Beth Bentley - now gone 55 weeks

It is time to stop fooling around with this case and solve the disappearance of Beth Bentley. Bentley, 41 at the time she disappeared in May 2010, didn't just walk off the edge of the earth. People know what happened to her. And those people need to start talking!

This is a missing-person's case, not a criminal investigation. So has said the Woodstock Police Department.

But here is something new from the City of Woodstock. In response to my Freedom of Information Act Request to inspect ALL the documentation of this case, the response from the City was to deny my request, claiming an exclusion that the records were,
"Records in the possession of any public body created in the course of administrative enforcement proceedings, and any law enforcement or correctional agency for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that disclosure would:

(i)                  interfere with pending or actually and reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings conducted by any law enforcement…agency…"

Are there pending law enforcement proceedings?
Are there actually law enforcement proceedings?
Are there reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings?

I don't think so.

My request list was lengthy. Certainly, some of the information could have been released. But the City (speaking for the Police Department) is taking the approach that all of it is protected from release. We'll see what the Public Access Counselor at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General has to say.

Since the police department has never even once gotten close to calling this a criminal investigation, how can they withhold information now by saying there are law enforcement proceedings? Even "endangered" has never been defined as it applies to Beth Bentley. She was not in any known danger; was not missing any necessary medications; was not mentally unstable; was not in known need of ongoing medical treatment.

If the P.D. wants to start naming persons-of-interest or suspects, great! Keep everything private. I wouldn't want to jeopardize any prosecution. Note: concealing a homicidal death is a crime. In Illinois it's a felony. Knowing what happened to Beth and keeping quiet about it is going to land some people in jail.

Remember how all the focus at the time was on how Beth's cell phone and credit cards hadn't been used? Well, what about the cell phone records of some of those really close to her?

It seems that the cell phones of some of her intimate friends were quite busy that week-end. And "busy" doesn't begin to describe Monday's cell phone usage. How would one person have time to make over 100 phone calls and text-messages while presumably driving for 6 1/2 hours, and what would be the purpose of some of those early-evening phone calls to a lawyer? And not just any lawyer?

What about those calls to a person whose driving (DUI) has just come to the attention of the Woodstock Police Department? What were those conversations on May 24, 2010, all about?

Finally, people are starting to make mistakes. The police should take advantage of every legal opportunity to exploit every situation and gather important information. No plea bargains. No early pleas. Go for the jugular. The choice must be 1) talk, or 2) 364 days in jail.