Josh Powell exhibited traits of narcissism from at least early adulthood. That fact was made clear by his audio journals and backed up by the court-ordered psychological evaluation Josh underwent in 2011.
But the audio journals, which were made public for the first time in the Cold podcast, are one of the most unique and bizarre aspects of the entire Susan Cox Powell case. When discovered by police among Josh’s computer files, they provided nothing in the way of evidence that might lead detectives to Susan’s body. They seemed irrelevant to the investigation.
Those journal recordings provided listeners of Cold unique insight into Josh Powell’s narcissism. They showed who he was and how he thought during his formative years.
Clinical psychologist Matt Woolley provided insight about the behaviors and attitudes of Josh Powell, including Josh Powell’s narcissism, after reviewing one of Josh’s audio journal recordings. Woolley is also a co-host of the KSL Podcast Project Recovery. Photo:
Clinical psychologist Matt Woolley reviewed an entire Josh Powell audio journal entry from December 13, 2000 for this bonus episode of Cold. Woolley then discussed what he heard in the more than hour-long recording.
The topics covered included Josh Powell’s relationship with Susan Cox, his frustration with friends, Steve Powell’s influence and more.
“He’s very much on the hunt, so to speak, for finding a girlfriend and I assume then later a wife,” Woolley said of Josh Powell. “When he finds Susan, she has these traits that he just has been looking for.”
Susan Cox and Josh Powell pose in front of the Portland, Oregon Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in March of 2001. The couple were married here two weeks after this photo was taken. Photo: Josh Powell
Hear about the traits of Josh Powell’s narcissism revealed by his recordings in a bonus episode of Cold: Anatomy of an Audio Journal
Susan Cox Powell remains missing. A judge declared her dead under Utah law on Dec. 6, 2014, five years from the date she was last seen alive.
Her husband Josh Powell, the man believed responsible for her death, is also dead and cannot be held accountable.
Steve Powell and Michael Powell are both dead. If they knew anything about Susan Powell’s whereabouts, they chose not to disclose that information. The surviving members of the Powell family are living in seclusion, with the exception of Josh’s estranged older sister, Jennifer Graves.
Jennifer Graves talks with her daughter Adara, after a media interview on Aug. 25, 2011. Photo: Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News
During our interview, Jennifer told me she believes Susan, Charlie and Braden have been reunited in heaven.
“Susan is on the other side. We may not know where her body is, but I know where she is,” Jennifer said. “She’s with her boys and she’s fine. She’s just fine.”
In the wake of Susan’s disappearance, Jennifer had hoped to help Charlie and Braden escape the same destructive family from which she’d extracted herself.
“The biggest single thing that I was concerned about was the boys. I wanted them to get out of that situation and not continue to perpetuate this violent cycle that was continuing through my family,” Jennifer said.
A Generational Cycle of Abuse
The seeds of Josh Powell’s actions were planted well before the murder-suicide in Washington. They were present from his early childhood, cultivated by a father who himself had been raised in a tumultuous family environment.
Steve Powell made no secret of his own troubled upbringing. He included a story about the kidnapping game his parents had played in the biography section of his music website, stevechantrey.com.
“At an early age my mother made a unilateral and secretive decision to separate from my dad, and moved with my brother, my sister and me to Chillicothe, Ohio,” Steve wrote. “My dad found us after a few months, and my parents reconciled.”
In a previously undisclosed journal entry dated July 9, 2010, Steve was more candid. He made a stunning admission about the development of his own deviancy.
“My parents both contributed to the interruption and distortion of my emotional development,” Steve wrote. “My dad ‘kidnapped’ us when I was eight years old. His mother told us ‘you will never see your mother again,’ and it took a year for her to find us. For the rest of our lives with her she kept us from our father and villainized him to an extreme degree.”
Steve Powell, 33, poses for a photo with his mother Julie Powell, 56, in February 1983. West Valley City, Utah police recovered this photo from among a collection of Powell family pictures on Steve Powell’s hard drive. Photo: Unknown
Steve supposed that separation gave rise to his predilection for voyeurism.
“My mother was the parent I was close to. No doubt this is related to the Oedipal Complex, and at eight years I was probably still in a stage in which I had not yet differentiated myself from my parents,” Steve wrote. “Perhaps this has led to my extreme attraction to the opposite sex and tendency toward voyeurism.”
Steve carried his demons into his own marriage. He attempted to instill his aberrant views on sex and relationships in his children, exposing them to pornography at a young age. He nurtured the development of narcissism in his eldest son, Josh.
Jennifer Graves, alone, appeared to have escaped the maelstrom.
“Part of me doesn’t understand why I walked away from that, where my siblings would not recognize what was going on.”
Jennifer Graves
In June 2013, Jennifer and her co-writer Emily Clawson released a book titled A Light in Dark Places.
“Part of my motivation for writing that book was to kind of show a little bit of the background and the lead up. How things happened,” Jennifer said. “That was one of the things that was so good about writing the book was for me personally to be able to go through that and face those things and that was very therapeutic.”
Susan Cox Powell Domestic Abuse
Susan Cox entered into a marriage with Josh Powell at age 19, not understanding the full scope of his history of family turmoil. Warning signs of the toxicity were evident in some of her husband’s statements and actions yet at her young age, Susan failed to recognize them.
Steve Powell took this still image from an undated video clip of Josh and Susan Powell playing with their parakeet, Verde. Based on the appearance of both Josh and Susan, the video was likely captured in 2003. Photo: Steve Powell
In a Facebook message to Cox family friend Mike Gifford on Nov. 15, 2008, Susan acknowledged her regrets.
“I’m finding out more and more that family/friends were seeing the red flags long before I did and of course I wish they would have said something,” Susan wrote. “Of course I realize I would never take back having my boys and the trials I’ve experienced so far have made me so much stronger and I should really thank the jerk I married for putting me through them.”
Susan disappeared 13 months after sending that message, likely killed by her husband in an outburst of violence.
Susan’s writings suggest the absence of physical violence in her marriage up to that point had made it difficult for her to recognize Josh’s treatment as domestic abuse.
“Often times people who are at risk don’t even realize it because it’s been abuse or violence that’s escalated over time.”
Jennifer Oxborrow
Jennifer Oxborrow, the Executive Director of the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, said the term “domestic violence” can be a misnomer.
“There’s a lot of talk within the advocacy community about changing some of that terminology,” Oxborrow said. “We can be violent in our communication. We can be violent in the coercive control. We can terrorize people without laying a hand on them. We can do that by threatening to hurt children or animals, by threatening to ruin someone’s career or leave them in a poor situation financially.”
