Dave Cawley: Steve Powell sent an email to West Valley police in mid-January, 2010, about five weeks after his daughter-in-law Susan’s unsolved disappearance. Steve wanted to know if police were looking into any other “persons of interest” beside his son, Josh. Steve had someone to suggest: a man named Tim Peterson.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from January 15, 2010 email): We are developing a resume of sorts on Tim Peterson, possibly to send to the media.
Dave Cawley: Peterson and his family lived in Josh and Susan’s West Valley neighborhood. In the summer of 2009, before Susan disappeared, both Tim and his wife Crystal had offered Susan advice about divorce and marriage counseling. Crystal had given Susan hand-me-down clothes for her sons Charlie and Braden to wear. Tim, under pressure from Josh, had offered the Powells his backyard swing set. His kids had outgrown it.
Then, Susan vanished. Tim suspected Josh was responsible. Late one December evening, he drove his truck and trailer over to the Powell house on Sarah Circle. He started backing into the yard, intent on retrieving the swing set, but the trailer clipped a fence and became mired in the snow.
Josh’s brother Michael, observing this, told Tim to leave. Tim refused. Michael threatened to call the police. TV news crews camped out in the cul-de-sac watched in disbelief.
The next day, Michael told a detective he’d remembered having a phone conversation with Susan a few weeks before she’d disappeared. He claimed Susan had mentioned a neighbor guy who was getting “too close for comfort.” Michael said his name was Tim Peterson. This was the first the police had heard of it and they had no way of verifying Michael’s claim, but it was all Steve Powell needed to paint Peterson as a scapegoat. Here again is what Steve wrote in his email.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from January 15, 2010 email): Since Tim Peterson’s violent show the other night, Josh had begun to look at him differently, and was taken aback to since learn that Peterson was trying to break up the Powells’ marriage.
Dave Cawley: Steve wondered if Peterson might’ve kidnapped Susan. Maybe, he suggested, she’d called him for a ride to work the morning of December 7th and that’s when Peterson did something terrible. Tim told me Josh had tried to make him into a patsy.
Tim Peterson: Before she went missing, he was almost like trying to get me to hang out with his wife.
Dave Cawley: But it didn’t work. In the weeks and months that followed, Tim would go so far as to take a lie detector test. It ruled him out as a suspect. When police obtained copies of Susan’s emails, they were able to read exactly what he’d told her about Josh.
Tim Peterson: I knew this guy was a piece of crap and uh, that he was trouble and I tried so hard to, to explain that to uh, Susan and help her to understand that he’s a sociopath and, and being such everything is an asset or a liability and that’s how he looks at people. Asset or liability. And if you decide to try and get a divorce from him, you then become a liability and you’re gonna take away things that belong to him, his assets. And there won’t be any, any doing of that, especially his kids.
Dave Cawley: This is Cold, episode 9: Light of Seattle. I’m Dave Cawley.
[Ad break]
Dave Cawley: Steve Powell’s email to the police about Tim Peterson included a clue he might not have intended to provide. At the bottom of the message was a footer, a piece of text automatically added to all of Steve’s outgoing emails. It read “hear the music at www.stevechantry.com.”
[Sound of Steve Powell’s music]
Steve Powell (from song recording): I can love in you a secret way. I can love you each and every day.
Dave Cawley: Following the link took the reader to a website with a nighttime photo of Steve sitting in front Elliot Bay, with the Seattle skyline reflected in the water behind him. The banner text at the top of the page read “Music of Steve Chantry” in a cursive font.
Ellis Maxwell: Steve Chantrey is a very creative individual. It’s why he’s a writer, it’s why he’s a singer, it’s why he’s a musician.
Dave Cawley: That’s Ellis Maxwell, the now-retired police detective who led the investigation into Susan Powell’s disappearance. He and the rest of the major crimes team took great interest in Steve’s website.
A navigation bar on the left-hand side included a link for an album titled “Light of Seattle.” It led to lyrics for 12 songs. One, titled “I Said, I Love You,” seemed particularly disturbing given what detectives had already learned about Steve’s lust for his daughter-in-law. Here’s how the song started.
“I said, ‘I love you.’ Is that a sin? I just might wanna say it once again: I love you, like it or don’t. I said, ‘I love you.’ You should have kissed me. I felt like giving up when you just dissed me. I love you…”
[Sound of Steve Powell’s music]
Steve Powell (from song recording): …so put me in jail. I said “I love you.” I couldn’t help it and you were mistaken if you thought I’d shelf it. I love you so cough up my bail. You made my eyes pop out of their sockets…
Dave Cawley: Susan had been Steve’s muse for years, his reason for writing. The selection of songs on his website didn’t even scratch the surface. He kept an updated tally of songs she’d inspired on his computer. That list grew to include more than 50 titles.
In April of 2010, Steve wrote this in his journal.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from April 6, 2010 journal entry): I recently dusted off my song “The Stars are Twinkling Down in Provo” and when I played it for Josh and Michael, they said it sounded like it was also about Susan. They like the line “you departed in a hustle, you flipped me off and showed your muscle.” Since I wrote the song years ago, Michael called me Nostradamus, a prophet.
Dave Cawley: Steve had even inserted Susan into songs she’d not originally inspired. One titled “Lydie with the Sunlight Hair” became “Susan with the Sunlight Hair.”
[Sound of Steve Powell’s music]
Steve Powell (from song recording): Soft in my ear, my Lydia.
Susan Cox Powell (from song recording): Lydia.
Steve Powell (from song recording): Soft as I dream of you.
Susan Cox Powell (from song recording): I dream of you.
Steve Powell (from song recording): Your voice is like the dew…
Dave Cawley: That voice you hear singing the harmony belongs to Susan.
Steve Powell (from song recording): …refreshes in the morn when I wake to think of you.
