Beth Bentley - where it started

On Thursday night, May 20, 2010, Beth Bentley was seen at her youngest son's baseball game in Woodstock. Reportedly, she then went the Woodstock Dairy Queen.

Then she parked her car in the garage at 749 Tara Drive, Woodstock. At that time, the house was a rental property and occupied by Beth's friend, co-worker and sometimes-alibi, Jennifer Wyatt.

The public story is that Beth and Jenn drove a rental car to Mount Vernon, Illinois, later than evening and stayed with Ryan and Nathan Ridge in a house outside of Mount Vernon that Ryan was rehabbing. Depending on whose story you believe, Beth, Jenn, Ryan and Nathan ate at the Frosty Mug on Friday night and rented a boat on Saturday. Jenn says she dropped Beth off in Centralia, Ill. on late Sunday afternoon near the Amtrak station.

Late Monday evening Beth was reported missing to the Woodstock Police Department, after she did not return to Woodstock on Monday with Wyatt.

This story could be a full-length book or a movie. Maybe some day it will be.

Gerry Street Nature Area

The Woodstock Police have never said whether officers carefully inspected the house at 749 Tara Drive. Or whether they took apart her car and inventoried everything found in it. Or whether they inventoried the rental car that was apparently driven to Mount Vernon (and back).

Some people think Beth never left Woodstock that Thursday night. Should the house on Tara Drive be carefully searched, even now? What about the land behind the house? The Gerry Street Nature Area abuts the backyard at 749 Tara Drive. Was it ever searched?