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Disappearance of Susan Powell

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Susan Powell
Joshua and Susan Powell with their sons Charles and Braden
Born
Susan Marie Cox

(1981-10-16)October 16, 1981
Alamogordo, New Mexico, U.S.
DisappearedDecember 6, 2009 (aged 28)
West Valley City, Utah, U.S.
StatusMissing for 14 years, 10 months and 29 days
Known forMissing person; believed murdered by husband
Spouse
Joshua Powell
​
(m. 2001)​
Children2

Susan Marie Powell (née Cox; born October 16, 1981) is an American missing person from West Valley City, Utah, whose disappearance in December 2009 and the subsequent investigation garnered national media attention. Her husband, Joshua Powell, was named by law enforcement a person of interest in her disappearance but was never charged. Joshua killed himself and the couple's two young sons in February 2012 after custody of the boys had been awarded to Susan's parents.

West Valley City police closed their active investigation into Susan's disappearance in May 2013, stating their belief that Joshua murdered Susan and that his brother, Michael (who died by suicide in February 2013),[1] aided him in concealing her body.[2] Since then, there have been repeated attempts to have Susan legally declared dead.[3]

Background

[edit]

Joshua Powell was born on January 20, 1976, to Steven and Terrica Powell in Puyallup, Washington; he had two brothers, Michael and John, and two sisters, Jennifer and Alina. The Powell household was deeply dysfunctional due to Steven's abusive behavior and his disaffection with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). According to divorce filings by Terrica in 1992, Steven shared pornography with his sons and refused to teach or enforce limits on certain behaviors. As a teenager, Joshua allegedly killed gerbils belonging to one of his sisters and threatened his mother with a butcher knife. He also attempted suicide on at least one occasion.[4]

By the late 1990s, Joshua was living in Tacoma as a student at the University of Washington. It was here that he began a relationship with a woman named Catherine Terry Everett, whom he met at a local LDS Church congregation. After the two moved into an apartment together, Joshua exhibited possessive behavior towards Everett. She later recalled he refused to allow her to visit her family by herself and added: "He would have restrictions and limitations on what I could and couldn't do when it came to my family." When Everett visited a friend in Utah without Joshua, she decided not to return to Washington and broke up with him over the phone.[5][6]

Joshua met Susan Cox, a classmate at his LDS Church Institute of Religion course, during a dinner party at his Tacoma apartment in November 2000. The two began a relationship and married in the Portland Oregon Temple in April 2001. Joshua had a bachelor's degree in business and worked for a number of different companies over the years.[7] Susan, a trained cosmetologist, took up a job with Wells Fargo Investments after the family relocated to West Valley City, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The Powells had two sons: Charles, born in January 19, 2005, and Braden, born on January 2, 2007.

For a brief period following their wedding, Joshua and Susan lived with Steven, her father-in-law (his father), in South Hill, Washington. Steven developed an obsessive infatuation with Susan and followed her around the house with a camcorder, used a small mirror to spy on her while she used the bathroom, stole her underwear from her laundry, read her journals and posted love songs online under a pseudonym.[8] In 2003, Steven confessed his amorous feelings to a stunned Susan, who rejected him; the encounter was inadvertently captured by Steven's camcorder microphone. The Powells moved out-of-state soon after, partly so Susan could distance herself from Steven.[9]

Susan's journal entries and email correspondence indicated the presence of marital discord.[10] There was tension with Joshua over his refusal to attend church services with his family and over his continued contact with Steven despite his father's ongoing advances toward Susan.[11] Susan's friends also pointed to Joshua's "extremely controlling" behavior towards his wife and his extravagant spending habits. Joshua filed for bankruptcy in 2007, declaring over $200,000 in debts.[12] Susan recorded a video in July 2008 surveying property damage she attributed to Joshua, and wrote a secret will that included the statements, "I want it documented that there is extreme turmoil in our marriage" and, "If I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one."[13]

Disappearance

[edit]

On the morning of December 6, 2009, Susan, Charles and Braden attended church services. A neighbor visited them at home that afternoon, leaving at about 5:00 p.m.[14] This was the last time Susan was seen by someone from outside the Powell household.