Dave Cawley: She’d reluctantly agreed to record background vocals for Steve. Months before her disappearance, she’d showed the songs to some coworkers.
Amber Hardman: She played it for all of us at work and we were all laughing about it and how weird that was. And she was laughing along with us and agreeing, “it’s so weird.”
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from April 26, 2010 journal entry): There is a place in the instrumental bridge with the line “I’m in love with Susan.” Josh said people would find that objectionable, but that’s my favorite four seconds in the whole song. … My fantasy is that she will return, Josh won’t want her, and she will take up residence in my bedroom.
[Sound of Steve Powell’s music]
Steve Powell (from song recording): I spent the whole day through waiting for you. I could be getting a mistaken impression each time you seem to gaze at me. You let me touch you softly. Why is the question. And the effect amazes me. Had trouble sleeping…
Dave Cawley: No sooner had the Tim Peterson theory collapsed than Steve latched on to a new hypothesis. In mid-February of 2010, he called the FBI and asked to meet with agents. He wanted to talk to the feds about Steven Koecher.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I mean, Josh’s story may be fishy but this one’s even fishier, y’know?
Dave Cawley: Koecher was a resident of St. George, Utah. He’d disappeared under bizarre circumstances on December 13th of 2009, a week after Susan’s disappearance. Koecher was last seen on a home surveillance video, leaving his car at a cul-de-sac in the Las Vegas, Nevada suburb of Henderson. Where he went or what became of him are still unknowns. Like Susan, he has never been found.
Steve Powell claimed that because Susan and Koecher were both Latter-day Saints and both from Utah, they must’ve had a secret relationship. He supposed Susan had hatched an elaborate plan to run off with Koecher, possibly fleeing the country and traveling by land and sea to Fortaleza, Brazil, where Koecher had lived while serving a two-year church mission.
Special Agent Russ Johnson from the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office arranged to meet with Steve on February 24th and he tapped another special agent from the Tacoma area, Gary France, to take part in the interview.
Steve arrived in the afternoon. The agents took him into a room, sat him down and started to ask about Josh.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Did he know that you were coming in today to talk to us?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah, yeah.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah? How did he feel about that?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Well y’know, he just said, y’know, “just be aware that they’re not, they’re not on our side.” That’s pretty much, y’know, because he kinda, that was his experience with the West Valley City police.
Dave Cawley: This is the actual recording of that interview. This is the first time it has ever been made public.
Steve didn’t know it, but the FBI had also invited West Valley police to observe the interview, unseen, from another room. The agents didn’t dive into the Koecher stuff right away. Instead, they told Steve they were coming to the case late. Much of what they knew, they said, came from the media. Their questions later in the interview would prove this was disingenuous, but it made sense for them to try and build some rapport with Steve at the outset.
Agents Johnson and France asked Steve about where he was the day Susan disappeared and his communications with Josh since. Steve said he’d had only sporadic contact with Josh on that day and the days that followed. He told the agents he was 75% sure Susan was still alive. He said he was 100% sure Josh hadn’t killed Susan.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I, I think we’ll find her, I really do. Umm, and uh, and the other thing that has happened since the beginning of this whole process is that, y’know, when it first started, I didn’t know what happened to her. I didn’t have much contact with my son because — that is, the son who’s married to her — because the police confiscated his cell phone. He had a crappy cell phone that didn’t work. I couldn’t—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Well, how did, how did you hear about it?
Dave Cawley: He made no secret of the fact Josh had bought another phone and swapped his SIM card into it. Steve conceded that in the first days and weeks after Susan’s disappearance, even he had had his doubts about Josh’s camping trip alibi.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): It looked pretty fishy and so of course the accusations came immediately that “oh,” y’know, yeah, “he did something with her,” y’know, he’s uh, y’know, eliminated her or whatever.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Well—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): And of course, being on the other end, y’know, anybody’s capable of doing that kind of thing. I mean, I could do it, you could do it. I mean we, in a fit of anger—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Weird things happen in relationships.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Weird things happen in relationships. But, but, y’know, and I struggled with that for, y’know, because I couldn’t reach Josh half the time on the cell phone. It didn’t work, we weren’t connecting.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Was this on Monday?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): This is, well, this is on Monday and, and even after that for the next three weeks.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Were you able to talk to him a couple of times though?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Oh yeah, yeah. Every, every day. Yeah, at least a little bit in spite of the cell phone problems. Yeah.
Dave Cawley: The communication troubles had led to Steve considering a trip to Utah, but he said he’d been so despondent in those early days, he couldn’t endure it. Instead, he sent his youngest children, Michael and Alina. Over the phone, he’d advised Josh to get a lawyer.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Why haven’t the police contacted his attorney? They haven’t even contacted him?
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): They haven’t? They’ve not even contacted the attorney?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): No. Not even contacted him.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Wow.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): No, they haven’t asked him any questions. The only contact they had was about two weeks ago when Josh was in Salt Lake City, or in West Valley City, and they called him and said “we don’t have your finger prints.”
Dave Cawley: That wasn’t true. Josh’s attorney, Scott Williams, had told West Valley police in December that Josh wouldn’t submit to another interview or take a lie detector test. In late March, Williams had sent Ellis an email, telling him Josh needed his computers back for “tax, professional and personal endeavors.”
On February 3, 2010, Ellis called Josh’s phone number.
[Sound of phone ringing]
Dave Cawley: He knew Josh was in the Salt Lake City area at the time, but didn’t know for how long. Josh didn’t answer the call, so Ellis left him this voicemail.
Operator (from February 3, 2010 recording): When you are finished recording, hang up. Or for delivery options, press pound.
Ellis Maxwell (from February 3, 2010 recording): Hey Josh, it’s detective Maxwell with West Valley police department.
Dave Cawley: Ellis said he needed Josh’s fingerprints. He also said he wanted to talk to Josh about Steve’s email regarding Tim Peterson.
