Beth Bentley - gone 80 weeks!

Beth Bentley has now been missing for 80 weeks. We are entering the second winter that she has been missing. Where is she?

On my recent trip to the East Coast I spoke with a person with good knowledge of investigative techniques. We discussed Beth's telephone situation, and this person quickly said, "She had a second phone."

This person suggested a careful analysis of calls to and from Beth for the month or two before she disappeared and a determination of what's "between the lines"; i.e., what's missing? You may remember that Beth was described soon after she disappeared as a "serial texter". A high communicator. On the phone - all the time.

So, trace the calls from her entire circle of friends and determine patterns. Then look for gaps. Did some of her friends stop calling (or stop calling so often) one, two, three or four weeks before she disappeared? That would indicate that calls were going to a different phone. Did Beth have a second phone account somewhere? Or a throw-away phone? Or a series of throw-away phones?

How hard would it be for Woodstock Police detectives to search phone records of Beth's close circle of friends? Or were they her "so-called" friends, since they have become invisible in the months since Beth vanished?

That out-of-state investigator had many questions about the initial investigation and the progress (or lack thereof) since.

What will it take to light a fire under this case? For starters, some loud noise from some of the family members would help.

I have felt for months that Beth's father could provide valuable information. He know information that would be helpful. Have the police ever collected that information?

For example, were Beth and Scott to have dinner with her father on Sunday, May 23, the same day that Jenn Wyatt says she dropped Beth off near the Centralia (Ill.) Amtrak station? Was that dinner to be her father's birthday dinner that was postponed from the week before?

Who canceled the dinner the week before?
Who re-scheduled it?
Did anyone call her father on that Sunday to say they wouldn't be there?
Did Scott keep the dinner date with Beth's father? If so, how did he explain why Beth wasn't there?
Beth wasn't reported missing until Monday night? Surely, she would not have ignored a birthday dinner date with her father.

Supposedly, Beth phoned Scott about 4:00PM on that Sunday. Did she tell him that she was in Mount Vernon, not in Wisconsin, where he thought Jenn and Beth had gone? That was a short call, according to phone records. Wouldn't they have talked for more than a very few minutes?

Did Beth talk to her sons on that Sunday or on that week-end? Or did she just leave Thursday night and have no communication with her three sons after that?

Why have the Woodstock Police had nothing to say about this case? More than one woman has said to me that she sure hopes she never goes missing from Woodstock!

Will the next Woodstock Police Department monthly report to the City Manager (and Mayor and City Council) contain some "meat" about its ongoing investigation, such as the number of man-hours worked on this case, number of leads investigated, persons interviewed, etc.? Or will it just once again say how hard they are working?