Delia D'Ambra

The Sheriff's Office's final word on this case is that it's closed, and the prime suspect, George Pentland Jr., was the person believed to have been responsible.

I found archival records online for George, which state that both he and his son John are now deceased.

George died in 1964 in his early 70s, and John died in 2002 at the age of 79.

While researching this case, I came across coverage by the Idaho statesman of a man sharing the same name.

According to that reporting, in September of 1929, about five years before Ellsworth's disappearance, a George Pentland Sr.

and his son George Pentland Jr.

had been part of a group of men charged with conspiracy to commit robbery for allegedly beating and robbing a woman for some checks and cash.

Another relative of the Pentland family in that group was charged with illegal possession of beaver hides, which authorities only found while trying to recover the items that had been stolen from the woman who was robbed.

In May 1930, the George Pentland Jr.

in that case was sentenced to 1 to 14 years in prison.

However, he was released early, less than a year later, when the Idaho Pardon Board commuted his sentence.

So if that George Pentland Jr.

is the same one from the case I've been telling you about, that would mean he was a free man when he crossed paths with Ellsworth Teed in August of 1934.

The obituary for John Pentland in the Coeur d'Alene Press stated that, as an adult, John went on to work as a miner and logger in Idaho, but was disabled in the late 1960s.

After that, he moved to Arkansas for a while before coming home to Idaho in the 1980s.

While I was digging into old newspaper archives, I also found a man who shared the same name in an article by the Post Register.

That piece reported that in 1939, a John Pentland had been charged with petty larceny for taking a rifle and belongings from a cabin owned by a miner who died.

For that offense, he was only given a 90-day sentence, which was suspended.

"...I was unable to find much of anything that discussed what became of Oscar Downing, the third suspected accomplice in Ellsworth Teed's murder."

But what I can tell you is that when law enforcement announced that those men were believed to be behind his disappearance and death, Ellsworth's descendants were glad to finally have some closure.