By ,
Published January 13, 2015
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.
WAGA-TV, the FOX affiliate in Atlanta, reported that the hair was found in an office park near the home of Jennifer Wilbanks (search). The station reported that authorities could not say yet if the hair was connected to Wilbanks' disappearance.
Authorities said they were considering the case a criminal investigation.
Wilbanks was reported missing by her fiancé, John Mason, who said she disappeared Tuesday on her nightly jog in this Atlanta suburb.
Her keys, cash, credit cards and identification also were found in her home. Her fiancé said she left with only her radio and the clothes she had on.
Before she left, "she talked to her mom ... about the different wedding stuff they had to get done for today," Mason said Wednesday night during an interview on FOX News' "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren."
Mason, who had just returned from a run himself, said Wilbanks prefers to run by herself, but "she doesn't just go and run and hide."
About 100 police officers took part in the search and brought out bloodhounds to help. They also searched a river nearby.
Police gave mixed signals about whether they believe Wilbanks, a hospital nurse, may have gotten cold feet four days before her wedding.
Maj. Don Woodruff said authorities did not believe Wilbanks was a runaway bride. But under questioning from reporters, Police Chief Randy Belcher later said: "It's a very real possibility she did get cold feet. I mean, how many husbands have gone out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back?"
Belcher told FOX News in an interview Thursday that Mason was the only person who has told them that Wilbanks went jogging.
"We're not doing a polygraph [test] at the present time, but he has volunteered that he would like to take a polygraph," Belcher said.
Belcher said Mason had told them he would decide Friday whether to take a polygraph test.
Mason and Wilbanks were to be married Saturday in what was expected to be a big bash, with 600 invitations sent out and 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen, said Mason's mother, Vicki.
"She was so in love. The wedding is huge. It's the talk of the town. Everybody knows her and was so excited," said Killie McCauley, who went to high school with Wilbanks and joined the search.
McCauley and other friends and relatives have told police Wilbanks seemed happy and was looking forward to the wedding.
Friends on Thursday gathered at the home Wilbanks shares with her fiancé on a tree-lined street close to the town square. They brought food to share and hugged each other as police kept others at a distance.
McCauley described the former high school track runner and cheerleader as an "avid matchmater" who introduced McCauley to her future husband. She said Wilbanks was looking forward to a future that included children.
"She's just such a caring person. Being a mother would be her ultimate," she said.
Anyone who thinks they may have seen Wilbanks is asked to call the Duluth Police Department (search) at 770-476-4151.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/search-a-criminal-probe