Going West: True Crime - Susan Powell // 10

Episode Date: February 4, 2019

In 2009, a family of 4 decided to go on a last minute camping trip near their home in Utah... in the beginning of winter. When the young and faithful mother & wife didn’t show up for work the next day, police began to question her husband Josh, and if this “camping trip” ever even occurred at all. This is the story of Susan Cox Powell. **GOING WEST DOES NOT OWN ANY OF THE NEWS CLIPS PRESENTED** ABC News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIyfp0u2R-Y  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's going on, True Crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your other host, Daphne. In today, we've got an insane disappearance case with a lot of twists and turns. But before we get into that, we're going to give some shout outs. A big thanks to Amit and Los Angeles. Also a big howdy-do to Greg and Denver. Next we've got Adam from Florida. And Josue in Eugene, Oregon. A big what's up and thank you to Nick and Orange County. And last but not least, Abby and Washington. Thanks for listening. And if you'd like a shout out next week or any week for that matter, go ahead and give us a nice little review on iTunes and include your name and location.

Alright everybody, this is episode 10 of Going West. Let's get into it. Their family seemed picture perfect. Two beautiful children, a home and a peaceful, salt lake city suburb. But when Susan Powell suddenly vanished in December 2009, all eyes turned to her husband, Josh. Covering all my bases, making sure that something happens to me or my family or all of us that are assets are documented. Hope everything works out and we're all happy and

live happily ever after as much as that's possible. Did you kill your wife? No. Did you have anything to do with Did you kill your wife? No. Did you have anything to do with the disappearance of your wife? No. Nothing. Nothing.

What is the truth? People who know me know that I'm a good dad. I work hard. I put my son's first. I was a good husband. I took care of my family. My feet are still wearing your wedding band. Yeah.

You still love them? Yeah. I guess you could say, but... I still love her. Susan Cox Powell was born on October 16, 1981 in New Mexico and raised by her parents, Judy and Chuck Cox along with her three sisters, Denise, Mary, and Marie. Susan and her family moved to Alaska when Susan was young, then to Vancouver, Washington, before settling in Pialup, Washington. I believe you had a pretty demanding job through air traffic control for the Air Force, so that's probably why they moved around quite a bit. So Susan always had a big

passion for cosmetology. So whether it was painting nails or coloring or cutting hair, she always loved making her friends and family feel beautiful and actually read that sometimes she didn't do the best job, but you know she tried. She was raised in a religious household where she regularly attended church and she loved to sing and usually sung in the church choir and the school choir. Now Josh Powell was born on January 20th, 1976, in Spokane, Washington. He had an older sister, Jennifer, and two younger brothers, John and Michael.

Josh and his siblings were baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and grew up in a Mormon household. Josh grew up in a pretty difficult household. Steve's father was a very openly sexual man, keeping porn magazines around the house and even telling his children, people are just animals and should be able to have sex with whoever they want at any time. Yeah, Steve would write diaries about having sexual fantasies about other women, which

his wife Terry found out about while she was pregnant with their youngest daughter, Alina. To make matters even worse, Steve was attracted to his oldest daughter, Jennifer. God, what a sick fuck. Yeah, he even kept journals where he would write his feelings for her. And one of his entries actually noted that sometimes Jennifer would walk into the kitchen for breakfast in just a t-shirt and panties, and that it would drive him nuts. Imagine being a father and finding your daughter sexually attractive. Like, how sick and disgusting is that?

Yeah, it's going to get worse with Steve as we go on, but we'll get there. So Steve won a Jennifer to leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he would actually mock his children for practicing their religion. I'm not sure when he stopped being faithful, but at some point he did, and it's something that really upset his wife, Terry, and she really encouraged the children to continue practicing. So Steve left the church and began actively fighting against it, and even writing for anti-Latter-day Saints magazines and always campaigning against the church. The constant battles that Steve was fighting within the family mixed with his marriage problems

really took a toll on the kids and most specifically Josh. So get this, when Josh was 13 years old he threatened his mom with a butcher's knife just because she asked him to do the dishes. Josh also killed his four year old sister Alina's pet gerbils, and made her touch their blood. Isn't it kind of a known fact that serial killers usually killed their pets or killed animals when they were younger? Like, it's a common trait. Yeah, that's definitely a common trait

that's found in serial killers a lot of the time, is that they'll torture and kill animals. Yeah, Josh was clearly very disturbed. So around this time when Josh was 14, he actually tried to commit suicide by hanging himself, but I guess the rope had broke, causing burn marks on his neck. From that point on, his mom Terry wanted him to get some counseling. So a few years later, while Josh was in 11th grade in high school, his mom Terry filed for divorce, and this completely crushed Josh. I mean his parents didn't have a good relationship anyway, so I don't know what he was holding

on to, but he really upset him. And Terry took the house, and Josh refused to continue living with his mom. It actually started this huge war within the family. It divided the house into like girls versus guys, and Josh began to really resent his mom, and even called her a treasure see And Josh began to really resent his mom and even called her a treasure seeker who wanted to bleed Steve for all he was worth. And he called the sister Jennifer a witch.

