THE IMPLOSION OF FAMILY; JOSH AND SUSAN POWELL CASE

THE IMPLOSION OF FAMILY; JOSH AND SUSAN POWELL CASE

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INTRODUCTION

     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 given 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),aided him in concealing her body.Since 

then, there have been repeated attempts to have Susan legally 

declared dead.

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BACKGROUND 

       Joshua Powell was born in 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.

      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.

        Josh 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. 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 on 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. 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.

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SUSAN POWELL'S JOURNAL

       Susan's journal entries and email correspondence indicated

 the presence of marital discord. 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. 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. 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."

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SUSAN POWELL'S DISAPPEARANCE

         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. 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. 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. 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.

       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. Police visited

 that area on December 10, but found no evidence of the campsite

that Joshua had described. 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.

       After a second round of police interrogation on the evening of 

December 8, Joshua rented a silver Ford Focus from Salt Lake City 

International Airport. His whereabouts after leaving the airport

 remain shrouded in mystery. Around 18 hours after leaving Salt

 Lake City International Airport with the rented Ford Focus, at 

about 4:00pm on the next day, December 9, he called his mother, 

Terrica, on a new phone, whilst on the I-84 in Tremonton driving 

south towards Salt Lake City. He would later tell his sister, Jennifer 

Graves, that he had been driving laps around Salt Lake City,

 getting off and on the freeways at random. Police would discover 

that Joshua had placed an additional 807 miles on the odometer of

 the Ford Focus.

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INVESTIGATION INTO SUSAN'S DISAPPEARANCE 

      Upon searching the Powell residence on December 9,

 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. 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".

      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.

      Police interviewed the couple's elder son, Charlie, who 

confirmed that the camping trip Joshua described took place;

however, unlike his father, he stated that Susan had gone with 

them and did not return. Weeks after her disappearance, a 

teacher reported Charlie had claimed that his mother was dead.

 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".

      Investigators informed the media that they planned to question

 Joshua again, and subpoenaed all footage and interviews 

(aired and unaired) of Joshua from local television stations.

On December 14, Joshua retained an attorney in connection with

 the investigation, and police stated that he had grown 

increasingly uncooperative. 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. On January 6, 2010, Joshua 

returned with his brother Michael to pack the family's belongings,

 indicating he was moving permanently to Puyallup.

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DEVELOPMENTS AND FAMILY TURBULENCE SINCE 2009

        In Puyallup, Joshua occupied a home with his two sons, his

 father Steven, his brothers Michael and Jonathan, and his

 sister Alina. Joshua indicated that he would rent out his house in

 Utah. It was reported that he returned to Puyallup after he 

had lost his job in West Valley City.

        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. 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. Joshua and 

his father Steven were widely believed to have written these posts.

due to mental illness and that she had left with another man. Susan's 

family rejected these claims as being "unsupported" by any evidence.

       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.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.

       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.

 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.

        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.

        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. A friend of Steven claimed that he was 

preoccupied with pornography and "was hung up on [Susan] 

sexually". 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, 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.

        In late September 2011, Jennifer Graves stated that she 

believed her brother Joshua was "responsible for his wife Susan

 Powell's disappearance". 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. 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.

        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.

         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. 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.

         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.

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THE MURDERS OF BRADEN AND CHARLIE POWELL (SUSAN' SONS)

        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. Soon thereafter, the house exploded, killing

 Joshua and the two children. Local authorities treated the case as

 a double murder-suicide, saying that the act appeared to have

 been deliberate.

        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". 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. Steven was

 convicted on the voyeurism charges in May 2012, in a trial which largely

 skirted the issue of Susan's case.

        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. 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 Josh 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.

 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. Josh named his 

brother Michael as the main beneficiary of his life insurance policy.

     Charles and Braden are buried at Woodbine Cemetery, which 

also contains a memorial for their mother. Joshua's remains were

cremated.

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