Ellis Maxwell (from February 3, 2010 recording): So I have a lot of questions there as well in regards to Tim and your thoughts and the stuff you didn’t share with me.
Dave Cawley: As for the computers?
Ellis Maxwell (from February 3, 2010 recording): You want to get your uh, computer stuff back. Uh, the RCFL, they’re finding that a lot of your hard drives and a lot of files are encrypted, so need to see if you’ll give us those passwords so we don’t have to uh, break those encryptions or those codes. Alright?
Dave Cawley: Josh didn’t call Ellis back, but his defense attorney Scott Williams did. Williams told Ellis that Josh couldn’t remember the passwords, but might if he were allowed to sit down with the devices. Ellis said they could make that happen but of course, Josh never followed through.
The agents told Steve they were very skeptical of his claim West Valley detectives had not contacted Josh’s attorney. Steve insisted it was the truth.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): They, they really, if they wanted to talk to him, they missed the boat because he was down in Salt Lake twice since he came up here to be with, to live in my house. He’s been back there twice for several days and they, if they wanted to talk to him, his attorney is totally available, totally, y’know, responsive. Uh, the only thing they’ve asked for is, y’know, when they first got there they wanted his, his van again and they took the air filter out I guess and don’t ask me what that’s all about since he’s gone all the way from Utah to, to Puyallup and back in the van since this tragedy began.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Oh yeah? When, when did he do that?
Dave Cawley: In fact, the very same day that Steve was sitting down with the FBI agents in Tacoma, Maxwell emailed Williams, asking to schedule a time when Josh might come to the computer lab and try to input his passwords. Also, he noted that Josh had removed the SIM cards from both his and Susan’s cell phones before police seized each device. He wanted to get ahold of those, as well.
Of course, that never happened. Josh never bothered to come and try his passwords. He made no time for it during his Utah visit in early February. Whether that was a failure of communication or a willing dodge on his part remains unclear.
I’ve tried several times to contact Josh’s attorney Scott Williams. He has never responded to my messages or emails. Josh never asked for his computers again.
Steve’s insistence that the West Valley police had not talked to Josh’s attorney suggested that Josh was keeping his dad in the dark. Either that, or Steve Powell was lying to the FBI, which is a federal crime.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Part of it could be Josh. Y’know, Josh does not want to spend any more on the attorney fees than he has to, so he’s very, makes his contact—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): But wouldn’t he spend whatever he needs to clear his name?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): It’s really not a, it’s not a matter of clearing his name because Josh doesn’t feel guilty of anything. He doesn’t even feel, in fact that was one of the things, I, after a few days he was at my house, y’know and, I said “Josh, umm, aren’t you worried that they might come and arrest you?” And he said “no, why? Why would they?” “Oh, ok.”
Dave Cawley: Steve said Josh was annoyed with the police because they had wasted his time and taken his stuff during December. But that wasn’t the worst thing.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): No. He doesn’t have any problem with the police. What he has a problem with is, y’know, he feels like when he was there at the police department, the only thing he’s not happy about is they lied to him. They would tell him things like, y’know, “your sons told us that your wife was with you on the campout.” Well y’know, c’mon. He knew she wasn’t with them. And y’know, if you’ve planted things in their minds or you’re making this up, y’know, then the conversation’s over basically. Y’know. … And he, in the back of his mind he said “you’re lying to me.” And that’s what he said to the, I mean he didn’t say that out loud to the police but he said that to me later. He said “they were lying to me. I figured they’re trying to, they’re trying to trump something up here. They’re trying to suggest that I have something to do with her disappearance. And on Wednesday morning…
Dave Cawley: Steve then added another interesting tidbit, saying Josh’s younger brother Michael, who had served in the U.S. Army doing signals and human intelligence work, had “debriefed” Josh after his police interviews. Whoa. Wow.
The agents steered the conversation toward Steve’s relationship with Susan. Here, he spoke in very frank terms, much more so than he had with the West Valley detectives who had interviewed him in a couple of months earlier. He described playing various “cat and mouse” games with her over the course of years, in which he read any incidental physical contact between the two of them as an overt sexual act. In his mind, Susan had instigated it.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): And at one point when they were planning on moving, I think they were planning on moving to Yakima, I told Susan that I was in love with her. I didn’t want her to leave and she got, just came unglued. And it was like, it’s ok to play the game, but don’t bring it out in the open. Y’know what I’m saying? So she would not talk to me for three months after that.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok.
Dave Cawley: Now, as we’ve already seen, that unwelcome love confession in July of 2003 was primary motivation for Josh and Susan’s move to Utah. Susan loathed her father-in-law. Yet, Steve truly believed he and Susan continued to share a mutual infatuation. The agents did not scoff at this. Remember, they were trying to gain his trust.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Did, y’know, the, the natural question is, y’know, did you guys actually ever have any actual contact of any sexual nature or anything or was it just always these, uh, little brushes that, that as you said you play the game on?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah I mean one, one time, y’know, I was massaging her feet and she was putting her feet in my crotch and everything. Yeah, stuff like that. But no, you’re talking about actual physical sex?
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): No, we actually never had sex.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Because I don’t think, I didn’t think she would go that far but maybe it was just with me. I don’t know.
Dave Cawley: Steve said that this kind of activity had continued even after Josh and Susan left Washington, though far less frequently. As an example, he told the agents that while Josh and Susan were visiting Washington in 2008, he’d brushed up against her bare breast while she was feeding Braden.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): So Josh was aware of some of these cat-and-mouse games that she was—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Well, I don’t think—
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —she was doing?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —he was aware of it after that because it was, y’know, it was so subtle. I mean, Gary—
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —this, Susan is very subtle. Y’know?
