What’s new in the Beth Bentley missing-person investigation?
The report of the Woodstock Police Department for December 2011, included in the February 7, 2012, packet to the City Council, looks remarkably similar to the reports in previous months. That’s the only remarkable part of it, aside from the deletion of the hyphen between follow and up.
The December report of the Investigations Division is contained in the narrative summary, and it reads, "The Investigations Division continues to aggressively follow up on all leads in the investigation of the Endangered Missing Person Benedetta "Beth" Bentley. The Investigations Division maintains contact with the Illinois State Police and all other Police Agencies involved in this case for updates and the sharing of intelligence information."
Do you suppose there were any new leads in December? In November? October? September? How far back would you have to go, before you found a lead on which the Woodstock PD Investigations Division had “aggressively” followed up?
This is “only” a missing person case. As such, why was the public never asked for any help? Or, at least, not the past 12 months.
Even when the case was fresh, did the police ever ask for anyone to come forward with information? Like, with information about Beth’s appearance and/or demeanor during the weeks before she disappeared or even at that Thursday night baseball game in Woodstock?
Why did the police never announce the route by which Jennifer Wyatt and Beth drove to Mount Vernon, Ill. on the night of May 20, 2010 (if they did)? Or any specifics of the week-end? Or the route they took to Centralia (if they did)? Or the route that Jenn drove back to Woodstock in the rental car (if she did)?
Did they ever check video recordings of the vehicle through any I-Pass toll booths on May 20? Did the rental car have an I-Pass? Were tolls collected from its account?
Was the rental car ever searched?
Compare this case with other missing person cases around the country. Why are those searches intensive? Why do persons-of-interest get named quickly in other cases? Are there factors that should have put detectives in the same mode early in the case?
The new head of the Detective Division of the Woodstock Police Department is Det. Jeff Parsons. Perhaps he might consider holding a public meeting in the City Council chambers to discuss this case. Or perhaps the Coffee with the Chief on March 9th might be devoted to renewed efforts to find Beth Bentley. If you have information that will help crack this case or would like him to conduct a public meeting about this case, call Det. Parsons at 815.338.2131.
3 comments:
My birthday is also Beth's birthday. She came to my mind last Sunday, as I celebrated with my kids, parents, friends and others. My heart aches for those that loved her, those that miss her and would have been celebrating with her last Sunday - had she not gone missing.
Gus, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts about Beth's disappearance through your blog, it's the only place I come to find out what's going on with the case. It is perhaps the only current item on Google results' first page. I was reading back over some of your previous posts and found the Sunday, October 9, 2011 Beth Bentley - Week 72 one. I think it's one of your best posts on the subject of Beth's disappearance. I'm cautiously optimistic to read that there is some change in the department and I sincerely hope that Det. Parsons has the jackhammer that you mentioned - the one that will FINALLY crack this case wide open!
A.F., many thanks for your comment. I appreciated your posting it. I'll find a keyword in the Week 72 article and post it here, so that it can be easily found by other readers (and me).
Readers can find the Week 72 article about Beth Bentley's disappearance by searching (on this blog) for "Frosty" or "Roadhouse" or "fundraiser". Enter the word (without the quotation marks" and scroll down to the second or third result.
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