Chez Chesler

Wilbanks wasn't married, she didn't have any children, she wasn't a minor. There's nothing illegal about being a jerk to your loved ones and taking off. All the anger seems to be about the wasted resources in searching for her. If she'd gotten off the bus, done what she wanted, and phoned the cops at some point and said "I just needed to take a long bus ride" just as many resources would have been wasted, but she'd have committed no crime, and the mayor of Duluth would have no claim against her for the resources he wasted. That she messed up in the 911 call after the fact doesn't make her any more liable to him.