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Just like that whole thing pressing her breasts against my hands.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yes. Yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Y’know, she didn’t have to do that. She wanted to do it. Y’know what I’m saying?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Right.
Dave Cawley: “She wanted to do it.” Wow. Susan had described Steve using words like “wicked.” She’d told her parents he was a pedophile. If there was one person in the world she did not want to touch her, it was Steve Powell. He blamed that attitude on her religion, which he claimed she only practiced to please her parents.
Susan’s own writings and actions contradict this. Not only did she regularly attend her church services, she also took on volunteer church assignments and fought against Josh to pay 10% of her income in tithing. Susan’s faith was a core pillar of her identity, not something she practiced out of grudging obligation.
Steve’s claims grew even more egregious. He told the agents that hot-tempered Susan had been abusing her two young sons.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I mean, I’ve been very open with you about Susan’s abuse. I mean—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): We appreciate your openness.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —that could be a motive. That could be a motive.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): And, and, and for Josh, who just absolutely adores his sons, it could be a motive. But I don’t believe for a minute that, that, that anything happened like that…
Dave Cawley: None of the people who knew Susan well who I’ve spoken to for this podcast ever shared a similar concern. None of her friends, coworkers or relatives ever saw Susan strike Charlie or Braden. I specifically asked Josh’s sister Jennifer about this claim of abuse.
Dave Cawley: Did you ever see anything like that?
Jennifer Graves: Susan was so loving to her children. She was not abusive to them in any way. I never witnessed or heard, through the grapevine from anyone, that there was anything like that going on on her side. On the other hand, there were issues that Josh was doing that I was highly concerned about. He was regularly undermining her authority as a mother and that was really hard on her and on her relationship with her children and, and on her ability to be a good parent.
Dave Cawley: Now, Susan was not a saint. She did have flaws. For example, she can be heard snapping at Charlie in a 2008 video she made, documenting the family’s property in preparation for a possible divorce.
Susan Cox Powell (from July 29, 2008 home video): ‘Kay, be quiet Charlie. Josh cut the doorbell wire. Shh! Be quiet or I’m going to spank you!
Dave Cawley: But this is the kind of thing many an exasperated young mother might say to a misbehaving child. Steve wanted to twist that into something much more sinister. The agents asked if he ever actually witnessed Susan commit an act of abuse. He conceded that he had not, but said he’d overheard things on the phone. Josh, he said, was very protective of the boys.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I mean, these are his boys. Josh dotes on them. He would guard them with his life.
Dave Cawley: Finally, after more than an hour and a half, the conversation turned to the topic of Steven Koecher. Steve Powell, with pen and paper in hand, started scratching out a rough map of Utah, Arizona and Nevada.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): And this is Koecher up here, right?
Dave Cawley: He marked the cities important to his theory…
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok. Here’s Salt Lake City. Here’s West Valley City. Ok here’s the highway that goes over to, uh, Wendover, Montana, oh, Wendover, Nevada.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Gotcha.
Dave Cawley: …and went about trying to explain how he believed Steven Koecher’s and Susan’s lives might have intersected. They each at one point had worked in downtown Salt Lake, in offices separated by a few city blocks. Perhaps, he suggested, they had somehow met and developed a secret romance.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): But I surmise she disappears on the morning of the 7th, calls him and says “I’m ready, we’re ready to take, undertake the plan.” He comes up on the night of the 7th, spends the night at, in my, in my document, in my uh, uh timeline I refer toat a safe house. There’s somebody in, in West Valley City that knows what was going on, as far as I’m concerned. He spends, they spend the night at that person’s house because that’s where she would have gone, y’know, after she quote-unquote disappeared.
Dave Cawley: From there, Steve’s theory had Koecher slipping down to the Las Vegas area with Susan, where he staged his own disappearance before renting a boat, possibly with the help of a friend, in order to float south toward the U.S.-Mexico border.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): You can take this as, as coming from a crazy person or whatever you want to say but I would, I would put money on the possibility that they’re not even in this country. I would, y’know, I, y’know, I see, I see heading south in a boat as far as they could go, finding other ground transportation or whatever to Mexico City, picking up a flight or maybe going across to the, to one of the coasts of Mexico and picking up uh, a ship, y’know, and heading down to Fortaleza where he would know people. Y’know, I mean, I went to a mission to Argentina. Y’know at the time, it was so many years ago — I don’t know anybody now but back then — if I called somebody in, certain people, and said y’know “I’m coming down there with my fiancé, we’re going to get married.” Y’know—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —they’d say “wow, stay at our place.” Y’know?
Dave Cawley: What possible reason could Susan have for going along with such an outlandish plot? Steve said she had once mentioned wanting to learn Portuguese, the primary language spoken in Brazil. What’s more, he said she was overwhelmed by the boys and, motivated by a desire to get pregnant again, attracted to Koecher.
There were many, many problems with the idea. The timelines didn’t quite mesh. Steve’s theory required Susan and Koecher to share a common acquaintance, someone who could sneak Susan away, unseen, and hide her for at least a day. Steve couldn’t point to a single friend they shared.
In order to cross international boundaries, Susan would’ve needed a passport. She didn’t have one. Steve figured she must’ve had a forgery made. He also believed her background in cosmetology would’ve allowed her to change her appearance and assume a false identity once on the run.
It was a story more at home in a b-grade spy movie than an actual criminal investigation. Yet, if Steve’s theory didn’t stand on its merits, it did seem capable of at least sowing a small seed of doubt. And perhaps that was the point all along. In his personal journal, Steve Powell later wrote of Josh.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from April 9, 2010 journal entry): If he were brought to trial the Koecher connection would be more than enough evidence to convince a jury that there is reasonable doubt as to his guilt.
