November 13, 2025 • 46 mins
When 28-year-old Susan Cox Powell vanished from her West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009, her purse, phone, and keys suspiciously remained—and her husband’s story didn’t add up. In part 1 we trace the chilling trail of red flags Susan left behind: a secret will, haunting journal entries, and an eerie home video “in case something happens.” From the Powells’ tangled family history in Puyallup, Washington, to the night of the so-called midnight “camping trip,” we uncover the control, manipulation, and obsession that built a pressure cooker inside their Utah home. Through interviews, court records, and Susan’s own words, we explore how a young mother’s intuition became her last line of defense—and how the search for truth stretched across the Pacific Northwest.
If you or someone you know feels unsafe in a relationship, reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or visit thehotline.org. Support is available 24/7 via phone, chat, or by texting START to 88788. For listeners in the Pacific Northwest, local help is also available through the Washington State Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-562-6025 or Oregon’s SafeLine at 1-888-235-5333.
Visit our website! Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Patreon, & more! If you have any true crime, paranormal, or witchy stories you'd like to share with us & possibly have them read (out loud) on an episode, email us atpnwhauntsandhomicides@gmail.com or use this link. There are so many ways that you can support the show: BuyMeACoffee, Spreaker, or by leaving a rating & review on Apple Podcasts.
If you or someone you know feels unsafe in a relationship, reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or visit thehotline.org. Support is available 24/7 via phone, chat, or by texting START to 88788. For listeners in the Pacific Northwest, local help is also available through the Washington State Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-562-6025 or Oregon’s SafeLine at 1-888-235-5333.
Visit our website! Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Patreon, & more! If you have any true crime, paranormal, or witchy stories you'd like to share with us & possibly have them read (out loud) on an episode, email us atpnwhauntsandhomicides@gmail.com or use this link. There are so many ways that you can support the show: BuyMeACoffee, Spreaker, or by leaving a rating & review on Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
He said he'd taken the boys to Simpson Springs campground.
When police checked, there were no tracks, no ashes, no
proof anyone had been there. Even more unsettling were the
words of little Charlie Powell, just four years old.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
When detectives asked about the family's strange midnight camping trip
into Utah's frozen desert. He told them that his mother
had gone with them that Sunday, but for some reason
she stayed behind at the campsite and didn't come home.
Hi Cassie, Hi Caitlin, Hi creepy people. Hello, This is
(00:46):
PNW Hansen Homicides, where we chat about true crime, the
paranormal and all things spooky in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Or the p and W. If you're nasty.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And we are, it's well established lore. I think definitely
war at this point. Nasty and nasty lore. Oh my goodness.
We also do a taro reading at the end of
every episode for a little bit of deeper insight into
our topic. The lore about the nasty is so well
(01:20):
established now our friends are going on other podcasts and
spreading the good word the gospel as.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A nasty word.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Wait what yeah, yeah, Shay and Jody from Rainy Day
Rabbit Holes were just on Live Laugh Larseny and we
found out that we are their gateway gals as it were.
They heard about Live Laugh Larseny from a promo swap
that we did with them, and that's how they kind
(01:50):
of connected with them.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So I know, I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I love it when our friends become friends.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I love it when our nasty friends become nasty without
us and do nasty things all over the place. I
don't know if I said that right, but you guys
get it. You get it. Well, should we do our
little announcement we have, just like a tiny announcement, do it?
We used to do a release on Tuesdays. You remember
that thing we used to say at the end, see
you next Tuesday. Yeah, that I conveniently cut out of
(02:20):
the last episode because spoiler alert, we probably won't be
seeing you Tuesdays anymore. Don't cry, It's okay. Well, we'll
see you on the next tea day, which is Thursday.
We had to keep the tea theme so we can
still call you cunts, you know, you know, under the
(02:40):
table at the end of every episode. But it'll just
be see you next Thursday. Now, instead of Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
With shaking things.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, if you could tell, we were already kind of shaky.
Shake a our schedules are getting shooken up, shake and
shaken very hard.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Shake us.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
We're just suggesting, But you guys are fine. Do you
guys have any other wild announcements, like what's going on
in the world? Does any tell me what's going on
on there? God guys?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
No, I think probably.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
No, I don't need to hear anything about what's going
on out there in the world, although I will say
when we were eating breakfast this morning, Chris and I
watched an episode of South Park, and my god was
one of the ones. Uh huh that was quite enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Which one did you watch? La boo boo? Uh?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
No? I, yeah, no, Chris just turned it on and
he I don't know he. I think he probably just
picked a random episode. Oh, should we get into it?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah? I think the people are some are some ready.
I think the people are ready for some true crime.
That is what I was trying to say, eloquent. They're
sick of my uh man made of mouths stories and
they're ready for some real, true, down and dirty business.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Uh hopefully you are correct. I'm ready got my heta
blanket wrapped around me. The blinds are closed.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, prepare for the chills regardless. Susan Marie Cox was
born on October sixteenth, nineteen eighty one, in Alamagordo, New Mexico.
She was raised in pew Yallop, Washington, where she graduated
from Rogers High School. Before training to become a cosmetologist.
(04:35):
She was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter day Saints, or the LDS Church. In fact, that's
how she would eventually meet her husband. She met Joshua
or josh James Powell, a student at the University of
Washington who was also an active member of the LDS
Church in late two thousand. He was confident, a t
(05:00):
and at least at first, charming in the way that
draws you in before the warning bells register.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The LDS thing wasn't wasn't a warning bell?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, she was LDS as well, I know, I know, yeah, yeah,
I mean, clearly we have some thoughts and feelings around that,
but we're gonna we're gonna have to reserve judgment.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Because there's just no judgment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No, I mean also a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
But no judgment. Directly after I judge, it was like,
like no offense, Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Josh also grew up in Pyolup, Washington, the son of
Stephen Powell and Tarika Powell, but his family dynamics were
the stuff of whispered cautionary tales. The Powells, Josh's parents
had an extremely turbulent marriage that ended in divorce in
the early nineties. His father, Stephen Powell, was a controlling,
(05:56):
volatile man whose marriage to Tika she went by Terry,
ended in acrimony. When Susan and Josh first married, they
moved into Steve Powell's South Hill home. For Susan it
meant free rent and family nearby. For Steve, it became
an opportunity for obsession. He secretly filmed her, collected photos
(06:21):
of her, even wrote songs about her. Susan, uncomfortable and alarmed,
pushed for distance.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I have a question. Yeah, who is this guy again?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
That's the father in law.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
The father in law. Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's just as creepy as it sounds.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I think your brain doesn't want to accept it. You're
like wait, who are.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
We talking about? Just like a family friend.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
But yeah, either way, like secretly filming and collecting photos
of someone.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Is that is disgusting?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
But like when is your father in law? I feel
like that it takes it kind of to a different
layer that I don't care for.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The couple relocated to Utah in two thousand and four,
settling in West Valley City. There, they purchased a home
at West Sarah Circle. Susan shouldered much of their household
financial burden, working full time as an investment broker at
Wells Fargo Investments, while Josh cycled through jobs and risky
(07:32):
real estate ventures.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Ooh yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Close friends and co workers that Susan confided in said
she seemed trapped between her faith's emphasis on family unity
and her growing fear of Josh's temper.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
It will definitely trap you when their your church is
telling you, right, yeah, like obey and stay with your
husband no matter what, like you marry and you're together forever.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Susan's journal entries would later reveal her growing discomfort with
Josh's controlling, manipulative, and increasingly detached behavior, as well as
the family strained finances.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Man fucking Josh is Am I Right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I just feel like, also, it's really rough because in
this kind of conservative religious, type of traditional family values
sort of a situation, the woman wouldn't historically have to
be the one that's like the primary provider. She shouldn't
(08:40):
have to be dealing with the finances. Now. I mean
that's obviously, that's like a very you know, it's a
very specific type of you know, lifestyle choice. And if
everybody's on board with that, that's one thing. But to
be forced into sort of this you know, like I'm
inser to the man, but she's the one who's like
(09:03):
bringing home the bacon. Yeah, And I just feel like, okay,
so you're following through on all of the parts that
kind of seem satisfying to like the life from a
man's perspective, but you're not really delivering on anything that
would be beneficial to the woman in this case, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Right, Like she could just leave and like what then
what would you do? Right where normally it's like they're
kind of stuck because the man is providing for them, Like, yeah,
I guess he's just really he has faith and that
faith that she wants to stay in the family. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
I think initially it's like the it's the religious faith,
and it's you know, the teachings of like you said,
it's like, well, you guys are married, you know, you
stay together regardless. That is like sort of the initial
thing that's keeping her there. And then eventually, you know,
once you have kids. That's the other way that you know,
(10:04):
down the line that they trap you. In two thousand
and five, the couple had the first of their two sons, Charlie,
born January nineteenth, two thousand and.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Five, Charlie Charle.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Two years later, on January second, two thousand and seven,
another son was born, Brayden. Reportedly, later that same year,
April two thousand and seven, Josh declared bankruptcy with debts
exceeding two hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I want that much debt, soone, no one will give
me that much money. You do not want that much debt,
hey man, I want to die with a negative number.
