Dear Facebook: Where's our Page? A Press Release

PRESS RELEASE
Saturday, January 30, 2010
2000 PST
Contact: Shelby Gifford, Cox Family Spokeswoman
253.255.1624
Shelby@theshelbynetwork.com

SUBJECT: Friends & Family of Susan Powell Facebook Page Mysteriously Disappears

The Cox Family and administrators of the Friends & Family of Susan Powell Facebook page are asking for the social networking site’s help in restoring a page dedicated to the disappearance of missing Utah mom, Susan Powell, who was last seen December 6, 2009 in West Valley City, Utah.

The page contained information about Susan and her disappearance, and was a place where members of Facebook could come for up-to-date information about the case. “An entire database of people willing to help with searches and provide other services was deleted from Facebook as of approximately 2 PM Friday, January 29, 2010” said Shelby Gifford, family spokesperson for the Cox family and an administrator on the popular Facebook page. “Additionally, our page had over 45,000 members, all of whom can no longer see the page and who are not able to get or distribute information about Susan’s disappearance.”

The Facebook page has also been plagued by a “troll” who continues to visit the page under assumed identities, even pretending to be Susan Powell herself at one point. The Cox family and the Friends & Family of Susan Powell page administrators have made repeated complaints to Facebook and have not received a response. Susan’s father, Charles Cox, even applied online for a job with Facebook to try to get the company’s attention, but received no response. Other Facebook sites that strive to provide information about Susan have experienced similar problems.

“Obviously, our reason for using Facebook is that it can reach such a large audience quickly. This was proven in our successful Find Susan Media Blitz conducted earlier this month, during which the site grew to over 43,000 members in just a matter of days,” said James Hofheins, Social Media Coordinator for the Friends & Family of Susan Powell group. “We would like to talk with a representative from Facebook so we can remedy this problem once and for all. Their lack of response is causing great frustration among Susan’s friends, family and supporters.”

Various law enforcement agencies have been contacted with regard to threats made to the individual administrators of the Friends & Family of Susan Powell Facebook site. “We will continue to pursue those avenues as needed,” said Gifford.

NOTE: The Cox family had previously planned (but not announced) a press conference for Monday, February 1, 2010 in Puyallup, WA. THIS HAS BEEN POSTPONED. When the conference is rescheduled, members of the media will be notified via an emailed press release. To add your contact information to the Cox Family media database, please send an email to Shelby@theshelbynetwork.com.

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Finding Susan - How You Can Help

Our friend, Susan Powell, a beautiful 28 year old Utah mother, sister, daughter, wife and friend is still missing and has been since December 7th, 2009. We’re asking you to continue helping us find her.

Can you help us? Here’s what you can do:

• Blog. We’re asking anyone who blogs or who has always wanted to blog to devote just one post about Susan. For ideas, you can go to the official Find Susan Powell Blog here: http://bit.ly/findsusanblog Use the links below in your blog post and ask your readers to help.

• Follow @FindSusan (http://twitter.com/FindSusan) on Twitter and tweet about her with a link to the one of the links below. Use the #findsusan hashtag and ask your followers to retweet your message with a simple “Pls RT”.

• Go to the official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/susanpowellsearch Watch the videos, memorize Susan’s face and features. Look around – do you see her? If you do, note her location and condition and call 9-1-1 right now.

• Here is the link to Susan’s missing posters: http://bit.ly/4ppWVz - Again, please memorize Susan’s face and look around right where you are. If you see her, please note her location and condition and call 9-1-1 immediately. Please also consider printing out a few and posting them at your local supermarket and other places nearby. We’re also looking for people who can help us translate Susan’s fliers into other languages. Currently, we’re looking for Asian languages – Japanese, Korean and Chinese. If you are fluent one of these languages or another one we need to consider, please let us know. We’re always open to helpful ideas!

• Ask your friends to email findsusanpowell@gmail.com with “I want to help” in the subject line. If there’s a specific service you can provide for us, if and when the time comes that we can use that help, we’ll email you and let you know.

• Email 5 of your email contacts with the contents of this message and “Find Susan Powell – Please forward to 5 people” in the subject line. We’re not asking you to spam your friends, family and co-workers. Just email 5 people and if you choose to add more than 5, that’s great.

• Join us on the Friends and Family of Susan Powell Facebook Page here: http://bit.ly/findsusan

• Even though the Find Susan Powell Social Media Blitz has ended, remember to wear a purple ribbon for "Susan's Purple Ribbon Campaign". Susan’s favorite color is purple, and wherever she is, we want her to see purple ribbons tied to trees, to car antennas and on people’s blouses, shirts and sweaters. This will also help increase the awareness and support for finding Susan and help give hope and support to Susan's family and friends!

• You can also pray for Susan and her friends and family.

Thank you for anything you can do. We appreciate you!


Sincerely,

James Hofheins
Social Media Coordinator
The Friends and Family of Susan Powell

Calling All Bloggers

Our friend, Susan Powell, from West Valley City, Utah, has been missing since December 7th, 2009. We're asking for help.

If you blog, or if you know someone who blogs, would you please consider writing just one blog post telling others about her and about how they can help?

Here's some information that would be helpful to include:

* A link to Susan's "Missing" poster:

* A link to Susan's YouTube channel:

* A link to the Facebook Friends and Family Page:

* A link to the official @FindSusan Twitter account:

* A link to this blog:

(Please email me at jameswhofheins@yahoo.com and I will email you the links. For some reason, I can't get them to show up in this post)

Whether you blog daily, weekly or just every now and again, your help would be very much appreciated. We truly believe someone, somewhere holds the key piece to this puzzle, and we need to reach them - and soon.

When you post your blog post, if you would either email me at jameswhofheins@yahoo.com or send a tweet to @FindSusan, we'll do all we can to help promote your blog as well.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read today's post - and for considereing whether or not you're able to help. May God richly bless you - and may He help us #findsusan soon.

Oh, and please pass it on =)

James Hofheins
Social Media Coordinator
Friends and Family of Susan Powell
(801) 835-9715