Dave Cawley: The storyline Steve was spinning for the FBI and anyone else who would listen, including his own children, was that Susan had tried to frame Josh.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I mean, seriously Gary, the scenario for Susan disappearing and Josh being blamed was perfect. It was perfect. Maybe a little too perfect.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): But anyway, it was perfect. Y’know, Josh takes off on one of his late night campouts. I mean, the campout was probably planned for noon that day, noon on Sunday. And it may not have been, either. See I, I’m not prying into all this stuff because Josh’s attorney has said y’know, “don’t speculate about anything. Don’t talk about what happened even to your family that day. Just, y’know, you and I know what happened, the police know what happened. Just drop it.” Y’know?
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): “It doesn’t, it doesn’t do anything for you.”
Dave Cawley: West Valley police did take the Koecher lead and investigate it — I’ll have more to say about that in a future episode — but for the two FBI agents who were listening to Steve on February 24th of 2010, his theory proved far from convincing.
Special Agent Johnson decided to level with Steve. He explained he wasn’t on anyone’s side — not the Powell family’s side, not the Cox family’s side, not the West Valley police’s side — but he knew things that hadn’t yet made the news.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): But from what I know, ok?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Umm, and some of the things that have happened around this disappearance and specifically some of the things that Josh, uh, has done and said, ok?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Umm, I think, and uh, and I think you’re gonna probably going to have to, umm, at some point wrap your mind around this — it sounds like you started right where I’m going to be—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —and then you went away from that based on Josh’s behavior — but I think you’re going to have to wrap your, your mind around the fact I think Josh is going to be arrested and charged with this crime, ok?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): With what crime?
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): With, with a, with a homicide. And—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): So you think she’s dead.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I do. Ok? And like I said, umm, this is, umm me coming without an agenda from somewhere else—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm, mmhmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —and umm, and not having an interest in it. I think that is what’s going to happen. … When that happens, I don’t think Josh has told you even all the things that have happened. I think he knows a lot of this stuff that I know and I don’t think he’s told you. Umm, you may want to, uh, find some of that out for yourself so that you can prepare yourself if, if this happens the way I say—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —ok? And if it happens that way, and I, I really think it will, you uh, you need to be aware, umm, that, y’know, that that’s coming and uh, and get, get ready for that.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Hmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): ‘Kay? That’s, I’m not saying I have the inside track and—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —and, and, and uh, and I know exactly what West Valley and the DA’s office is going to do. I’m saying this is, this is me guessing right now and I think that’s gonna happen. … Umm, I think that, uh, the things that I know are highly suspicious, umm, and it’s not, umm, I don’t think that the other things that I know indicate that, umm, Susan went anywhere voluntarily, ok?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmmhmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): So, my suggestion to you is start thinking about that.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): And, and make sure you are not, umm, involved — and I’m not accusing you of anything right now, ok? I’m just saying make sure you never get involved with the covering up or the obstruction of, of the investigation and y’know, hey, you’re here, you’re not doing that, obviously, you’re here talking to us, you want to help but when things go that other way — don’t be involved in any of that. Don’t put yourself in any jeopardy. If he, when he gets arrested, uh, for this, those grandkids are gonna need people that they know and love around them.
[Ad break]
Dave Cawley: The FBI told Steve Powell two-and-a-half months into the investigation that his son was likely to be arrested for Susan’s murder. What’s more, the agents explicitly warned him that he could himself wind up in trouble if he attempted to help Josh conceal evidence. Steve did not buy it.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Well now, so are, so are you telling me that you’ve got some information that says that everything that I just said is hooey, that Steven Koecher could not possibly have anything to do with it?
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I don’t know anything about Steven Koecher really. I can’t, I can’t comment on that.
Dave Cawley: They urged Steve to apply pressure, to get Josh to work with the police.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Make sure that umm, y’know, if you, if you really believe that, that uh, that your initial feelings were wrong and that Josh truly isn’t involved—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I totally believe that.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Then you need to get him cleared and that means his cooperation in this matter. His attorney can be there. That’s fine. There’s so many unanswered questions, such what appears to be highly suspicious behavior from Josh. Ok? And uh—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Why haven’t the police even as much as—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I can’t answer that. I don’t know.
Dave Cawley: Steve wondered how much of the information in the hands of police had come from his estranged daughter, Jennifer, the daughter who a month prior had visited the Powell family home and confronted Josh while secretly wearing a wire.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): If any of this information is coming from my daughter Jenny, please, please, please be aware—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): It’s not.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —this girl is filled with hate.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): It’s not.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok well, because she had made some comments, y’know, to me that “oh, I saw Josh doing this and doing that. And I saw—”
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): The, and there may be some information that comes from her, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about that—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm. Well yours isn’t coming from her.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —I just have, I just have some—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —facts and some evidence—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —that, that I have been made aware of—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —and I wasn’t there to collect it or anything—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —I’ve been made aware of and, and it does not, it does not look good—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —for Josh.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): So that’s, that’s what I’m saying.
Dave Cawley: Let me step in here for a moment and provide some perspective. I’ve obviously interviewed Jennifer. I’ve read her book, A Light in Dark Places. It is a portrait of pain, loss, hope and faith, not hate. I asked Jennifer about what her father told the FBI. Here’s what she said.
Jennifer Graves: Well let me tell you about my dad. I grew up with my dad. I know how he works. My dad was a very deceitful person, but at the same time he was a very smooth talker. And he could convince anybody, for the longest time, that he was this wonderful person. And he could smooth over any lie forever.
Dave Cawley: So, does Jennifer think the FBI agents were buying the Steve Koecher conspiracy theory?
Jennifer Graves: I am sure that he went in there and talked really smoothly to them. But as time went on, the lies started to unravel. And this is where, this is where finally my dad’s true face, my dad’s true nature, was revealed.
