Fall from Grace

by Pat Brown

It used to be the men who just walked away from it all. The man who went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back was not just a Hollywood movie contrivance. More than one woman could tell a story about a husband who left for the corner market and kept right on going. But those were the days when a woman pretty much knew her fellow had deserted her, and she didn't demand a police investigation that would end up costing the jurisdiction a fortune. And the man just left; he didn't stage his flight as an abduction.

Then along came a bug-eyed spider by the name of Jennifer Wilbanks, the so-called Runaway Bride. Four days before her April 2005 wedding, she vanished. Because she had left no note and made no phone call to her fiancé, and because some of her clothing, clumps of her hair, and a weapon were found, indicating the possibility of foul play, a major search was launched. Most importantly, family and friends swore up and down she had no questionable history of narcissism or attention-seeking, and their daughter would never do such a thing (let's ignore her three arrests for shoplifting and dumping her previous fiance). Sixty-thousand dollars later, Wilbanks turned up claiming she had been abducted, a story she finally confessed was a lie. She claimed she had just gotten cold feet, but this extreme behavior is more indicative of a female psychopath wanting a lot of attention. She got it, a real tough sentence of community service, and a book deal. Woo hoo. And now she is in love again.

Audrey Seiler, another purposefully gone-missing woman, cost the taxpayers $100, 000. The supposedly angelic, straight-A University of Wisconsin student went missing exactly one year before Wilbanks, although she is not nearly as well remembered. Search teams scoured the area for five days until she was found in a marshland, wild-eyed and raving. She, like Wilbanks, claimed she had been abducted. Her parents, like Wilbanks's parents, told police that she was not the kind of girl who would run away or fake her own abduction. Yet she did, and all to get her boyfriend's attention. She got no more jail time than her soulmate, Jennifer. I don't know what she is doing today.

And now, we have Emily Grace. Friends and family started a Facebook page when she went missing this past August. She left behind a couple of children, vanishing after a concert. The search led from her home state, New Jersey, to Celebration, Florida, where she was seen on video at a bank cleaning out her bank account. This 45-year-old woman told no one she wanted to disappear, and her family and friends stated vehemently that this was out of character. Nancy Grace, in spite of her familiarity with other runaways like Wilbanks and Seiler, wanted to believe this time around that the family was telling the truth, that this mother wouldn't desert her kids. Nancy believed someone abducted Emily, forcing her to get her money out of the bank. Many agreed with Nancy that this must be what happened, especially when Emily's personal items -- her dress, her keys, her credit cards -- were found strewn on a golf course by the side of the road like they had been tossed out of a moving car. It was this very same information that led me to believe Emily Grace had staged an abduction just like Wilbanks. Nancy and I had quite a tiff about it on her show! I turned out to be right on this one.

After a month on the lam, Emily is now back home. Isn't that sweet? And the police are filing no charges against her in spite of the fact that three states ran up bucks looking for her. But even more galling than this was when her parents asked that we all respect her privacy and not bother her. "We understand that there may be many questions about what has happened over the last several weeks," her parents said, "but we ask you to respect Emily's privacy during this time of healing and transition."

Questions? You think? How about an apology? And a payment to the police departments?

For all of you families out there with the next Wilbanks, Seiler, or Grace: When your squirrely one goes missing, don't put up a Facebook page begging everyone to get involved with the search, don't tell the police your black sheep never exhibited any behaviors that raised your eyebrow, and please sign a statement that you will be willing to foot the bill if your darling, the one "who would never go off without telling us," shows up tanning herself on a Florida beach with a margarita in her hand.

Finally, apologize to all the future real abduction victims who will get a less-than-enthusiastic, halfhearted investigation because you cried wolf and made us skeptics.

Oh, and to the next woman who wants to run off, for goodness sake, leave a note. And to the ones who actually fake their own abductions, I hope they throw the book at you. Enough is enough.

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The Truth of the Matter

by Pat Brown

On December 6th in Salt Lake City, Utah, Josh Powell's wife, Susan, went missing sometime in the wee hours of the morning. It wouldn't be too unusual if she had been out jogging in the dark at midnight or was last seen drinking in the parking lot behind a bar with some sketchy character; serial killers look for victims that are easy prey and female joggers and intoxicated women are two of their favorite targets.

But, Susan Powell didn't spend the last evening before her disappearance involved in any high risk behavior (and I mean behavior that one should have a right to engage in, but could get you killed nonetheless). She had friends over for dinner with her husband and two children, and then, as far as we know, settled in for the night. Her hubby, on the other hand, must have been a bit restless.

When the clock struck twelve, Josh Powell got a bit of wanderlust, so he says. He woke their two young boys (and I say woke because a two-year-old and a four-year-old are unlikely to still be up when both parents have work in the morning) and, with no argument from his wife or his sleepy boys, took them on a 'just us guys' adventure, one they were sure to be excited about! A trip into the desert in a freezing cold snowstorm! Woo hoo! I hope they had a great time, because when Mr. Powell finally brought the boys home at 5 PM Monday afternoon (well, he didn't go to work because he forgot what day it was), his wife wasn't there. Josh found his wife had gone missing in the middle of the night, leaving her purse and cell phone behind (no wonder she never called Josh to remind him what day it was).

