Beth Bentley - gone 156 weeks

Beth Bentley has been missing for 156 weeks. She, a Woodstock mom, vanished sometime on the week-end of May 20-23, 2010, presumably from Centralia, Ill.

Her friend, co-worker and traveling companion, Jennifer Wyatt-Paplham, claims they drove to Mt. Vernon on the night on May 20. It's a long story. Who knows what is true at this point in time?

Today's Northwest Herald carried an article about the Cary (Ill.) Police Department and its decision to re-open a cold case involving a 28-year-old woman who went missing on May 20, 1999.

There was something a little loose with the original story, which said that Wendy M. Kimura went missing more than two decades ago. Then the article stated that she was reported missing on May 20, 1999. Is 14 years now "more than two decades ago"? (The online article edited and corrected on Saturday morning.)

Is Beth Bentley's case going to be allowed to go colder and colder? Has absolutely every lead been followed?

Has every contact with all her friends, acquaintances, co-workers, doctors, etc. been thoroughly investigated?

Can police investigators obtain confidential medical records in a missing person case? Did they? What did they find? Was she, or wasn't she? Were there any remarkable medical conditions? Prescription drugs that would have needed refills? Were there any medical conditions that would have needed treatment or that would have changed with the passage of a few months?

Could those medical records provide leads that the police should have followed? Did they?

Have any of her friends left town? Do police know where they are?

The Cary P.D. will have a big problem trying to re-establish contact with persons identified in the Wendy Kimura case. Similar problems can be avoided in the Beth Bentley case by following closely all the people in her life.

No one thinks she just walked away from a train station in Centralia and disappeared.