I'm just saying I want to take, not leave behind.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
By two thousand and six, Susan's journals and notes revealed
that she was walking on eggshells as she documented the
mounting tension in her marriage and Josh's violent temper. She
managed the bills, cared for their sons, Charlie and Brayden,
and tried to preserve a picture of domestic calm. Increasingly,
(11:13):
her entries began to mention Josh's temper, his spending habits,
and how he isolated her from her family. In two
thousand and eight, she wrote, if I die, it may
not be an accident, even if it looks like one.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Jesus Fuck, have we heard this before? Do I just
know this story?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
You might know the story, but it's not the first
time we've heard a woman say, okay if I don't.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Because I feel like we've said that on this podcast before.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I'm almost certain that we have. Because there are so
many instances of intimate partner violence against you know, women,
and I feel like in this case, you know, I
don't know how much physical abuse that there may or
may not have been in their relationship. It doesn't seem
(12:05):
like there's a real documented history of that. This seems
more like there's you know, financial abuse, and then there's
a lot of coercive control.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I can definitely understand though, like, even though someone's not
physically abusive towards you they can still make you feel
like your life is threatened.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Absolutely, and you have children with this man, so you're
concerned about their safety and their well being obviously. She
also recorded a video on July twenty ninth, two thousand
and eight, at twelve thirty three pm, documenting her home,
property damage and possessions in case something happens.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
She had a lot of foresight. It's kind of creepy,
it is. I mean, I don't know what's going to
happen to her, but I don't I don't feel like
it's going to it's leading anywhere, right.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah. It definitely leaves you with a sense of dread,
and I would say, knowing what I know, that is justified.
In the footage, she referenced her husband's anger issues and
noted that she had placed a will in other documents
in a safe deposit box, explicitly stating that Josh should
(13:21):
not access it. So what does that say when you're
creating like a handwritten will and your husband is the
one person that you're like, ah, he shouldn't be able
to have access to this, But.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Should I be the one person that you trust with everything? Right? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
While the content of that video was certainly disturbing increasingly so,
in hindsight, it was hardly surprising. She was doing well professionally,
having earned securities licenses, and Susan's income was the primary
financial support for the family. Colleagues described her as detail
oriented and ambitious, traits cont with why she might take
(14:01):
the time, even during a lunch break or half day,
to document her home and assets for legal or financial reasons.
Josh Powell was self employed at that time, running a
small startup called and I shit you not Josh Powell
Web Design. I mean it's straightforward, It's yeah, it's not creative,
(14:25):
So he was running that business out of their home.
He had a background in it web development, and some
real estate and marketing ventures, but none were very stable.
By two thousand and eight, he was reportedly struggling to
maintain a steady income. After their April two thousand and
seven bankruptcy filing you know the you know that time,
(14:49):
they casually listed about two hundred thousand dollars in debt
seen through that lens. Josh was home most of the time,
so Susan may have used a short window while he
was out of the house to make a private recording
as a financial professional. She may have framed the video
in practical, almost procedural terms, consistent with her personality and training,
(15:13):
but later, when investigators viewed it in context, along with
her handwritten will and the journal entries, it clearly carried
a foreboding tone. She feared for her safety and wanted
a record preserved.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I think we all should just do this on a
daily basis.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Right, Just go around like record everything that always be recorded. Yeah,
we're always saying that. Susan's salary kept the lights on,
but friends noticed she was quieter at church, thinner, less certain.
She'd once been the one bringing cast roles and laughter.
(15:52):
Now she lingered after Relief Society meetings, talking about patience
in trials. Susan's comfort extended to her father in law,
Steve Powell, who openly admitted to being obsessed with her.
His behavior, including secretly filming and stealing her personal items,
was later used as evidence in his criminal conviction for voyeurism.
(16:16):
Don't worry, we'll get to that. Why why is there
so much happening? There's a lot happening, and I don't
know how anybody is holding themselves together, holding down a job,
like an important job in the financial sector while they
(16:39):
have this much going on in their personal life. On
December sixth, two thousand and nine, Susan attended church with
her two sons. Later that day, the family ate a
picnic dinner with a neighbor in attendance who left their
home afterwards at around five PM, marking the last time
(17:00):
that Susan was seen alive before she disappeared. This individual
said that Josh had prepared the meal and Susan was
tired after eating. Josh would state that after the meal,
he took their young sons sledding at around five thirty,
arriving home by about eight o'clock. The series of events
(17:23):
he claims for the remainder of that evening are truly bizarre.
According to Josh, he decided to take the boys on
a spontaneous late night camping trip into Utah's West Desert
around midnight. Susan, he claimed, stayed home asleep. Multiple neighbors
(17:43):
reported hearing the car alarm of the Powell's vehicle at
approximately eleven forty five pm, So, according to statements made
by Josh, he and the boys left between midnight and
twelve thirty am to camp out roughly two hours away
in to Willa County when temperatures were below freezing and
(18:03):
there was a snowstorm predicted in the forecast.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That seems outrageous.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, and it actually he told police he wanted to
try out his new generator, which I guess you have
to drive your two toddlers out into the middle of
the Utah desert in a snowstorm after midnight to test
a generator?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Right, who wants to wake up? Okay? In who's what parents?
Right fucking mind? Are they gonna wake up toddlers in
the middle of the night, Like.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I don't know, maybe he alone is maybe he was
just you know, maybe he was just carrying sleeping toddlers
to the car. Listen, all of this is so clearly ridiculous.
That's kind of the point, is, like, I'd have to
believe the first part of what you said for any
of this excessive pieces to make any sense. And the
(19:03):
problem is that I don't believe a goddamn thing. But
let's pretend that we did. I'm not sure that seems
smart with a two and four year old in tow.
The investigators thought it seemed ill advised and frankly pretty suspicious.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Because it was in fact not their first rodeo. Officers
listening to the explanation later called it the kind of
lie that announces itself.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
That is exactly right.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's so accurate, but it just gives me the chills
because it's like, I can't even imagine from their perspective
just hearing this string of such obvious lies and being like, Okay, dude,
that's the story.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
You're going with that, or you're like having a really
manic episode, like was bipolar.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Right, I mean, that's one other potential explanation. He said
he'd taken the boys to Simpson Springs campground. When police checked,
there were no tracks, no ashes, no proof anyone had
been there. Even more unsettling were the words of little
Charlie Powell, just four years old at the time. When
(20:23):
detectives asked about the family strange midnight camping trip into
Utah's frozen desert. He told them that his mother had
gone with them that Sunday, but for some reason, she
stayed behind at the campsite and didn't come home. I
actually don't think I have this next part in my notes,
(20:47):
and I wasn't sure that I was going to include it.