He later said that he wanted his mom to be dead. Josh always had problems with girls. The ones he liked and never liked him back. And in his early 20s, he would often create audio journals about his struggles with women, always speaking in poetry. When Josh was graduating from high school, Steve moved to Pielip, Washington, which is about four hours from Spokane and very close to Tacoma and Seattle. Josh wanted to be near his dad, so he, John, and Michael all made the move. It was here that Josh began working for a cabinet shop, as well as creating his own woodworking business,

Powell Custom Furniture, which he operated out of a storage unit. He then started taking classes at Pierce College. Josh began to really hate living with his dad because of his constant negativity and anti-religious outbursts. Steve was also incredibly mean to Josh and would constantly get mad at him over small things. Josh's new goal in life was to become an architect, so he enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle. He rented a dorm there so he was no longer living at home with Steve, which he really liked, although his excitement for the university lifestyle quickly diminished. Five days into the school year, Josh's dorm mates decided to throw a party where around

75 people tried to fit into their tiny apartment. Everyone was drinking and smoking weed, and even trying to encourage him to do so, which people do. But Josh hated that. He refused to do any drug and he was very anti-alcohol. Yeah, Josh was extremely uptight, and it kind of sounds like he needs a beer. Yeah, I don't think he ever had a sip of alcohol in his entire life. Yeah, I don't know much about the Mormon religion, but I'm pretty sure that they don't drink alcohol,

is that right? It's my understanding that for the majority, they don't drink, but I'm sure that some of them do. At the end of his first semester, Josh actually wrote a letter to the school explaining his horrible experiences, and in turn got a new apartment with a whole new roommate who was an

exchange student from India. The two quickly became friends and they were both very quiet and clean. Josh had then joined the yacht club and started taking a drama class where his passion for acting really came out. At this point Josh decided to leave the dream of being an architect and start pursuing a career in acting. Josh actually got a part in a play but but after trying out, he only received a small part that didn't include any lines.

This was pretty much like a big blow to his ego, so he decided never to act again. He began to grow more and more depressed at this point between his family turmoil, trouble with women, and the slight fear for the future. So when the semester ended, he actually moved back to his dad's house in Piaulep, and they continued to fight, especially about religion. So instead of going back to school in the fall, Josh decided to go back to Veridale, which is in Spokane, and fix his relationship with his mom. After having a spiritual awakening, making peace with this family, and finding a girlfriend

named Catherine, he ended up moving back to Seattle and actually re-enrolled at the University of Washington. Josh was never shy around women. He was actually very overly confident when it came to introducing himself to girls or talking to them. So when he met someone, he went for it. His relationship with Catherine was very strange. When Catherine started going to school at a community college, she had no money, like most

of us in our early 20s, so she applied for student loans, which Josh encouraged. When Catherine received this check, Josh deposited it in his own bank account, giving none of it to Catherine. He actually did this with a lot of her paychecks. So he was basically in charge of her money that she was earning. He later told Catherine that he never wanted to get married or have children, but for some reason made Catherine tell people that they were married. So it's kind of unknown why he did this, possibly because they had a physical relationship, so it made him feel better if people knew that they were married. But Catherine began feeling really weird in the relationship.

Josh wouldn't let her have friends, rarely allowed her to use the phone, and whenever she used the computer, which was rare, he sat next to her and watched everything she did. So he was very controlling of everything she did, and everything that she spent money on. Eventually, Catherine really realized how unhappy she was with Josh and she left him. So we're already starting to see some signs with Josh and his controlling behavior. Now, Josh had some other relationships, but none of them lasted. At least not until he met Susan. Initially, the two met when Susan was 12 and Josh was 17. Josh came over to take her older sister Mary to the prom, but she had

already left with another date. So, Josh took this opportunity to sit on the couch with young Susan and her mom Judy and talk their ear off about Mary, the weather, and anything else he could think of. Josh was one of those guys who just didn't know when to stop talking. Josh even reported later that it was a shame that Susan was so young because he thought that she was cute. One night a few years later when Josh was 24 years old at an Institute of Religion, which is basically a place where young people learn about religion and meet each other, the two met again and they really hit it off. When Mary, Susan's older sister, learned that Susan and Josh were dating, she warned Susan when things started to get serious.