Dave Cawley: Let’s go back to the interview.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I’m a, I’m a father and I have kids. If you knew Josh did something or if he told you something, would you come forward and tell us?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I’m not sure I would.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): ‘Kay.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): But, but the reality is—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Thanks for being honest.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —I’m not sure I would.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Thank you for being honest.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): But as I said, I am, y’know, unless you’ve got something pretty, pretty, pretty tight, I, I, I’m a hundred percent convinced. I mean, y’know, uh, I’d really like to see the evidence but I understand you can’t show it to me.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I might be able to. If I get into this, if I get into this and, and I, I need your help, I might be able to come to you and say “look, here’s a couple things that, that, that we know.” Y’know, “does that change, does that change what you think?”
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I understand.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): And if you say, and if you say, and if you say “no, I don’t,” y’know, then, then we’re still there. But if you say “oh wow, I didn’t know that—”
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —y’know, and then, y’know, maybe, y’know we could—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —y’know, keep that dialogue going.
Dave Cawley: He also worried about what would happen to Charlie and Braden.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): If, if he’s, if something happened to Susan, I don’t want something to happen to their father.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): That would probably be my biggest concern.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): That actually entered my head too, when I was thinking about that, that, y’know, if, if my son told me “dad, I didn’t plan this, something snapped, it happened, umm, I don’t, I don’t even know who I was at that moment.” Y’know? ‘Cause even when you first walked in here you said “we’re all capable” and I think you’re right.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): We are.
Dave Cawley: From there, the conversation took on a chilling — and in retrospect, prophetic — tone. Agent Johnson proposed a hypothetical situation, in which Josh had killed Susan, covered up the murder and then fled with the boys.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): If, if Josh did that, something’s broken inside there.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Oh yeah, oh yeah. No, I’ve thought of that too, Russ—
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok, now—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —I really have.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): What if, what if one of the kids start saying something?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Saying something like what?
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Y’know like uh, coming out with information that he didn’t come out with before. What’s Josh going to do? Well, he loves his kids. Y’know, you might think he’d never do anything to his kids, but if something’s broken, maybe he would.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I’m not sure I understand where you’re getting at, because uh—
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Listen—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): If he would kill his wife—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Oh.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —because he’s got something broken inside of him—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Oh, you’re saying he would kill his kids.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): He might, y’know. Do we know that? I know, you’re just saying “oh he’d never do that.” But—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I don’t think so.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —but would you have said that about the wife?
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): No, I would’ve said, y’know what Russ? Let me set, let me put it to you bluntly. Over the last couple of years I have, it has occurred to me that Susan would have killed Josh but it never would dawn on me that it would be the other way around. That would never even cross my mind—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —until December 7th. Until December 7th. Then I started thinking “could he have done this.” At this point I don’t believe for, at all that he did it but it did occur to me that Susan was, was capable of doing something like that, seriously.
Dave Cawley: That mention of Josh killing the boys, did it send a shiver up your spine? And then Steve suggested against all available evidence that Susan might have wanted to kill Josh? He told the FBI agents, who he had earlier asked if they were Mormons, to consider that the church might be trying to silence Susan. They way he saw it, Susan’s parents — Chuck and Judy Cox — had rallied their fellow Latter-day Saints in an effort to steal Charlie and Braden away from Josh.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): There are some huge religious undercurrents in this thing. That whole Dr. Phil show was about “we want to get custody of those boys from Josh.” The grandparents wanted, they don’t want them in my home because I’m an ex-Mormon and I am a rabid anti-Mormon. Rabid. Y’know, I, I, I have nothing good to say about that religion, nothing good and I read about it constantly. I am, y’know, they don’t want those kids in my home and they will do anything — lie, cheat, steal — to get those boys away from my home. Keep that in mind as you look into this. I am, I am Satan incarnate as far as they’re concerned, ok? Keep that in mind.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): We’ll note that.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah, yeah—
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Please note that.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): This is really a scary thing. Even the church itself — I, I’m glad to be talking to somebody in Tacoma, Washington, somebody who’s not a Mormon, somebody who’s not in Salt Lake City simply because — the church itself would obfuscate an investigation if they thought it would throw some damaging light on the church.
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Right.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): They would do that. I mean, believe me, they would do that. So if—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Well they wouldn’t be very successful with, with anything federal.
Dave Cawley: Having heard out the FBI’s hypothetical, Steve then posed one of his own.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): We don’t have any video tapes of Susan’s disappearance, quote-unquote. Well all we know is that she’s gone.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Right.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): She went somewhere or somebody took her somewhere, y’know, we don’t know, and your seem, you seem to be of the opinion based on whatever evidence you have that maybe Josh had something to do with that disappearance.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): That’s my opinion. But I’m open. I’m open.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok. If, if she did walk away and she did it to frame Josh and she’s, y’know, just went to Brazil, start a new life, y’know, because her boyfriend knows Portuguese and yeah, let’s just go down there, we’re together and this guy really fits, you look at his picture, he fits the profile of the type of person she’d be attracted to. He looks not like, he doesn’t look like Josh but he has the sandy blonde hair, the blue eyes, all this, you know what I’m saying. Umm, so let’s suppose we do find out that she has basically done this and now Josh has been framed. Let’s suppose Josh is arrested because of this, whatever. Has she broken a law?
(Pause)
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Could she be extradited from Brazil for, y’know, to, to face, y’know, the music or whatever?
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah, I don’t know what, I don’t know what the case law is on that. It happens occasionally where somebody disappears and we investigate it.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Especially if there’s fraud involved.
Dave Cawley: Steve quickly latched onto this idea of fraud, adding it to his Koecher conspiracy theory. He decided Susan must have been bankrolling her new life abroad by siphoning money from customer accounts she could have accessed through her work at Wells Fargo Investments.
That was baloney. There was no evidence to back up such a claim. Susan was not a white-collar criminal, just as she wasn’t abusing her children or plotting her husband’s death. To use a young Josh’s own words, Steve perceived these things to be true, because he wanted them to be true.
