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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. This episode of Forensic Tales is sponsored by Podcorn. When I first started looking for sponsors to feature on the show, it was really important to me that the brands I worked with were not only a good fit for me, but for my listeners. That's why I choose Podcorn to find sponsorships for Forensic Tales.
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To learn more about what Podcorn can do for you and your podcast, click the link in my show notes to sign up to Podcorn and start browsing today. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. In April 2001, Susan married the man of her dreams, a man who gave her two beautiful boys and her perfect little Mormon home.
So why would the faithful Susan run away? Her quick-tongued husband possessed all the answers. She had an affair. She had a mental illness. Or maybe, just maybe, she was tired of his lies. A fire erupted in February 2012. The murderous flames filled the sky with tragic smoke and troubling questions. Will we ever know what exactly happened?
Let's let the forensics decide. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 65, The Disappearance of Susan Powell. ♪
Thank you.
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned ice cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
If you're interested in supporting the show, getting early access to weekly episodes, bonus material, ad-free episodes, merchandise, and much more, consider visiting our Patreon page, patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. Before we get to the episode, I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to this week's newest patron of the show, Allison N. Thank you so much, Allison.
Another great way you can help support Forensic Tales is by leaving us a positive rating with a review or telling friends and family who love true crime about us. Now, let's jump right into this week's case. Susan Marie Cox was born on October 16th, 1981 in New Mexico.
Susan's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, raised their daughter to be a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. Chuck and Judy Cox dreamt that their daughter would grow up, find the perfect Mormon man to marry, and become a mother. In 2000, their wishes came true.
In November 2000, when Susan was 19 years old, she met fellow LDS church member Joshua Powell, who went by Josh. Josh was the kind of guy who checked off all of Susan's boxes. Or at least, that's what Josh presented. Although Josh grew up in the LDS church, his upbringing wasn't as traditional as Susan's. Josh's parents, Stephen and Tricia Powell, had a tumultuous relationship.
They argued over everything, including how to raise their children in the church. Josh's father was addicted to pornography, an addiction leading to divorce in 1992. Stephen Powell also had a history of being physically abusive towards Josh and his siblings, and he encouraged his children to insult their mother.
Josh's relationship with his father and his parents' divorce was traumatic for him. As a teenager, he became unwilling to interact with others, rarely making eye contact with people around him. Because of his father's explosive abusive behavior, Josh felt lost until he met Susan.
Susan and Josh met while taking a religion course together in college. Like Susan, he wanted to get married and have children. He wanted to create a life much better than his. And that's exactly what they did. Josh and Susan didn't waste any time. A short six months after becoming college classmates, they married at Portland Organ Temple in April 2001.
They were completely smitten with one another, and they couldn't wait to start a family together. Once they made their relationship official in the eyes of the LDS church, Susan began work as a broker for Wells Fargo Bank. Her career was as bright as ever. Josh wasn't as fortunate. He had aspirations of becoming a successful real estate agent, but didn't really have the drive to match his ambitions.
Even though he earned a bachelor's degree in business, Josh found himself bouncing from one job to the next. Josh couldn't hold down a stable job, but Susan loved him. She meant what she said on her wedding day, for better or for worse.
So she quit her job at Wells Fargo to help start her husband's real estate career. To jumpstart his career, she got her own real estate license and started answering the phones for him, for richer, for poorer. Due to their financial instability, the newlyweds moved in with Josh's father in South Hill, Washington. From the get-go, it was a disturbing living arrangement.
Josh's father, Stephen, developed what could only be described as an unhealthy infatuation with Susan. Stephen began following Susan around the house with a video camera in hand, even spying on her while she used the restroom. He stole her underwear. As soon as Susan caught on to her stepfather's obsession, she convinced Josh that it was time to move out, far, far away from Stephen Powell.
So the couple moved to West Valley City, Utah, a Salt Lake City suburb. Stephen Powell was devastated that his daughter-in-law, Susan, left, writing in his journal that he was still so in love with her. Unfortunately, Stephen's father was just the beginning of the couple's troubles. Once they arrived in Utah, Susan and Josh's relationship was rocky, to put it lightly.