At first, relatives reported the entire Powell family missing on December 7.[15] Joshua's mother, Terrica, and his estranged sister, Jennifer Graves, went looking for them at their house shortly after being informed that the children had not been dropped off at daycare that morning. They called the police after failing to make contact with Joshua or Susan. The police broke into the house, fearing that the family members were victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. They found no one inside, but noticed two box fans blowing at a wet spot on the couch.[16] Susan did not show up at her job on December 7; her purse, wallet, and identification were all found inside the house. Her cell phone was later found in the family's only vehicle, a Chrysler Town & Country minivan, that Joshua had been using.[17]

Later that day, at about 5:00 p.m., Joshua returned home with the two boys and was taken to the police station for questioning. He claimed he had left Susan sleeping at home shortly after midnight on December 7, and had taken his boys on a camping trip to the Pony Express Trail in western Utah.[16] Police visited that area on December 10, but found no evidence of the campsite that Joshua had described.[18] They also found it suspicious that Joshua would take his young boys out camping in blizzard conditions after midnight when they were scheduled to go to daycare just hours later. Joshua had additionally not told his boss that he would not be coming into work that day, and explained to police it was because he had thought it was Sunday rather than Monday.[19]

Investigation

[edit]

Upon searching the Powell residence on December 9,[18] investigators found traces of Susan's blood on the floor, life insurance policies on Susan for US$1.5 million, and a handwritten letter from Susan expressing fear for her life.[20] DNA test results, released in 2013, matched one blood sample with Susan, while another sample was determined to have come from an "unknown male contributor".[21]

In August 2012, West Valley City police released documents showing Joshua took actions that were regarded as highly suspicious following Susan's disappearance. He liquidated his wife's retirement accounts, cancelled her regularly scheduled chiropractic sessions and withdrew his children from daycare. He had also previously spoken to coworkers about how to hide a body in an abandoned mineshaft in the western Utah desert.[22]

Police interviewed the couple's elder son, Charlie,[23] who confirmed that the camping trip Joshua described took place;[24] however, unlike his father, he stated that Susan had gone with them and did not return.[20] Weeks after her disappearance, a teacher reported Charlie had claimed that his mother was dead.[20] Furthermore, Susan's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, claimed that while at daycare several months after the disappearance, Braden drew a picture of a van with three people in it and told carers: "Mommy was in the trunk".[25]

Investigators informed the media that they planned to question Joshua again,[26] and subpoenaed all footage and interviews (aired and unaired) of Joshua from local television stations.[27] On December 14, Joshua retained an attorney in connection with the investigation,[18] and police stated that he had grown increasingly uncooperative.[24][28] A few days later, Joshua took his sons to Puyallup to stay with his father, Steven, for the holidays. By December 24, Joshua was considered a person of interest in the investigation.[29] On January 6, 2010, Joshua returned with his brother Michael to pack the family's belongings, indicating he was moving permanently to Puyallup.[30]

Developments in 2010–2012

[edit]
class=notpageimage|
The Powells lived in West Valley City, Utah, when Susan disappeared in 2009. Joshua Powell killed himself and their children Charles and Braden Powell in South Hill, Washington, in 2012.

In Puyallup, Joshua occupied a home with his two sons, his father Steven,[18][31] his brothers Michael and Jonathan, and his sister Alina. Joshua indicated that he would rent out his house in Utah.[32] It was reported that he returned to Puyallup after he had lost his job in West Valley City.[33]

Soon afterwards, the website SusanPowell.org was launched. Described as "the official website of Susan Powell", the site's anonymous entries defended Joshua as the victim of a smear campaign by Susan's family, his estranged sister Jennifer and the LDS Church.[34] Additional posts also speculated that Susan's disappearance was connected to that of Steven Koecher, a former journalist who had vanished in Nevada the same week as Susan, and that the two had run off to Brazil together.[35] Joshua and his father Steven were widely believed to have written these posts.[36] In late 2010, both men claimed that Susan had abandoned her family due to mental illness and that she had left with another man. Susan's family rejected these claims as being "unsupported" by any evidence.[31]