It actually is more relevant to kind of the timeline
for part two later, but the grandparents Susan's parents later
questioned one of the little boys about a drawing that
they did. It was like a drawing of the family,
and he explained, that's us driving to go camping, and
(21:13):
that's Mommy in the trunk.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Oh my god, what the fuck.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
They were so little when this first happened, and I think,
you know, as as time went on, they had more
vocabulary and emotional awareness, and people like the other trusted
adults in their life were able to talk to them
and kind of help them to process what they might
(21:41):
have seen or heard.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
According to a search warrant affidavit filed the day after
Susan was reported missing, Charlie repeated the same heartbreaking version
of events a week later, Mommy stayed there. So the
thing is is that a child that young, it can
be tough to know. They don't always understand the impact
(22:05):
of their words or you know, their retelling of events.
It can be fragile, it can be you know, sometimes skewed.
But for him to say the exact same thing again later,
it's pretty telling. I think the boy's daycare provider became
concerned when Susan didn't show up with them the following morning.
(22:27):
Josh's sister, Jennifer Graves, being the family's emergency contact, was contacted,
raising alarm bells for her as well as Josh's mother.
She went to the couple's house on Sarah Circle in
West Valley City and kept knocking on the lock door
of the house. Worried about the well being of her brother,
(22:47):
his wife, and their kids, she informed the police. When
the police arrived at the residence, they asked her if
they should break in through a window, and she gave
them the green light. When police entered the family home,
they found Susan's purse, keys, wallet, and phone, all the
things no one leaves behind willingly, all indicators that she
(23:12):
had not left voluntarily. Detective stated there was nothing missing
from the residence. There were no signs of forced entry,
and it didn't appear there was a robbery, home invasion, burglary,
or signs of a struggle. Now that last one, I
might say, is debatable as our story continues, but I digress.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Okay, it's going to be a little surprised.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, I mean, no signs of a struggle. I would
say is perhaps yes and no. Josh returned home later
that afternoon, claiming ignorance of Susan's whereabouts. Investigators found her
cell phone in his car with the SIM card removed,
along with a generator, gas cans, and a shovel.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Suspicious, like what other were you know?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, I mean circumstantial obviously, right, but.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
The SIM card removed and you have gas cans and
a shell, Like, come on, dude, where's the duct tape?
Where's like, right, know, where's the rest of the kill kit?
Because that's what it seems like.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Exactly one thousand percent. The search weren't served by the
West Valley City Police. Revealed that Susan's blood was found
in the home. Not that unusual of finding in and
of itself for a resident of the home. If your
blood's going to be anywhere your own house, that's predictable.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
My blood's all over this bitch, right.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But some of the extraneous details surrounding the blood evidence
they observed and collected was perhaps concerning. Susan's blood was
found on the tiled living room floor that Josh had
reportedly cleaned on the night in question.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
The night that he went camping. He was also cleaning
the floor. Cleaning the floor. Hm, that seems like a
lot of activity for the middle of the night.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, it does. Like the more you talk about it, right,
it sounds like, Okay, this dude seems like he's having
like a manic episode.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I mean, and I had very much the same impression,
And I think maybe that's what he was trying, Like,
maybe he's thinking that's how he's going to pass it off.
Also found in the living room was DNA belonging to
an unknown male. Blood was also found on the carpet
and sofa in the home. Two fans were running reportedly
(25:42):
pointed at the couch and or carpet when police searched
the home, So why would that be? A lot of
the statements made by law enforcement indicated that it was
like clearly there was a massive cleanup effort. They said
it reeked of cleansing or Detectives later said the home
(26:03):
looked frozen in the middle of an ordinary day. The
boy's coats still hung by the door, a half made
sandwich sat.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
On a plate.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Wow, a missing comforter and sheet hinted that betting had
been used potentially for cleanup.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right, Like, where would that be that would be either
on the better in the laundry, right.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Luminol testing suggested additional wipe downs, nothing singularly damning, everything
collectively haunting, just.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
The huge cleanup thing too, Like, I guess you have
two kids.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
But right, but it doesn't sound like he was typically
you know, mister super dad.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
This guy can't even keep a job. But he's like
cleaning and like going on a road trip.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And yeah, he's making a pancake dinner, cleaning their floors,
taking the boys sledding, which I think, right, I think
that part. I think the sledding, I think that part
is true.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
We had to be seen doing one thing at least, right, right, Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
The part about him making the pancake dinner almost makes
me think that perhaps he volunteered for that so that
he could drug her. And there's no way for them
to prove that.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
At this point. Spoiler.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
But sometimes what you don't find can be even more intriguing.
You know, what they didn't find, other than obvious signs
of forced entry, the supposed campsite Josh described showed no
evidence of recent activity. I already kind of touched on them.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Oh, right right. Yeah, you said, like no ashes, no
tiring track, nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, almost like that story worry about an impromptu camping
trip at midnight was bullshit or something weird.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Weird, he just cleaned up his ashes entire talks because
he's like really cleaning right now.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, he's in his mannic cleaning era. By December ninth,
the case was officially criminal. Then Salt Lake County District
Attorney Laura Miller authorized a criminal investigation into the disappearance
of Susan Powell. After a search warrant was served on
Josh Powell's vehicle. He went to the Salt Lake City
(28:31):
International Airport to rent a Ford Focus, which he put
eight hundred and seven miles on before returning within thirty
six hours, refusing to explain why. According to court documents,
huh yeah, So they get a search warrant for his car,
it ceased and he immediately goes to the airport, rents
(28:55):
a rental car and puts over eight hundred miles on
it in six hours.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Like where did you go, dude? And why can't you
tell us just like where you went?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And he refused to tell anyone.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
He is like, I'm out of stories. At this point,
I can't even pretend to like make something up right.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Meanwhile, Susan's family held vigils and pleaded for information. Despite
all of the findings from the investigation thus far, prosecutors
faced a vexing challenge, no body, no confession, and somewhat
limited physical evidence linking Josh directly to foul play. Following
(29:34):
Susan Powell's disappearance on December sixth, two thousand and nine,
law enforcement in West Valley City quickly became immersed in
a case that blended domestic tension with national scrutiny. Forensic
searches of the Powell home uncovered traces of Susan's blood,
a handwritten will describing her fear of Josh, and life
(29:55):
insurance policies totaling more than one point five million dollars
aiming Josh as the primary beneficiary, including policies taken out
in June two thousand and nine for two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars apiece for each of the boys. Jesus
Christ but six months before Susan went missing, Why.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Would you need to even like take out insurance policies
on kids that are like that high like you're not
depending on the cubits for like income or something, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
One thousand percent. If you're taking out a policy and
there are a lot of instances where parents have some
type of coverage. It is like a death benefit. It
is something to cover like a meaningful burial, you know,
like something like in terms of a memorial, not replacing
(30:48):
their lifetime income.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, what the fuck?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Utah investigators launched one of the most extensive missing person
operations in state history, collaborating with the FBI and employing
ground penetrating radar, aerial searches, and cadaver dogs in both
Utah and rural Oregon. Friends describe the search effort as
both frantic and surreal. Hundreds of volunteers combing the desert.
(31:19):
The volunteer command post occupied a church gymnasium off forty
one hundred South, rows of tables grown under croc pots,
walkie talkies, and printed maps of Tuila County.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I do have one thing to say before we move on. Yeah,
I know, like, obviously we have our thoughts and feelings
about organized religion and things like that, especially maybe the like,
well they're all kind of patriarch patriarchal right, but yeah, yeah,
especially those ones. But it is very nice to have
(31:55):
a community and like all these people getting together to
help and support.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, a thousand percent the way that the church community
banded together and they were all helping with the search,
and I'm going to talk about some other things that
they tried to do to help, and I think that
that's meaningful. And to me, that was like, you know,
we may not necessarily agree on every line by line thing,
(32:24):
but there's a lot of goodness in what the community,
you know, tried to do. Hundreds of volunteers, LDS, ward members,
co workers, complete strangers checked in daily. One woman said
she'd driven from Idaho because you don't just lose a
(32:44):
mother in the snow. I'm just picturing like this, like,
you know, like middle aged lady driving over from Idaho
with her crossmut because it's like just as simple as that,
Like you that is bullshit. He's in his bullshit era.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, Well, and everybody, you know, like at a certain point,
like early on enough, I think there was a lot
of hope that you know, she might be found alive somewhere.
