Beth Bentley - Week 199 - New small claim

Beth Bentley vanished sometime on the week-end of May 20-23, 2010.

Reports at the time were that there was no credit card activity after that week-end.

A payment posted to one credit card account on May 23, 2010, the Sunday that she reportedly was dropped off at the Centralia (Ill.) Amtrak Station by her friend, Jenn Wyatt.

The credit card issuer/bank wrote off her approximate $15,000 credit card balance and sold the account to a collection firm that attempted, for a time, to collect it.

Unfortunately, papers filed in McHenry County Circuit Court by Midland Funding (12AR749) show only the balance it was attempting to collect. Filing papers don't include documentation. It wasn't able to serve Beth for its court case, and the firm abandoned its efforts on May 23, 2013.

Is there a story in the pattern of charges to that account (and to any other accounts she had) in the days, weeks and months leading up to her disappearance? Did the police obtain a history from the credit card issuer and analyze the charges and payments?

A new small-claims case (14SC397) was filed in McHenry County Circuit Court on February 6. The first hearing on it is scheduled for March 19 and is identified as a return of summons. The Plaintiff is Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, and the amount of the claim is between $2,500-$10,000. The Plaintiff's law firm is Freedman Anselmo Lindberg (Naperville, Ill.). Good luck to them in effecting legal service on Beth.

What was Beth's pattern of charges in the last week before she vanished? Was there really a charge by Pogue's Pizza in Mt. Vernon, just about the time when Jenn said she was dropping Beth off in Centralia?

Reports at the time were that a pizza was ordered from Beth's cell phone but never picked up. Did Pogue's Pizza charge a credit card when the order was placed, or was it C.O.D. (or, rather, collect on pick-up)?

What other credit card activity was there on that week-end, in or near Mt. Vernon? What about gas for the rental car on Thursday night? Assuming the rental car had a full tank of gas when picked up, was gas purchased enroute to Mt. Vernon? At what station and at what time? Were there meal or grocery charges on Friday or Saturday?

An analysis of Beth's credit card activity on that week-end would tell a story, and the story would result from the charges and from the absence of charges. What's the story?