Beth Bentley - now gone 57 weeks

Where is the outcry for support for finding Beth Bentley, the Woodstock woman who has been missing since May 2010?

Was there only one plea for help during the past week? On Tuesday I addressed the Woodstock City Council one more time, asking why there has not been one press conference by the Woodstock Police Department to discuss its efforts to find this "endangered missing woman". Not one. In a year.

I pointed out to the City Council that the small entry in the monthly report by the Woodstock Police Department for May 2011, which now includes one year of investigation, contains only the same line that appeared in the April 2011 report. If I didn't learn anything for working in the corporate world, it's that, when a word isn't changed in a report from month to month, that usually means that nothing has happened.

There will be no meeting of the Woodstock City Council on July 5 (traditionally, none is held on the first Tuesday in July). The next meeting will be July 19, 7:00PM. Will any member of Beth's family be there to plead with the City Council? A family member's plea will carry much more weight than that of an unrelated party.

Listen to that online interview again with Jon Leiberman. Keep in mind that it wasn't "live"; it was pre-recorded on May 10th and then broadcast online on June 2. Listen to it carefully. Did you have questions, as you listened to it? Those are the questions that need answers.

There are people who have been following this case for almost a year who believe Beth Bentley was never in Centralia. Not ever on that Sunday of May 23, 2010.

There are people who question whether she was ever in the Frosty Mug on Friday night, May 21.

There are people who question whether she ever went to Mount Vernon that week-end.

There are people who question whether she ever left Woodstock on Thursday night, May 20.

Remember this year's case of the woman missing from Round Lake Park? Melissa Best was her name. How did Round Lake Park PD (a really small department) solve that case so fast and find her body? What was involved? Drug use by the woman who was missing. Drug use by family relatives. Drugs provided by relatives.

Did Beth Bentley use any recreational drugs? Did she hang out with anyone who used drugs recreationally? Did she have friends who dealt drugs? Did she know people who dealt drugs?

What will it take for the police to reclassify this case as a crime and move it out of the missing-person classification? Isn't "vanished without a trace" more evidence of a crime than it is for just taking off, when there is knowledge of extravagant use of money and suspicion of drug knowledge or involvement?