I don't think that lasted very long for really anyone,
like the community, for law enforcement, her family. I think
(33:27):
everybody knew pretty pretty quickly. They saw the writing.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
On the wall. I mean in just like the weather conditions,
like if she dight just get lost, like.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
If well, and that's that was hardly the leading story
or theory, but we'll get to it. And of course
the press descended. Satellite trucks lined the cul de Sac,
camera flashes lit the Powell driveway. At dusk, Susan's parents,
(33:57):
Chuck and Judy Cox, made tearful please on television publicly,
Josh played the worried husband. Privately, he lawyered up and
packed boxes. He drained Susan's retirement accounts, canceled her chiropractic appointments,
and told the boy's daycare provider that the boys would
not likely return to the facility. Just days after Susan's disappearance,
(34:22):
Josh attended church, appearing oddly composed. Meanwhile, telltale cell tower
pings contradicted his timeline, and he literally refused polygraphs.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I wonder why, yuh huh.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I know that, like they're like standing in the criminal
justice system at this point, is.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Yeah, I feel like their purpose is just to see
if you turn it down or not right.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, to rattle people, and then they can ask you
questions that let them know, Okay, we know you're lying,
but like when is the lie?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
What what's the thing that spikes?
Speaker 2 (35:05):
You know? It's like a thing that could point just
to give you, like a little more insight and information.
They should do tarot with them, you guys, I think
we should start doing tarot with the light detector test.
What do you think you know?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Couldn't hurt. His story seemed to shift almost daily. One day,
Susan had gone to work early, the next she'd stepped
out for a walk, or maybe she'd been depressed, you
know that old chestnut. Before long, Josh twisted the narrative
even further, implying that she'd run off with another man.
(35:41):
How fucking dare you, sir?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Like the fact that she was staying with someone abusive
because she had so much respect for marriage? Yeah, and
then yeah, oh that is so messed up? Okay.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Detectives documented roughly forty inconsistencies in his statements within the
first first week. While circumstantial evidence mounted, including witness testimony,
about Josh's controlling behaviors, investigators struggled to meet the legal
threshold for indictment. The case became Utah's version of a
(36:18):
ghost story a woman who disappeared from inside her own home.
Josh's sister, Jennifer Graves couldn't reconcile his calm detachment with
the sister in law she knew. She volunteered to wear
a wire for detectives meeting Josh at their father, Stephen
Powell's home on January twenty second, twenty ten. Oh shit,
(36:44):
her goal coax out a confession.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Dude, it gives me freaking chills when that happens, Like
that is so intense for somebody to do, Yeah, like
a civilian to do. Yeah, Like I get like stress
out for them so hard, Like I don't know if
I could, I could ever do that.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
It is arguably like one of the kind of scariest
aspects of this case in a way because Jennifer and
we're gonna get into it in part two because spoiler
there's two parts. Ah, she's gonna get a serious like
hero bell. But it is really scary just knowing that,
(37:29):
like as a family member she was so adamant about.
I almost can't even like put it into words because
who wants to believe that their loved one had something
to do with this.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Seriously, but it just is so it's so obvious though
you see through it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
If you are someone you know feels trapped in a
relationship that doesn't feel safe, help is out there. You
can call or text the National Domestic Violence Hotline at
one eight hundred seven safe, or visit the hotline dot org.
(38:10):
All right, so we are doing the tarot. I'm a
spread out, spread them cats girl. Okay, where are we feeling?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Like? Right side ish?
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Right side ish?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Oh, I think this is a new one for us,
especially with the PNW tarot.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Okay it is.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
It's whales. Oh, it's the chariot, but we got it
in the reverse.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Oh okay, the chariot is the cancer card.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Oh my word, cancer is in the zodiac side, not
the yeah, deadly disease that can fuck itself.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Okay. So these are gray whales progress, overcoming obstacles, will power, focus, ambition,
and determination, achieving goals with ease. The gray whale sighed
a low croak of pleasure and exhaustion as finally the
(39:25):
current began to sweep her forward. The pod had been
swimming for days, often fighting against the pushing of swells
and pulling of tides. Now the ocean was working with them.
As the current shepherded her along. She had only to
make subtle shifts in direction, dipping a flipper or arking
(39:47):
her fluke as she navigated parallel to the distant coast.
She felt powerful with the strength of the ocean behind her.
When she eventually turned out of the current, it was
with less regret than she might have expected. She found
she carried the ocean's strength within her. How she wondered,
(40:08):
could I be the current that carries my pod along?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Wow? Like I wasn't really seeing where that was going,
Like how this was fitting in really until you said that, Yeah,
Like it just reminded me of her, like trying to
carry keep her family together and like be that person
to keep her pod safe, which is what she was
trying to do. Also too, when you said the chariot,
(40:35):
like I was thinking of the car like the trip.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So our keywords in the main Tarot book are controlling
opposing forces, whoa willpower, resolving conflict, and travel, And as
you so astutely pointed out, it says at a literal level,
the chariot really to travel and transportation. The chariot reversed says,
(41:05):
changes are happening so fast you feel out of control.
It may seem like you're being pulled in two directions
at once, and the stress is INTENSEO.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That reminds me of like the two people who are
like kind of obsessed with her.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Yeah, you fear you won't be able to control the
multiple factors of a given situation. You're at a crossroads.
Choose your direction carefully. The more you can tune into
your own inner guidance, the more control you can exert outwardly.
Most likely, the solution to the problem at hand is
(41:43):
to take the middle road between the conflicting issues.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Wow, I love I was just casually like, oh, these
two really hard things, just you know, go in between,
just split the difference.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
In a reading about money, you could suffer setbacks or
losses due to confusion, indecision, or inattentiveness. Lack of confidence
or inexperience could result in a poor choice. Or you
may rush into a financial matter unprepared and run headlong
into a wall. Huh would you consider bankruptcy a wall?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah? Definitely, that definitely fits uh financially Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
If the reading is about your job. Competing factions may
cause stress in your workplace and you feel incapable of
controlling the situation, or things may be happening so fast
your head is spinning and you can't get your bearings.
Sometimes this card says you're being pulled in two different
directions and can't decide which one to take. I feel
(42:52):
like there's a number of ways that could really apply.
To be honest, and they're talking about like in a
professional application. I feel like they talked about, like, you know,
he was an entrepreneur, he was inn it, he did
some stuff in real estate, and I just feel like
it speaks to sort of the indecision, you know, in
(43:13):
a reading about love, conflicts or differences in opinion, lifestyle
or values can cause tension in a relationship. You don't
say yeah, or a change has thrown you off guard
and you don't know how to handle the situation. Sometimes
this card represents romantic involvement with two different people, or
(43:33):
a conflict between two things you love. And I think
that's really interesting because I feel like there's the duality
of like, you know, there's like a spousal love, right,
and then there's like the love of your family, your children.