UDVC and similar organizations exist to provide assistance to people in situations like Susan’s. They offer services including legal advocacy and advice to help people safely escape abusive situations.
Missed Opportunities
The disappearance of Susan Cox Powell triggered a sequence of events that have touched many lives.
Law enforcement officers tasked with investigating her presumed murder worked for years in the hopes of bringing Susan home and delivering justice for her family.
West Valley City police continue to solicit information in the cold case investigation of Susan Cox Powell’s disappearance. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
To this date, no one has ever been held to account for Susan’s death, a fact that haunts retired detective Ellis Maxwell.
“There’s answers that I’ll never ever get and there’ll never be any justice held against anybody for their actions and the likelihood of Susan ever being discovered is in my personal opinion very super low,” Ellis said.
Ellis expressed regret over not securing a search warrant for the Sarah Circle home on the night of Susan’s disappearance. He described frustration at the unwillingness of prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against Josh.
“I think everybody involved in the case has struggled at one point or another with it.”
Ellis Maxwell
In the years since his retirement, Ellis had made sporadic progress on a book of his own. He hoped it would provide insight to other police officers and agencies about lessons he learned through the course of the investigation.
“I thought I could have that thing written in six months but it’s tough because I’m basically just reliving the case,” Ellis said. “I’d sit down and I’d start typing and I’ll type and type and type and do this and do that and then next thing you know, I can’t sleep for two, three days.”
Retired police detective Ellis Maxwell speaks with Cold host Dave Cawley during an interview about the Susan Powell investigation. Photo: Meghan Thackrey, KSL 5 TV
More recently, Ellis has focused on launching a non-profit organization called Shield Guardian. He’s also started sharing his experiences through his website, ellismaxwell.com.
“I have empathy for the Coxes,” Ellis said. “I can’t imagine losing a child and never being able to see them again or put them to rest or not ever have any answers. That would be something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. That’s just horrible.”
Dave provides his theory on what happened to Susan Cox Powell in the finale of Cold: Angel of Hope
The Steve Powell journal files released by police in May 2013 show he acted as staunch defender of his son, Josh Powell, in the aftermath of the Dec. 7, 2009 disappearance of Josh’s wife Susan Cox Powell.
Steve told the FBI during an interview on Feb. 24, 2010 that he did not believe Josh had murdered Susan, as West Valley City police then suspected.
“The worst father would be somebody who would kill his wife, would kill their mother. Josh would never do that. I am 100% satisfied that Josh had nothing to do with Susan’s disappearance,” Steve told the special agents.
However, a previously unreleased Steve Powell journal entry not included with the Susan Powell case files and obtained by Cold has revealed Steve immediately presumed Josh had killed Susan when he learned of her disappearance. The unreleased Steve Powell journal entry also showed he’d long considered his son capable of murder.
That Steve Powell journal entry, dated Dec. 8, 2009, is presented below. It has been edited to remove derogatory claims, as well as personal information unrelated to the Powell case.
Steve Powell journal, 12:35 a.m., Dec. 8, 2009
I am feeling sick, because it is possible that Susan is dead.
Monday morning Jenny called from Josh’s and Susan’s house, to tell us that the day-care lady had called her when they did not show up with the kids. Evidently the day-care lady also called Susan’s work, and learned that she had not shown up or called in. I called Josh’s work, and learned that he had not shown up or called in. The police came to their house, and this information made us extremely fearful that they might be inside, asphyxiated from carbon monoxide, or dead from some other cause.
It was a relief when the police reported that they were not in the house and their van was not in the garage. However the day wore on slowly with no word, and with all of us wondering if they were abducted, or if they went on an outing and were killed or trapped in a car accident.
West Valley City, Utah police obtained a copy of Steve Powell’s LA Fitness logs, which showed he visited the gym in Washington on Dec. 7 and 8, 2009. Image: West Valley City, Utah police (highlight added by Cold)
In the evening I went to the gym, and while there received a call that Josh had shown up with the boys, but not with Susan. When I was finally able to speak to him, at about 8:30 p.m., he said he saw her early Monday morning (December 7), at just after midnight. He was leaving “late” for an outing with the boys. In the various conversations I had with him Monday evening, between that time and nearly midnight, he said that he had bought a generator-heater of some kind so he could go on winter outings. When he told Susan, who he said was in bed asleep, that they were leaving, he says she said, “Whatever.”
“The story is so implausible, and our conversation with Josh so unconvincing that I fear the worst.”
Steve Powell
He says he thought yesterday was Sunday. Hence he did not call work. And when he realized his error, he was out of cell-phone range. That does not make sense to me, since when I spoke to him Sunday at midday he said Susan and the boys had gone to a Stake conference that morning. He also mentioned that she was tired and took a nap that evening. Maybe she was already gone, and he told the boys she was just napping.
None of us were able to reach him on his cell phone all day, and he attributes that to being in the back country. Susan’s cell phone was with him. He says he was using it to look up a number, and forgetfully put it in his pocket, and forgot to take it out, so it was with him all day until he showed up at around 6:00 p.m.
The story is so implausible, and our conversation with Josh so unconvincing that I fear the worst. I think Susan is dead, and Josh spent the 20 hour lacuna disposing of her body far away. I have been lying in bed, trying to sleep, but am having a difficult time. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the possibility that she may be gone forever. I know she is a screaming banshee, and the way she treats the boys could be devastating emotionally, but nothing of that sort merited a death sentence. I hope we are wrong, but she could be gone forever with no memorial and no place of rest.
This Dec. 8, 2009 police photo showed Josh Powell’s oxyacetylene torch set up in the garage of the Powell family’s Sarah Circle house during service of a search warrant the day following Susan Powell’s disappearance. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
In the last two weeks Josh bought an oxy-acetylene welder, and a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner. I had no clue why he might want a welder, but now I wonder if it was required for the process of mutilating or disintegrating her body. The carpets had been freshly cleaned yesterday, and fans were blowing on the living room carpets when the house was finally entered on Monday morning. The police broke a window to get in. During our conversations Josh was more concerned about the broken window than about Susan. Maybe he really did not do anything to her, and she will show up alive. Maybe that is why he is not concerned. He says she has taken off before for short periods.
As the day wore on, I thought I had lost Josh and Susan and my beautiful grandsons. Now I am worried about my daughter-in-law, who has been such an inspiration to me, in spite of her off and on attitude about me, and her apparent disdain for me. I still love her, and do not want to lose her. It seems that she would have at least contacted her family by now if she were still alive.