She thought Josh was just plain weird and so did their parents. Mary said that she had a really bad feeling about him, but Susan didn't listen. Her feelings for Josh were just too strong. Susan was only 19 at the time and Mary was actually encouraging her to date a variety of guys since she was so young and not to focus on just Josh. Josh was living in Tacoma, Washington at the time working for Virgo manufacturing the same company that his father worked for. He was sitting on a lot of debt, but often liked to have dinner parties, which got pretty expensive. After meeting Susan, he had a dinner party where he invited Susan and they kissed for the first time. Susan said that it was then that she knew Josh was the one. Josh had a motorcycle, a place of his own, and was a latter-day saint just like she was. She thought he was just perfect for her.

On their first date, they had already began discussing marriage. Josh was already falling madly in love with her too. Josh began attending the University of Washington to coma business school, where he racked up his debt even further since he took out a student loan. Susan spent her days at Cosmetology School where she cut and colored hair, and then she'd go to her second job at JC Penny where she worked at the jewelry counter. Josh was very adamant about Susan making a lot of money. He once even visited her at work

and asked her to pick out a ring for his mom, then asked her to buy it using her employee discount. Turns out, it was her engagement ring. He gave it to her later when she came to his apartment. So she basically bought her own engagement ring. Yeah, and we'll see throughout this story that she buys a lot of things for Josh. Susan was living with her sister at the time, but usually stayed at Josh's apartment. Weeks into their relationship and now engagement, they were basically living together. Susan's parents weren't too happy about this. She told her parents that she didn't want to live with her sister Mary because she didn't

feel welcome there and because she kept liquor in the fridge. Her parents weren't thrilled with the idea, but they liked that he had a job, had a place that he paid for, and that he was going to college. So Susan was hoping that their engagement would last nine months to a year, like normal, especially since they had just recently started dating, but Josh really wanted to get married within a couple months of proposing to her. So Susan thought that this was really fast, but she went along with it.

Josh and Susan got married at the Portland, Oregon, Temple of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April, 2001. Whoa, that's a mouthful. Susan officially moved into Josh's apartment after the wedding, but they were evicted eight months later. They were having trouble with the landlord and making their rental payments

because of Josh's debt. They really wanted a home that they could build life together in, but they didn't have the means. At this point, Susan and Josh moved into Steve's house, who is Josh's father. Josh's siblings, John and Michael were also living there, so there weren't enough bedrooms for Susan and Josh. They ended up sectioning off a part of the living room to stay in, so there weren't enough bedrooms for Susan and Josh. They ended up sectioning off a part of the living room to stay in, so their privacy was pretty minimal at this point. So Steve would often film Susan with his camcorder, stating that she was the only female that was ever around, so she got the full treatment. Susan was pretty nice about it, but was definitely a bit uncomfortable, especially

when she thought she saw a tiny mirror under the door while she was using the bathroom ones. She was unaware of Steve's past with being interested in his daughter, Jennifer, and his overall sexual fantasies. Now Steve became incredibly interested in Susan. In 2003, so about a year after living with Steve, Susan and Josh both began managing a senior living center in Yakima, Washington, which is about a two-hour drive

from Piawlup where Steve lived. This gave them some much-needed space from Steve. They even had a free apartment on site. Yeah, this gave them a really good opportunity to start saving and paying off Josh's debts so they could finally buy a house of their own, which was their main goal. So they were rent free for a while, and they could work together. So this was a good opportunity for them.

And it's a win-win. They get to get away from Steve the creep. As we said, Steve was very interested in Susan. One night, he even visited their Yakima apartment and gave Susan a back and foot massage. The weirdest part? He later filmed himself undressing while discussing the incident stating, quote, I just had what is probably the most erotic experience I've ever had in my life. And then later talked about her breasts.

At this time, Susan was about 22 years old, while Steve was about 53. If you've ever seen the movie's silence of the lambs, Steve's kind of starting to sound a little bit like Buffalo Bill. Anyways, Susan grew more and more uncomfortable around her father-in-law. She was the background on his computer,

and he even began writing songs about her. He ended up writing over 100 songs about his love for Susan. One, even including the lyrics, I can love you in a secret way. Since Steve recorded so many of their encounters, he once accidentally recorded a conversation he had with Susan in the car where he stated, I'm really falling in love with you. For the last year and a half, you're about the only thing I can think about. He then went on to explain his sexual feelings towards their past encounters and his consistent arousal by her.

