Supporters of missing Utah Mom Susan Cox Powell are outraged that her father-in-law plans to publish her private journal online, and they've launched a Facebook campaign to stop him.
"We need to step up for Susan and her loved ones, and not allow this to happen. Susan deserves respect and justice," reads the description of the "Stop Josh Powell from publishing Susan Cox Powell’s journals" Facebook page.
A related petition at change.org is asking GoDaddy.com -- the host of SusanPowell.org, a website operated by Susan's father-in-law Steve Powell -- to take down his site.
"Steven Powell has begun transcribing missing mom Susan Cox Powell's personal journal ... Steve's son, Josh Powell, is the SOLE person of interest in the still open investigation of Susan's disappearance," reads a description of the petition. "The Powell family claims that Susan is alive and left voluntarily. IF this is the case, the 2,000+ pages of Susan's personal journal legally belong to Susan as she is the sole copyright owner. See U.S. Copyright Law chapter 2."
During a recent interview with NBC's "Today" show, Steve Powell said he has 2,000 pages of journals his daughter-in-law allegedly kept before she went missing. The journals, he said, back up his theory that she ran off with another man.
"People don’t know that there are two distinct sides of Susan. She was very ... kind of an open person in a sexual way ... with the opposite sex," Powell said on the show.
Susan Powell, 28, was reported missing by her family on Dec. 7, 2009, after she failed to show up for her job as a stockbroker at Wells Fargo Financial. Her husband, Joshua Powell, told police he had been camping with their two children, ages 2 and 4, and had last seen his wife around midnight.
Suspicious of Joshua Powell’s story, investigators named him a "person of interest" in his wife's disappearance. Several search warrants were served, including one to draw biological samples from him. Police also impounded the family van.
No one has been charged in Powell's disappearance, and police say the case remains an active investigation. Joshua Powell, 34, and his two children have since moved back to his hometown of Puyallup, Wash.
Susan Powell's best friend, Kiirsi Hellewell, expressed her thoughts on the journals in a July 14 post to her online blog, "Pieces of Me."
"What kind of a man does this? What kind of a person not only violates the sacred privacy of a young girl by reading her thoughts ... but also decides he's going to publish her private thoughts to the entire world," Hellewell wrote.
"This is so wrong, on every level," she continued. "This is an act of total depravity. And I hope the people of this country and this world will realize this and stand up for Susan, for truth, for justice."
