Susan Powell: Missing

I hope you will all grant me a few minutes’ indulgence…I’m going to go off-topic a bit here and talk about my dear friend, Susan Powell, who has been missing for a month. 

I’m sure many of you have heard her name and story by now.   But if you haven’t, here’s a quick summary:

Sunday, December 6, I walked home from church with Susan and her two little boys, ages 4 and 2.  She seemed happy and fine and nothing was out of the ordinary.

The next morning I got a frantic phone call from Jenny, Josh Powell’s (Susan’s husband) sister who lives here in Utah.  She was very worried and upset because neither Susan nor Josh were answering their phones, had showed up at work, or taken their kids to daycare.  She was at the house with police and when they broke a window to get in—fearing the family had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning—no one was there and the family car was also gone.

Her husband and boys returned that night, raising more questions than answers.

That was the beginning of the nightmare.  My life and the lives of everyone closely tied to Susan have changed in every way imaginable since then.  Her family and I are trying everything we can think of to find Susan…keep her name in the news…get her story and picture into every home in the country in the hopes that someone, somewhere, knows something that will help us find her.

To that end, yesterday we started a massive social media campaign that will run for 72 hours, ending on Thursday morning at 8 a.m. MST.  If you are interested in helping us spread the word, here’s some things you can do:

* Spread Susan’s YouTube channel and videos everywhere…share on your FB wall, e-mail to friends, anything.

* E-mail five friends with the subject line “Please forward to 5 friends” and include all the relevant links (which you can find here).

* Blog about Susan and her story.  Any pictures or video posted to the Friends and Family of Susan Powell Facebook group are freely available to share as needed in the effort to find Susan.

* Join the Friends and Family of Susan Powell Facebook group.  This group’s purpose is to gather news clips/videos/articles in one place, offer a place the family can go for words of comfort and hope, and act as “search central” for any topics that will help find her.

* Consider downloading/printing some fliers and posting them at your workplace or anywhere you go. 

* If you are on Twitter, follow @findsusan and tweet about her, using the hashtag #findsusan.

* Wear or display a purple ribbon to symbolize one of Susan’s favorite colors and bring awareness of her story to even more people.

This campaign is already working.  E-mails are flooding inboxes all over the country, the Facebook group has doubled in size in less than 24 hours, and…most importantly…tips have come in to the police.  THAT is what this is all about—hoping someone will remember something, just enough to help us find her.

Her family is suffering terribly.  The waiting is the worst part, not knowing where she is or what’s happened…it’s hard to describe the rollercoaster of emotions we are all on.

Any and all prayers, help, and support are appreciated more than we can say.

Thank you for allowing me this indulgence and now…I return you to your regularly scheduled blog. :)

Kiirsi Hellewell is a stay-at-home mom who, in a previous life (before December 2009), lived quietly at home, enjoying homeschooling her children and dabbling in a few creative pursuits.  She lives in the Salt Lake City area.