But there's also like the more complicated like interpretation of that,
(43:57):
which is like there were two men that played such
a prominent role in her life, and I think love
is sort of a misnomer in that case, because it's
like this was obsession, this was control.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Yeah, but or like love of your religion.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
I think there's a lot of ways that this kind
of you can interpret that.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I feel like the chariot, just the whole thing with
the car, like putting the kids in the car and
then the kid saying like mommy was in the trunk,
and then us getting a seriously chariot, Like I feel
like that was just a sign like she probably was
in the trunk. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
And I just feel like, thinking about part one and
part two, knowing what I know, especially for part one,
I'd be hard pressed to come up with any sort
of imagery that is stronger or more representative of Part
one what we've talked about so far than like a
chariot or a car.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
I don't know how else to put it other than
it just kind of feels like dead on and like
the imagery really makes sense in this one.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I was thinking about it too, like in the terms
of it being a cancer card and like the crab
and if you're thinking about the crab, like having that
strong she had to have this like strong outer sheltt
like everything was okay, but like things at home were
not okay. And she was even like you know, writing
about it and stuff. So like obviously it was like
(45:24):
pretty hidden and.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Deep well, and it's like everything that she was doing
was like such a protective action.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
I wish she would have just crab plot is a
little dick off.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Yeah, your lips to God's ears as they say, Ah, yesday, We'll.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
See you next Thursday.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Thursday. Oh my god, we're gonna really.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Mess that up. Yah, we're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I'm definitely gonna be saying Tuesday for a while.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I'll just talk really loud over you so nobody knows
this perfect.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Oh, always covering my ass. What can I say?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
It's a nice ass. I gotta protect it. Oh, like
a crab
Speaker 1 (46:13):
That booty pinch, pinch, pinch, peach
He said he'd taken the boys to Simpson Springs campground.
When police checked, there were no tracks, no ashes, no
proof anyone had been there. Even more unsettling were the
words of little Charlie Powell, just four years old.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
When detectives asked about the family's strange midnight camping trip
into Utah's frozen desert. He told them that his mother
had gone with them that Sunday, but for some reason
she stayed behind at the campsite and didn't come home.
Hi Cassie, Hi Caitlin, Hi creepy people. Hello, This is
(00:46):
PNW Hansen Homicides, where we chat about true crime, the
paranormal and all things spooky in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Or the p and W. If you're nasty.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And we are, it's well established lore. I think definitely
war at this point. Nasty and nasty lore. Oh my goodness.
We also do a taro reading at the end of
every episode for a little bit of deeper insight into
our topic. The lore about the nasty is so well
(01:20):
established now our friends are going on other podcasts and
spreading the good word the gospel as.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A nasty word.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Wait what yeah, yeah, Shay and Jody from Rainy Day
Rabbit Holes were just on Live Laugh Larseny and we
found out that we are their gateway gals as it were.
They heard about Live Laugh Larseny from a promo swap
that we did with them, and that's how they kind
(01:50):
of connected with them.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So I know, I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I love it when our friends become friends.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I love it when our nasty friends become nasty without
us and do nasty things all over the place. I
don't know if I said that right, but you guys
get it. You get it. Well, should we do our
little announcement we have, just like a tiny announcement, do it?
We used to do a release on Tuesdays. You remember
that thing we used to say at the end, see
you next Tuesday. Yeah, that I conveniently cut out of
(02:20):
the last episode because spoiler alert, we probably won't be
seeing you Tuesdays anymore. Don't cry, It's okay. Well, we'll
see you on the next tea day, which is Thursday.
We had to keep the tea theme so we can
still call you cunts, you know, you know, under the
(02:40):
table at the end of every episode. But it'll just
be see you next Thursday. Now, instead of Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
With shaking things.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, if you could tell, we were already kind of shaky.
Shake a our schedules are getting shooken up, shake and
shaken very hard.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Shake us.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
We're just suggesting, But you guys are fine. Do you
guys have any other wild announcements, like what's going on
in the world? Does any tell me what's going on
on there? God guys?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
No, I think probably.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
No, I don't need to hear anything about what's going
on out there in the world, although I will say
when we were eating breakfast this morning, Chris and I
watched an episode of South Park, and my god was
one of the ones. Uh huh that was quite enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Which one did you watch? La boo boo? Uh?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
No? I, yeah, no, Chris just turned it on and
he I don't know he. I think he probably just
picked a random episode. Oh, should we get into it?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah? I think the people are some are some ready.
I think the people are ready for some true crime.
That is what I was trying to say, eloquent. They're
sick of my uh man made of mouths stories and
they're ready for some real, true, down and dirty business.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Uh hopefully you are correct. I'm ready got my heta
blanket wrapped around me. The blinds are closed.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, prepare for the chills regardless. Susan Marie Cox was
born on October sixteenth, nineteen eighty one, in Alamagordo, New Mexico.
She was raised in pew Yallop, Washington, where she graduated
from Rogers High School. Before training to become a cosmetologist.
(04:35):
She was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter day Saints, or the LDS Church. In fact, that's
how she would eventually meet her husband. She met Joshua
or josh James Powell, a student at the University of
Washington who was also an active member of the LDS
Church in late two thousand. He was confident, a t
(05:00):
and at least at first, charming in the way that
draws you in before the warning bells register.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The LDS thing wasn't wasn't a warning bell?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, she was LDS as well, I know, I know, yeah, yeah,
I mean, clearly we have some thoughts and feelings around that,
but we're gonna we're gonna have to reserve judgment.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Because there's just no judgment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No, I mean also a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
But no judgment. Directly after I judge, it was like,
like no offense, Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Josh also grew up in Pyolup, Washington, the son of
Stephen Powell and Tarika Powell, but his family dynamics were
the stuff of whispered cautionary tales. The Powells, Josh's parents
had an extremely turbulent marriage that ended in divorce in
the early nineties. His father, Stephen Powell, was a controlling,
(05:56):
volatile man whose marriage to Tika she went by Terry,
ended in acrimony. When Susan and Josh first married, they
moved into Steve Powell's South Hill home. For Susan it
meant free rent and family nearby. For Steve, it became
an opportunity for obsession. He secretly filmed her, collected photos
(06:21):
of her, even wrote songs about her. Susan, uncomfortable and alarmed,
pushed for distance.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I have a question. Yeah, who is this guy again?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
That's the father in law.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
The father in law. Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's just as creepy as it sounds.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I think your brain doesn't want to accept it. You're
like wait, who are.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
We talking about? Just like a family friend.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
But yeah, either way, like secretly filming and collecting photos
of someone.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Is that is disgusting?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
But like when is your father in law? I feel
like that it takes it kind of to a different
layer that I don't care for.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The couple relocated to Utah in two thousand and four,
settling in West Valley City. There, they purchased a home
at West Sarah Circle. Susan shouldered much of their household
financial burden, working full time as an investment broker at
Wells Fargo Investments, while Josh cycled through jobs and risky
(07:32):
real estate ventures.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Ooh yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Close friends and co workers that Susan confided in said
she seemed trapped between her faith's emphasis on family unity
and her growing fear of Josh's temper.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
It will definitely trap you when their your church is
telling you, right, yeah, like obey and stay with your
husband no matter what, like you marry and you're together forever.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Susan's journal entries would later reveal her growing discomfort with
Josh's controlling, manipulative, and increasingly detached behavior, as well as
the family strained finances.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Man fucking Josh is Am I Right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I just feel like, also, it's really rough because in
this kind of conservative religious, type of traditional family values
sort of a situation, the woman wouldn't historically have to
be the one that's like the primary provider. She shouldn't
(08:40):
have to be dealing with the finances. Now. I mean
that's obviously, that's like a very you know, it's a
very specific type of you know, lifestyle choice. And if
everybody's on board with that, that's one thing. But to
be forced into sort of this you know, like I'm
inser to the man, but she's the one who's like
(09:03):
bringing home the bacon. Yeah, And I just feel like, okay,
so you're following through on all of the parts that
kind of seem satisfying to like the life from a
man's perspective, but you're not really delivering on anything that
would be beneficial to the woman in this case, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Right, Like she could just leave and like what then
what would you do? Right where normally it's like they're
kind of stuck because the man is providing for them, Like, yeah,
I guess he's just really he has faith and that
faith that she wants to stay in the family. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
I think initially it's like the it's the religious faith,
and it's you know, the teachings of like you said,
it's like, well, you guys are married, you know, you
stay together regardless. That is like sort of the initial
thing that's keeping her there. And then eventually, you know,
once you have kids. That's the other way that you know,
(10:04):
down the line that they trap you. In two thousand
and five, the couple had the first of their two sons, Charlie,
born January nineteenth, two thousand and.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Five, Charlie Charle.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Two years later, on January second, two thousand and seven,
another son was born, Brayden. Reportedly, later that same year,
April two thousand and seven, Josh declared bankruptcy with debts
exceeding two hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I want that much debt, soone, no one will give
me that much money. You do not want that much debt,
hey man, I want to die with a negative number.