She then stated that she was his daughter-in-law, which was just a step beneath his own children, and that's where she wanted to stay. She was not having it, and she wanted nothing to do with Steve. When he would come over to their apartment, she'd lock herself in her room. So it's very clear that she was incredibly uncomfortable being in Steve's presence at all, so luckily for her, in December of 2003, Susan and Josh relocated to West Valley City, Utah, which is a suburb of Salt Lake City where Josh's sister Jenny was living at the time.

Susan and Josh both got jobs at Fidelity investments and began looking to buy a house while staying at Jenny's house. At this point, Josh had completely abandoned his faith after saying that the spirit left him. So things are kind of becoming a lot like Terry and Steve's situation, how she's religious and he's kind of against it. Josh even began to think Susan was stupid for believing what she did, even though he had shared those beliefs for so long. They found their perfect house in West Valley City, which they bought and Susan continued her job in the call center for the investment company while Josh was working in data entry, which he hated. Josh then decided to quit his job and pursue a career as a freelance realtor, meaning Susan was the only one in the house making actual money.

Susan was hopeful that Josh would find clients and that they could start a family. Susan continued to work hard while still attending church and even making friends. Susan became pregnant with a child while still being at the breadwinner of the family. In 2005, Susan had her first son, Charlie. It was then that her relationship with Josh pretty much went downhill. She found it hard to keep his attention and he was really becoming resentful of the church, even though he would still attend once in a while. He would even hold back sex and affection from her to punish her if he was mad at her. She figured he was going through a hard time and that she

would continue to give him a chance. About two years later in 2007, Susan gives birth to her second son, Brayden. Susan really didn't own anything in the house. Josh was in control of all the money, even though she was the one that was bringing in all of the money. Susan even made a video in 2008 documenting all of her assets where, in the beginning, she states that she's covering all of her bases in case something happens to her or her family. And almost every item in the video is Josh's, whether it's toys or tools, so many tools,

or some new hobby of his, he is always spending money and not worried about going into debt. But when it came to his family, they weren't allowed to spend a dime practically. Josh controlled the groceries as well. He would give Susan a grocery list of things that she was allowed to buy and how much money she was allowed to spend per item. They'd often get an argument because she'd spend 5 cents more or 20 cents more on something that she could have gotten cheaper somewhere else. Josh even determined when and what the children ate. He even stated that they only needed to eat once a day, which then caused

one of the boys to become diagnosed with malnutrition. The interesting thing about this is he was really picky about what the kids ate and what everyone ate, but when it came to him, he could basically do whatever he wanted. Not to say that he went out and to eat or treated himself food wise, but he was just more strict for other people than he was on himself. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, he's just a really selfish person and we see this a lot of time. I mean, he's taking Susan's money. He's, you know, controlling the groceries.

Basically, he gets whatever he wants and if Susan wants anything, she's not allowed. And like we mentioned earlier, she's really into cosmetology and she would want to buy makeup and stuff like that and he literally would not let her. And what I find most funny about this case, and particularly with Josh, is that, you know, in his early years, he's bitching and complaining about these girls that don't like me and blah,

blah, blah. But then he finds this beautiful young girl Susan who's very sweet, treats him right, and he just treats her like fucking garbage. Yeah, she takes such good care of him and their children, and she works so hard day to day, it's just shocking that he wouldn't want to treat her well because she's such a good person to him. Like, why would you want to risk that? And furthermore, you know, Susan's really only looking for affection and for Josh to step up to the plate. And he can't even hold her hand or kiss her.

And she had mentioned that his idea of a date was going to the park with a $5 pizza. And that immediately after they ate the pizza, they would have to go home. Yeah, he wanted to go home as soon as possible so that they wouldn't have to pay the babysitter more than they needed to. Also going back to the affection thing, Josh also mentioned in one of his audio journals that he hated cuddling. Like any kind of affection just made him cringe kind of thing, except for sex. So he was, he was an interesting lad. Yeah, he just wanted to have sex with her, couldn't hold her hand, couldn't kiss her, no affection at all. But their sex life was very sparse as well. I mean, Susan even stated that she knew the dates that her sons were conceived,

because that's how little sex they had. Yeah, exactly. We mentioned this earlier that, you know, Josh would even withhold sex from her and stuff like that, so he's really in control of their love life at this point. Josh and Susan continued to fight, and Josh was even at times threatening to Susan. Susan would tell her friends via Facebook about the awful things he did and how badly she wanted to leave him. She even would note how she feared for her safety. Her co-workers and friends pretty much all knew about Susan's destructive home life. Her parents even offered to pay for her divorce. They all encouraged her time and time again to leave him, but she found it hard because they had children together and she did love him. She really feared the idea of starting over completely, even though she knew she deserved better.

