January 20, 2010 - In hopes to garner a response from Facebook, Susan Powell’s family issued a press release today addressing the mysterious disappearance of their Friends and Family of Susan Powell Facebook group and the dozens of unanswered complaints they’ve sent to Facebook over several serious issues they’ve had over the past few weeks.
“ I think in terms of what we hope this will accomplish is to get attention of Facebook,” Shelby Gifford, Spokeswoman for Susan’s family said, “Their service is valuable in the search for Susan but it does not help when you can’t reach them when there’s a problem.”
Susan Powell, 28, has been missing since Dec. 6. Her husband, Josh Powell, is the last person believed to have seen her. He is also the only person of interest in a case police call a missing person's case with suspicious overtones. Josh recently moved back to his hometown of Puyallup, Washington, where he is living with his father and two young sons.
The Facebook group , initially set up as a support for friends and family by Susan’s best friend, Kiirsi Hellewell, grew to over 45,000 members in less than two months. The loss of the page is yet another loss for the family.
Even before the Friends and Family of Susan Powell Facebook page disappeared yesterday, the family had been plagued with problems from an anonymous poster threatening to take the group down. “The ‘troll’ claimed to have control over the Facebook site,” Gifford said.
Whether it’s one person or several, they posed as Susan and posted sexually explicit comments and threats to the site. (Click here for more information on the threat).
When asked if the family has captured information from the missing page, Gifford responded, “We have captured some but not all of the information from the page. Since the 72-hour media blitz we have developed a substantial email data base but obviously were not able to reach everyone.”
“We don’t have evidence the group was taken down by Facebook,” Gifford said, “If a page violates the Terms of Service of Facebook they would normally send a warning and no administrators have received any warnings from Facebook.”
“We don’t know why this person or these persons are not happy with the site. We have made police reports and will continue to be in contact with the police about this issue,” she said, “We will continue to pursue those avenues as needed.”
Asked if she knows who might be doing this, Gifford responded, “None I’m willing to speculate about right now.”
The Cox family and administrators of the site have sent dozens of complaints to Facebook regarding this individual and possible associates. “None of the friends and family of Susan Powell and Facebook administrators of the Friends and Family of Susan Powell Facebook page have been contacted following their complaints. Chuck, Susan’s dad, even applied for a job with Facebook online in an effort to get their attention.”
I asked if he received any response from them and Gifford said, “Nothing.”
The family and friends of Susan Powell have already dealt with tremendous amounts of trauma, grief, heartbreak, and worry, and the actions of these people, Gifford said, add salt to the would for no apparent reason.
Gifford said the family must focus on the 45,000+ people who continually offer prayers and support to find Susan. "There is always going to be one or a few in every bunch but the strength of 45,000+ does good things for the Cox family," she said.
The family is not planning to start a new Facebook page at this time. Their hopes are that enough attention will be drawn to Facebook that they will restore the group and all its contents. Something James Hofheins, Administrator for the page, believes is possible.
Gifford indicated an announcement will be sent out Tuesday about a secure server webpage that is being set up.
For now, people may visit the Find Susan Powell blog blog and the Hearts Knit for Susan site. .
Coverage of this case can be found at www.seattleheadlinesexaminer.com (‘Missing persons’ link) and www.seattlefamilyexaminer.com (‘Susan Powell’ link).
Support can be shown on Twitter @findsusan. Be sure to use the #findsusan hashtag so your posts are seen by others concerned about Susan Powell.
And as always, if you have a tip that you believe would help police, call the West Valley City Police directly at 801-840-4000.
Click here for a touching song dedicated to Susan Powell.
Comments are encouraged and should contribute to the story.
Otherwise, if they do not meet Examiner.com's Terms of Use, they can be subject to deletion.
Comments