The [Unsolved] Murder of Susan Powell- Part 2

On December 7, 2009, 28-year-old Susan Powell didn’t show up to work. She never dropped her two sons off at daycare. Nobody could reach her and she hadn’t been seen since the night before. Her sons and her husband were also nowhere to be found. Within a few hours, Josh, Charlie, and Braden Powell had been located, but Susan was still missing. Josh said that he’d taken their boys on a spontaneous camping trip the night before. In a snowstorm. In Utah. In December. He said that they’d left Susan at home and had no idea where she was. The investigation that followed revealed a crumbling marriage weighed down by Josh Powell’s controlling and abusive behavior. Unfortunately, before investigators were able to determine Josh’s exact role in Susan’s disappearance, he made one last horrific play for power, giving a middle finger to his wife’s family and friends, taking the last pieces of evidence to his grave.

FOR PART ONE, CLICK HERE!

The Disappearance

In the early morning hours of Monday, December 7th, 2009, Debbie Caldwell was waiting for all of her scheduled children to arrive for daycare. The weather was awful, with freezing temperatures and snow. Typically Charlie and Braden Powell arrived at 6:40AM on the dot, but they boys were late today. By 8AM, the Powell boys still hadn’t shown up. Debbie was close to Susan but, like most of the parents whose children participated in her in-home daycare, didn’t care much for Josh. Debbie called the Powell home with no answer. She called Susan’s direct line at work, and still, no answer. She then called the main work number, where she was told that Susan never showed up for work that morning. Debbie was immediately worried. Earlier that week, Susan had spoken to Debbie’s husband about fixing their furnace, so she was concerned that something had gone wrong and that the family was possibly suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Debbie had several children that she was still caring for, so she loaded them up to drop them off at school. En route, Debbie drove by the Powell’s house. She pulled up partially into the driveway and noticed that there were no tire prints or footprints in the snow outside of the house. She yelled and knocked on the door, but there was no answer. She pulled up the boys’ emergency contact, which was Jennifer Graves, Josh’s sister. Jennifer was immediately concerned. She and her mother began the 15 minute drive to the Powell’s house, calling 911 on the way, at 9:53AM. As Josh’s mom spoke to the 911 operator, she told them they were concerned that the family was unconscious inside the home, “my son and his wife and their two children haven’t, uh, responded to anything this morning. They normally would go to work and take their children to the daycare two or two and a half hours ago. And they’re not responding to calls and they’re not responding to people pounding on their door and there’s no tracks coming out of their driveway, or there wasn’t this morning, a little while ago when the daycare lady went over there.”

Police arrived at the Powell home after Jennifer and her mother arrived. There were no signs of the family, and all of the doors and windows were unlocked. Police were equally concerned about the possibility of carbon monoxide, while Jennifer began to wonder if perhaps Josh had taken them camping, as he often did, and they’d driven off a cliff or were stuck somewhere. Finally, just after 11:30AM, Josh’s mom gave police permission to break a window. One of the officers climbed through the window and found some concerning things.

Inside, the stereo was still on, set to a radio station and toys were laying across the floor. The family’s minivan was gone. The house was empty, with no signs of Susan, Josh, or the boys. Strangely enough, there were two box fans set up in the living room, both on. One fan was across the room from the couch, while the other was near the television. Police said that they were blowing at the same spot: the bottom of the couch. They said it was clear that the couch had been cleaned, but the love seat had not. There was a vacuum and a steam cleaner in the middle of the room. Jennifer was allowed in to see if she noticed anything out of place. Most concerningly, she saw that Susan’s purse was still there, with her wallet, ID, credit cards, and money, all untouched. Jennifer said that it was then that she knew her brother had done something to Susan. The family was entered into the NCIC, so officers throughout the country would know to be on the lookout for the family and their minivan.