I don’t know what I am going to do for hope and inspiration, but for now I need to try to sleep.
Steve Powell journal, 5:35 a.m., Dec. 8, 2009
Sunday night it snowed all night. So Josh headed out after midnight to “camp” with the boys. It was snowing like gangbusters by the time he got out a ways so, according to his story, he decided it was too late to return, and so he kept going. Why? The whole thing sounds so wrong, even if it had nothing to do with disposing of Susan’s body. Why would anybody do that? And furthermore, why would anybody believe that someone would go out in that weather just for an outing?
Michael and Alina are very supportive of Josh, and advised him to tighten up his story, as it sounds weak and unconvincing. Josh responded that the police may have already tapped his phone, which was the same as saying, “Be careful what you say.”
“Why would anybody believe that someone would go out in that weather just for an outing?”
Steve Powell
Michael commented (not over the phone) that he blamed his mother for this. He said “she is the reason I will probably never get married.” I hope Michael finds a partner and happiness. I have not been a good example, since I have avoided long-term relationships with women since separating from Terri seventeen years ago in 1992. My attraction to Susan has influenced that hugely since about 2002. But my unwillingness to take the plunge does indeed suggest a lack of trust on my part. Sometimes I think it was a mistake to not work harder at it, especially now that I am turning 60, and the prospects will no doubt diminish.
Susan has learned how to treat her kids and husband from her mother, and Josh found it intolerable. Michael stated yesterday evening that Josh chose an abusive type like Susan because his own mother was similarly abusive. Terri was emotionally distant from her sons. Her main goal for her sons was to make them into good Latter-day Saints. That seemed to be Susan’s one and only goal in recent months, and Josh balked at it. He played along and attended monthly counseling sessions, and attended church sporadically, but did all he could do to influence his boys in another direction.
Michael Powell, circa August 2009, posing for a photo to be used on an online dating service. West Valley City, Utah police located this photo among Steve Powell’s personal files.
So I guess Michael, like me, has learned to distrust the marriage principle. John seems to be a misogynist, and his attitudes become barbs aimed at Alina when he is in the manic phase of his bi-polar disorder. And Josh has suffered through a mutually hateful marriage relationship since April 2001. Josh’s and Susan’s mutual disdain was evident from nearly the beginning of their relationship.
Steve Powell journal, 6:30 a.m., Dec. 8, 2009
I am so tired, but can’t seem to sleep. I e-mailed in my request for sick leave a few minutes ago.
Steve Powell requested and received sick leave on Dec. 8 and 9, 2009 after learning of his daughter-in-law’s disappearance. West Valley City, Utah police retrieved records confirming the leave from Steve’s employer, the Washington Correctional Industries.
Where is Susan? If she were alive someone would have heard from her. This morning it will begin sinking in to her co-workers that she is not coming back.
Will Josh drop the boys off at the day care when he goes to his 9:00 appointment with the police? He often referred to the woman who operates it as the femi-nazi day-care woman. She and Susan had a fairly tight relationship. The woman evidently has it in for men, and told Josh some time ago that she was the victim of an abusive father. So evidently she and Susan had their abuse in common. Josh wanted the kids out of that day care, but Susan refused to move them, since the lady is a good Latter-day Saint.
Will Josh still be walking free after the 9:00 appointment, or will they lock him up? Through the night I tried to think of things Josh said last night that might suggest that he truly does not have a clue where Susan is. Maybe his story came out sounding cock-eyed because he was so tired. It was a long day for him, starting at midnight Sunday night and going until midnight last night. Michael suggested to Alina and me that if he has killed Susan it was probably not premeditated, since the story is so poorly planned.
Steve Powell saw his music as an avenue for romantic expression. He sang, played the piano and, as this 1967 photo showed, the guitar. West Valley City, Utah police located this image among Steve Powell’s personal files. Photo: Steve Powell personal files
As I mentioned, I wonder where I will derive my motivation from. Susan kept me going, and was the inspiration for dozens of songs. She sang background on two of my recordings. Her voice on the instrumental bridge of “My Lydia” seemed so haunting to me that I actually feared that she might die an untimely death. It was like hearing a voice from another world to me. Now I am afraid my fears have been realized. It has only been less than 40 hours since someone other than Josh saw her, but my hope diminishes hourly.
In the middle of the night I had what almost seemed like visions of a fire that consumed her. Shortly after that I smelled something slightly excremental and slightly death-like, and a tingle went through my entire body as I thought Susan’s spirit had passed through my room. The feeling passed quickly, and I could not attribute any of it to other than my imagination.
If Susan does not show up, and if they can connect her disappearance to Josh, I also wonder how I will proceed with my music career, as he is my web master. Will I be able to maintain and update my web site? Or will I be able to earn enough to hire someone else? And so many of my songs are about her, including several on this planned CD, that I am not sure I will be able to continue if she is not found, and is assumed to be dead.
Josh Powell served as webmaster for his father Steve Powell’s music website. This invoice showed Steve agreed to pay his son $50 a month for the service, through Josh Powell’s company, Polished Marketing.
If the worst happened, that is he killed her, did he bury her body? Will it ever be found? Frequently the police break down perpetrators during interrogation, and they end up leading them to where the body is buried. Although her parents mean nothing to me, I feel deeply for them, whatever the outcome. I cannot imagine there will be a good outcome.
Steve Powell journal, 8:00 a.m., Dec. 8, 2009
Josh Powell underwent an hours-long interview with detective Ellis Maxwell on Dec. 8, 2009. During the interview, Josh denied having any knowledge of what had happened to his missing wife. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
I am so tired, but unable to sleep. I have been lying here thinking about my grandsons, Charlie and Braden. Could Josh do something like this to their mother? Last night Josh went to the recycler to find a stout piece of cardboard to cover the broken window. He said there was a picture of a woman on the carton. At it lay on the living room floor, Braden lay down on it and said “mommy.” That was painful to hear.
Maybe Susan was lying in state on the living room floor after her demise, taking the “long nap” Josh mentioned. He seemed to trip over that when he mentioned it. He started to say it was a long nap, then changed to a regular or average nap, or something like that, as I recall. That may be what caught my attention.
