Candace Mossier and Melvin Lane Powers Trial: 1966

Following the trial, Melvin Powers returned to Houston and became a successful real estate developer. Candace Mossier continued to attract controversy. In 1971, she married Barnett Garrison, 19 years her junior. The following year Garrison suffered brain damage in a fall from the roof of the Mossler mansion in Houston. Apparently Mr. Garrison, wearing a pistol in his belt, had tried to gain access to his wife's third floor balcony window when he lost his footing and plunged 40 feet onto a concrete patio. Police ruled the fall accidental. Three months later the couple divorced.

In May 1974, Candy Mossier told police that a masked intruder had broken into her home, chloroformed her, then made off with $396,000 in jewelry and money. She had reported a similar theft in Miami Beach two weeks earlier. On that occasion a thief "with soft hands" had taken $200,000 in gems. Carelessly, Mrs. Mossier reported the same item—a $160,000 diamond—stolen in each robbery. Neither case was solved.

In October 26, 1976, Candace Mossler died in her sleep at the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach. She was 55 years old.

Florida's rush to prosecute Candy Mossler and Powers highlights the weakness of any case based solely on instinct and suspicion. At no time did the circumstantial evidence ever approach the degree of cogency necessary for conviction.