Beth Bentley - gone 149 weeks

People from near and far are still contacting me about Beth Bentley. Most of them never knew Beth, just as I didn't.

But the missing mother, from Woodstock when we went missing at age 41 on May 23, 2010, has not been forgotten.

And those who have knowledge of what happened to her have not been forgotten. There are at least three with knowledge of the events of that fateful week-end. There may be others, because of Beth's wide range of acquaintances in McHenry County.

How many times did the police interview the three with whom Beth is thought to have spent the week-end in Mount Vernon, Illinois? According to one story, Beth and friend Jennifer Wyatt-Paplham drove from Woodstock to Mount Vernon on Thursday night, May 20, 2010. leaving Beth's car in Jennifer's garage and using a rental car. The car had to be rented by Beth, because Jennifer's California driver's license was expired.

It's 335 miles from the house that Jennifer was renting in Woodstock to the house in Mount Vernon that Ryan Ridge was rehabbing. Who drove? How far? Did both drive? Assuming that Beth and Jennifer left Woodstock between 9-10PM, they would have gotten to Mt. Vernon about 3-4AM.

When (if?) Jennifer dropped Beth off in Centralia, Ill. near the Amtrak Station on Sunday about 6:00PM, is there anyone on the planet who believes that Jennifer doesn't know what Beth's plans were? They were supposed to meet up in northern Illinois on Monday afternoon, so that Beth could retrieve her car from Jennifer's garage and get home by the time her husband, Scott, got home from work that Monday afternoon. At least, that was Jennifer's story on June 10.

But what is some riff had happened over the week-end? What if Beth left in a huff? But if she did, why didn't she take the rental car and leave Jennifer there?

The train story falls apart fast. According to Jennifer on June 10, Beth never intended to take the train to Chicago that Sunday. So, what did Beth intend to do? Hitchhike out of Centralia? Ride the rails? Walk off the edge of the Earth?

Did Beth die in the Mt. Vernon area that week-end? If she did die there, who was she with? Did those with her panic? Did they make her disappear?

Wyatt charges thrown out

It was no surprise that the felony charges against Jennifer Wyatt in the Beth Bentley missing person case were thrown out today. Woodstock Police had charged Wyatt with two counts of obstruction of justice. The State's Attorney's Office authorized the filing of the charges.

The charges looked weak from the get-go. Public Defender Kim Messer had filed a motion to have the charges dismissed, and the motion was granted this morning.

Why did Woodstock Police file them in the first place? And why did the State's Attorney's office authorize the filing of them?

Beth Bentley gone 113 weeks. Lawyer: dismiss case

Beth Bentley vanished in May 2010. She disappeared sometime between May 20-23. She was last seen in Illinois.

Sure glad I wrote my article about Jenn Wyatt's charges on Tuesday because, on Wednesday, her attorney appeared in court and asked for charges to be dismissed.

Her argument? Sure sounds like it was close to mine, and mine wasn't even new. Shortly after the felony charges were filed against Jenn back in March, I wondered out loud whether the Woodstock Police would be able to make them stick.

Jenn's attorney is Kim Messer, Assistant Public Defender in McHenry County.

Felony charges have to be approved by the State's Attorney's Office. A police department can't just file felony charges. So what do you suppose led the Woodstock Police Department and the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office to believe they'd be able to successfully prosecute Jenn on these charges?

Maybe they'll surprise Jenn and her lawyer and be able to do it. On the face of it, they shouldn't be able to, because the Woodstock Police have never spoken of any "crime" having been committed. Beth Bentley is "just" a missing person. Of course, that's if you believe the Woodstock Police Department.

When you start asking around, no one believes Beth Bentley is a missing person. The good people of southern Illinois have rallied from the start and assumed that Beth had vanished from southern Illinois. But did she?

Did Beth vanish from Centralia, Ill., where Jenn says she dropped Beth off near the Amtrak Station on Sunday, May 23, 2010?

Or did Beth vanish from Mount Vernon, Ill., where Beth and Jenn had reportedly visited Ryan and Nathan Ridge? Has either Ridge ever been interviewed by the Woodstock Police Department, the Mount Vernon, Police Department, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office or the Illinois State Police in this case?

Or did Beth really ever leave Woodstock on Thursday night, May 20, 2010?