Susan's family, on the other hand, knew it was Monday. They were called when she never dropped her kids off at day care. They found out Susan had never shown up at work. They couldn't find Josh and the children. They called the police. The police came to the home and found a wet spot on the carpet with two fans blowing on it. Apparently Susan must have spilled something after Josh and the kids went off on their camping trip.

I can see what all of you are thinking, but don't jump to conclusions. The police have clearly stated Josh Powell is not a suspect. When I slipped up yesterday morning on the Today Show, Matt Lauer promptly corrected me, as he should; Mr. Powell is not a suspect. The family also does not view Josh as a suspect. They say there were no problems between him and Susan and that his middle-of-the-night camping trip was not so strange for him. He also often forgets what day it is. They think the police should broaden their investigation to include scenarios other than a domestic homicide.

Let's get real. I don't know when this silly rule showed up where the police can't say someone is a suspect when he clearly is. In this case, the police haven't looked at any other possibility than that Josh Powell killed his wife in the middle of the night. They have not reached out to the public for information or informed them that Susan was kidnapped. They said she is unlikely to have run off, since her purse and phone were still in the home. They won't, however, say Mr. Powell is a suspect. They won't even say he is a person of interest. Obviously, the legal climate has dampened the ability for folks to be forthright and honest. Well, let me do it for them. Josh Powell is the one and only suspect in the disappearance of Susan Powell, unless some other information or evidence comes to light that takes the focus off of him.

Let's look at the three most likely scenarios in the disappearance of Susan:

1) Josh Powell killed her.

2) Susan ran off with a lover or was sick of taking care of her kids and working.

3) Someone kidnapped her in the night.

Scenario Two goes like this: In spite of the fact Susan has a good character, that she is a stockbroker with good career, that she loves her little boys, and that no one has said she acted in any bizarre way in the past, she just took off. She is running off to meet her lover or abandoning her family or she is seeking attention by staging a domestic murder or abduction a la Jennifer Wilbanks, the Runaway Bride. I would have to vote for the attention-getting motive for disappearing since the other two reasons would mean she would probably take her purse and phone along and her car (unless her lover was picking her up). But, that night she decided she wanted to worry everyone and vanish without a trace. Lucky for her, Josh decided to take the boys on a camping trip at midnight allowing her to slip away on foot into the night, with nothing on her person.

Scenario Number Three goes like this. A serial killer or an obsessed stalker decided he wanted to grab Susan. Rather than pick a time when she was home alone or out taking a jog or a walk by herself, he decides to go to the house on a Sunday evening hoping to find her alone. But, alas, the whole family is at home. However, he is a patient man and waits, hoping he will get lucky. And, whaddya know? The husband decides to take his boys on a camping trip at midnight and drives off leaving Susan alone for her abducter to grab. He is really good at not leaving any evidence around, too; no sign of a break-in, no sign of a struggle, no footprints in the snow, and if he did leave evidence, he must have scrubbed it away and set the fans out to dry the carpet because he really cares about leaving a house the way he found it.

Now to Scenario Number One: Josh Powell killed his wife, tried to eliminate the evidence, and took her body in the van to some remote location. He may or may not have taken the children with him at that point in time. He may have left them alone like Bobby Cutts did with his son while he drove to a park to dispose of his pregnant girlfriend. Then again, he may have brought the kids along so they wouldn't wake up and start screaming and alert the neighbors that something was amiss in the home. The police say they went to the location where Josh says he was camping, but we have no way of knowing if he really went there or if he went there after he made a detour. Josh had all night to find a good hideaway for his wife's body.

I don't think it is too difficult to figure out which scenario is likely the right scenario. But, if most of us see this, then what of Susan's family? Why do they disbelieve Josh couldn't have anything to do with what happened to their daughter? Well, if I were them, I would want to believe more than anything in the world that my son-in-law is just an oddball and has a bad memory and communication problems, because the alternative is too awful to consider. They know Susan isn't any Jennifer Wilbanks, so they have to hope she was abducted and is being held somewhere to eventually escape or be found and saved. They have to hope their son-in-law is really not a person of interest or a suspect and the police are failing to due their job diligently.

Sadly, in spite of the family's support for Josh Powell and the police refusal to call him a suspect, the odds of this case not being a domestic homicide are about as good as Natalee Holloway living a life of blond girl slavery in Guyana. It might be a distant possibility, but no police detective is really entertaining alternative theories when the evidence in front of them all supports the same scenario.

I hope some evidence shows up that changes this bleak picture, and Susan Powell can come home to her boys, but in spite of all the effort to avoid calling her husband a suspect, we all know in our hearts he is.

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