A Facebook page devoted to the case of missing West Valley City mother Susan Powell temporarily disappeared Friday, frustrating family members and friends who rely on the social networking Web site to spread public awareness about the search for the 28-year-old woman.
"The Friends and Family of Susan Powell" Facebook page, which claimed more than 45,000 members, stopped functioning about 2 p.m. Friday, said Shelby Gifford, the administrator of the Facebook page and a spokeswoman for Susan Powell's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox.
The disappearance prompted Gifford to issue a news release on Saturday asking Facebook to restore the page. By 10 p.m. Saturday, the page appeared to be working again.
She said the page has been plagued by a "troll" -- an online term for a person who attempts to get reactions or cause controversy by posting hurtful messages. At one point, the troll assumed Susan Powell's identity and posted comments on the page as the missing mother, Gifford said. Administrators have passed threats made on the page to law enforcement agencies, she said.
Administrators also had made repeated complaints to Facebook, but hadn't received a response about the missing page, which started working again shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday again, Gifford said. Susan Powell's father applied online for a job with Facebook to try to get the company's attention, she said. Cox did not get a response from his job application.
The latest Facebook conundrum is another development in a case that has relied heavily on social networking to spread the message about Susan Powell's disappearance.
Earlier this month, Facebook deleted a different Facebook page discussing Susan Powell after reportedly receiving complaints about the page's content. The page's creator, Leslie Bleak, titled her page "Susan Powell" and it had more than 6,000 members. Many of the posts on the page accused Powell's husband, Joshua Powell, of having a role in the disappearance or implored him to cooperate in the police investigation.
The deleted page resurfaced recently on Facebook under the name of "Susan Powell 2" and was functioning Saturday evening.
Gifford and James Hofheins, another administrator of the Susan Powell Facebook page that disappeared Friday, said the page's absence left them disconnected from a wide audience looking for Susan. The page was instrumental in a "social media blitz" in which information about Susan Powell was spread across the Internet on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other Web sites.
"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," Hofheins said in a news release.
Barry Schnitt, a director of policy communications for Facebook, said the page was temporarily inaccessible due to a technical issue.
"The group was not taken down by Facebook admins, and there's no evidence of any security breach. We have restored the group and been in touch with the adminstrators," Schnitt said in an e-mail.
"As part of the investigation, we also removed several fake accounts that were interacting with the group's admins. We'll investigate any future reports of harassment and take action as quickly as possible."
Problems with the "Friends and Family of Susan Powell" page came just hours before West Valley City police served a search warrant on the woman's husband, Joshua Powell, who is in Utah to prepare his home to rent.
Joshua Powell, who is the only person of interest publicly named by police, received the warrant in a Walgreens parking lot near his West Valley City home. Police impounded his blue minivan for several hours, but returned it late Friday.
Family and friends of Susan Powell are continuing to plan events to keep attention focused on her case. Powell's best friend, Kiirsi Hellewell, is planning a "Week of Service" in Susan's honor. The event, scheduled for Feb. 8-15, will target the arts and crafts community because Susan loved to crochet and was known for giving homemade baby blankets and hats to friends, Hellewell said. Donations will be given to domestic violence shelters, she said. Shelby Gifford, a spokeswoman for Susan's parents in Puyallup, Wash., said her family is planning a way to honor Susan in her home state. The family had planned to hold a Feb. 1 news conference to discuss those plans, but decided to postpone it.
Susan Powell was reported missing Dec. 7.
Police have said Joshua Powell, 34, told them he took the couple's two sons, now ages 3 and 5, camping at 12:30 a.m. that night, leaving his wife at the family's West Valley City home. Joshua Powell, whom police have called a person of interest in the disappearance, has moved with the boys to his hometown of Puyallup, Wash., to live with his father. He moved after losing his job in Utah a short time after his wife disappeared.
West Valley City police on Friday served a search warrant on Joshua Powell, who was in Utah to prepare his home to rent. He received the warrant in a Walgreens parking lot near his West Valley City home.