Last Known Sighting

While a detective sat in his vehicle outside of the Powell’s home working on his report, JoVanna Owings, one of the Powell’s neighbors, walked over and knocked on his window. She told him that she’d seen Susan the afternoon prior. After church on Sunday the 6th, Susan called JoVanna and asked for her help. Susan had been working on knitting a blanket for one of her sons and the yarn had gotten really tangled. She asked if JoVanna could come over and help her untangle it. She went over the Powell house around 2:45PM and sat with Susan in the living room while they worked on the yarn. Josh kept the boys in the kitchen with him while he made pancakes. He made these pancakes one by one, bringing Susan and JoVanna their servings into the living room, which was extremely abnormal. Jennifer said she’d never known the family to eat in the living room. It was also odd that Josh began cleaning and loading the dishwasher without being asked, while Susand and JoVanna ate and talked. Soon after, Susan told JoVanna that she was feeling tired and that she was going to go lie down for a bit. This was around 4:30PM. JoVanna continued working on the yarn, despite Josh saying that he was going to take the boys sledding. Josh told JoVanna that he needed to lock the front door when they left. This time, JoVanna got the hint. She cut off the tangled part to take home and finish. Around 5:30PM, JoVanna saw Josh pull out of the driveway with Charlie and Braden in the backseat.

The following morning, JoVanna had gotten word that no one was able to reach the Powells. She tried Josh’s cell, but didn’t get an answer. Her son then called him from his cell phone. He often babysat for Charlie and Braden so he had Josh’s number. Josh answered and JoVanna’s son immediately hung up. He called Josh back at 3:02PM and handed JoVanna the phone. She asked Josh where he was and said that everyone was looking for them. She said that Susan never showed up for work. Josh said he was out south and would be home soon, before hanging up.

Fucking POS Josh Powell

At 5:30PM, Josh called Jennifer’s phone. Josh told her that he was at work and he had the boys. Jennifer said she knew that he wasn’t at work. Josh then said he’d actually taken the boys camping and they’d been stranded by the snowstorm. He said that Susan was at work. Jennifer yelled, asking him where she was. Josh said, “I don’t know, what do you know?” Jennifer tried to calm down, not wanting to scare her brother off while he had Charlie and Braden. He agreed to meet her at the house. Josh didn’t show. Finally, Jennifer gave her phone to Detective Ellis Maxwell, the lead investigator on the case. He called Josh at 5:48PM and told him that he needed to come home. Josh tried to ignore him, saying that he needed to feed his kids. Det. Maxwell, more forcefully this time, told Josh to get there now. He showed up about an hour later. Once Josh arrived, they found that he’d stopped at LIttle Caesars pizza to get food for the boys. When they asked why Josh hadn’t been answering his phone, he told the detective that he’d had his phone off to conserve the battery. Det. Maxwell saw a charger plugged into the minivan, so he knew Josh was lying.

Josh was brought to the police station for questioning. He said that the day prior, Susan had gone to church with the boys and gotten home around noon. He recounted making pancakes for Susan and JoVanna, then Susan napping afterwards. He said that he stayed home when JoVanna left and was home when Susan awoke from her nap around 6:30PM. She had a hotdog for dinner, then took another nap with Braden. Josh said that he then took Charlie sledding. He brought Charlie home, read him a book, and put him to bed around 8PM. He said that Susan then wanted him to clean the couch…at 10PM on a Sunday night…”to get rid of all the kid’s goobers and stuff.” He said that he used the Rug Doctor and set up the fans to dry the couch after cleaning it. He said that he then took the boys on a spur of the moment camping trip and that Susan was okay with it. He vaguely described the route he took that night to Det. Maxwell. Most of Josh’s answers were I don’t know, and he used his children to avoid answering questions.

Josh said that he’d mixed up the days in his head, thinking that he left on Saturday night when he’d actually left on Sunday. He said he’d only realized the mix-up on Monday morning. Since the Powells only had the one vehicle, Josh couldn’t explain how Susan would’ve gotten to work.

Josh gave detectives permission to search his van. They found totes full of camping supplies, as well as a queen-size comforter, a tarp, a shovel, and a rake. There was also a heavy-duty extension cord, an electrical circular saw, a box cutter, a hand saw, a 5 gallon plastic gas can, and a gas-powered generator. They looked through the center console and were surprised to find a pink Razr flip phone in the bottom. Susan’s phone. But strangely enough, Josh had just denied knowing where his wife’s phone was. His excuse was that he borrowed it earlier because he needed some phone numbers out of it. Maxwell knew that Josh was full of crap.

They found that Josh had called Susan’s cell phone (that was in the car with him) AFTER Jennifer had spoken to him on the phone and told him she hadn’t shown up at work. He left a voicemail on her phone saying that he mixed up the days and apologized for not picking her up at work.

