Ex-Beauty Queen Faked Abduction
April 6 -- When Fawna Gillette Jones heard about the Wisconsin student who allegedly faked her own abduction, the strange story sounded all too familiar. Two decades ago, she pulled a similar stunt.
Jones, like University of Wisconsin college student Audrey Seiler, was a star student who seemed to have it all.
The former beauty queen said the news of Seiler's story brought back memories of her own problems during her high-pressure teenage years.
"I was horrified … watching that whole thing unfold, I really feel for her [Seiler] right now," Jones said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
Jones's saga began back in August of 1985. Just days after she was named Miss Davis County, Jones walked out of her job at the Bountiful, Utah, municipal building and disappeared into the hills above the town by herself for 30 hours.
After returning to town, the 19-year-old was forced to admit to police and the public that her "abduction" was a hoax.
"I'm sorry that I did it," Jones said in a press conference at the time. "I got carried away and I didn't think through the consequences and that's all I can say."
Jones, now a married mother of three living in Utah County, said she disappeared because she just wanted to get away from it all.
"I had been feeling that I wasn't going to be able to meet the goals that I wanted to make," Jones said. "I took myself so seriously back then."
After Jones won the Miss Davis County contest, people around her were saying maybe she would win Miss America next, and offering assistance with her diet and appearance. Jones said some people told her she would be too fat for the contest. She said all of the attention made her feel like she was under a lot of pressure.
During her lunch hour one day, Jones hid some books up in a canyon above the town. When she returned to work and a co-worker asked her if something was wrong, Jones said she pretended she had received an obscene phone call.
"It was all very impulsive for me," Jones said. "My plan was to walk off and to do my own survivor thing, to fast and sort of whip myself into shape."