I'm just saying I want to take, not leave behind.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
By two thousand and six, Susan's journals and notes revealed
that she was walking on eggshells as she documented the
mounting tension in her marriage and Josh's violent temper. She
managed the bills, cared for their sons, Charlie and Brayden,
and tried to preserve a picture of domestic calm. Increasingly,
(11:13):
her entries began to mention Josh's temper, his spending habits,
and how he isolated her from her family. In two
thousand and eight, she wrote, if I die, it may
not be an accident, even if it looks like one.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Jesus Fuck, have we heard this before? Do I just
know this story?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
You might know the story, but it's not the first
time we've heard a woman say, okay if I don't.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Because I feel like we've said that on this podcast before.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I'm almost certain that we have. Because there are so
many instances of intimate partner violence against you know, women,
and I feel like in this case, you know, I
don't know how much physical abuse that there may or
may not have been in their relationship. It doesn't seem
(12:05):
like there's a real documented history of that. This seems
more like there's you know, financial abuse, and then there's
a lot of coercive control.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I can definitely understand though, like, even though someone's not
physically abusive towards you they can still make you feel
like your life is threatened.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Absolutely, and you have children with this man, so you're
concerned about their safety and their well being obviously. She
also recorded a video on July twenty ninth, two thousand
and eight, at twelve thirty three pm, documenting her home,
property damage and possessions in case something happens.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
She had a lot of foresight. It's kind of creepy,
it is. I mean, I don't know what's going to
happen to her, but I don't I don't feel like
it's going to it's leading anywhere, right.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah. It definitely leaves you with a sense of dread,
and I would say, knowing what I know, that is justified.
In the footage, she referenced her husband's anger issues and
noted that she had placed a will in other documents
in a safe deposit box, explicitly stating that Josh should
(13:21):
not access it. So what does that say when you're
creating like a handwritten will and your husband is the
one person that you're like, ah, he shouldn't be able
to have access to this, But.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Should I be the one person that you trust with everything? Right? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
While the content of that video was certainly disturbing increasingly so,
in hindsight, it was hardly surprising. She was doing well professionally,
having earned securities licenses, and Susan's income was the primary
financial support for the family. Colleagues described her as detail
oriented and ambitious, traits cont with why she might take
(14:01):
the time, even during a lunch break or half day,
to document her home and assets for legal or financial reasons.
Josh Powell was self employed at that time, running a
small startup called and I shit you not Josh Powell
Web Design. I mean it's straightforward, It's yeah, it's not creative,
(14:25):
So he was running that business out of their home.
He had a background in it web development, and some
real estate and marketing ventures, but none were very stable.
By two thousand and eight, he was reportedly struggling to
maintain a steady income. After their April two thousand and
seven bankruptcy filing you know the you know that time,
(14:49):
they casually listed about two hundred thousand dollars in debt
seen through that lens. Josh was home most of the time,
so Susan may have used a short window while he
was out of the house to make a private recording
as a financial professional. She may have framed the video
in practical, almost procedural terms, consistent with her personality and training,
(15:13):
but later, when investigators viewed it in context, along with
her handwritten will and the journal entries, it clearly carried
a foreboding tone. She feared for her safety and wanted
a record preserved.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I think we all should just do this on a
daily basis.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Right, Just go around like record everything that always be recorded. Yeah,
we're always saying that. Susan's salary kept the lights on,
but friends noticed she was quieter at church, thinner, less certain.
She'd once been the one bringing cast roles and laughter.
(15:52):
Now she lingered after Relief Society meetings, talking about patience
in trials. Susan's comfort extended to her father in law,
Steve Powell, who openly admitted to being obsessed with her.
His behavior, including secretly filming and stealing her personal items,
was later used as evidence in his criminal conviction for voyeurism.
(16:16):
Don't worry, we'll get to that. Why why is there
so much happening? There's a lot happening, and I don't
know how anybody is holding themselves together, holding down a job,
like an important job in the financial sector while they
(16:39):
have this much going on in their personal life. On
December sixth, two thousand and nine, Susan attended church with
her two sons. Later that day, the family ate a
picnic dinner with a neighbor in attendance who left their
home afterwards at around five PM, marking the last time
(17:00):
that Susan was seen alive before she disappeared. This individual
said that Josh had prepared the meal and Susan was
tired after eating. Josh would state that after the meal,
he took their young sons sledding at around five thirty,
arriving home by about eight o'clock. The series of events
(17:23):
he claims for the remainder of that evening are truly bizarre.
According to Josh, he decided to take the boys on
a spontaneous late night camping trip into Utah's West Desert
around midnight. Susan, he claimed, stayed home asleep. Multiple neighbors
(17:43):
reported hearing the car alarm of the Powell's vehicle at
approximately eleven forty five pm, So, according to statements made
by Josh, he and the boys left between midnight and
twelve thirty am to camp out roughly two hours away
in to Willa County when temperatures were below freezing and
(18:03):
there was a snowstorm predicted in the forecast.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That seems outrageous.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, and it actually he told police he wanted to
try out his new generator, which I guess you have
to drive your two toddlers out into the middle of
the Utah desert in a snowstorm after midnight to test
a generator?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Right, who wants to wake up? Okay? In who's what parents?
Right fucking mind? Are they gonna wake up toddlers in
the middle of the night, Like.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I don't know, maybe he alone is maybe he was
just you know, maybe he was just carrying sleeping toddlers
to the car. Listen, all of this is so clearly ridiculous.
That's kind of the point, is, like, I'd have to
believe the first part of what you said for any
of this excessive pieces to make any sense. And the
(19:03):
problem is that I don't believe a goddamn thing. But
let's pretend that we did. I'm not sure that seems
smart with a two and four year old in tow.
The investigators thought it seemed ill advised and frankly pretty suspicious.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Because it was in fact not their first rodeo. Officers
listening to the explanation later called it the kind of
lie that announces itself.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
That is exactly right.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's so accurate, but it just gives me the chills
because it's like, I can't even imagine from their perspective
just hearing this string of such obvious lies and being like, Okay, dude,
that's the story.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
You're going with that, or you're like having a really
manic episode, like was bipolar.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Right, I mean, that's one other potential explanation. He said
he'd taken the boys to Simpson Springs campground. When police checked,
there were no tracks, no ashes, no proof anyone had
been there. Even more unsettling were the words of little
Charlie Powell, just four years old at the time. When
(20:23):
detectives asked about the family strange midnight camping trip into
Utah's frozen desert. He told them that his mother had
gone with them that Sunday, but for some reason, she
stayed behind at the campsite and didn't come home. I
actually don't think I have this next part in my notes,
(20:47):
and I wasn't sure that I was going to include it.
It actually is more relevant to kind of the timeline
for part two later, but the grandparents Susan's parents later
questioned one of the little boys about a drawing that
they did. It was like a drawing of the family,
and he explained, that's us driving to go camping, and
(21:13):
that's Mommy in the trunk.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Oh my god, what the fuck.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
They were so little when this first happened, and I think,
you know, as as time went on, they had more
vocabulary and emotional awareness, and people like the other trusted
adults in their life were able to talk to them
and kind of help them to process what they might
(21:41):
have seen or heard.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
According to a search warrant affidavit filed the day after
Susan was reported missing, Charlie repeated the same heartbreaking version
of events a week later, Mommy stayed there. So the
thing is is that a child that young, it can
be tough to know. They don't always understand the impact
(22:05):
of their words or you know, their retelling of events.
It can be fragile, it can be you know, sometimes skewed.
But for him to say the exact same thing again later,
it's pretty telling. I think the boy's daycare provider became
concerned when Susan didn't show up with them the following morning.