Police served their first search warrant on Josh and Susan Powell’s West Valley City home on the evening of Dec. 8, 2009. Detectives found the cardboard Josh Powell had obtained to cover a window broken by police the day prior sitting on the living room floor. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
I told Michael and Alina that no matter what Susan’s problems were, she did not deserve the death penalty. Neither one has any sympathy for her. Alina is aware, and I think Michael too, that I was in love with Susan, yet neither seems to be sensitive to any feelings I may have in the matter of her possible demise. That they are so anxious to show solidarity with Josh is also troubling.
I suppose in coming years I could have pursued my dream to be with Susan. I had thought that once I make enough money with my music I would be in a position to give her a reason to make the transition. I had hoped that would solve several problems: 1) Susan would be out of a clearly unhappy relationship (and of course I hoped that by that time she would have given up her beliefs in the Mormon Church); 2) I would have what I have wanted for years (and I was concerned that if I struck up a relationship with someone else, I would have to hide my journals about Susan); 3) Josh would be out of an unhappy relationship; and 4) Josh would not have an onerous child-support burden that would be on his shoulders for years, until the boys turn 18, or even 24 while going to school. But it also occurred to me that it could turn out to be the biggest mistake of my life, placing me in the same miserable situation as Josh has been in for years. So in spite of the painful loss, Susan’s death could be providential.
Josh and Susan Powell visited Alder Dam with their sons, Charlie and Braden, during a trip to Washington on Feb. 16, 2009. West Valley City, Utah later located photos from the trip on digital media seized from the Powell family home with a search warrant. Photo: Steve Powell
As for the boys, it pains me to think of them wondering where their mommy is. However, some of the stories Josh told me about how she verbally abused them suggest that they may be better off to suffer the temporary pain and move on. What is even more distressing is the possibility that Josh could go to prison, thus leaving the boys as orphans. If that should happen, the worst thing would be for them to go to live with their grandparents, Chuck and Judy Cox. We all would consider Jenny and Kirk the lesser of two evils as surrogate parents, even though the boys would be brought up in a fanatic-Mormon household. I am sure I would have no claim on the boys, and Terri and Jenny, as well as the Cox grandparents, good Latter-day Saints that they are, would fight any bid I might make for custody.
I feel emotionally depressed, partly because I am so tired. Alina and Michael are 100% for showing solidarity with Josh. I need to be of the same attitude, for the sake of the boys as well as Josh who, after all, is my son. The way his mother and her family treated him while growing up is no excuse for anything he may have done in this matter, but I am not the court or a jury. I am his father.
Steve Powell journal, 8:45 a.m., Dec. 8, 2009
I went into Alina’s room a few minutes ago, to find out if she has heard anything. I was crying. The phone rang and it was Terri. She really sounded distraught. She expressed concern for Josh, which I was glad to hear. She and Jenny are on their way to his place to watch the boys while he goes in to talk to the detective. She said the traffic is so slow because of the snow. He was supposed to be there at 9:00. It is an hour later there, so it is almost 10:00.
Terrica Powell, left, and Alina Powell leave following a memorial for Charlie and Braden Powell at the Life Center Church in Tacoma, Washington, on Feb. 11, 2012. Photo: Ravell Call, Deseret News
Alina mentioned she has mixed feelings about being perfectly straight forward if called on to testify about their relationship. She did not think Susan was quite the bitch Josh made her out to be, and thinks Josh may have helped turn her into a bitch. I can’t disagree with that, and I am with Alina on that. However, I said we should support him in any way we can, partly for the sake of the boys. I would add here that that would be especially true if he does not confess to any crime. In the hands of a good prosecutor circumstantial evidence can yield the death penalty. I doubt Susan is alive, and I doubt Josh’s hands are clean. If he murdered her, I wish he had not. But she did treat him in an almost schizophrenic way, and a person can take only so much.
Steve Powell journal, 10:30 p.m., Dec. 8, 2009
It is so painful to know that I will never see Susan again. I feel like that is reality, in spite of the missing person report that went out to the media today. That’s the way it stacks up in my mind. I feel like Josh did a truly stupid thing, and probably disposed of her body in a very grotesque way. I think he probably went to some former industrial land just west of West Valley City and cremated her. I don’t see how he could live with an image like that in his mind. Her body was beautiful, and she took pains to care for it, and her hair and her face. If she had died naturally at 28 years old, she deserved a satin-lined coffin with her beautiful head resting on a soft pillow.
“A person can take only so much.”
Steve Powell
I am still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that she is dead. I am so tired from a sleepless night and a day of mostly pacing and thinking. Josh has been in interrogation since about 11:00 a.m. Terri said the detectives told her he would be sent home to spend the night. I have not been able to reach him. My understanding is that they left off interrogating him to get a bite to eat, and were going to resume at 6:40 p.m. They could still be grilling him.
I want Josh to be with his boys, but I am also angry with him for murdering such a beautiful woman. She had her problems, and communication was a huge one. But she did not deserve to have her life ended at 28. That he could do such a thing once suggests that he could do it again. If things go too badly, he could murder the boys and hang himself to avoid going to prison and leaving them with the Mormon families that would no doubt take custody of them.
The home of Josh Powell in Graham, Washington, on Feb. 7, 2012. Josh set fire to the home during a court-ordered visit with his sons on Feb. 5, 2012, killing the boys and himself. Photo: Ravell Call, Deseret News
Josh’s life with Susan was utterly miserable, as was hers with him. Why she stayed with him I do not know. Evidently this tragedy is my answer for why Josh hung on. He wanted to do it his way and avoid a messy and costly divorce. I have news for him. This will be a very costly process, and he may lose anyway. Why someone who is otherwise so smart would do something so utterly stupid is beyond me.
Years ago I made up my mind that Josh was, of my kids, capable of doing such a thing. But our conversations of late suggested that I had nothing to worry about, although I thought about it with concern at times. He seemed resolved that doing something so callous would be most disruptive to his and his children’s lives. Now I wish I had talked more about the likelihood that someone involved in such a crime would be caught. If I had only known. If I could only turn back time.
Hear how the Susan Powell case went cold in Episode 17: Cold Case
By May 22, 2013, West Valley City police had received more than 860 tips in the Susan Powell investigation.
The tips ran the gamut, from simple suggestions of where detectives might search for the missing mother, to accounts from self-described psychics of discussions with Susan from beyond the grave.
Sifting out legitimate leads from irrelevant information proved a major undertaking, especially as public interest in the case grew. Many of those tips involved sightings of Josh or Susan Powell in places ranging from Atlanta to Alaska.
