46 weeks now - Bentley still missing

And now it has been 46 weeks since Beth Bentley went missing at her age, then, of 41. And another week has passed with absolutely no news about progress in the investigation. Or whether there is now even any investigation still continuing.

Is the Woodstock Police Department still the lead investigating law enforcement agency? Has the Illinois State Police entered the case?

The same, old, stale flier is still on the website of the Woodstock PD, naming Beth as "Missing Adult - Endangered." Unfortunately, "endangered" has never been defined for this case, other than in broad, generic terms.

What does "endangered" mean in this case? Had she been threatened? Was there a medical risk? Was she on medications that should not be interrupted? Was she pregnant? "Endangered" has never been officially explained.

Distance is obviously a problem, with 330 miles between Woodstock and Mt. Vernon, Ill. Initially, it was believed that Bentley had disappeared from Centralia, where Jennifer Wyatt says she dropped Bentley off near the Amtrak station. Except Wyatt told me that Bentley "never intended" to take a train.

OK, so what were her plans after Wyatt dropped her off? Was she meeting someone? Whom was she meeting? It's pretty hard to accept that Wyatt, supposedly one of her best friends and also a co-worker at Bentley's husband's law firm, didn't know Bentley's plans for that Sunday evening. If Bentley had a little "rendezvous" planned, when and where were Wyatt and she to meet up, in order to return to Woodstock together?

Why would Wyatt keep quiet, if she does know? Has she been "encouraged" to keep quiet? By whom?

Is there real proof that Bentley ever made it to Mt. Vernon? Some question whether the dinner in the Frosty Mug in Mt. Vernon was on the Friday night before she disappeared or if it might have been two weeks earlier?

What about the mysterious Mother's Day week-end trip to St. Louis? That shouldn't be too hard to confirm - at least that she was not in Woodstock for that week-end. And, if she had intended to fly back to Chicago from St. Louis, how did she get to St. Louis? Did she fly to St. Louis? Drive? What about airline reservations (or cancellations or missed flights)? Those records don't disappear.

Management of this case needs to be right here in Illinois and not in North Carolina, either with the Illinois State Police or intense, ongoing investigation by the Woodstock Police Department. But, if no one in Illinois is actively investigating, then somewhere else is better than no place.

Why hasn't the flier been updated? Was Bentley really dropped off by the Centralia train station? Does "negative contacts or sightings" mean only after she was reported missing? Has law enforcement been able to confirm, absolutely, that she was ever seen in southern Illinois that week-end?

Some readers have said to me that they hope they never go missing from Woodstock. Why is there so little public attention to this case?