Obstruction charges dropped in missing Woodstock woman case

WOODSTOCK – A judge tossed charges against a woman accused of lying to police as they investigated her friend's disappearance.

Jennifer Wyatt-Paplham, 38, of Woodstock, was charged in March with two counts of obstructing justice related to the missing-person case of Beth Bentley, who was last seen more than two years ago – May 23, 2010.

Police have said Wyatt lied to them when she said she did not have contact with Bentley on or after May 25, 2010. They also said Wyatt lied when she said she dropped off Bentley at an Amtrak station in Centralia so that Bentley could take a train back to Chicago.

Wyatt's attorney, assistant public defender Kim Messer, filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying there was no actual crime alleged.

In a written ruling Wednesday, McHenry County Judge Joseph Condon granted the motion.

"Neither count of the bill of indictment alleges the defendant acted with the intent to either prevent the apprehension or obstruct the prosecution or defense of any person," Condon said. "Strictly speaking, neither count states an offense."

Messer said the judge was following the law.

"I would have been surprised had he ruled differently," she said.

Assistant State's Attorney Michael Combs, who is also chief of the criminal division, said he respected Condon's decision.

He said he hasn’t decided whether to file new charges.

“I might,” Combs said.

Phone records indicate Wyatt called Bentley’s cellphone number later than she initially told police and that contact was made “numerous times,” investigators have said.

One call lasted at least five minutes, but it isn’t known whether Bentley herself answered the call.

Wyatt previously said that after a weekend trip to Mount Vernon, about 80 miles east of St. Louis, she dropped off Bentley across the street from an Amtrak station.

Amtrak had no records of Bentley buying a ticket, and no one recalled seeing her in the vicinity.

Wyatt didn’t wait for Bentley to be picked up or to board the train, a fact that “haunts me every day,” she said a year after the disappearance.

Bentley’s husband, Scott, is an attorney but was not involved with litigation of Wyatt’s case.

Wyatt used to work for him as a receptionist.

“Regardless of whether [Condon’s] decision was correct or not, it just seems to me that it doesn’t seem right that you can basically lie to police in a serious matter without any consequences,” Scott Bentley said.

Scott Bentley said there still has been no activity on his wife’s cellphone or credit cards since she disappeared.

"The only development in the case was this criminal matter," he said.
Woodstock Police Chief Robert Lowen said Beth Bentley's disappearance is still an active investigation, but the department
hasn't received new leads lately.

He said investigators were disappointed with the judge’s ruling.

“We fully thought that Jennifer Wyatt supplied erroneous information and withheld information,” Lowen said. “We thought that would be the way to accomplish the task of getting the correct information.”

He declined to give his opinion of what, if anything, happened to Beth Bentley, and said he hopes she is still alive.

“But I don’t know,” he said.