(22:27):
Josh's sister, Jennifer Graves, being the family's emergency contact, was contacted,
raising alarm bells for her as well as Josh's mother.
She went to the couple's house on Sarah Circle in
West Valley City and kept knocking on the lock door
of the house. Worried about the well being of her brother,
(22:47):
his wife, and their kids, she informed the police. When
the police arrived at the residence, they asked her if
they should break in through a window, and she gave
them the green light. When police entered the family home,
they found Susan's purse, keys, wallet, and phone, all the
things no one leaves behind willingly, all indicators that she
(23:12):
had not left voluntarily. Detective stated there was nothing missing
from the residence. There were no signs of forced entry,
and it didn't appear there was a robbery, home invasion, burglary,
or signs of a struggle. Now that last one, I
might say, is debatable as our story continues, but I digress.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Okay, it's going to be a little surprised.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, I mean, no signs of a struggle. I would
say is perhaps yes and no. Josh returned home later
that afternoon, claiming ignorance of Susan's whereabouts. Investigators found her
cell phone in his car with the SIM card removed,
along with a generator, gas cans, and a shovel.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Suspicious, like what other were you know?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, I mean circumstantial obviously, right, but.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
The SIM card removed and you have gas cans and
a shell, Like, come on, dude, where's the duct tape?
Where's like, right, know, where's the rest of the kill kit?
Because that's what it seems like.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Exactly one thousand percent. The search weren't served by the
West Valley City Police. Revealed that Susan's blood was found
in the home. Not that unusual of finding in and
of itself for a resident of the home. If your
blood's going to be anywhere your own house, that's predictable.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
My blood's all over this bitch, right.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But some of the extraneous details surrounding the blood evidence
they observed and collected was perhaps concerning. Susan's blood was
found on the tiled living room floor that Josh had
reportedly cleaned on the night in question.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
The night that he went camping. He was also cleaning
the floor. Cleaning the floor. Hm, that seems like a
lot of activity for the middle of the night.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, it does. Like the more you talk about it, right,
it sounds like, Okay, this dude seems like he's having
like a manic episode.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I mean, and I had very much the same impression,
And I think maybe that's what he was trying, Like,
maybe he's thinking that's how he's going to pass it off.
Also found in the living room was DNA belonging to
an unknown male. Blood was also found on the carpet
and sofa in the home. Two fans were running reportedly
(25:42):
pointed at the couch and or carpet when police searched
the home, So why would that be? A lot of
the statements made by law enforcement indicated that it was
like clearly there was a massive cleanup effort. They said
it reeked of cleansing or Detectives later said the home
(26:03):
looked frozen in the middle of an ordinary day. The
boy's coats still hung by the door, a half made
sandwich sat.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
On a plate.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Wow, a missing comforter and sheet hinted that betting had
been used potentially for cleanup.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right, Like, where would that be that would be either
on the better in the laundry, right.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Luminol testing suggested additional wipe downs, nothing singularly damning, everything
collectively haunting, just.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
The huge cleanup thing too, Like, I guess you have
two kids.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
But right, but it doesn't sound like he was typically
you know, mister super dad.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
This guy can't even keep a job. But he's like
cleaning and like going on a road trip.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And yeah, he's making a pancake dinner, cleaning their floors,
taking the boys sledding, which I think, right, I think
that part. I think the sledding, I think that part
is true.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
We had to be seen doing one thing at least, right, right, Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
The part about him making the pancake dinner almost makes
me think that perhaps he volunteered for that so that
he could drug her. And there's no way for them
to prove that.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
At this point. Spoiler.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
But sometimes what you don't find can be even more intriguing.
You know, what they didn't find, other than obvious signs
of forced entry, the supposed campsite Josh described showed no
evidence of recent activity. I already kind of touched on them.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Oh, right right. Yeah, you said, like no ashes, no
tiring track, nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, almost like that story worry about an impromptu camping
trip at midnight was bullshit or something weird.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Weird, he just cleaned up his ashes entire talks because
he's like really cleaning right now.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, he's in his mannic cleaning era. By December ninth,
the case was officially criminal. Then Salt Lake County District
Attorney Laura Miller authorized a criminal investigation into the disappearance
of Susan Powell. After a search warrant was served on
Josh Powell's vehicle. He went to the Salt Lake City
(28:31):
International Airport to rent a Ford Focus, which he put
eight hundred and seven miles on before returning within thirty
six hours, refusing to explain why. According to court documents,
huh yeah, So they get a search warrant for his car,
it ceased and he immediately goes to the airport, rents
(28:55):
a rental car and puts over eight hundred miles on
it in six hours.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Like where did you go, dude? And why can't you
tell us just like where you went?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And he refused to tell anyone.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
He is like, I'm out of stories. At this point,
I can't even pretend to like make something up right.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Meanwhile, Susan's family held vigils and pleaded for information. Despite
all of the findings from the investigation thus far, prosecutors
faced a vexing challenge, no body, no confession, and somewhat
limited physical evidence linking Josh directly to foul play. Following
(29:34):
Susan Powell's disappearance on December sixth, two thousand and nine,
law enforcement in West Valley City quickly became immersed in
a case that blended domestic tension with national scrutiny. Forensic
searches of the Powell home uncovered traces of Susan's blood,
a handwritten will describing her fear of Josh, and life
(29:55):
insurance policies totaling more than one point five million dollars
aiming Josh as the primary beneficiary, including policies taken out
in June two thousand and nine for two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars apiece for each of the boys. Jesus
Christ but six months before Susan went missing, Why.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Would you need to even like take out insurance policies
on kids that are like that high like you're not
depending on the cubits for like income or something, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
One thousand percent. If you're taking out a policy and
there are a lot of instances where parents have some
type of coverage. It is like a death benefit. It
is something to cover like a meaningful burial, you know,
like something like in terms of a memorial, not replacing
(30:48):
their lifetime income.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, what the fuck?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Utah investigators launched one of the most extensive missing person
operations in state history, collaborating with the FBI and employing
ground penetrating radar, aerial searches, and cadaver dogs in both
Utah and rural Oregon. Friends describe the search effort as
both frantic and surreal. Hundreds of volunteers combing the desert.
(31:19):
The volunteer command post occupied a church gymnasium off forty
one hundred South, rows of tables grown under croc pots,
walkie talkies, and printed maps of Tuila County.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I do have one thing to say before we move on. Yeah,
I know, like, obviously we have our thoughts and feelings
about organized religion and things like that, especially maybe the like,
well they're all kind of patriarch patriarchal right, but yeah, yeah,
especially those ones. But it is very nice to have
(31:55):
a community and like all these people getting together to
help and support.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, a thousand percent the way that the church community
banded together and they were all helping with the search,
and I'm going to talk about some other things that
they tried to do to help, and I think that
that's meaningful. And to me, that was like, you know,
we may not necessarily agree on every line by line thing,
(32:24):
but there's a lot of goodness in what the community,
you know, tried to do. Hundreds of volunteers, LDS, ward members,
co workers, complete strangers checked in daily. One woman said
she'd driven from Idaho because you don't just lose a
(32:44):
mother in the snow. I'm just picturing like this, like,
you know, like middle aged lady driving over from Idaho
with her crossmut because it's like just as simple as that,
Like you that is bullshit. He's in his bullshit era.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, Well, and everybody, you know, like at a certain point,
like early on enough, I think there was a lot
of hope that you know, she might be found alive somewhere.
