This morning friends and loved ones of missing Utah mom Susan Powell launched an online search party combining e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace in the hopes that she will be found. The 28-year-old mom of two disappeared during the evening of December 6. Her husband Josh has reported that he was on an overnight camping trip with their sons who are aged four and two.
Kiirsi Hellewell, the coordinator of the effort was on The TODAY Show this morning with Matt Lauer from Utah. “We’re asking everybody to send an e-mail to five friends and ask them to forward it to five of their friends so that the e-mail can spread all across the country. We’re also asking people to spread it on Twitter, on Facebook, on YouTube, on their blogs, podcasts — any way possible.” While social media has been used to finding missing people before, “As far as I know, I don’t think anybody’s ever used social media like this before to find a missing person,” Hellewell said. “We’re kind of breaking new ground and trying to figure it out as we go along.”
Hellewell has put together an 85-second slideshow consisting of pictures of Susan Powell and posted it on YouTube for people to send out. Susan appears to be happy in the pictures, with hair that is light blond to brunette.
Here’s how you can help:
- Follow @FindSusan on Twitter and tweet about her using the hashtag #findsusan.
- Send an e-mail to findsusanpowell@gmail.com with “I want to help” in the subject line to receive a return e-mail with instructions about how to proceed with an e-mail campaign.
- Watch and share the YouTube slideshow of Susan.