The Place with the Crystals

While Maxwell dealt with Josh, a child specialist interviewed Charlie. Though he was only 4-years-old, Charlie gave police an important piece of information. When he was asked who he went camping with, Charlie said his dad, his mom, and his little brother. Susan’s friends said that despite the fact that Josh did spontaneous things, she would have NEVER let him take a camping trip in the middle of the night during a snowstorm.

Police didn’t have enough probable cause or physical evidence to serve a search warrant on the Powell home or to arrest Josh. Nobody believed his story. Unfortunately, this gave Josh time to dispose of things. He burned the heck out of a metal object that, to this day, still hasn’t been identified. He placed several bags into the garbage the day after Susan disappeared. The next morning, neighbors saw him pulling his minivan out of the garage, opening all of the doors, cleaning, and vacuuming. Jennifer saw him grabbing piles of towels in the house and washing them.

On December 8th, Josh was interviewed again by detectives. He became defensive, saying that he didn’t remember what they did between 6PM and bedtime that night. Josh had displayed no urgency in looking for Susan, saying that he just hadn’t had a chance to check anywhere. Meanwhile, Susan’s family and friends were hanging flyers, holding vigils, and doing everything they could to get Susan’s face out to the public. Josh didn’t ask any questions about what police were doing to find Susan. When Maxwell asked Josh where he thought they should look, Josh said, “Beauty supply? I don’t think she would be there, but she likes them.”

Charlie was being interviewed again as well. He told the child specialist that they went to Dinosaur National Park. He said that his mom stayed at the park, that she stayed where the crystals are. Josh said that his kids lied sometimes, that Susan didn’t come with them. He then asked for a lawyer. Police felt confident they could have arrested Josh at this point, but they wanted to track him, so they put a GPS tracker on his car before he left the police station. Instead of picking up his minivan, Josh went to the airport instead and rented a Ford Focus. For the next 18 hours, Josh vanished. When he returned the vehicle, it had an additional 807 miles on the odometer. Detectives had no clue where Josh went that day.

It didn’t take long for detectives to name Josh as a person of interest. While there was a significant amount of circumstantial evidence, the District Attorney would not file charges. They said that police would need to wait for 12 months with no body found. Within days of Susan’s disappearance, Josh had cashed out her retirement fund, closed bank accounts, and moved everything out of their house.

Investigators searched extensively throughout the routes that they believed Josh to have traveled, including areas that they knew he was familiar with and that he’d been camping at in the past. Josh had mentioned sometime in the past that he knew that the perfect way to get rid of a body was to throw it down an abandoned mine. It appeared that he might’ve actually followed through with his idea. Mines were searched, but there were no signs of Susan found anywhere.

UGHHHH

Josh maintained his innocence, but avoided the media, eventually moving in with Steve. He became slightly reclusive, upset that the public had condemned him. On August 24th, 2011, Josh did an interview on Good Morning America. The interviewer said that he seemed distant and had a hollow stare. At one point he said, “People who know me, know that I’m a good dad. I was a good husband and provided for them. Susan also contributed.”

Steve was at the interview, but eventually wormed his way on camera, revealing that he believed Susan ran away with another man. The interviewer asked why he thought that. Steve replied, “Susan was very sexual with me, she was very flirtacious, we interacted in a lot of sexual ways.” He told a story of a family trip to an animal park where he was holding Braden. He said that Susan came to take her son from him and she pressed her breasts tightly against his hands and wouldn’t let them go. He added that it was a cold day and that was a nice warm feeling. Steve also said that he’d read Susan’s journals. Later, Josh boasted to detectives that those journals would reveal everything about what happened. They obtained a search warrant for Steve’s home, where they found much more than they anticipated. They found all of his voyeur videos, filming Susan and other women. In a locked file cabinet in Steve’s bedroom, they found thousands of images of young girls, naked and videotaped without their knowledge. Steve Powell was arrested and pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of voyeurism and 1 count of child pornography in 2012. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He served just over four years of his sentence. This finally gave the state the ammunition to take Charlie and Braden away from Josh. On April 6th, the boys were placed with Judy and Chuck Cox temporarily. Josh was infuriated, likely because he was afraid that Charlie might start talking. He was interviewed again and it seemed clear to interviewers that he was coached. When asked again about his mother, Charlie said, “I do not know where she is. She got lost in somewhere. We can’t talk about Susan or camping. I always keep things as secrets. I didn’t want to talk to you on this long, I mean, on this many minutes. Now I’m done.” SOUND FAMILIAR??

