The remarkable women of southern Illinois

After yesterday's 40th-Week missive about Beth Bentley, a woman in southern Illinois wrote to me, saying,

"Gus - I think you were way too hard on Beth's sons. FYI - There ARE going to be several searches commencing once the weather has cleared up so that no one will be in danger of sinking up to their necks in mud, with the boys' assistance/blessing. In case you hadn't noticed from your perch up in the Chicago area, Southern Illinois and Missouri have had some horrific snow as well this winter, plus now we're dealing with flooding. Everyone wants to get out and search for Beth - we also need permission from landowners, which we are working on, as well as cooperation from the local sheriffs (Sheriff Mulch is someone who could sure use some pressure put upon him, btw). Common sense would tell you, Gus, that NO ONE can search until it can be done safely and rest assured that Beth's sons are fully aware of this too - try using some common sense in the future before you make generalizations where her children are concerned. They are doing the best that they can under the circumstances.'

This caused me to think, again, of the remarkable women in southern Illinois. Even though they didn't know Beth, they took an early interest in her disappearance, based on reports that Beth had disappeared from their area. And they hung in there, even with the red herrings about the Amtrak station in Centralia and a pizza order from Beth's phone on Sunday, at a time when she was supposed to be near the train station.

And so my hat is off to them.

And what about "all" of Beth's friends in Woodstock? What about all her drinking buddies from Gus's Roadhouse who all looked so happy in all the party pictures that anyone could see on Beth's facebook page and on the Facebook pages of her (so-called) friends?

Why have all those Facebook pictures been removed? Why have all those pages been shut down? Why did not even ONE of them contribute to the Reward Trust Fund set up at Chase Bank-Woodstock? Not even one! They had money for drinks at Gus's Roadhouse. They bought "stuff" at the fundraiser.

After the initial opening deposit of $25.00 at Chase Bank, ONLY TWO people contributed to the Reward Fund.

Oh, and the Trust document that was so highly touted on the original Facebook page for Beth? All I can say is, it's a good thing it'll probably never show up in front of a judge! First, it never contained all the Terms and Conditions as were described in such glowing terms by the person who said she had been told about it by a person in Scott's office. I kept asking for it to be disclosed, because I knew those terms would never be there.

When the Trust was finally disclosed, it turned out to be a very broad, very simple document. Which is exactly what it should have been. Except it was so poorly drafted that it is an embarrassment to the lawyer who wrote it, assuming it was a lawyer who wrote it. But its poor construction was not the reason that only $140 ended up in that account.

I read a phrase recently that, for me, described the circle of Beth's drinking buddies here in Woodstock: "All hat and no cattle."

Just because you didn't know Beth, and I didn't, is no reason not to take an interest. The Woodstock Police Department is the lead investigatory law enforcement agency. We must make sure that they are doing everything possible (and impossible) to find Beth Bentley.

After all, what if it's your family member who goes missing next?