Beth Bentley - gone 194 weeks

Beth Bentley vanished sometime between May 20-May 23, 2010. Or was it on Sunday, May 23, 2010?

Friend, co-worker, pal, traveling companion, sometimes-alibi Jenn Wyatt told the Woodstock Police that she dropped Beth off near the Amtrak Station in Centralia, Ill. just before 6:00PM that day. On  June 10, 2010, she told me that Beth never intended to take a train that Sunday evening. No one else has been identified as having seen Beth in Centralia that afternoon.

Who saw Beth in or near Mt. Vernon, Ill. on that Sunday? Or on Saturday, May 22? Or on Friday, May 21? Did a waitress at The Frosty Mug (Mt. Vernon) really serve dinner to Beth, Jenn, Ryan Ridge and Nathan Ridge? Did police investigating Beth's disappearance locate that waitress and take a statement from her?

Which police department found and interviewed her? Mt. Vernon PD? Woodstock PD?

Lately, on one of the Facebook pages identified with Beth's disappearance, posters have been carping about the failure of Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch to grant permission for searches on rural property. This is nothing but a "deflect and swerve" (versus "protect and serve") effort by posters. I seriously doubt that Sheriff Mulch ever told anyone not to search. No one needed his permission to search for Beth.

If they want (or wanted) to search the countryside in Jefferson County (the supposed destination of Beth and Jenn on Thursday night, May 20, 2010, was a house in Jefferson County, well outside the city limits of Mt. Vernon), they might want to seek permission of the landowner, but they wouldn't need the Sheriff's permission. Of course, it would be a good idea to have a plan, should they happen to find anything that would be of interest to law enforcement.

On-going review of telephone records continues to reveal questions about the activities leading up to that fateful week-end and on the week-end itself. Listed calls tell one story, and the absence of calls one would expect to see tells another story.

Questions revolve around who knew what (pertaining to Beth's whereabouts), and when did they know it?

I have no doubt that an inspection of the charges on Beth's credit card account, written off by the bank credit card issuer and sold to a collection agency, would tell a story. Unfortunately, the collection agency filed only a statement of the $15,000 balance it was trying to collect from Beth. The collection effort was abandoned after they were unable to serve Beth with a Notice about the court dates.

A private investigator or police investigator would probably be able to inspect monthly charges and payments for 6-12 months before Beth disappeared. Was there a pattern to charges and/or cash advances?

My thanks to those who contacted me during the last week to discuss this case. Beth Bentley will be found.