Investigators' scrutiny extended to Steven upon learning from a family friend that he had been obsessed with his son's wife. Computer images seized from his house in 2010 turned up 4,500 images of Susan taken without her knowledge, including close-ups of specific body parts.[37][38] Police also turned their attention to Michael after learning that he had sold his broken-down Ford Taurus to a wrecking yard in Pendleton, Oregon, shortly after Susan's disappearance, and had later ordered satellite images of the lot. When police found the car, a cadaver dog indicated that decomposing human remains had been in the trunk. DNA tests on the car proved inconclusive.[39]

On September 14, 2011, Utah authorities discovered a possible gravesite while searching Topaz Mountain, a desert area near Nephi, Utah, that Joshua had visited often as a campsite.[24] There were signs of recent soil disturbance and shoveling, but after digging a few feet down, police were unable to find any remains in spite of careful sifting of the soil. Federal anthropologists also ruled out the possibility of the site being an ancient burial ground. Police continued to examine the site for a time, but offered no explanation as to why they previously announced the finding of remains when none had actually been confirmed. Authorities said they were following a scent detected by their sniffer dogs.[40]

Relations between and within the Powell and Cox families became increasingly hostile. After the police raided their home in 2011, both Joshua and Steven spoke to major news outlets regarding journals that Susan had allegedly written about the relationship between Steven and herself. Steven claimed that he and Susan had been falling in love prior to her disappearance, and he cited the content of the journals (written when Susan was a teenager) as evidence to support his theory that she was mentally unstable and could have run away with another man. A judge issued a permanent injunction forbidding Joshua and Steven from publishing any material from Susan's journals, ordering the pair to either return or destroy any journals already published.[41]

On September 22, Steven was arrested on charges of voyeurism and child pornography after police found evidence that he had secretly videotaped young girls and numerous women, including Susan. John Long, assistant attorney general for Washington State, said that Joshua was a "subject" in this investigation.[42] A friend of Steven claimed that he was preoccupied with pornography and "was hung up on [Susan] sexually".[38] Susan's father filed for custody of her children the day after Steven was arrested. A Washington court eventually granted Cox temporary custody of the boys,[43] ruling that Joshua would have to move out of Steven's home if he wanted to regain custody. Joshua rented a house in South Hill, but authorities later alleged that he had never actually moved into that house, merely making it appear as if he had satisfied the court's instructions while continuing to reside at Steven's home.[44]

In late September 2011, Jennifer Graves stated that she believed her brother Joshua was "responsible for his wife Susan Powell's disappearance".[45] His other sister, Alina Powell, had been suspicious of him as well; however, she later withdrew her suspicions and felt that Joshua had been unduly harassed by the investigation.[46] By this time, West Valley City had spent more than half a million dollars on the case. On September 28, Mayor Mike Winder indicated that he felt that the case was worth the expense, stating, "We feel that we are getting to that tipping point where we have more hot evidence than we have had in the past two years", and that the case was moving forward.[47]

In late 2011, Joshua underwent a series of court-ordered evaluations in Washington. The evaluations, conducted by James Manley, determined that he had adequate parenting skills, a steady employment history and no criminal record or history of domestic violence. However, Manley also raised issues concerning the ongoing criminal investigations, Joshua's failure to admit normal personal shortcomings, his overbearing behavior with his sons and his persistent defensiveness and paranoia (attributed to the police and media attention in conjunction with underlying narcissistic traits). The initial recommendation was for Joshua to have visitation with his sons several times a week, supervised by a social worker.[7]

In the last week of January 2012, West Valley City police discovered about 400 images of simulated child pornography, bestiality and incest on a computer seized from the Powell family home. The pornography had been cached when viewed by the previous owner of the computer, which had been purchased by Susan secondhand. Utah authorities accused Joshua of having viewed the images.[48] The images, while not illegal due to them being in a hand-drawn or cartoonish 3-D format, were cause for "great concern" to Manley, particularly given Joshua's earlier denial of possessing any such material. Joshua was recommended to receive a more thorough psychosexual evaluation and polygraph test, but Manley suggested no change in the visitation schedule with the Powell children.[7]