The Josh Powell Flying J Sighting
One of the most perplexing reported sightings occurred much closer to where the Powell family lived. It happened at the Flying J truck stop in Lake Point, Utah, just off of Interstate 80.
The Flying J truck stop in Lake Point, Utah sat along the path Josh Powell claimed to have traveled on his way to the Pony Express Trail after midnight on Dec. 7, 2009. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL Newsradio
On January 27, 2010, a woman named Denise called police to report having seen Josh and Susan Powell, as well as their sons Charlie and Braden, at the Flying J on the same night as Josh’s winter camping trip on the Pony Express Trail.
Denise described working the register late on the night of Dec. 6, 2009, as a winter storm began dumping snow.
“It was around midnight, 12:30, and I was busier than normal because of the storm. It was coming down like crazy,” Denise said during an interview for the Cold podcast. “I heard, ‘Hey, Charlie!’ and then I’m waiting for a customer and I’m just kinda waiting for a response to that and I didn’t hear a response.”
A few moments later, a man approached carrying a toddler in one arm. With his free hand, he placed rescue tape on the counter. A woman stepped up beside the man and also set down licorice and crackers.
“So I looked up and I made eye contact with her and then the dad said he said, ‘Hang on a minute let me buy this stuff and then we’ll go camping,’” Denise said. “I looked over at the RV islands that was just over my right shoulder, and there was nobody there. There was no RVs or anything. And I thought, ‘Camping? In this?’ So turned a little bit further and I’d seen the minivan sitting on pump six.”
This map shows the route Josh Powell claimed to have traveled on his trip out to the Pony Express Trail early on the morning of Dec. 7, 2009. The Flying J Travel Center in Lake Point, Utah sits along the route.
Denise rang up the items. While she was doing so, the boy in the man’s arm stirred.
“He looked at his mom and I looked at his little nose — he was just such a cute little man, his little nose was all scrunched up — and I said ‘well he doesn’t look too happy about going camping,’” Denise said. “She did the mom thing, rubbed his little cheeks and smiled and said ‘yeah, he’s pretty tired.’”
The woman took the child from the man and walked over to the doors, where Denise then noticed another, older boy.
The man handed Denise cash to pay for the items and told her to put the change on pump six. Then, he went out into the storm and left.
Josh Powell Flying J Tip Proves Unverifiable
Several weeks elapsed before Denise saw Josh’s face on the news. She believed he was the man she’d seen. Denise told West Valley police she’d seen Josh Powell at the Flying J.
“I am positive. I am positive it was them,” Denise said. “Especially that baby. That little scrunched up nose that was just like Susan’s and her making that direct eye contact with me.”
“They were there. 100% they were there. I believe that in my soul and I will stand by that with my words.”
Denise
However, Denise’s tip proved impossible to verify. West Valley dispatched a detective to interview her.
“When they asked me ‘what took you so long?’ that was gut-wrenching,” Denise said.
Police sought video surveillance, both from the store and from an ATM in the store.
“Much to my surprise, Flying J only kept their film for ten days and then they would record over it again. So it wasn’t available for them,” Denise said.
Denise provided police a description of what the people she’d seen had been wearing that night. However, by that point, images of the Powell family had circulated in news reports.
Denise, a clerk at the Flying J truck stop in Lake Point, Utah, provided this written statement to police in March 2010. Denise claimed to have seen Josh, Susan, Charlie and Braden Powell in the store on the night of Josh Powell’s winter camping trip. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
On March 2, 2010, Denise delivered a hand-written statement describing what she’d seen to West Valley police. She never heard back from them.
“I had a lot of anger issues, frustration with them and stuff because I had such valuable information that I felt was discarded,” Denise said. “It’s been very difficult to deal with over the years. I watch these things that they have on TV, all these stories they have on Susan Powell and stuff and it’s like, ‘That is so not true. She was there. I made eye contact with her.’”
The lead investigator on the Powell case, detective Ellis Maxwell, said tips like Denise’s showed why police kept many of the details of their investigation secret.
“The more information that gets out, that’s more information now you have to sift through in these tips and these leads and trying to identify ‘Okay, is this credible information or this information that they’ve obtained because of information that we’ve released?’”
Josh Powell Sighting at Duces Wild
One tip that made the news early in the investigation led to a lot of speculation about Josh. It came from a man named Sherman, who was a regular at a strip club called Duces Wild in South Salt Lake, Utah.
Sherman, a patron of Duces Wild, told West Valley City police a man he believed to be Josh Powell came to the club on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 2009 and complained of having had a very bad day. Photo: KSL 5 TV
Sherman phoned police on Dec. 14, 2009, a week following Susan Powell’s disappearance. He told them he’d witnessed a disturbance at Duces Wild on the afternoon of Dec. 7. A man who looked like Josh Powell had told Sherman that he’d had a very bad day and had quite a story to tell.
Over the course of the next several days, detectives interviewed the club’s owner, the bartender and another patron who’d interacted with the ‘bad day’ guy.
They learned the disruptive patron had arrived at the club around 2 p.m. and left at approximately 4:30 p.m.
Patrons at the Duces Wild gentleman’s club in South Salt Lake, Utah told police they’d seen a man who looked like Josh Powell making a ruckus at the bar on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 2009. Photo: KSL 5 TV
Josh Powell’s phone records would later show that he was mobile during that time period, using his phone first in West Valley City and then later in Lehi, Utah. The Duces Wild patron could not have been Josh Powell.
But police did not announce that conclusion publicly.
“It just makes the investigation a heck of a lot easier to move forward when you can keep the evidence closed until you come to a resolution,” Ellis said. “I can only imagine if we didn’t keep those records sealed and all the information in those affidavits was released, we would have probably ended up with thousands of more tips and leads that we would have had of wasted resources on for nothing.”
Hear how a tip about a stripper named “Summer” sent police on a goose chase in Episode 16 of Cold: Chasing Leads
West Valley police hopped a plane to Minneapolis, Minnesota in October of 2011. They were interested in speaking with Josh Powell’s youngest brother, Michael, about his car.
Weeks earlier, detectives had located and seized Michael’s 1997 Ford Taurus from Lindell Auto, a salvage yard in Pendleton, Oregon. Michael had sold the car there for $100 on Dec. 23, 2009, just two weeks after the disappearance of Michael’s sister-in-law, Susan Cox Powell.
From left to right: Michael Powell, Steve Powell, Charlie Powell, Josh Powell, Susan Cox Powell. Photo: Powell family files
At the time, Michael Powell was living in Minneapolis. He worked at the University of Minnesota and was also pursuing a PhD in cognitive science there.