I don't think that lasted very long for really anyone,
like the community, for law enforcement, her family. I think
(33:27):
everybody knew pretty pretty quickly. They saw the writing.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
On the wall. I mean in just like the weather conditions,
like if she dight just get lost, like.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
If well, and that's that was hardly the leading story
or theory, but we'll get to it. And of course
the press descended. Satellite trucks lined the cul de Sac,
camera flashes lit the Powell driveway. At dusk, Susan's parents,
(33:57):
Chuck and Judy Cox, made tearful please on television publicly,
Josh played the worried husband. Privately, he lawyered up and
packed boxes. He drained Susan's retirement accounts, canceled her chiropractic appointments,
and told the boy's daycare provider that the boys would
not likely return to the facility. Just days after Susan's disappearance,
(34:22):
Josh attended church, appearing oddly composed. Meanwhile, telltale cell tower
pings contradicted his timeline, and he literally refused polygraphs.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I wonder why, yuh huh.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I know that, like they're like standing in the criminal
justice system at this point, is.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Yeah, I feel like their purpose is just to see
if you turn it down or not right.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, to rattle people, and then they can ask you
questions that let them know, Okay, we know you're lying,
but like when is the lie?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
What what's the thing that spikes?
Speaker 2 (35:05):
You know? It's like a thing that could point just
to give you, like a little more insight and information.
They should do tarot with them, you guys, I think
we should start doing tarot with the light detector test.
What do you think you know?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Couldn't hurt. His story seemed to shift almost daily. One day,
Susan had gone to work early, the next she'd stepped
out for a walk, or maybe she'd been depressed, you
know that old chestnut. Before long, Josh twisted the narrative
even further, implying that she'd run off with another man.
(35:41):
How fucking dare you, sir?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Like the fact that she was staying with someone abusive
because she had so much respect for marriage? Yeah, and
then yeah, oh that is so messed up? Okay.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Detectives documented roughly forty inconsistencies in his statements within the
first first week. While circumstantial evidence mounted, including witness testimony,
about Josh's controlling behaviors, investigators struggled to meet the legal
threshold for indictment. The case became Utah's version of a
(36:18):
ghost story a woman who disappeared from inside her own home.
Josh's sister, Jennifer Graves couldn't reconcile his calm detachment with
the sister in law she knew. She volunteered to wear
a wire for detectives meeting Josh at their father, Stephen
Powell's home on January twenty second, twenty ten. Oh shit,
(36:44):
her goal coax out a confession.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Dude, it gives me freaking chills when that happens, Like
that is so intense for somebody to do, Yeah, like
a civilian to do. Yeah, Like I get like stress
out for them so hard, Like I don't know if
I could, I could ever do that.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
It is arguably like one of the kind of scariest
aspects of this case in a way because Jennifer and
we're gonna get into it in part two because spoiler
there's two parts. Ah, she's gonna get a serious like
hero bell. But it is really scary just knowing that,
(37:29):
like as a family member she was so adamant about.
I almost can't even like put it into words because
who wants to believe that their loved one had something
to do with this.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Seriously, but it just is so it's so obvious though
you see through it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
If you are someone you know feels trapped in a
relationship that doesn't feel safe, help is out there. You
can call or text the National Domestic Violence Hotline at
one eight hundred seven safe, or visit the hotline dot org.
(38:10):
All right, so we are doing the tarot. I'm a
spread out, spread them cats girl. Okay, where are we feeling?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Like? Right side ish?
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Right side ish?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Oh, I think this is a new one for us,
especially with the PNW tarot.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Okay it is.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
It's whales. Oh, it's the chariot, but we got it
in the reverse.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Oh okay, the chariot is the cancer card.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Oh my word, cancer is in the zodiac side, not
the yeah, deadly disease that can fuck itself.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Okay. So these are gray whales progress, overcoming obstacles, will power, focus, ambition,
and determination, achieving goals with ease. The gray whale sighed
a low croak of pleasure and exhaustion as finally the
(39:25):
current began to sweep her forward. The pod had been
swimming for days, often fighting against the pushing of swells
and pulling of tides. Now the ocean was working with them.
As the current shepherded her along. She had only to
make subtle shifts in direction, dipping a flipper or arking
(39:47):
her fluke as she navigated parallel to the distant coast.
She felt powerful with the strength of the ocean behind her.
When she eventually turned out of the current, it was
with less regret than she might have expected. She found
she carried the ocean's strength within her. How she wondered,
(40:08):
could I be the current that carries my pod along?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Wow? Like I wasn't really seeing where that was going,
Like how this was fitting in really until you said that, Yeah,
Like it just reminded me of her, like trying to
carry keep her family together and like be that person
to keep her pod safe, which is what she was
trying to do. Also too, when you said the chariot,
(40:35):
like I was thinking of the car like the trip.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So our keywords in the main Tarot book are controlling
opposing forces, whoa willpower, resolving conflict, and travel, And as
you so astutely pointed out, it says at a literal level,
the chariot really to travel and transportation. The chariot reversed says,
(41:05):
changes are happening so fast you feel out of control.
It may seem like you're being pulled in two directions
at once, and the stress is INTENSEO.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That reminds me of like the two people who are
like kind of obsessed with her.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Yeah, you fear you won't be able to control the
multiple factors of a given situation. You're at a crossroads.
Choose your direction carefully. The more you can tune into
your own inner guidance, the more control you can exert outwardly.
Most likely, the solution to the problem at hand is
(41:43):
to take the middle road between the conflicting issues.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Wow, I love I was just casually like, oh, these
two really hard things, just you know, go in between,
just split the difference.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
In a reading about money, you could suffer setbacks or
losses due to confusion, indecision, or inattentiveness. Lack of confidence
or inexperience could result in a poor choice. Or you
may rush into a financial matter unprepared and run headlong
into a wall. Huh would you consider bankruptcy a wall?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah? Definitely, that definitely fits uh financially Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
If the reading is about your job. Competing factions may
cause stress in your workplace and you feel incapable of
controlling the situation, or things may be happening so fast
your head is spinning and you can't get your bearings.
Sometimes this card says you're being pulled in two different
directions and can't decide which one to take. I feel
(42:52):
like there's a number of ways that could really apply.
To be honest, and they're talking about like in a
professional application. I feel like they talked about, like, you know,
he was an entrepreneur, he was inn it, he did
some stuff in real estate, and I just feel like
it speaks to sort of the indecision, you know, in
(43:13):
a reading about love, conflicts or differences in opinion, lifestyle
or values can cause tension in a relationship. You don't
say yeah, or a change has thrown you off guard
and you don't know how to handle the situation. Sometimes
this card represents romantic involvement with two different people, or
(43:33):
a conflict between two things you love. And I think
that's really interesting because I feel like there's the duality
of like, you know, there's like a spousal love, right,
and then there's like the love of your family, your children.
But there's also like the more complicated like interpretation of that,
(43:57):
which is like there were two men that played such
a prominent role in her life, and I think love
is sort of a misnomer in that case, because it's
like this was obsession, this was control.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Yeah, but or like love of your religion.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
I think there's a lot of ways that this kind
of you can interpret that.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I feel like the chariot, just the whole thing with
the car, like putting the kids in the car and
then the kid saying like mommy was in the trunk,
and then us getting a seriously chariot, Like I feel
like that was just a sign like she probably was
in the trunk. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
And I just feel like, thinking about part one and
part two, knowing what I know, especially for part one,
I'd be hard pressed to come up with any sort
of imagery that is stronger or more representative of Part
one what we've talked about so far than like a
chariot or a car.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
I don't know how else to put it other than
it just kind of feels like dead on and like
the imagery really makes sense in this one.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I was thinking about it too, like in the terms
of it being a cancer card and like the crab
and if you're thinking about the crab, like having that
strong she had to have this like strong outer sheltt
like everything was okay, but like things at home were
not okay. And she was even like you know, writing
about it and stuff. So like obviously it was like
(45:24):
pretty hidden and.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Deep well, and it's like everything that she was doing
was like such a protective action.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
I wish she would have just crab plot is a
little dick off.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Yeah, your lips to God's ears as they say, Ah, yesday, We'll.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
See you next Thursday.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Thursday. Oh my god, we're gonna really.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Mess that up. Yah, we're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I'm definitely gonna be saying Tuesday for a while.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I'll just talk really loud over you so nobody knows
this perfect.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Oh, always covering my ass. What can I say?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
It's a nice ass. I gotta protect it. Oh, like
a crab
Speaker 1 (46:13):
That booty pinch, pinch, pinch, peach
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