Meanwhile, Joshua’s brother Michael established a Google Sites page that claimed Susan's parents were abusing and neglecting the children in collusion with child welfare authorities. Michael also alleged that West Valley City police had both mishandled the investigation into Susan's disappearance and were harassing Joshua. Lawyers for the Cox family disputed the allegations and Google removed the site after a few days due to violations of its terms of use.[49]

Murders of Charles and Braden Powell

[edit]
Murders of Charles and Braden Powell
LocationSouth Hill, Washington, U.S.
DateFebruary 5, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-02-05)
Attack type
double murder-suicide, familicide, filicide, child murder, arson
Weaponcarbon monoxide poisoning, hatchet, arson
Deaths3 (including the perpetrator)
VictimsCharles Powell
Braden Powell
BurialWoodbine Cemetery (Charles and Braden)
cremated (Joshua)
PerpetratorJoshua Powell
Motiveloss of custody battle

On February 5, 2012, social worker Elizabeth Griffin Hall called 9-1-1 after taking Charlie and Braden to a supervised visit at their father Joshua's house in South Hill. Hall, who was supposed to monitor the visit between Joshua and the boys, reported that Joshua grabbed his sons and would not let her through the door.[50] Soon thereafter, the house exploded, killing Joshua and the two children. Local authorities treated the case as a double murder-suicide,[51] saying that the act appeared to have been deliberate.[52]

When authorities notified Steven, who was in jail, he "didn't seem very upset by the news, but was angry towards authorities who notified him".[53] Two weeks later, Steven invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions regarding Susan's disappearance. Chuck Cox and others have stated they believe that Steven knew what had happened to Susan.[54] Steven was convicted on the voyeurism charges in May 2012, in a trial which largely skirted the issue of Susan's case.[55]

After a relatively brief investigation, officials confirmed that the explosion had been deliberately planned. The official cause of death for Joshua and the two boys was determined to be carbon monoxide poisoning, though the coroner also noted that both children had significant chopping injuries on the head and neck. A hatchet was recovered near Joshua's body, and investigators believe he used the tool to attack the boys before being overwhelmed by smoke and fumes.[56] The fire investigation also found two five-gallon cans of gasoline on the premises, as well as evidence that gasoline had been spread throughout the house.

Friends and relatives of Joshua told authorities that he had contacted them by email minutes before the incident to say goodbye. Some of them, including his local bishop, received instructions for finding his money and shutting off his utilities.[57] Records also showed that Joshua had withdrawn $7,000 from his bank account and had donated his children's toys and books to local charities the day before the incident.[58] Joshua named his brother Michael as the main beneficiary of his life insurance policy.[2]

Charles and Braden are buried at Woodbine Cemetery, which also contains a memorial for their mother. Joshua's remains were cremated.

Aftermath

[edit]

On February 11, 2013, approximately one year after the death of Joshua and his sons, Michael Powell killed himself in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by jumping from the roof of a parking garage.[1] Police had questioned Michael several times in 2012 after discovering his abandoned Ford at the Oregon wrecking yard. Police described him as "evasive" about why he left the car at that location.[2] Utah authorities have since stated their belief that Joshua and Michael were accomplices in the murder of Susan.[2] West Valley City police's active investigation into Susan's disappearance was closed on May 21, 2013.[59]

In a February 2013 interview, Manley, who had conducted the 2011–2012 evaluations of Joshua for Washington authorities, acknowledged his suspicions that Joshua was involved in his wife's disappearance. However, he did not mention these suspicions in his report because they were beyond the scope of his duties and because Joshua had not been charged with any wrongdoing.[60]

Joshua's sister, Jennifer Graves, wrote a memoir with co-author Emily Clawson about the Powell family's tumultuous history. The memoir was published in June 2013 as A Light in Dark Places. Jennifer was inspired to write the book, she says, "to help other people to recognize abuse in either their own relationships or relationships around them because it's not always completely apparent."