They fought about everything, from Josh's continued contact with his father, despite his inappropriate obsession with Susan, to finances. Josh kept spending more money than what the couple was bringing in, a recipe for disaster. Despite the troubled marriage, in 2005, they welcomed their first child, a son named Charlie. Susan finally got what she always wanted. She became a mother.
Two years later, in 2007, another boy arrived, Brayden. Susan was hopeful the kids would be the glue to hold their broken family together. But the addition of two kids only seemed to sour the relationship further. By 2008, Josh was still having trouble holding down a job. Not only did he have a wife to support, but now he had two children.
The couple's finances were so bad that Josh had no other choice but to file for bankruptcy. In his claim, he was in over $200,000 in debt. Outside of the couple's finances, Susan's friends became concerned about her marriage. They felt like he'd become extremely controlling over her. He always had to know what she was doing, who she was talking to, who she was with.
According to Susan's friends, it was as if she was his personal property, not his wife. By Christmas 2009, Susan and Josh's marriage was at the lowest point it had ever been. As their marriage approached the brink of divorce, Josh somehow convinced Susan he was turning a new leaf. He promised to fix the marriage.
On December 6, 2009, Susan and her sons, Charlie and Brayden, attended church. After church, Susan and the boys walked home with a friend. A couple hours later, Jovana Owens, a neighbor, dropped by the home. Jovana agreed to come over to the house to help Susan untangle some yarn she needed to make Charlie's blanket. Susan also just wanted some company. Company outside of Josh.
Jovana Owens ended up staying for dinner at the Powell's, a spread of pancakes and eggs prepared by Josh. While Josh was in the kitchen with the kids, Susan vented to her neighbor Jovana. She vented that her marriage to Josh, well, it wasn't good. After dinner around 5 o'clock p.m., Susan decided to lay down and take a nap. Jovana figured she had a long day.
So around 5.30 p.m., she finished untangling the yarn for Susan and noticed that Josh told Charlie and Brayden to get ready. They were going sledding. That's when Jovanna decided it was time to go home. This would be the last time anyone saw or heard from Susan Powell. The following morning on December 7th, 4-year-old Charlie and 2-year-old Brayden's daycare provider became concerned. The boys weren't dropped off like usual.
When 9 a.m. became 10 a.m. and the boys still hadn't been dropped off, the daycare provider decided to call Josh and Susan. This was entirely out of character for the family. Sometime after 10 a.m., the daycare provider called Susan's cell phone, but no answer. So she tried to call Josh's cell phone. No answer. That's weird, the provider thought.
After being unable to get a hold of either Josh or Susan, the daycare provider decided to call Josh's mother and sister, the emergency contacts. Josh's mom and sister are immediately alarmed when they hear that neither Susan nor Josh had dropped the kids off. They also discovered that neither Josh nor Susan had shown up to work that day. Something's terribly wrong here.
After speaking with the daycare, Josh's mom called the West Valley City Police Department. She told police that her grandchildren hadn't been dropped off at daycare that day, and nobody can get a hold of their parents. The police send a couple of officers to the Powell home. They want to make sure everyone's okay, but when the police knock on the front door, nobody answers.
After several long waiting minutes, the police decided they needed to perform a welfare check on the family. They feared that the family might have become victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. Police decided to break down the front door. When police officers got inside the home, it was quiet. There was no sign of Josh, Susan, or the children anywhere.
But it wasn't the fact that no one was home that caught the police's attention. It was what they saw right there in the living room. Right there in the family's living room, the police observed two large fans blowing on a section of carpet. And when an officer reached down to touch the carpet, they noticed it was wet. An eerie feeling entered the room as police found Susan's purse. The purse contained her ID and wallet.
Where could she be without her purse, wallet, and ID? Besides the fans and Susan's purse, there wasn't any evidence that a physical altercation or disturbance occurred inside the home. Several hours go by and no one has seen or heard from any Powell family members.