When West Valley detectives had talked to Steve in December, they’d finished by doing a quick search of his house. The special agents did something similar. They asked Steve for permission to review records for both his home and cell phone numbers.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Be my guest. No, look at ‘em. I mean, uh, y’know, I mean Josh that, those two days used a prepaid cell phone. I mean, y’know, if you think there, there’s some chance that he maybe had that and God only knows, I mean, y’know, was communicating with somebody else or was doing something—
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah, it’s just to, it’s just to, just to make sure.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —help yourselves. Yeah, let’s make sure. Y’know, I told you I would probably not say anything but, y’know, if I knew, if Josh confessed to me, which what’s the likelihood? Y’know what I’m saying? What’s the likelihood that Josh is going to come and say “oh, by the way, umm, just want to get this off my chest, uh, y’know, I, I threw her in a hole up on,” y’know, whatever. I mean—
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Yeah.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): —I mean it just isn’t, what’s the likelihood?
Dave Cawley: As they reached the end of their hours-long conversation, the agents again stressed to Steve the need for Josh to start talking.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): I, I would just, I would, I mean, if you guys, if you guys really want to have your day with Josh, you really do?
Gary France (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Mmhmm.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Sure.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Get his, get ahold of his attorney and tell him that. Just say “could we get him down here?” And then, pay for a plane ticket. Be ready to send a, put a plane ticket, because Josh doesn’t have any money and he’s not gonna, he’s not gonna pay his attorney to come up here to talk to you guys. They had ample opportunity down there and if you guys are late in the investigation, that’s not Josh’s problem. Y’know, don’t make him pay for something because they didn’t, they neglected to do their homework.
Russ Johnson (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): We’d, we’d, we’d pay for a plane ticket.
Steve Powell (from February 24, 2010 FBI interview recording): Ok, good. Yeah, talk to his attorney, just tell him that.
Dave Cawley: Of course, none of that ever happened. It was an empty promise. And Steve, if he knew anything, wasn’t going to cooperate either. West Valley police would have to resort to other means.
[Scene transition]
Dave Cawley: A detective crept forward through the stillness of the early morning, shielded by the dark. It was quiet, after 3 a.m. on May 5th of 2010. Police were inside the community of Silver Creek. Two minivans sat in the driveway of a home at the corner of 186th and 94th Avenue Court East. The shadowy figure slinked up to one and then other, slipping a small device onto each vehicle. They were GPS beacons: court-approved tracking devices with transmitters that would allow the police to remotely follow the minivans, no matter where they went. One for Josh’s minivan, one for Steve’s.
It wasn’t the first time police had put a tracker on Josh’s minivan. They kept hoping he might unwittingly lead them to Susan. But the Powells felt the eyes of police on them. In his email to police in mid-January of 2010, Steve Powell had questioned if the cops had kept watch for suspects around the Sarah Circle house.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from January 15, 2010 email): Josh and Michael tell me there are some cameras watching the Powell house, mounted on the light poles. They did not know if it was your agency, the FBI or the media doing the spying.
Dave Cawley: Steve should have been more worried about his own house. The GPS trackers on the two vans, as well as on a third minivan Steve used for work, were part of a major operation. It involved round-the-clock eyes-on surveillance of Josh and Steve Powell during early May, 2010. A large group of West Valley detectives and command staff made the 15-hour drive up from Utah to take part.
Comically, some of them ended up heading right back. On the afternoon of May 5th, Josh drove to his storage unit and retrieved some stuff. At about 7 p.m., he started the long drive south and east toward Utah.
The West Valley team had to split up. Some remained in Puyallup to watch Steve, while the others tailed Josh. It was a grueling task. Josh drove until 3:30 a.m., finally exiting I-84 in Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho. He parked his van near the city pool and slept in the car for about five hours.
(Sound of traffic on I-84 in Idaho)
Dave Cawley: Josh was back on the road a bit before 9 a.m. on the morning of the 6th. He made a pitstop at the nearby Bliss Rest Area, then continued on to Tremonton, Utah, where he stopped for gas. Josh arrived in the Salt Lake valley early in the afternoon. He passed by Susan’s old workplace, then went to Aspen, the company from which he’d been fired in December.
Aspen’s HR manager was startled and a bit uncomfortable to see him since she was alone. Josh explained he was just there to return some IT books. Linda told him that wasn’t necessary, he could have just kept them. As Josh made his way out of the building, she told him not to come around again without first getting permission.
Next, Josh drove to the house on Sarah Circle.
Dax Guzman: He just showed up, he didn’t let us know.
Dave Cawley: Dax and Mindy Guzman had rented the house from Josh after he’d moved out in January.
Dax Guzman: And it was weird because, like, we knew what was going on with the investigation, so it was like “dude, you kind of, like if you’re going to come into the house there’s rules. You need to let your tenants know. You don’t, don’t just show up. … No, he was like, “oh sorry, it’s nothing. I’ve just got to grab stuff.”
Dave Cawley: The stuff he grabbed was leftovers that he hadn’t loaded up back in January. As part of their deal, Josh’d asked Dax to finish the house’s basement. He walked through that afternoon, showing the Guzmans where he wanted walls framed and where the doors should go.
Josh’s relationship with the Guzmans had never been great. They’d been friendly as neighbors, mostly because of Susan. But shortly after they’d moved it to the Sarah Circle house, Josh told Dax and Mindy he’d kill to have his wife back.
Dax Guzman: That was the one and only time that he made any kind of comment that had anything to do with his wife’s disappearance. For him, it was business, y’know, what’s happening, where the progress is, what he wanted with the stairs, that’s all it was.
Dave Cawley: At about 7:30 p.m., Josh left the house to grab some Chinese take-out. The detectives could see that the passenger compartment of his van was packed full of household items. A pair of plastic 50-gallon totes were also strapped to the outside of the van. They were the last of Josh’s Utah possessions.