The detective and lieutenant who traveled to meet Michael did not warn him that they were coming. During their ambush interview, the police asked Michael about his scrapped car and if it had been involved in transporting Susan’s body.
Retired detective Ellis Maxwell, who was the lead detective on the Powell case, told the Cold podcast Michael Powell refused to talk.
“He wouldn’t answer any questions and he straight told them, like, even if he thought that his brother was involved he wouldn’t tell us anything,” Ellis said.
Request to Apollo Mapping
On Dec. 3, 2011, two months after the unexpected visit with police, Michael Powell went to the website of a Boulder, Colorado company called Apollo Mapping. He entered his personal information into a contact form, along with the message “I am looking for an aerial photo of Pendleton, Oregon taken in October 2011 or later.”
Michael Powell contacted Apollo Mapping on Dec. 3, 2011, hoping to obtain a satellite image of Pendleton, Oregon. Michael had sold his 1997 Ford Taurus to a scrap yard in Pendleton two years earlier.
Katie Nelson, one of the partners and co-owners of Apollo Mapping, responded to Michael’s message by email a few hours later. She said Apollo’s most recent image of the Pendleton, Oregon area dated back to August 2011. She asked if he would like to purchase that satellite image.
Michael responded in the negative, but said he’d be interested if another satellite image taken later than October 2011 became available.
“When he contacted me I just thought he was just a normal guy,” Katie told Cold of the Michael Powell satellite image request. “There was nothing weird about our interaction.”
University of Minnesota
Michael Powell’s email exchange with Apollo Mapping took place on his University of Minnesota email account.
On March 6, 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Alba had signed a search warrant authorizing police access to Michael Powell’s digital data at the university. That included all emails sent and received from his university account since August 16, 2011.
By that point, Josh Powell had been dead for a month, having killed himself and his two sons by setting fire to his rented home in Graham, Wash. Police suspected Josh might have shared information about Susan Powell’s disappearance with Michael, or possibly even enlisted his help with her presumed murder.
The university provided Michael’s digital information to police. While reviewing the internet sessions, police discovered the communication between Apollo Mapping and Michael Powell.
“You pay a lot for the security of knowing that people don’t know your secret.”
Katie Nelson
Detectives had also obtained AAA records that showed Michael’s car actually broke down in Baker City, Oregon, not Pendleton. Michael and his younger sister, Alina Powell, had insisted that AAA tow the Taurus all the way to Pendleton, bypassing several auto shops in Baker City and La Grande, Oregon.
“Made him very suspicious, obviously with being super concerned about this vehicle,” Ellis said. “It is interesting that they went 100 miles north to dispose of it and then him being concerned why it wasn’t smashed and looking for satellite imagery.”
West Valley City, Utah police secured a subpoena to recover Alina Powell’s AAA records, which showed her brother Michael Powell’s car had been towed from Baker City, Oregon to Pendleton, Oregon.
Detective Darrell Dain contacted Katie Nelson at Apollo Mapping about the Michael Powell satellite image request.
“It was kind of surreal, because you don’t really think about yourself being attached to anything like that and I didn’t understand at first sort of the implications of it,” Katie said. “I kind of was like jumped into the middle of something without understanding really what was going on and why it was important and sort of what he was trying to accomplish with this imagery.”
Michael Powell Satellite Image of Lindell Auto
Darrell asked Katie if she would be willing to call Michael, in an attempt to learn what specific area of Pendleton he was attempting to view. She agreed.
Michael Powell hoped to secure satellite imagery of this area in Pendleton, Ore., in an apparent effort to verify if the car he had sold for scrap was still there. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL Newsradio
“I was like ‘I hope I can help you, I hope I can give you more information and get something out of him’ but also going into it knowing that that might not happen,” Katie said. “It’s like a sort of pressure where you know you’re probably going to fail and it was very cloak-and-dagger.”
Darrell traveled to Boulder to meet with Katie and listen in on her phone call with Michael on Sept. 4, 2012.
“I was surprised he came out and took the time, stayed a night in town to come up for something that was kind of, I mean it was a long shot,” Katie said.
Katie called Michael and told him new imagery of Pendleton had come available. She asked if he was still interested and if he could provide precise coordinates or an address for the spot he wanted to view.
“How about the name of the establishment? I don’t know if you go that way,” Michael said.
Katie told him that would work.
“It should be like Lindell’s. Lindell’s junk, Lindell’s junk yard. Oh, Lindell’s Auto Salvage, I bet,” Michael said.
West Valley police recovered Michael Powell’s 1997 Ford Taurus from the Lindell Auto lot in September, 2011. A cadaver dog indicated the possible presence of human decomposition in the trunk area of the car. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
Katie told Michael that she would double-check to make sure the new satellite image showed the Lindell Auto lot and would get back in touch later.
Michael Powell’s Satellite Image Desperation
After Michael hung up the phone, Darrell told Katie that Lindell Auto is where police had located Michael’s car nearly one year prior. A cadaver dog had indicated the presence of decomposition in the trunk.
“It’s just one of those moments where you feel someone’s walked over your grave and you’re like ‘oh, that’s uncomfortable,’” Katie said.
In a subsequent conversation, Katie told Michael Powell the new satellite image only showed part of the Lindell lot. West Valley police records said Michael expressed a desire to purchase a copy of the image.
“So that would have been $437.50,” Katie said. “Rather surprising that someone wants to spend that kind of money but in his desperation, you pay a lot for the security of knowing that people don’t know your secret, which I think is what that was worth to him.”
Hear Michael Powell’s take on Susan Powell’s disappearance in Episode 15 of Cold: Fall of the House of Powell
Josh Powell killed his sons on February 5, 2012. The horrifying murders of two innocent children compounded the already tragic loss of their mother, Susan Cox Powell.
This episode of the Cold podcast tells the story of the day Josh Powell murdered Susan’s sons. On this page, we honor the memories of Susan, Charlie and Braden by sharing photos of them from happier times. Many of these photos have not previously been shared publicly.
“I don’t want Charlie and Braden to lose a married mother and father. But more importantly I know they should have HAPPY parents.”
Susan Powell
“I love my boys, I live for them and I choose not to cheat or do drugs because I wouldn’t want to risk losing them.”
Susan Powell
“I try so hard to at least about 10 times a day tell my children ‘I love you, you are my favorite!’”
Susan Powell
“I cherish my boys but realize they’ll grow up and move on.”