Neither child was dropped off at daycare. Neither Susan nor Josh made it to work that day. And now, after the police break into the home, they discovered no one was home. Where is the Powell family? Around 5 p.m., hours after anyone last heard from the family, Josh finally answered his cell phone. By this point, family and friends had called his cell phone hundreds of times.
When Josh finally picked up the phone, the family told him that the police were waiting for him at the house. The second that Josh arrived home, he parked the minivan in the driveway. He got out and opened the door. His sons, Charlie and Brayden, came racing out. Everyone waited for one more person to come out of the car. But nothing. Where's Susan?
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When Josh and the two boys arrived home around 5, the police were already waiting for him at the house. As soon as he parked his car in the driveway, investigators took him to the West Valley Police Station for questioning. The police had a lot of questions for Josh. The first and most obvious was, where is your wife Susan? When the police first sat down with Josh to find out where they'd been all this time, he had a lot to say. And boy, did he have a story to tell.
Josh told police he'd taken his two sons on a spontaneous camping trip the night before. They decided to go camping in Simpson Springs, a campground in western Utah. His wife Susan didn't want to go because she was tired. According to Josh, she stayed home that night and didn't go on the camping trip. And now, well now he has no idea where she is. Josh's story immediately set off some red flags.
1. Simpson Springs, Utah, where Josh said he took the boys camping, was in the middle of a dangerous snowstorm. Why would a father take his two young sons to go camping in the middle of the night, in the middle of a snowstorm? Josh was also scheduled to go to work the next day. 2. If Josh did take the boys camping, why wouldn't he notify the daycare center?
Surely the daycare center would become worried once Jaden and Brayden didn't show up as expected. Number three, even if this story checks out, the most glaring question becomes, where's Susan? At this point, investigators know that Susan failed to show up to work that day. Her purse, ID, and keys are still at home.
And even if she didn't go on the camping trip with Josh and the boys, the police now have a missing persons case on their hands. While West Valley police officers sat down with Josh, they also had officers speaking with Charlie, the oldest son. The five-year-old confirmed his dad's story, or at least a part of the story. Charlie told police he went camping in the snowstorm with his dad, younger brother, and his mom.
But mom didn't come back home, and he doesn't know why. Investigators made a trip to Simpson Springs, the campground where Josh said that they stayed. They thought if Josh's story is true, they'll find evidence of their campsite. Small problem. When investigators arrived at the campsite, they couldn't find any evidence.
In fact, they couldn't find evidence that anyone camped there. The campsite was completely covered in snow. There was even a fresh snow cover on the exact campsite that Josh said that they stayed. Investigators back at West Valley Police Station grilled Josh about his camping in the blizzard story. But Josh had an answer for everything.
When the police asked him why he took the boys camping when he had work the following day, Josh simply said he told his boss he wasn't going to work that day because he simply mixed up his days. He thought it was Sunday instead of Monday. Before the police let Josh go, they had one last question for him. They asked him why he didn't answer his cell phone for all those hours.
By the time he arrived home around 5 p.m., his cell phone had received hundreds of missed calls. According to Josh, he was trying to conserve his cell phone's battery because he didn't bring a charger. After hearing Josh's unusual story, the police immediately considered him a person of interest in Susan's disappearance. They weren't buying this story about a midnight blizzard camping trip.
They weren't buying that Susan would simply stay home and let Josh take the boys out. But without any physical or forensic evidence to suggest that Josh had anything to do with Susan's disappearance, they had no choice but to let him go. But that didn't mean they were going to stop searching for the evidence to back up their suspicions. The search had just begun.
The day after Susan's disappearance, investigators requested that Josh submit his cell phone for forensic testing. Josh agreed to hand over the phone, but only after he removed the SIM card. Later that day, he purchased a new one and activated it in a city 80 miles away. On December 9th, two days after Josh returned home from the camping trip, Susan was still missing.
Nobody had seen or heard from her in over three days. On December 9th, the police conducted an extensive search of the entire Powell home, including Josh and Susan's minivan. Inside of the minivan, the camping vehicle, investigators found several items of interest. First, they found a cell phone charger plugged into the cigarette outlet. That's interesting, the police thought.