He left the house again around 11 p.m., headed for the freeway. He stopped once along the way to make sure the load was lashed tight, then started back toward Washington. He’d been in Utah for less than 12 hours.
Josh drove into southern Idaho. At about 2:30 a.m., he left the freeway a bit east of Twin Falls and north of the Snake River. He parked and went to sleep.
(Sound of traffic passing on I-84 in Idaho)
Dave Cawley: The team of detectives tailing Josh had traded off shifts while he was in Utah. They had fresh eyes and kept a constant watch as he slept. The van didn’t move for a full eight hours. At 10:30 a.m. that morning, May 7th, he resumed the drive to Washington.
Josh went well below the speed limit, apparently concerned going too fast might cause the stuff strapped to the outside of his minivan to break loose. That meant that an already long drive was taking even longer.
Back in Washington, the rest of the West Valley surveillance team was keeping an eye on Steve. He hadn’t done all that much while Josh was gone, just going to work and the gym. The other Powell kids who were living in the house didn’t even set foot outside.
That afternoon, the team in Washington sent some detectives to relieve the group that was tailing Josh. Unfortunately, a major traffic jam had cars backed up for more than nine miles. The two groups of cops missed each other.
Josh finally made it back to his dad’s house just before midnight, more than 24 hours after leaving West Valley City. The next afternoon, he went to his storage unit and unloaded the van. His dad made a stop at a local landfill. On May 9th, they returned to the landfill together, then went to a thrift store and donated some items. Josh was getting ditching Susan’s stuff.
The morning of Monday, May 10th, Steve left home and caught a bus headed for Tacoma. He was on his way to pick up his work van after the weekend. While on the bus, he took out a pen and started to write in the spiral-bound notebook he used as a journal.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from May 10, 2010 journal entry): I wonder if Susan is missing me. … I have these images of Susan in mind, sunbathing and strolling on nude beaches in Brazil, letting everyone and anyone see what I have longed to see. I have also fantasized about being at a nude resort with her myself.
Dave Cawley: If Steve knew he was being watched, he didn’t let on.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from May 10, 2010 journal entry): Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I bought some plants with flowers for the boys to plant in Susan’s honor. The flowers were purple, which is the color her parents have chosen as her ‘favorite.’ I don’t know if that is true, but I went with it.
Dave Cawley: On Tuesday, May 11th, the West Valley team went and knocked on the door of Steve’s house. They were flanked by U.S. Marshal Derryl Spencer and FBI Special Agent Gary France.
Steve answered and allowed them to come inside. He and provided consent for them to look around. Special Agent France found a locked file cabinet in Steve’s bedroom. Inside were photos of Susan, including some voyeuristic shots in which she was dressed only in her underwear. There were other, more disturbing pictures, including pornographic images of women with their faces removed and replaced by Susan’s. France found pictures of Steve exposing himself and performing lewd acts while looking at pictures of Susan. France found women’s underwear — temple garments considered sacred by Latter-day Saints — which Steve had stolen from Susan’s laundry basket.
France confronted Steve about the pictures and asked where he’d got them. Steve said he’d take some of them. The others, he’d copied off of Josh’s computer without Josh’s knowledge.
Josh was at the house, too. In fact, he was sitting at his computer when the police entered. He’d quickly shut it down. When the police rebooted it, they discovered its contents were encrypted.
The FBI had placed a tracker of its own on Josh’s minivan. Legally, they were required to tell him about it, now that they were taking it off, so they did.
“So if you’ve been tracking me, then you know that I just went to Salt Lake City,” Josh said. “I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I made sure that I left my phone on. I used my cell phone and my credit cards.”
That remark got their attention. During his December camping trip, Josh had kept his phone off and not used his credit cards. He obviously understood they could be used to track his movements.
One of the detectives told Josh they wanted to take a look inside his storage unit and see what he’d brought back from Utah. The investigators drove to the storage unit. Josh moved opened it up and some stuff around so they could get a better look. The only noteworthy thing was a split geode. A long, single strand of hair clung to it. The geode and hair were probably from the camping trip Josh and Susan had taken with the boys to the Dugway geode beds in May of 2009, a year earlier. Police took them as evidence, just in case.
Steve wrote about the his interactions with the investigators on that day in his journal.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from May 17, 2010 journal entry): I had a sense that they had found her, even though they refused to acknowledge that. They wanted to check out our computers to find out if we had any contact with Susan since December 7. I think it was apparent to them that the answer to that question was negative.
Dave Cawley: Steve understood as well as the police did just what Josh’s final move out of the West Valley City home meant. Josh never expected or intended to be with Susan again.
Ellis Maxwell, West Valley City’s lead detective on the Powell case, knew Steve had not given up hope.
Ellis Maxwell: In his mind, she was still alive. And I’m sure at some point he probably thought she’s hiding from Josh for a minute and then she’s gonna come back and be with Steve. I mean, this guy’s so left of center it’s, it’s crazy.
Steve Powell (from song recording): I spent the whole day through waiting for you. I could be getting a mistaken impression each time you seem to gaze at me.
Here’s what Steve wrote in his journal on May 17, 2010.
Ken Fall (as Steve Powell from May 17, 2010 journal entry): Even if she is not into some deep do-do, she really no longer has a home. Josh has rented out their house. He really doesn’t want her back, and doesn’t particularly want her to be around the boys. I would take her into my home and bedroom in a minute, but I would have to deal with some very strong objections from my kids. I am sure none of them would be thrilled to have her shack up with me and become by default the “queen of the house.”
Dave Cawley: On the next episode of Cold.
Nancy: I just said, y’know, “why don’t you be a bigger man and not give those journals out to anyone. Those are childhood journals.” And he’s going “well you don’t know what I went through. You don’t know.”