But being a faithful woman, she also found it was her duty to help him get better. Basically, she's sticking around in an abusive relationship. And this happens a lot to people and not that I've been through it, but I understand that it can be incredibly hard to leave this kind of situation,

even though the people from the outside are like, get out, get out. You know, sometimes it's not that easy. So ladies, if you're in that situation, get the fuck out of there. Yeah, you are not obligated to stick around in an abusive relationship. So you have the power, and if this is happening to you, make sure you get help and get out. It's obviously also a lot easier said than done, so you know, it's definitely encouraged to get out of that kind of situation because as we'll show, it can lead to some really dangerous situation. So, you know, just get the help that you need. So, bravely, Susan did mention at times that things needed to get better or she would leave him.

But nothing changed at all, as things continue to stay the same and even get worse, Susan took it upon herself to keep a paper trail at work where Josh wouldn't see it. She felt like she needed to have their terrible relationship documented in case something happened to her. It was at this point that she decided to get a safety deposit box. She left a note titled, Last Will and Testament for Susan. In it, she wrote about her extreme marital stress and the fact that there was extreme turmoil in her marriage. She also mentioned that Josh told her that if she divorced him, he would ruin her and that her life would be over.

She also stated, quote, if something happens to me, please talk to my sister-in-law, Jenny Graves, my friend Kiersey Hollowell, check my MySpace blogs, check my work desk, talk to my friends, co-workers and family. If I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one. She also said that she would want her parents in charge of her children in case of her death. She even wrote on the envelope of the note that Josh Powell was not allowed to possess it and that she didn't trust him. In this note, Susan stated that her life insurance policy was over $1 million if she died in the next four years. A lot of her friends even joked that she was worth more dead than alive. When they asked her why it was so high, she would say because it's what Josh wanted.

The idea of this high insurance policy frightened her, which is a big reason why she started leaving notes and a paper trail. Susan was fearful for her life. On Sunday, December 6, 2009, Susan attended church with her son's Charlie, age 4, and Braden, age 2. Later that day, their neighbor came by the house for a visit and left around 5pm. On December 7, the entire Powell family was reported missing. Josh's mother, Terry, and sister Jenny had been informed that Braden and Charlie hadn't been dropped off at daycare that morning. Also, Susan hadn't showed up for work, which is incredibly out of character for her. Josh also didn't show up for work that day.

This all worried them, so they went to the power household to look for them. When no one answered the door or phone, Terry and Jenny called the police. When law enforcement arrived, they broke into the house, initially thinking the family may have been victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. However, the house was empty. The only thing they noticed were two box fans blowing at a wet spot on the carpet in the living room. Susan's purse, wallet, and ID had all been found inside the house. Her cell phone, however, was missing.

Later that same day, around 3.03 pm, Jovanna Owings, the friend who had been visiting at their home the night before, called Josh's cell phone. Josh answered her call and said that he was driving around the city with the boys and was unaware that Susan didn't show up to work. He didn't know where she was. After that, Josh drove 20 miles out of town according to cell tower records. Josh called his own voicemail at 3.34 pm. He then called Susan's voicemail a moment later and left a message saying that

he and the boys had just come back from a camping trip before asking her if she needed a ride home from work. At 5.27 pm, so two hours after Josh called Susan's voicemail, his sister Jennifer called and asked him where he'd been. Josh said he was at work, which was obviously a lie because he hadn't shown up to work, and he told Jovanna that he was driving around. Jennifer knew he was lying. Then Josh stated that he was camping.

Jennifer then told Josh to come home and that the police were there because Susan was missing. Then, Josh said something very peculiar to Jennifer. Josh asked Jennifer how much she knew. Jennifer didn't understand the question and Josh hung up. Police then called Josh about 20 minutes later from Jennifer's phone, telling him to come home. He said he had to get the boys something to eat. At about 6.40 pm, Josh returned home with Braden and Charlie, but not Susan. When Josh walked in the house, police asked him why he had an answered calls earlier,

or why he didn't answer anyone letting them know where they were. Josh said he had to save his phone battery because he didn't have a charger. However, when detectives walked out to his car, they saw his phone sitting in the car plugged into a charger. Josh was then taken in for questioning by police. According to Josh, the night before, he left Susan asleep at home just after midnight to take the boys on a camping trip to Simpson Springs in Western Utah. By the way, this was a two-hour driving trip after midnight in a snowstorm. This is just the weirdest alibi ever. Who takes her children on a Sunday night when they have worked the next day on a camping trip two hours away while it's freaking snowing? Not a thing.