Josh said two days earlier that he wasn't answering his phone because he was trying to save the battery. He said he forgot his charger. Besides the cell phone charger, investigators also found power tools, a shovel, and a tub filled with unopened camping supplies. And most disturbing, they found Susan's cell phone, an alarming piece of evidence.
But smooth-talking Josh said that he forgot that her cell phone was in the van. Inside the home, investigators uncovered additional evidence. Investigators already knew about the two fans blowing on a section of carpet, suggesting that someone had recently cleaned the floor. But they also noticed that the sofa was damp. Someone had recently cleaned it as well. But police found more than just a wet sofa and some wet carpet.
Forensic experts also found blood evidence on a tile floor near the damp couch. When the police questioned Josh about the blood spots, he told the police that he had cleaned this area of the living room right before they went camping, and he has no idea where the blood came from.
investigators found about 15 tiny traces of blood on the tile. The drops were small, indicating Josh was right. Someone had recently cleaned up the floor, but the police wanted to know why Josh had cleaned it. Forensic testing revealed that the traces of blood found on the tile near the sofa in the living room belonged to Susan.
The day after searching the home and the minivan, Josh was called back to the West Valley Police Station for the second round of questioning. They were so close to putting handcuffs on their prime suspect. While the police interviewed Josh for the second time, investigators executed a search warrant on the van. They needed a warrant to conduct a further forensic search of the vehicle. But when investigators arrived to perform the search,
Well, the vehicle had been cleared out. Everything inside of the van from the day before, the shovel, the power tools, gone. And not only were the suspicious items missing, but Josh had also cleaned the van's carpet. This guy sure does love cleaning. Inside a compartment in the van's floorboards, the police found several trash bags.
In one of the bags, they found three pieces of heavily burned sheetrock, including several chunks of blackened material, a drill bit, and a handful of screws, items intentionally burned to be destroyed. When the items inside the trash bag were tested, the police didn't get the clues they hoped.
The police tested the items for anything that could suggest that maybe Josh used them in Susan's disappearance. This included tests for poisons, sedatives, and narcotics. But unfortunately, all of the tests came back negative. Whatever Josh was trying to hide, he hid it well. After the police questioned Josh for a second time, there wasn't any solid or forensic evidence against him in Susan's disappearance.
So once again, he was allowed to go back home. On December 10th, Josh, Charlie, and Brayden, and about 100 friends and neighbors got together at Westview Park to hold a candlelight vigil in Susan's honor. They prayed for her safe return. They handed out missing person flyers. And Josh even shed a couple tears in front of the media.
As Susan's search intensified, her family started holding press conferences to bring additional awareness to the case. A $10,000 reward was even offered up for any information, a reward that led to nothing. During one of these press conferences, the police alongside Susan's family announced that an employee at a Flying J gas station claimed to see Powell's on the night of Susan's disappearance.
The employee recalled Josh and Susan said that they were going camping. She also recalled that Susan's eyes were red. Unfortunately, they paid their items with cash and the gas station surveillance cameras had already recorded over the footage from that night, making it impossible to know if the gas station employee saw Susan that night.
One week after Susan's disappearance, Josh made a trip to the bank with a power of attorney form. He withdrew all of the money from her IRA accounts. He also canceled all of Susan's future chiropractic appointments. By late December, Josh retained an attorney and stopped cooperating with the police, a move suggesting that he wasn't too concerned about finding his wife safe and sound.
And a couple weeks later, Josh showed more indifference towards his wife's disappearance. He moved. Just one month after Susan disappeared, he, Charlie, and Brayden packed their bags and moved back to Washington to live with his father, Stephen Powell, the man who'd become obsessed with Susan.
The move infuriated Susan's friends and family, who had all pretty much suspected that he had something to do with her disappearance. Now, he's getting away with it. After the police learned that Josh withdrew Susan's IRA account, they executed a bank search warrant. At the bank, they uncovered a safety deposit box that Susan kept secret from Josh.
Inside of the safety box was a letter Susan wrote to family and friends. It was titled, Last Will and Testament of Susan Powell. Dated June 28, 2008, Susan wrote in the letter that if she died, it might not be an accident, even if it looked like one. She went on to note that she didn't trust her husband. He's threatened to destroy her if she filed for divorce.
She ended the letter by saying, quote, I want it documented somewhere that there is an extreme turmoil in our marriage. Investigators also found a video that Susan recorded. A year and a half before her disappearance, Susan recorded a video documenting her and Josh's assets around the home. Susan decided to take the video out of advice given to her by her attorney.
In February 2010, over two months after Susan's disappearance, Josh and his father Stephen launched a website, SusanPowell.org. This move enraged Susan's family. The website basically became a platform for Josh and Stephen to defend themselves against Susan's family's attacks. It was also a platform to disparage Susan.
A year goes by in the search for Susan with no trace of the wife and mother. The quick-tongued Josh decided it was time for his own theories to emerge. In December 2010, Josh began claiming that Susan led a double life. She abandoned the family due to mental illness. She was having an affair with a guy named Stephen Kocher. Josh said that if you want to find Susan, you'll have to find Stephen Kocher first.
Stephen has also been missing since December 2009. As the weeks and months go, investigators grow more frustrated with the progression in the case. They believed Josh was somehow behind his wife's disappearance, but they had nothing. Just a few blood traces found in the living room, as well as some suspicious items in his van to prove it.
But just when the police think their case is about to turn cold, they make a strategic move. West Valley, Utah investigators traveled to Washington to speak with Josh and Susan's children, Charlie and Brayden. They know that other than Josh, these boys are the only other people who could provide information about what happened to their mother.
When investigators interviewed five-year-old Charlie, he told them he went camping at Dinosaur National Park with his mom, dad, and little brother Brayden. He said they took crystals and flowers with them to the campsite. But when it was time to go home, five-year-old Charlie said, My mom stayed where the crystals are, because it has to be so much pretty where the crystals grow.
Following the police's second interview with Charlie and Brayden, police executed a search warrant on Stephen Powell's home where Josh and the boys lived. The search warrant revealed several disturbing pieces of evidence. A digital forensic search of Stephen's computer uncovered over 4,000 candid images of Susan taken without her knowledge.
They also recovered Stephen's journal, where he had hundreds of entries documenting his love and obsession with his daughter-in-law. One of the last journal entries read that he'd be devastated if he found out Susan was dead, and that he was so in love with her that he could barely function, referring to his missing daughter-in-law. But it wasn't just Stephen Powell's obsession with Susan.
The search warrant also recovered videos that Stephen secretly recorded of other women, underage girls, as well as Susan. All images within arm's distance from Charlie and Brayden. So on November 22, 2011, Stephen Powell was arrested on charges of child pornography and voyeurism.
Following Stephen Powell's arrest on child pornography charges, Charlie and Brayden were removed from Josh's custody. The boys were placed in the care of Susan's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox. During this time, Josh was still allowed to visit with the boys, but it had to be done during supervised visits.
Even though it was Josh's father who had been arrested, the judge who granted Susan's parents temporary custody of the boys believed that Josh was still considered a subject in the investigation. Because Josh's father possessed the images and videos, they needed to basically clear Josh as having any involvement. The court also needed to clear him as a suspect in Susan's disappearance.
The judge ruled that Charlie and Brayden would remain in Susan's parents' custody until Josh underwent a psychosexual evaluation. He was also ordered to take a polygraph test. As Charlie and Brayden stayed with the Coxes, they started to become more and more vocal about that camping trip they took with their dad. The kids grew a little older and a lot wiser.
While at school, Braden, the younger boy, drew a picture showing him and his brother with his dad behind the wheel. When the teachers asked him where his mom was, he said, quote, in the trunk. Mommy and daddy got out of the van. Mommy didn't come back, end quote.
One day, during Sunday school, a teacher told Charlie she would call his mom and dad if he disobeyed her. Charlie responded, Charlie and Brayden were incredibly young and weren't able to provide all the details about what exactly happened that fateful night. But each time they opened their mouths, they painted a clearer picture.