Susan Powell
“I love you Charlie and Braden and I’m sorry you’ve seen how wrong/messed up our marriage is. I would never leave you!”
Susan Powell
A community finds comfort following the loss of Charlie and Braden Powell in Episode 14 of Cold: Killing Susan’s Sons
Pendleton, Oregon didn’t figure as a key location in the story of Josh and Susan Powell. It was, at most, a place they would stop for gas during occasional road trips to visit family in Puyallup, Washington.
Pendleton, Oregon as seen from the Deadman Pass viewing area along Interstate 84. Josh and Susan Powell sometimes stopped for gas in Pendleton during drives between Utah and Washington. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL Newsradio
That changed in 2011 when West Valley City police learned Josh Powell’s youngest brother, Michael Powell, had sold his 1997 Ford Taurus at an auto salvage lot in Pendleton just two weeks after Susan Powell’s Dec. 7, 2009 disappearance.
Michael stopped at Lindell Auto on Dec. 22, 2009, looking to unload his car. He claimed it had developed a transmission problem.
Michael Powell’s Car at Lindell Auto
Lindell Auto is well known in eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. The owner and operator, Dave Lindell, told the Cold podcast his business had been in the family since his dad first bought it in 1963.
Dave Lindell stands at the front desk of his shop, Lindell Auto, on March 13, 2018. Lindell purchased Michael Powell’s car as salvage in December, 2009. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL Newsradio
Lindell advertises auto wrecking services, but that’s just one part of the operation.
“We run an automotive recycling, auto parts scrapping, towing type business,” Lindell said. “We do a variety of things with cars, and we sell some used cars. We’re in a small town and you might have to do several different things to make it all kind of band together.”
It wasn’t at all unusual for people to show up at the Lindell Auto lot near the Umatilla River looking to unload broken-down vehicles.
Michael Powell sold his car to Dave Lindell for $100 at Lindell Auto on Dec. 23, 2009. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL Newsradio
“We have customers all over on a regional basis somewhat, out of other towns, within a decent distance,” Dave said. “It keeps us pretty busy.”
As a result, Michael Powell didn’t stand out much from the crowd.
“I can remember him being kind of a clean cut, decent looking, normal run of the mill kind of guy,” Dave said. “Maybe a thirty-something, young thirties, something like that. Looked like he had a job. Looked like he probably had some responsibilities and needed to get somewhere in a hurry.”
The Taurus was more than 10 years old at that point and supposedly not in running order. Dave offered Michael $100 for the car. Michael accepted the offer on the spot.
“I bought the car and didn’t think much about it,” Dave said. “Had the title, paid him. Time went by, we sold a few parts off the car.”
Michael Powell carries a bird perch out of Josh and Susan Powell’s West Valley City, Utah home on Dec. 19, 2009. Michael had traveled to Utah on Dec. 12, 2009 to assist his brother after Susan’s disappearance. Photo: KSL 5 TV
Dave didn’t think much about that clean-cut man with the Ford Taurus again until September 2011, when he received a phone call from a detective from West Valley City, Utah.
“All the sudden the West Valley police department showed up from Utah, asking about a car that I got from Michael Powell,” Dave said.
Police Discovery of the Car
West Valley police were approaching the two-year anniversary of Susan Powell’s disappearance and still lacked any solid piece of physical evidence to link her husband to her presumed murder.
However, at that time the investigation was by no means cold. Detectives had secured a wiretap on the phones of Josh Powell and his father, Steve Powell.
They had just gone public with a search of mines in Ely, Nevada and served a search warrant at Steve’s home in South Hill, Washington. They were preparing to launch another major desert search at Topaz Mountain, Utah, hoping to find human remains.
“He might have thought he was selling it to somebody who’d just run down and squish it right away.”
Dave Lindell
Dave Lindell knew about the case.
“I was aware of the Powell murder just through the news,” Dave said. “I pay attention to those kind of stories and I’d kind of read pretty much what had happened in Seattle and what had happened with Josh’s dad.”
In the midst of all that, West Valley City police had learned of Michael Powell’s stop at Lindell Auto.
This map shows the location of Lindell Auto in Pendleton, Oregon, in reference to Josh and Susan Powell’s West Valley City, Utah home and Steve Powell’s Puyallup, Washington home.
“An intel analyst of ours at West Valley, phenomenal intel analyst, she came across this information and got it right to us and we followed up on it right away,” Ellis Maxwell said.
Ellis, the now-retired lead detective on the Susan Powell case, figured it was a long shot to hope the Michael Powell car might still be in Pendleton.
To his surprise, it was.
West Valley City police obtained records the day after serving a search warrant at Steve Powell’s home on Aug. 25, 2011 showing Michael Powell had sold his car in Pendleton, Oregon just two weeks after Susan Powell disappeared. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
“It was a 10-year-old car,” Dave said. “We don’t keep 10-year-old cars very often for very long. But just that one had managed to stick around. In fact, I probably had told my guys at the time, if they’d come probably another three months later, it wouldn’t have been there.”
Cadaver Dog Hits on the Ford Taurus
West Valley dispatched another detective, David Greco, to Pendleton with a cadaver dog.
This Sept. 20, 2011 photo shows a cadaver dog, named Tug, sniffing the inside of Michael Powell’s 1997 Ford Taurus at the Lindell Auto lot in Pendleton, Oregon. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
“We dug up the paperwork, which is pretty easy,” Dave said. “They gave me the VIN number. I went back by the VIN number. Pulled the file on the car, and I could see where the paperwork had come from and what it was. And I started to put the picture together in my head that this was to do with that Michael Powell.”
Dave Lindell took the West Valley team out to his lot, pointing out where they could find the Taurus.
The dog’s handler let his animal loose.
“And this dog went directly, didn’t hesitate, didn’t stop at any other vehicles, went directly to Michael Powell’s vehicle,” Ellis said.
West Valley City police brought a cadaver dog to the Lindell Auto lot on Sept. 20, 2011. The dog, named Tug, showed particular interest in the trunk of Michael Powell’s car. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
That was a surprising result, considering many of the wrecked vehicles that turn up in salvage yards like Lindell Auto have been involved in injury crashes.
“So you’re gonna have blood and stuff like that in those vehicles,” Ellis said.
The dog, named Tug, sniffed around the rear end of the Taurus and then sat. That’s what Tug was trained to do when he’d detected the odor of cadaver.
Search and Seizure
Detective Greco returned to the Lindell Auto office.
