Beth Bentley - gone 152 weeks

On Friday in national news it was reported that Holly Bobo's purse was found a mile from where she vanished two years ago in Tennessee. At the end of one TV broadcast a reporter mentioned a $250,000 reward by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations. Online stories place the reward amount at $185,000.

Now for news about Beth Bentley, missing for three years in Illinois, and the reward in her case.

Reward? What reward? Initially, some thought the reward was as high as $5,000, and that included "up to $1,000" from each of two CrimeStoppers groups in this area. Since then, the Woodstock Area Crime Stoppers has become defunct. It slithered off into oblivion due to lack of interest of the Board of Directors, which engaged in no publicity, no fundraising, no recruitment of younger members to perpetuate the organization.

Left-over funds of the Woodstock group were supposed to be transferred to the CrimeStoppers of McHenry County group. That is a super-secret organization with a strong reputation for stonewalling any attempts to inspect its financial records or learn the identity officers or Board of Directors.

For a few bucks, the Woodstock group could have dissolved the organization honorably; instead, they are apparently allowing it to dissolve involuntarily, since the last Annual Report was not filed. It was incorporated January 12, 1987; so the Annual Report was probably due in January 2013.

There was some mention of a Beth Bentley reward fund at local bank; that effort flopped after only about $150 was donated. A family member opened the account with a starting balance of $25, and two area residents, neither of whom was related to Beth, kicked in another $125 or so. Supposedly, an elaborate Trust Agreement was put together for that reward fund, with terms that would make anyone proud. When it finally surfaced, .... well, let's just say that it was a good thing that it never had to be presented in court.

A fundraiser was held at a local party spot and about $4,000 was raised. That may have been spent on a trip to Las Vegas to search for Beth during the week after the fundraiser.

How is it that a 20-year-old woman can hold the attention of friends, family and townspeople in Tennessee and be the focus of a $250,000 reward, yet in little, ol' Woodstock a woman can be missing for three years and almost no one mentions her?

Even now, a solid, renewed search effort could be put together. A core of interested people could start from scratch and identify every move by the people with whom Beth is believed to have spent the week-end. A matrix could be built, and the dots could be connected. Gaps could be investigated. All connections need to be taken apart and explored. In great depth.