At this time, the boys were wards of the state. Josh was still being allowed supervised visits in a secure 3rd party facility. He took the steps to rent his own house and began pushing to have visitations at his house, arguing that since he was away from his father, the same concerns shouldn’t be valid.

At a hearing on February 1st, 2012, Josh expected to regain custody of the boys. Nobody wanted him to have these kids back. West Valley Police Department sent the state’s attorney a disc of things that were recovered on Josh’s computer during the search warrant, including cartoon incestuous images. He, of course, denied any knowledge of these. The judge ruled that Charlie and Braden were to stay with Chuck and Judy Cox, while Josh underwent a psychosexual evaluation and a lie detector. Wildly enough, Josh had been able to avoid taking a lie detector test so far. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t talk his way out of this one. Chuck was nervous because he knew Josh was backed into a corner. He couldn’t beat the tests.

It was later found that for the next four days, Josh prepared. He transferred some finances, donated some of the boys’ belongings, and bought a few 5 gallon gas cans and filled them with gasoline. In the early morning of February 5th, 2012, Josh sent a few text messages and left a few voicemails for family members, basically saying goodbye. At around the same time, Chuck went to an early church service, since he knew that Charlie and Braden were going for a visit with their father later. The foster care resource network worker, Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, parked in front of Josh’s home as the boys unbuckled themselves from their car seats and jumped out of the car. They rushed towards the front door like they always did, with Elizabeth just a few steps behind them. Elizabeth looked up to the open door where Josh stood. He locked eyes with her, then slammed the front door and locked it after the boys ran inside. Elizabeth kept banging on the door and ringing the bell, begging for Josh to open the door. She heard him say through the door, “Charlie, I’ve got a big surprise for you,” then she recognized the smell of gasoline.

Elizabeth called 911 and told them what had happened. The call taker didn’t seem to recognize the gravity of the situation, as he told her that the next available officer would drive by the home. Elizabeth insisted they send someone quickly, telling them that Josh had just found out he wasn’t getting custody of his children back and she was frightened of what he might be doing. It was too late. An enormous explosion engulfed the house. Elizabeth ran to neighbors, screaming for help, yelling that there were two children in there. Firefighters arrived on scene to a home fully engulfed in flames. After putting the fire out, they found three bodies inside. They belonged to Josh, Charlie, and Braden Powell. All three were dead. Charlie was 7-years-old and Braden was 5-years-old.

The cause of death for all three was ruled as carbon monoxide inhalation. Investigators found 2 5-gallon gas cans in the house. They believed that one was used in the room with boys, along with a hatchet. Both boys had chopping wounds on their heads and neck. After he incapacitated the boys, he poured gasoline on and around them. Josh then poured the other can of gas around the house, then sat down on the gas can and lit a match. There was clear evidence that Josh had planned it out with the intent of killing himself and his sons. Susan’s sister said that she wasn’t surprised, that she never underestimated what Josh might do to the boys.

The Cox family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the state of Washington on behalf of their grandson. They accused the state of putting Josh’s parental rights over the well-being of Charlie and Braden. They didn’t include any individuals in their lawsuit. The state of Washington was found guilty and the Coxes were awarded a significant amount of money. Chuck said he wanted to use the money to help people and save more children.

People believe that Josh wanted to destroy the last piece of evidence left: his children. It was a systematic failure that resulted in a horrific tragedy.

In February of 2013, Josh’s brother, Michael Powell, jumped from a five story parking deck, killing himself. No known reason for his suicide has been found. Many speculate that Michael knew what his brother had done and had possibly helped him cover up the crime.

In July of 2018, Steve Powell died at the age of 68, from natural causes. Many believe that Steve was not involved in Susan’s disappearance, that he was blinded by his obsession with her and unable to see what his son could have done.

Jennifer Graves and Judy and Chuck Cox established the Susan Cox Powell Foundation which is aimed to help the families of missing people and the recognition and prevention of domestic violence.

Susan Powell or her remains have never been located.