Beth Bentley vanished 72 weeks ago. Every week probably hundreds of men and women think of her and wonder what progress is being made in the search for her. Since last Sunday one week has passed; seven days have passed; 168 hours have passed. And not a word in the media or from law enforcement.
How many of those hours involved active investigation? Any? How many people did the Woodstock Police Department detectives interview? or re-interview? Did anyone finally interview the waitress at the Frosty Mug in Mount Vernon who said that she waited on Beth, Jenn, Ryan and Nathan on Friday night, May 21, 2010?
A while back there were folks who thought that those nearest Beth ought to be given lie-detector tests. Were they? Since no one, absolutely no one, has been named a suspect or even a person-of-interest in this case, why would someone be willing to take a polygraph?
Have the police anywhere (Woodstock Police, Mt. Vernon Police, Jefferson County S/O) uncovered even one clue to her disappearance?
When you think about this case and then compare it with the frantic activity in other parts of the country when a family member disappears, don't you wonder - even a little bit - what is so different about this case that it went cold so quickly and gets colder by the week?
What did Beth know that could have resulted in her disappearance? Could there have been someone who didn't want her to talk about what she knew? What did she know?
Two Crime Stoppers groups (Woodstock and McHenry County) offered rewards of "up to" $1,000. Big deal. And someone offered a reward of $3,000 that was talked about for a while but, to my knowledge, whoever offered it was never identified. Is it off the table now? Even back then, to whom would a claim for the reward have been made?
Four thousand dollars were raised at a fundraiser at the former Gus's Roadhouse over a year ago. It wasn't even for a reward; it was for "family expenses", and some (or all?) of it was spent on a trip to Las Vegas "to search for Beth" the next week.
I don't read the rants on Facebook or on the Susan Murphy Milano Facebook page or on her blog. Is the CUE Network doing anything? Probably not, but why should they? It takes boots on the ground here in Illinois, and no one is showing up to help. If someone posts that Beth has shown up, will someone please let me know?
I still wonder where the family outcry is. Where are her husband's protests at the silence of law enforcement? Is the Illinois State Police involved? If so, what are they doing?
What do you think law enforcement should be doing now? How about some concrete suggestions?
Is there someone with a jackhammer ready to break this case wide open?
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
1 comment:
I Googled Beth again today. That's how I wound up here again. I was thinking about what people were saying not long after her disappearance - that she may have taken off of her own volition. That idea becomes more absurd by the day, to me. My feelings haven't wavered; my first thoughts, when a loved one isn't where they are supposed to be, is that something awful has happened. Only after I confirm that they are okay, am I able to shake that sense of foreboding and calm my panic. That's me though.
Through the lens of the internet and from a distance, I'm alarmed by the characters that emerged from this story. I hope that the people that surrounded Beth in her life in Woodstock were not as they were made out to be or appeared, online. If they were, then it wouldn't be hard to imagine her fleeing - except for the issue of leaving her children behind. There was no apparent reason for that.
I have to wonder how much longer this mystery will endure. Sadly, Beth is one of thousands of people that go missing - every year, it's hard to believe. Does every police department have unsolved disappearances? Do they have many? How many? Do some have more than others? How many are solved? How do the police go about solving them? It seems that the way the police are going about solving this case(or not) is as mysterious as every thing else that pertains to the disappearance of Beth Bentley.
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