Yeah, I mean, it's a snowstorm and it's past, I mean, it's past midnight and he's taking his two boys out to the middle of nowhere to go on this camping trip. It's just so weird and totally not believable. Especially because nobody knew where he was and he was so secretive about it and was caught lying about where he was the next day. So it's like, obviously you're lying. If you were camping,

you would have just said, oh I was camping. Here's the details. Instead of being all sketchy about it. Yeah, exactly. Susan's cell phone was later found in the center console of the family's only vehicle, a minivan, that Josh had been using that night. The SIM card of her phone was gone. The other contents of this car were a bit strange because there really wasn't any camping equipment. Along with Susan's cell phone, police found a generator, blankets, a gas can, tarps, and a shovel. Keynote, shovel. Unless you were camping in your minivan, I would assume that you would probably bring

a tent and sleeping bags. Heath would know because he's an avid camper. So I mean, what would you bring camping heath? I mean, I'd definitely probably bring a, well, first of all, I don't go camping in the winter. Way too cold in Oregon. But if I was going to go camping in the winter, I'd bring a tent, sleeping bag, food, probably a lot of other things that clearly he did not bring. When we went camping over the summer, we brought like our entire lives with us. Yeah, and part of that is because death needs from L.A. so... What does that mean? Regardless, you would need a lot more than just some blankets blankets and I'm not sure why he brought the generator with him

Unless he had you know a space heater that was able to plug into the generator I mean there's really no purpose for having a generator. I mean you think that heat would be a major important thing to bring camping when there's a snowstorm growing on You're not just going to go camping outside first of all day, nothing to camp in. So if they were just going to go camping in the car, I mean, what's the point of that? Anyway, if you're driving two hours just to sleep in your car, but, you know, I mean, he didn't have anything to camp with. So how could he have gone camping?

And when Josh was questioned with this in an interview, he said, well, you know, I'm just a spontaneous guy, ask anybody who knows me, I just do weird things like this. When police visited Simpson Springs on December 10, so three days later, they didn't find any evidence of his campsite. This is in part because of the massive snowstorm that hit, so snow completely covered the grounds, hiding any trail of Josh. When police asked if Josh would take them to his campsite, he wouldn't.

When a team of friends researched their home, they found traces of blood on the tile floor, not far from the freshly cleaned sofa. Blood tests concluded it was Susan Powell's. Investigators also searched Josh's car again. While they were doing so, he left, rented a car, and bought a new cell phone. In the next two days, he drove more than 800 miles. Just a heads up, the place where they went camping, Simpson Springs, is only 99 miles away from their home.

So I don't know if maybe he did kill her there and he went back there to go get her body and move it somewhere because cops were sniffing around that area. But then I would also assume that they were probably still there searching the area so it would have been really sketchy for him to go back. No one knows where he went with those 800 miles. A week after Susan's disappearance, Josh cancels her chiropractic appointments and withdrew all the money from her retirement account. He also called the daycare where Braden and Charlie spent their weekdays and told them the boys wouldn't be coming back.

These are incredibly bold things to do considering it's only been a week since his wife went missing and this just leads me to believe that he knows that she's not coming back because he killed her. Police also interviewed Charlie, who was five years old at the time. He said his mommy went camping with them, but she didn't come back home, and he didn't know why. Now it's unclear to us when he said this, but Charlie also mentioned that mommy's in the mine. Judy and Chuck Cox said that they too had heard Charlie say that, and that he had also mentioned that he thought she was looking for crystals in the mine.

And this is incredibly chilling because it could mean that Josh killed Susan while the boys were somewhat present and that he had took her body to the mines. As time went on and Charlie began to verbalize the incident more, he said that they went camping and his mommy was in the trunk. Also adding, mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared. Charlie then began drawing disturbing pictures as a part of the school assignment a couple years after Susan's incident. The drawing depicted Josh driving the van with Charlie and Braden sitting in the back seat with Susan in the trunk. Hearing all that literally makes my eyes water,

it's so scary to think about that because I mean, Charlie was really young when this happened but the fact that years later he's able to verbalize it and realize what went on, even though he's still young and isn't fully realizing what it meant. The fact that he's saying these things and he saw these things happen and that Josh did this while the children were there is just so scary. Yeah, not only is it just incredibly tragic for the boys, but it and for Susan, but it

also really makes my skin crawl. It's just really sad and scary too to think about the fact that Susan almost knew that this was going to happen to her and then it did. When we talked earlier about getting out of abusive relationships, it could mean the difference between life and death and for Susan, unfortunately, it sealed her fate. A search later began at an abandoned mineshaft in Utah's West Desert, after having heard Charlie mention that his mom used in the mines.

