Hi. You don't know me. But I am, and have been for a long time, one of the best friends of Alina Powell.

For those that don't follow the news, Alina's brother, Josh Powell, was made a person of interest in the disappearance of his wife, Susan. About 2 years ago, he killed himself and his two children. Now, it appears another of her brothers, Mike, has allegedly committed suicide. I'm giving the abridged version of all this, obviously.

Strap in, folks, there's a wall of text ahead.

I'm scared for my friend. Very scared. There's four dead Powells in about as many years. I tried to talk my friend out of the continued fight against the Coxes, the parents of Susan Powell. Alina's convinced, appropriately, that the Coxes are vile people. She has told me that they want to completely ruin her family, and everything seems to be moving well toward that.

Let me give you a bit of information on the Coxes. This all comes from my friend, take it as you wish.

When Susan disappeared and Josh was made a person of interest, the Coxes fought for custody of their two children. During the first couple of weeks with the Coxes, they had been put into dangerous and harmful situations - using metal objects near unprotected wall sockets, roaming a construction site, and once at least one of the children was injured when he had, supposedly, "stepped in a bucket of scalding water that was on the floor". The Coxes, in my opinion, did not care for these children, and perhaps even abused them, all as a way to hurt Josh more.

There is further evidence that the Coxes abused their daughter, Susan, when she was little. A diary that Susan kept documented some of the abuses and the anger she felt at her parents. This diary was to be submitted as evidence that the Coxes are unfit parents. Couldn't have that, though. It was dismissed as irrelevant.

Alina has heard the Coxes say that they want to find a way to keep Alina's father in prison. He was arrested on 14 counts of voyeurism, proof of which has never been shown.

Folks, I'm a skeptic. Always have been. Probably a bit of an empiricist, too. I don't normally believe things unless I witness them for myself. And I am very skeptical of conspiracy theories. But here's the thing...

Mike Powell was known by many as a very intelligent man, even a genius. On the day of his death, everybody who saw him come in to work said he acted completely normal, same as any other day. There was no note. There were no calls to family members, as Josh called Alina shortly before his own death. There was no odd behavior, no giving away of prized possessions or money. No eerie happiness or overwhelming sadness. I'm not a psychiatrist, but this isn't really standard suicidal behavior. Usually, somebody notices SOMEthing. Alina had even said that his life had been improving, saying that he had a new workout regimen that got rid of his cursed "love handles." :P

But...he WAS fighting against the Coxes in court. Successfully. Disproving many of the Coxes lies as they tried to discredit him and his family in an attempt to get the life insurance policy that Josh had made Mike the beneficiary of.

There's gonna be folks who are just gonna hate the entire family. Trust me, I've seen the vicious words on the forums. I'm not trying to spark controversy. I'm not asking for sympathy, or understanding. From what I've seen online, most people are just going to want the whole family dead anyway because of what they read in the papers, which is pretty much all about the horrible things the Powells have allegedly done, and speaks nothing at all about the Coxes. My purpose in writing this is to get another point of view out there which isn't posted by the media, and also to kind of help my own thoughts along, as I try desperately not to worry about my friend.

You can call me an idiot. You can say I'm being deceived, and buying into the Powell's bullshit with my nearsightedness. You can call me a conspirator. I don't really care. I've been called worse. My thoughts aren't about me right now. They're about Alina, intelligent and witty; her only remaining brother, John, who is very smart, and is full of creativity; her father, already locked in prison with probably worse to come; and her mother, who is incredibly sweet. And the sorrow and heartache they are all feeling right now.

And although I don't buy in to conspiracy theories, if there are any Coxes out there reading this...STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIEND.