Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell

Susan Cox Powell (October 16, 1981 – c. December 6, 2009) is an American missing person from West Valley City, Utah whose disappearance and presumed murder, as well as the subsequent investigation and events, garnered significant media attention. Her husband, Josh Powell, was named a person of interest in the investigation into her disappearance; however, Joshua was never charged; on February 5, 2012, he killed himself and their two young sons, Charles Joshua Powell (b. January 19, 2005) and Braden Timothy Powell (b. January 2, 2007), in a murder-suicide after custody of the boys had been awarded to Susan's parents, Charles and Judy Cox.

On May 21, 2013, West Valley City police closed their active investigation into Susan's disappearance, stating that they believed Josh murdered her and that his brother, Michael, had assisted him in concealing her body. Since then, there have been repeated attempts to have her legally declared dead.

Background

Joshua Powell was born on January 20, 1976, to Steven and Terrica Powell in Puyallup, Washington. Joshua's parents had a dysfunctional marriage, caused in large part by Steven's disaffection with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church). According to divorce filings by Terrica in 1992, Steven shared pornography with Joshua and his two male siblings, and refused to teach or enforce limits on certain behaviors. As a teenager, Joshua allegedly killed gerbils belonging to one of his sisters and threatened his mother with a butcher knife. He also attempted suicide on at least one occasion.

By 1998, Joshua was living in Seattle as a student at the University of Washington. It was here that Powell began his first relationship with a young woman named Catherine Terry Everett, whom he met at a local LDS ward. After the two moved into an apartment together, Joshua became possessive towards Catherine. "He would have restrictions and limitations on what I could and couldn't do when it came to my family," she later recalled. "If I was going to go visit them, he had to come too. I couldn't go by myself." When Catherine visited a friend in Utah without Joshua, she decided not to return to Seattle and broke up with him over the phone.

Joshua met Susan Cox, a classmate at his LDS Institute of Religion course, during a dinner party at his Tacoma apartment in November 2000. The two began a relationship and eventually married at the Portland Oregon Temple in April 2001. Joshua had a bachelor's degree in business and worked for a number of different companies over the years, while Susan, a trained cosmetologist, took up a job with Wells Fargo Investments after the family's relocation to West Valley City, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The Powells went on to have two sons: Charles, born in 2005, and Braden, born in 2007.

For a brief period following their wedding, Joshua and Susan lived at Steven Powell's home in South Hill, Washington. Initially unbeknownst to Susan, her father-in-law Steven had developed an obsessive infatuation with her, which was only inflamed by their close proximity. Steven followed Susan around the house with a camcorder, used a small mirror to spy on her while she used the bathroom, stole her underwear from her laundry, read her adult journals, and even posted love songs online under a pseudonym. In 2003, Steven confessed his amorous feelings to a stunned Susan, who rejected him; the encounter was inadvertently captured by Steven's camcorder microphone. The Powells moved out-of-state soon after, partly so Susan could distance herself from Steven.

Susan's journal entries and email correspondence indicated the presence of marital discord. There was tension with Joshua over his refusal to attend church services with his family, and over his continued contact with Steven despite his father's ongoing advances towards Susan. Susan's friends also pointed to Joshua's extravagant spending habits and to his "extremely controlling" behavior towards his wife. Joshua filed for bankruptcy in 2007, declaring over $200,000 in debts. Susan recorded a video in July 2008 surveying property damage she attributed to Joshua, and wrote a secret will that included the statements, "I want it documented that there is extreme turmoil in our marriage" and, "If I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one."