By the way, I've read multiple different articles that Josh spoke to co-workers about how to hide a body in an abandoned mineshaft in the western Utah desert, but I'm not sure how much credibility it holds. I think it's pretty incriminating evidence considering, but I'm not sure how true that is. Within two weeks of Susan's disappearance, Josh took his sons to his hometown of Peelup, Washington, to say with his dad good old Steve during the holidays. By Christmas Eve, Josh was officially considered a person of interest in Susan's case. On January 6, 2010, Josh returned to Utah with his brother Michael so they could pack up the house and move back to Piawlup while renting out his Utah home.

He moved into a house with Steve and his siblings, Michael, John, and Alina. And again, I mean, the fact that he moved so soon after she went missing, just further proves that he knew that she wasn't coming back. Exactly. And most people pretty much keep like the porch light lit. Like, they stick around just in case their loved one comes back. And he's just like, well, she's not coming back, so I'm going to Washington." Because he killed her so he would know.

At this point, Josh was basically making it seem like Susan ran off with a man to Brazil. But Susan was incredibly responsible. She loved her kids, she loved her husband, she loved her home, she loved her parents and her sisters and her friends. She wasn't promiscuous. She didn't go out with other men despite her husband being a monster. She would have never picked up and just left.

Steve was completely on Josh's side, stating that Susan had a mental illness and that she abandoned her family. He also stated in interviews that they had a mutual sexual interest in each other and that she constantly came on to him. Which we know isn't true because there are multiple secret video and audio recordings available, thanks to Steve, where she's clearly uncomfortable with his advances. She even told friends this. On September 14, 2011, Utah authorities discovered a possible gravesite while searching

Topaz Mountain, a desert area that Josh had frequented 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. On September 22nd, Steve was arrested on charges of voyeurism and child pornography after police found evidence that he had secretly videotaped numerous women and young girls, including Susan. And we all saw that coming. Chuck Cox, Susan's father, filed for custody of her children the day after Steven was arrested.

A Washington court eventually granted the Cox's temporary custody of the boys. The court ruled that Josh would have to move out of his father's home if he wanted to regain custody. So he rented a house in Graham, Washington. In late 2011, Josh underwent a series of court-ordered evaluations in Washington. While the evaluations by James Manley determined that Josh had adequate parenting skills, a steady employment history and no criminal record or history of domestic violence. They also raised issues concerning the ongoing criminal investigations. Josh is failure to admit normal personal shortcomings, his overbearing behavior with his

sons, and his persistent defensiveness in paranoia. The initial recommendation was for Josh to have visitation with his sons several times a week supervised by a social worker. In the last week of January 2012, Utah police discovered about 400 images of simulated child pornography, bestiality, and incest on Josh's computer. The images, while not illegal due to there being in a hand-drawn or cartoonish 3D format, were caused for great concern. Okay, so basically it wasn't illegal for him to have this shit on his computer because it was a cartoon, but that's still fucked. That doesn't make him any less of a

sicko. Josh was recommended to receive a more thorough psychosexual evaluation and polygraph test. On February 5, 2012, Elizabeth Griffin Hall, a social worker, paid a visit to Josh's house with Charlie and Braden. The boys had been going back and forth between the Cox-Humman Washington and Josh's new rental in Washington. They were always excited to see their dad, that day included. When Elizabeth got to the house, Josh opened the door, grabbed the boys, and slammed the door in her face, locking it.

This was supposed to be a supervised visit, as they all were. Elizabeth had to be in the room with the boys, and Josh had all times, but she couldn't make her way into the house. Elizabeth called 911 and had a very calm, yet concerned conversation with the dispatcher. This call went on for over six minutes. The dispatcher just did not understand what Elizabeth was saying, despite how clear she was being. She stated that she heard Josh tell the boys that they had a big surprise, and she even

heard one of the boys crying out, and then she smelled gasoline. Concerned for her own safety, she pulled her car out of the driveway as she tried to get a police officer to the scene as quickly as possible. The dispatcher said that he would send a car over when one became available and that police were dealing with life-threatening situations. Elizabeth then said that this was a life-threatening situation. Minutes went by and no one showed up, but Elizabeth remained on the street waiting. Suddenly, the house exploded, killing Josh, Charlie, and Braden. Elizabeth made another 911 call in hysterics, stating what she had just seen. It was later discovered that just minutes before blowing up the house,