In March 2015, Chuck Cox won a protracted court battle with Terrica and Alina Powell over control of Susan's estate. Terrica and Alina had sought to have Susan declared legally dead to collect life insurance, but Cox ultimately gained full control of the estate.[61] The Cox family also sued Washington's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and its social workers, claiming that the agency prioritized Joshua's parental rights over the safety of Charlie and Braden, facilitating their deaths. In 2015, a federal court granted summary judgement to the defendants, ruling that the social workers had immunity and DSHS was not negligent.[62] In 2019, an appeals court partially overturned that decision, ruling that the social workers did have immunity but the question of DSHS's negligence could proceed to trial.[63][64] At trial, a jury ruled that DSHS was negligent and awarded $98 million to the estates of Susan's two sons.[65] Susan's family also pressured state lawmakers in Washington and Utah to pass bills that would restrict or block visitation rights for parents being investigated for murder.

Steven Powell was released from prison on July 11, 2017, after serving nearly six years following his voyeurism and child pornography convictions.[66] He died of natural causes in Tacoma, Washington, on July 23, 2018.[67]

In 2019, Salt Lake City radio station KSL, which had produced a podcast about Susan's disappearance called Cold, disclosed that the "incestuous cartoon porn" found by West Valley City police was not Joshua's nor even came from his computer. The images were found to be from a computer that actually belonged to Susan and had been viewed by the computer's previous owners, fellow members of her LDS Church congregation, from whom she had purchased the computer secondhand. Dave Cawley, the host of Cold, declined to identify the original owners of the computer because he had a conflict of interest as their personal acquaintance. No criminal charges have been filed against anyone related to the images.[68]

Susan remains a missing person, but given the fates of her sons, it is widely believed that she was murdered by her husband Joshua. There were calls as of March 2018 to have her declared legally dead, with the cause being homicide.[3]

In early 2022, a cave exploration crew led by Diesel Brothers personality Dave Sparks took up the challenge of searching a mine shaft in the Utah desert in search of Susan's remains. The team discovered several rib bones, possible human vertebrae, scraps of clothing, and other possible evidence of human remains in the mine shaft.[69] The remains were sent to a lab, with DNA tests concluding that none of the bones belonged to Powell, but were instead animal remains.[70] Pants recovered with the bones tested positive for male DNA and the family is trying to identify the man.[71]

In media

[edit]

In October 2018, the Crime Junkie podcast covered the case in one of its episodes titled "Murdered: The Powell Family".[72]

Dave Cawley, a reporter for KSL Newsradio in Salt Lake City, began a podcast on the Susan Powell case in November 2018.[73] The podcast, titled Cold, offers evidence and information from the case that has never before been made public, such as voice and video recordings,[74] interviews, and more. On February 10, 2021, a TV series development deal for the COLD podcast was announced.[75]

In December 2018, Investigation Discovery premiered an 85-minute documentary titled Susan Powell: An ID Murder Mystery.[76]

A documentary titled The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell[77] premiered on Oxygen in May 2019. The two-night special was touted to be the "definitive" account of the investigation, revealing Steven Powell's never-before-seen videos that were seized by police when he was arrested. The documentary included interviews with many who have never spoken out publicly, including Joshua Powell's sister Alina.[78]

In July 2019, the Morbid podcast discussed the case in its 82nd episode The Tragic Case of Susan Powell: Mini Morbid.[79]

In December 2019, the podcast And That's Why We Drink discussed the case in its 152nd episode.

Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris covered the story in their book If I Can’t Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children.[80]

In February 2022, the YouTube channel HeavyDSparks (owned by Dave 'Heavy D' Sparks, Producer of the Discovery Channel show Diesel Brothers) posted four videos filmed over 11 days documenting their excavation of a 225-foot (69 m) deep mineshaft. Its location is in the vicinity of the area her husband claimed to have gone camping the night his wife disappeared. The headframe of the mineshaft had been torched and destroyed, causing it to fall into the vertical shaft near the time of Susan's disappearance. Sparks and his team excavated about 40,000 pounds of dirt and debris before finding bones of unknown origin and pieces of clothing.[81] Upon having the remains analyzed by forensic scientists, they concluded that the bones were very unlikely to be human.[82]

In June, 2022, the podcast Killer Queens covered the case in a two-part episode (episode 221).[83] In September 2022, the British podcast Redhanded covered the case in another two-part episode.[77]

The case was also featured in an episode of Deadly Sins.[citation needed]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
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