Two years after Susan's disappearance, it seemed as though Josh was also catching on to the idea that his boys were growing up. They were becoming a threat. On February 5th, 2012, Josh had a scheduled supervised visit with Charlie and Brayden, just like he did every week. Charlie and Brayden were excited to see their dad. They would light up every time they saw him.
Elizabeth Griffin Hall, the caseworker assigned to the visit that day, drove Charlie and Brayden to Josh's house. After she parked in the driveway, the boys jumped out of the car, leaving the caseworker just a few steps behind. Seeing the boys walk up to the driveway to the front door, Josh opened the door. He opened the door just long enough for Charlie and Brayden to get inside. Then he slammed it shut.
The caseworker stood motionless in the driveway. Did a man who's become the prime suspect in a missing person investigation just shut the door on me? The caseworker pounded on the front door, pleading with Josh. A few moments later, she heard Josh say, Charlie, I've got a big surprise for you. Seconds later, she heard screams.
After knocking on the front door several more times, the caseworker backed away from the home when she started to smell the unmistakable odor of gasoline. She immediately ran back to her car and dialed 911. Elizabeth Griffin Hall told dispatchers that she was on a supervised visitation for a court-ordered visit and something really weird happened.
The kids went inside the home, and the biological parent, Josh, locked her out. Initially, the 911 dispatcher doesn't take the call seriously. He spends several minutes quizzing the social worker on mundane facts, such as what kind of car she was driving. He must have missed the fact that she smelt gasoline.
The 911 dispatcher ends the call by telling her that the next available police officer will be on the way. The social worker hung up with 911 and immediately called her supervisor. Something is really wrong. But before she could get any words out of her mouth, there was an explosion. The house erupted in flames. The social worker hung up the phone and dialed 911 for the second time.
This time, it was too late. From the time Josh locked her out of the house, it took 22 minutes for help to arrive. By this point, the house was engulfed in a fiery hell. When police and firefighters arrived, they encountered an inferno. Whoever was inside was in a burning nightmare. Once firefighters extinguished the fire, first responders recovered three bodies—
Josh, Charlie, and Brayden Powell's bodies. Josh killed himself and took his own sons with him. Josh's suicide and the murder of Charlie and Brayden wasn't spontaneous. Josh gave away all of the boys' books and toys in the days leading up to the fire. He purchased two five-gallon jugs of gasoline. He wrote goodbye letters to his family and pastor. Josh was a
In the letters, he provided instructions on where he kept his money, as well as the passwords to shut off all of his utilities. In one particular letter, he wrote, quote, I am not able to live without my sons, and I'm not able to go on anymore. I'm sorry to everyone I've hurt. Goodbye, end quote.
Autopsies on Charlie and Brayden showed that both boys died from carbon monoxide poisoning. They also had been hit with a hatchet. These findings suggest they were both still alive when their dad set the house on fire. Since the beginning of the case, the police only searched one possible location for Susan's body.
On September 4, 2011, Utah authorities identified a possible grave site in Topaz Mountain, a campsite Josh knew well. Investigators arrived at Topaz Mountain after police dogs tracked Susan's scent. After weeks of digging in the area, no remains were ever found. Susan's disappearance, Josh's suicide, Charlie and Braden's murders raise more questions than answers.
We may never know exactly why Josh decided to take his own life, or exactly why he decided to take his son's lives with them. And to this day, Susan Powell has never been found. She remains missing. Although there are still many unanswered questions, forensic science has provided us with some answers.
Investigators found traces of Susan's blood on the floor next to a recently cleaned carpet and sofa inside of the Powell's home. They also uncovered invaluable digital forensic evidence locked away in a secret bank safety deposit box. Forensic evidence revealed how terrified Susan was of Josh, that her death might not be an accident, even if it looked like one.
A dedicated Mormon mother would never run away. To share your thoughts on the disappearance of Susan Powell, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at Forensic Tales. Let me know where you think Susan's body is. Also, to check out photos from the case, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode.
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