Josh wrote an email to his sister, his pastor, his attorney, and a few other relatives. Some just said, I'm sorry, goodbye. And other said what he wanted people to do with his money, utilities, etc. Jennifer even stated that she also called 911 when she received the email from him, fearing for what the message meant. Unfortunately, none of his emails included any information about Susan. When authorities notified Steve, who was in jail, he didn't seem very upset by the news, but was angry towards authorities who notified him. Two weeks later, Steve invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions about Susan Powell's case. Chuck Cox and others have stated that they believe

that Steve knew exactly what happened to Susan. After a relatively brief investigation, officials confirmed that the explosion had been deliberately planned. The official cause of death for Josh and the two boys was determined to be carbon monoxide poisoning. Though the coroner also noted that both children

had significant chop injuries on the head and neck. A hatchet was recovered near Josh's body, indicating that he had attacked the boys with it before being overwhelmed by the smoke. 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. As if this whole case wasn't messed up as it is, the fact that Josh took a hatchet to his baby children is so disgusting and that just further proves what kind of person he is and what other things he's capable of. Yeah, he is a vile and evil monster. And if he was able to do this to his children who he claimed to love, you know, with his

whole heart, don't you think that he probably would have been capable of doing this to Susan? Weirdly enough, records also showed that he had withdrawn $7,000 from his bank account and donated his children's toys and books to local charities the day before the incident. Josh named Michael, his brother, the main beneficiary of his life insurance policy. Now, this is just really weird, because what do you use that $7,000 for? And why even donate the children's toys and books? That's just so odd.

I'm assuming he probably spent some of that $7,000 on the drums of gasoline, but I don't know what he did with the rest of the money. On February 11, 2013, approximately one year after the death of Josh and his sons, Michael took his own life in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he had moved for graduate school. He jumped from the roof of a parking garage. Police had questioned Michael several times in 2012 after discovering two years after the fact that he had abandoned his car in a junkyard in Oregon several weeks after Susan's disappearance. Michael was evasive about the incident. Utah authorities have since said that they believe that Josh and Michael were accomplices in the murder of Susan.

Wow, that's nuts. I had no idea that he abandoned his car after Susan's disappearance. That's really weird. Yeah, it seems really strange and I'm not sure if that has any connection or not, but it was definitely shocking to read. Honestly, in my opinion, I wouldn't be surprised if Josh had the help in some way of Steve and Michael. Yeah, my guess is that Steve definitely had something to do with this as strange as he is. I'm not sure about Michael, so I'm not going to speculate too much about that, but we know Steve is definitely a weird guy.

Other than the car abandoning for Michael, the fact that he too committed to a side, I mean it could have been for a number of reasons, but a big reason why I think that Josh probably did it was because maybe he was overwhelmed with guilt, and you could potentially assume the same thing for Michael. Or he just felt like there was a lot of pressure coming his way, like he felt like maybe law enforcement was closing in on him. Susan's parents declared Susan legally dead in 2015 and collected her life insurance. Steve was released from prison on July 11th, 2017, after serving a total of seven years following his voyeurism and child pornography convictions. Steve passed away of natural causes on Monday, July 23rd, 2018, into coma, Washington. My heart really does just break for the Cox family and Susan and those two young boys.

This is such a tragic case and you know, it all really came down to the controllingness of Josh. It's just really upsetting that Josh didn't confess anything about Susan before taking his own life, especially because at this point, now with Steve and Michael dead as well, we probably will never know what actually happened that night, you know, unless they find her body, which hopefully someday they do so that her family can have justice.

Thank you so much to everyone for joining us on this crazy emotional case and tuning into Going West. Next week we'll have an all-new case for you guys to check out and we're going to be airing episodes every Monday. We're also now on Patreon, if you guys want to check us out on there, patreon.com slash Going West. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N. dot com slash going west that's p a t r e o n dot com slash going west. We have this thing where you can just spend five dollars a month become a subscriber and you get exclusive episodes

each month that nobody else will get and also you get early episodes. Yeah and make sure you go over there and subscribe because we're going gonna have some pretty awesome merch coming out soon, so you're definitely gonna wanna check that out. Make sure you check us out on Instagram, at GoingWestPodcast, or check out our website, goandwestpodcast.com. And make sure you check out your boy on Twitter, at GoingWestPod.

For everybody out there in the world, keep it real and stay weird. Cheerio! you