Here’s my hypothesis, FWIW. It wasn’t that she wanted time alone, but having disappeared into the Wedding Machine (and clearly from family’s comments it’s all about The Wedding) she wanted to see if she actually mattered to anyone as an individual. Hence, the mysterious disappearance, the clue-dropping, the bizarre story, et cetera, then showing up a few days later, rather like a child faking or exaggerating an injury to get attention.
Childish? Selfish? Narcissistic? Absolutely. But given the behavior of the family, it’s hardly surprising. You learn what you’re exposed to.
People do this kind of thing all the time; my father’s wife wrecked their house one day and then tried to claim they’d been vandalized. However, most of the time it doesn’t end up on the national news. If there’d been any real stories that day this would have been a below-the-fold item for the local news; instead, CNN, et al decided to make it into the centerpiece of the day’s infotainment. He who holds the TV remote chooses the story.
Remember, the dog wags the tail because the dog is smarter than the tail; if the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.[sup]*[/sup] We (collectively) are getting wagged pretty hard in pursuit of ratings and viewership.
Ooooh, I’m liking that hypothesis. “Disappearing” as a metaphor for her disappearance within the wedding machinations. We do tend to manifest what we’re really thinking & feeling, despite conscious attempts to the contrary.
I like your hypothesis, however, given the recent spate of wives killed by their husbands (Laci Peterson and Lori Hacking), who were originally thought to have been abducted at first, it’s no wonder this one also got full the “Pretty White Woman Abducted! Film At Eleven!” treatment.
Whoa, there cowboy. Apparently he’s also described their relationship as being “very pure” (i.e. they haven’t done the nasty yet). So, it’s entirely possible she would not be a fun date.
This family is sounding more and more like some kind of LDS splinter faction from northern Utah that will inevitably end up in an armed standoff with authorities.
Are we starting a pool for how long it takes her to run away again?
Sadly, you’re probably closer to reality than we’d care to admit. This is starting to shape up like a high rent version of the Andrea Yates story. Let us hope that they do not procreate.
I thought they implanted it under the skin this time? (Harder to get rid of.)
The more I hear about this story, the worse I feel for her. Tuckerfan, I hope you’re wrong. This is one seriously whacked out situation and I’m honestly shocked that there doesn’t seem to be a single person in her family to help her.
Do we as Dopers really want this marriage to go through? I may be wrong, but if they did get married they might want to have kids. Already, both potential parents have shown enough dumbassitude to keep Cecil busy for a long, long time.
She has already been offered $100,000 for the official film rights. Higher offers will probably come. (Personally if I were her I’d hold out for a spot on Amazing Race.)
Meanwhile her fellow Atlantan Ashley Smith, whose story is actually inspiring (and I’m not even a Christian), is pretty much already “Ashley who?”.
