Beth Bentley - gone 97 weeks

Susan Powell - still a missing person case. Yeah, sure. The husband takes children on a night camping trip in freezing weather. Mom disappears. One of the kids says that mom was in the trunk. A few weeks later, "Mom is dead."

"This case began as a missing person case and remains as such," he said. "But due to the suspicious nature ... murder and kidnapping have not been excluded." So said a sergeant of the police department of West Valley City, Utah. He should have kept his mouth shut.

If police cases, such as the Susan Powell disappearance (likely murder), were not so serious, this statement would be laughable. All that's left is to find the body.

Now, Beth Bentley vanished in 2010. Could similar words be uttered in a statement from the Woodstock Police Department?

Why has there not ever been a definitive statement by the Woodstock Police as to where she was last seen? So far, only the words of Jenn Wyatt explain the week-end of Beth's disappearance.

Was Beth ever really seen in Mount Vernon? Did Beth and her traveling companion, Jenn Wyatt, really arrive in Mount Vernon early on Friday morning, May 21, 2010, at the house that Ryan Ridge was rehabbing? Was Nathan there? What did they do on Friday? Did the four of them really have dinner at The Frosty Mug in Mount Vernon on that Friday night? What did they eat? Where did they sit? What did they do after dinner on Friday night? All day Saturday and Saturday night? All day Sunday? How did the pizza from Pogue's Pizza get ordered from Beth's phone at the time she was supposedly on the way to Centralia?

What does Ryan have to say about the week-end? What does Nathan have to say about the week-end? Separately, I mean.

Will a note from Beth be found? Has one already been found?

How soon did Woodstock Police start to smell a rat? When Beth was reported missing on Monday night, May 24, 2010, to the Woodstock Police Department, how quickly did officers and detectives begin taking opposing views and investigating all possibilities?

Has the house Jenn rented on Tara Drive ever been searched? Even now, it could be searched. Just contact the owner in California for permission. Of course, it would have been better to search it on May 25, 2010. Maybe it was. Was Beth's car searched on May 25, 2010? When was the rental car returned? Was it returned to the same location from which it was rented? If not, why not? And on whose instructions was it returned elsewhere, if it was?

It took almost 22 months to decide to file charges against Wyatt for lying to police two days after Beth disappeared? Have they not yet trapped others with inconsistent statements? When someone in the close circle of Beth's acquaintances has run afoul of liquor, drug or driving laws, have the police "given them an opportunity" to cough up some information?