(on camera): And sales at Wendy's restaurants went down across the country. In one police affidavit, senior managers were quoted as saying, "The company was losing $1 million a day." Here in California, sales Were off by up to 50 percent at some restaurants.
TOM MUELLER, PRESIDENT, WENDY'S NORTH AMERICA: This has been an extremely difficult time for all of us at Wendy's. Our independent franchisees and their employees in the San Francisco area are the real victims.
BUCKLEY: Wendy's president went up on satellite with a video news release to tell the company's side of the story. Spokesmen tried to reassure the public.
STEVE JAY, WENDY'S SANTA CLARA COUNTY: We're very confident that it did not come from any employee or any supplier.
BUCKLEY: But the damage continued. Wendy's couldn't test the finger themselves. It was in the custody of county officials. And until an independent authority could say it wasn't Wendy's fault, advertising, the crisis team decided, wouldn't work. We could proclaim it, Lynch told us, but then people in the news media are going to say we're putting corporate spin on it.
Then Anna Ayala herself became the story. Police discovered she had a history of suing people. They went to her home and served a search warrant.
AYALA: I'm sick of it! I'm tired of it! I am tired of it!
BUCKLEY: On Friday, April 22, exactly one month after the story broke, police announced that Ayala was in custody. Investigators didn't believe her story. She was charged with attempted grand theft.
CHIEF ROB DAVIS, SAN JOSE POLICE: Evidence suggests that the truest victims in this case are, indeed, the Wendy's owner, operators and employees here in San Jose who have suffered financially throughout this investigation.
BUCKLEY: Ayala denies the allegation, but now Wendy's is left to regain its reputation, which it started to do immediately after Ayala's arrest. That Friday, Wendy's gave away 100,000 Frosties in the Bay Area. Sales rebounded significantly, according to the crisis team. But they're not where they were before. Still, one crisis management consultant said the public is more likely to forgive Wendy's if it believes the company is the victim. ERIC DEZENHALL, CRISIS MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT: I think Wendy's has been assertive, they've been cooperative with the media for the most part. And I think that, eventually with time, they are probably going to fully recover.
BUCKLEY: But Wendy's is not the only victim, because somewhere out there someone is still missing a finger.
Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Headlines in a moment. The Jackson trial, no hoax that. Morning papers just ahead as well. No hoax that either. A break first from New York. And there is it, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It would be somewhat of a hoax to tell you that it's a quarter to the hour. But it is time for Erica Hill in Atlanta -- Erica.
HILL: Just a couple of minutes late, but we're still here. Thanks, Aaron.
Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson trial spent the day analyzing telephone records that contend that associates of the pop star tried to intimidate and control the family of Jackson's accuser. The prosecution may rest its case as early as tomorrow.
Now a moment from a quarter century of CNN bringing you the news.
Heidi Fleiss "Then & Now."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heidi, do you think you'll give the names in the black book?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the 1990s, Heidi Fleiss was one of Hollywood's most notorious characters. The then 20-something daughter of a wealthy pediatrician used her family's connections to attract and service rich and famous clients as the Hollywood madam.
Her arrest and trial became headline news. But she never did reveal the contents of her black book, and was sentenced to three years in prison for procuring prostitution and selling cocaine.
When Fleiss was released from prison, she started capitalizing on her notoriety legally. Fleiss has a line of clothing called Heidiwear and owns a West Hollywood boutique called the Little Shop of Sex.
She also invested in her looks, undergoing plastic surgery.
HEIDI FLEISS: I had the party, did the party, threw the party, was the party, I'm partied out. And I live every day to its fullest. And there's lessons that I've learned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fleiss wrote a book about her experiences called "Pandering." She's also opening a legal brothel in Nevada.
On the personal side, she recently faced off in court against former boyfriend and actor Tom Sizemore, accusing him of abuse.
The Hollywood madam turns 40 this year and would like to be remembered for one thing.
FLEISS: That I took the oldest profession on Earth and did it better than anyone on Earth. That's it, and that's all. Alexander the Great conquered the world at 32. I did it at 22.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Lieutenant Columbo was on to something when he said "just one more thing." TV detectives always have one more question. And after reporting a story, correspondents also can't help getting the itch to say, "just one more thing."
Now they can. We call it "Newsbeat." Stories behind stories. Tonight, CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (on camera): For more than a year now, I've covered at least three cases of missing people, children and those cases. And in all three cases, they did not come out with happy endings.
And so our immediate reaction is to cover the story certainly until you find out what has happened.
For the past several days, I've been covering the Jennifer Wilbanks story. Many details of the story began to evolve over the weekend, and it's time to put it all into one encapsulated form for the viewers so they get a good idea of what this bizarre, very bizarre story was all about.
While people were certainly glad that Wilbanks was alive and well, the mood had changed to one, in some cases, certainly in Duluth, where many of the people who had given of their time in the search for this missing woman, were now, to put it mildly, very angry. It is clearly a strange tale that still requires many, many answers, and who knows how long it will be before we get those.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: I don't know, we'll check morning papers, see if any answers show up. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country, and around the country -- I'm going to talk very fast because we hardly have any time tonight.
We're so pleased to have "The New York Daily News." We never get "The Daily News." Maybe we'll get it now. The headline: "He Does? 'I Do,' Says Jilted Groom of Runaway Bride, Let's Get Married."
I don't know about that, OK?
I also wondered today if Greyhound was going to try and turn this into a promotional spot. Feeling at the end of the -- well, you know.
"The Washington Post," very good story. "Tyrants' Lobbyist Flamboyant to the End." Van Kloberg -- Van Kloberg -- this is Edward Van Kloberg. After a career of image makers for the reviled. He had Baby Doc and Saddam Hussein. He was their PR guy. That would be a task.
"New Arena for Birth Control Battle," the headline in "The Star Tribune." A drug store not giving out birth control pills.
Weather tomorrow in Chicago, "incremental." We'll see you at 10:00 Eastern time. Until then, good night for all of us.
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