Sweating time in the Beth Bentley case?

Will certain friends of Beth Bentley be sweating a lot more this summer? Bentley, 41 at the time she went missing in May 2010, has not been seen or heard from since the next-to-last week-end in May 2010.

If any of her friends or acquaintances have any knowledge (that's any knowledge) of what happened to her, they could be at risk for a felony charge in Illinois. That's because concealment of a death is a crime.

The statute actually reads "concealment of a homicidal death", but the word "homicidal" won't necessarily let someone with only knowledge off the hook.

720 ILCS 5/9-3.4(a) reads, "A person commits the offense of concealment of homicidal death when he or she knowingly conceals the death of any other person with knowledge that such other person has died by homicidal means."

(b-5) reads, "'Conceal' means the performing of some act or acts for the purpose of preventing or delaying the discovery of a death by homicidal means."

"Conceal" means something more than simply withholding knowledge or failing to disclose information.

"Homicidal means" means any act or acts, lawful or unlawful, of a person that cause the death of another person.

Bentley didn't just walk off the edge of the planet. Why was the Round Lake Park Police Department successful in finding Melissa Best in less than 10 days by strong detective work, and in almost a year no persons-of-interest or suspects have been identified in the Bentley case?

Should all persons with even remote connections to Bentley be re-interviewed? I'll bet that stories will change, even if ever so slightly, and enough to provide new leads. It's not like we have a new person to go missing every week from Woodstock. Call in her traveling companion from the week-end and the two men they visited in Mt. Vernon, if she ever left Woodstock and actually reached Mt. Vernon.

Re-trace the driving route from Woodstock to Mt. Vernon. Check the toll records on the Tollway for I-Pass use. Either the rental car had an I-Pass that triggered tolls, or the rental car recorded toll violations (or tolls were paid in cash and would have been spoken of in initial interviews).

If the claim of a drive to Centralia on Sunday afternoon is still made, what roads did the driver use? What was her timetable? Where did she go after dropping Beth off? What time did she start back for Woodstock? Where and when was she to meet Beth, in order to return to Woodstock together?

Every lie will start to unravel. No one is good enough to remember what she or he said 10-11 months ago. When some of the people start thinking about prison time for a felony conviction, they will start thinking about saving their own hides. What really happened to Beth?