Jenn knows. Ryan Ridge knows. Nathan Ridge knows. My guess is that another half-dozen people in Woodstock know.

When the Woodstock PD officers interviewed Jenn on May 23-24, did she tell them that she had driven the rental car 300 miles back from Mount Vernon on May 24? Did they ask her for any photo identification? Did she show them an expired California Driver's License? Did they notice at the time that it was expired and raise the question about her legal authority to operate a motor vehicle in Illinois? Did she drive away from the interview that night?

Beth Bentley - 98 weeks and counting

And now she has been gone 98 weeks. Beth Bentley vanished sometime on the week-end of May 20-23, 2010.

She supposedly traveled that week-end with her friend, Jennifer Wyatt, from Woodstock to Mount Vernon, Ill. on Thursday night, May 20. Leaving Woodstock after her son's baseball game and a trip to Dairy Queen, they might have hit the road about 9:00-10:00PM. Beth's car had been parked in the garage of Jenn's rented home at 749 Tara Drive, Woodstock, and they were using a rental car.

Jenn didn't have a valid driver's license. Her California driver's license had expired on her birthday in November 2009. The rental car agency would not have accepted her as an authorized driver. So did Beth drive all 300+ miles to Mount Vernon?.

They were to hang out with Ryan Ridge (reportedly, Jenn's boyfriend at the time) and his younger brother, Nathan

What time did they get to Mount Vernon? Did they sleep? How late on Friday did they sleep? And then what did they do? Did they have dinner at the Frosty Mug, where a waitress said she refused to serve Nathan Ridge, because he was under 21? What did they do Friday night after dinner?

And Saturday? Did they really rent a boat? Were there four men and the two women on the boat? Woodstock Police say they confirmed the boat rental. A local resident said she talked to the marina operator and it never happened. Saturday night? Was there a party at the house being rehabbed by Ryan Ridge or did they go to town?

And Sunday? What did they do during the day? Why were there so many phone calls from Jenn's phone to Ryan on Sunday morning? Weren't they together? And was a pizza really ordered from Beth's phone, right about the time Jenn says she was dropping Beth off 25 miles away near the Centralia Amtrak station?

And what were the original plans for Beth and Jenn to meet back up near Woodstock, so they could return to Jenn's house, so that Beth could pick up her car and get home before Scott got home from work?

So many unanswered questions... One person knows most of the answers. Others know some of the answers.

Beth Bentley - now missing 44 weeks

Now that Spring is almost here, will there be some serious plans for searching for Beth Bentley, either in the Woodstock area or in Jefferson County, Ill., near Mount Vernon? Bentley, 41 at the time she disappeared, hasn't been seen since May 20-21-22-23, 2010, depending on to whom you talk.

If you talk to local Woodstock residents, they haven't seen her since Thursday night, May 20, after her youngest son's baseball game.

If you talk to a waitress in Mount Vernon, she was last seen in the Frosty Mug, a restaurant and bar in Mount Vernon.

Supposedly she went on a boat rental on Rend Lake and was seen in an IGA grocery store on Saturday with her distinctive, designer bag.

If you talk to her friend, co-worker and traveling companion, Jennifer Wyatt, Beth was last seen in Centralia, Ill. on Sunday near the Amtrak station, when Wyatt dropped her off before 6:00PM. Some (many?) jumped to the conclusion initially that Beth had taken the northbound 6:08PM train to Chicago, intending to catch the 12:30AM (May 24) Metra to Woodstock, arriving at 2:01AM.

But then there is a report of a pizza's being ordered from Beth's cell phone in Mount Vernon about the time Wyatt says she dropped Beth off in Centralia.

And now there are rumors that Beth's cell phone "pinged" in McHenry County about 11:00PM that Sunday night. And of a break-in at her husband's office, where she was the office manager, that night and tampering with computers.

On June 10 Wyatt called me and told me that Beth never intended to take a train to Chicago.

So, if Wyatt did drop Beth off in Centralia, what was Beth going to do? Was Beth going to meet someone? Be picked up by someone? Be driven back to northern Illinois, where Wyatt and Beth would rendezvous so that they could return to Woodstock together?

The investigation into Beth's disappearance needs to start again, right at Square 1.