Beth Bentley - Week 86

Beth Bentley has been missing from Woodstock now for 86 weeks. She disappeared on the week-end of May 22-23, 2010. Some say she disappeared from Centralia, Ill. Others wonder whether she was ever in the Mount Vernon, Ill. area that week-end.

If a Private Investigator got involved now, 86 weeks after she disappeared, where would he start?

He'd probably start at her old office. He'd look carefully at her activities for the two-three months before her disappearance. He'd talk to her husband, her family (her sons, her father, her brother in Phoenix, the never-mentioned brother in Woodstock), to her "best friend", to her "best friends", her co-workers, her acquaintances, her Facebook "Friends", her drinking buddies from the old Gus's Roadhouse.

He would want to examine the Facebook postings and comments that have since disappeared. Are they still available from Facebook records?

He'd dissect the last week-end, starting with her youngest son's baseball game on Thursday, May 20, 2010, and the stop at Dairy Queen. He'd find out who was at the baseball game and who was at the Dairy Queen.

He'd track down the rental car and check the mileage records and I-Pass. He'd look for any tickets to either Beth or Jenn that week-end or parking tickets for the rental car.

He'd get access to the house at 749 Tara Drive that Beth had rented for Jenn. Even now there could still be evidence to be found in the house.

Then he'd take apart the itinerary for the week-end and re-trace the route to Mt. Vernon and back, and the supposed trip to Centralia on Sunday afternoon. What route? What time? Who drove? How far? Tolls? Gas? Who called whom on the phone - all incoming and outgoing phone calls? Any calls to Mt. Vernon while Beth and Jenn were enroute? Any calls from Mt. Vernon to either of them? Why or why not? What time did they get to Mt. Vernon? What did they do then? Who slept where? Text messages in or out on the week-end?

What did the group do on Friday? What time did each person in the house arise? Where did they go? Together? Separately? Where did they eat dinner? What did each have? What does each say that the others had?

The stories are likely, by now, to mesh like gears on a fine Swiss clock> Will they "mesh" too well?

When did the Sunday night birthday dinner with her father get canceled?

Did Beth just walk away? Not likely.

And, if she didn't, then very likely there may be numerous people in Woodstock who know what happened to her? These are people you are bumping into every day. Keep asking them questions about Beth.

And tell the Woodstock Police Department what you are learning. The stories, if that's what they are, will start falling apart..

Is the Woodstock Police Department still investigating this "Endangered Missing Person" case? Why was Beth classified as "Endangered"? Do they know something they have never reported? There don't seem to be any reports of health or emotional problems. Had she been threatened?

Every month the Woodstock Police Department "updates" the City Manager and the City Council on this case. Unfortunately, it's with a "boilerplate" summary that doesn't change from month-to-month. Just what is the Woodstock Police Department really doing to find Beth Bentley?