“They said they got a hit on it,” Dave said. “Then they said, ‘Well, we’re gonna load that car up and take it back to Utah.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ ‘Cause it was like, I was kinda shocked by the whole thing.”
Dave told the police he had already submitted paperwork to the state of Oregon to have the car declared destroyed.
“I had to figure out what was going on,” Dave said. “I called our police chief and says, ‘so, can they just take this car?’ And he said, ‘yeah, you gotta give them that car.’”
The next day, on Sept. 21, 2011, West Valley police returned to Lindell Auto with a flatbed tow truck. They put a sheet of cardboard over the missing front passenger door, wrapped it in place with plastic and drove away.
West Valley City police took Michael Powell’s 1997 Ford Taurus from the Lindell Auto lot on Sept. 21, 2011 and drove it back to Utah for forensic testing. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
Dave Lindell was left wondering if a key piece of evidence in a murder case from two states away had sat on his lot for the better part of two years.
“We had no idea that it was in our possession at all,” Dave said. “It had just been sitting out there. I mean anything could have happened to it in the meantime.”
As for Michael Powell, Dave couldn’t help but question what his motive had been for dumping the car midway between Utah and Washington.
“He might have thought he was selling it to somebody who’d just run it down there and squish it right away,” Dave said. “When we checked the car out, we couldn’t really find that much wrong with the car. … I said, ‘Well, he said there was something major going on but everything I find on this car, I don’t find what he’s talking about.’”
Hear what Michael Powell had to say in his brother’s defense in Episode 13 of Cold: 4theKidzz
She, her husband Josh and their two sons Charlie, 4, and Braden, 2, had departed on the afternoon of Saturday, May 30, 2009 for an overnight camping trip in Utah’s West Desert.
Topaz Mountain is a prominent rockhounding destination in Utah’s West Desert. Several small quarry sites sit in an amphitheater on its southern flank. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL Newsradio
Josh intended to take his boys to a popular rockhounding site called the Dugway Geode Beds. However, he’d made an error in navigation while on the way there. Instead of turning north after crossing Dugway Pass on the Pony Express Trail, he’d turned south.
Josh then drove the family’s 2005 Chrysler Town and Country minivan up a rocky path.
“We kept climbing/driving up, I felt like at points he van was pointed straight up and gravity would take its course,” Susan later wrote. “We found this white quarry and I found out later that it had real topaz in it.”
Susan Powell uploaded these thumbnail photos to her Facebook page following a family camping trip in Utah’s West Desert on May 30-31, 2009. Many of the images were captured at a mining claim called Solar Wind #1.
Susan’s three-page account of the trip led many people to speculate after her disappearance that the place she’d described was Topaz Mountain, another rockhounding destination well south of the Pony Express Trail.
However, Cold recently confirmed that assumption was incorrect.
The Solar Wind Claim
Dave Stemmons with Topaz Mountain Adventures owns mining claims in the Thomas Range and is familiar with the area. On Jan. 2, 2019, he suggested to Cold that Susan might have instead have been describing a mining claim much closer to the Dugway Geode Beds.
Geographic features in Cold’s photo (right) show Susan Powell’s May 30, 2009 photo (left) had to have been taken from the Solar Wind #1 claim at the northern end of the Thomas Range
Cold used photos Susan had posted to Facebook in 2009 to independently confirm the location was that claim.
Bureau of Land Management records indicate the claim was titled Solar Wind #1. The Solar Wind claim sat just a half-mile south of the Pony Express Trail, on the opposite side of the Thomas Range as Topaz Mountain.
Susan Powell’s photographs reveal she and her family visited a mining claim near the Pony Express Trail called Solar Wind #1 on May 30, 2009. Many people have incorrectly assumed based on her photographs that the Powell family had instead been at Topaz Mountain.
In her typed account, Susan had also described encountering a rattlesnake near the Solar Wind quarry while walking hand-in-hand with Braden. She’d screamed, then brought Josh and Charlie over to the spot.
“The snake started to rattle, and Josh just stood there explaining to the boys, and then it retreated into its huge rock and Josh tossed a rock at it as it continued to rattle.”
Simpson Springs
Josh had taken his boys camping in the West Desert at least once before. Photos later recovered by police from one of Josh Powell’s computers showed he visited Simpson Springs with Charlie and Braden earlier in 2009, without Susan.
West Valley City, Utah police recovered this image from one of Josh Powell’s digital devices. It shows his sons, Charlie and Braden, during an outing to Simpson Springs on the Pony Express Trail in early 2009. Photo: Powell family files
Susan referenced Josh’s earlier desert outing with the boys in an email dated June 29, 2009. She described overhearing a telephone conversation between her husband and his dad, Steve Powell.
“I heard him say ‘no, Susan didn’t go camping with us that time,’” Susan wrote. “Then he said ‘yeah, I just found some people and bummed off their campfire so I didn’t have to build my own.’”
Charlie Powell Interview
West Valley City detective Kim Waelty interviewed Charlie Powell on Dec. 8, 2009, the day after his mother’s disappearance. During the interview, Charlie made several perplexing comments.
Det. Waelty asked Charlie about the camping trip Josh had taken he and his brother Braden on two nights prior. Charlie said he’d flown on an airplane to Dinosaur National Park.
Charlie also said that his mom had stayed where the pretty crystals are, adding that crystals are colorful and grow inside of rocks.
West Valley City police detective Kim Waelty interviewed Charlie Powell, 4, about his Dec. 7, 2009 camping trip with his dad and brother the day after they returned home.
Police later learned that the Powell family had gone on a different camping trip the prior August, to Dinosaur National Monument. It seemed likely that Charlie had blurred several different trips together in his mind.
West Valley City, Utah police recovered this image from one of Josh Powell’s digital devices. It shows his wife, Susan, and their oldest son, Charlie, at Dinosaur National Monument during a family camping trip in August, 2009. Photo: Powell family files
At the time, police supposed Charlie’s talk of crystals might have referred to a mine or to the Dugway Geode Beds. Detectives made their first sweep of the geode beds later that week. They returned for a more thorough check in February 2010.
On April 17, 2010, Josh’s father Steve Powell made an entry in his digital journal.
“This afternoon Charlie commented that ‘Mommy is lost in the desert,’” Steve wrote. “Josh and Michael were also present, so we all heard it.”
By that point, Susan had been missing for just over four months. Josh and his sons had been living in Steve’s South Hill, Wash. home for three months, along with Josh’s younger siblings John, Michael and Alina.
“Please, please, please don’t search near Rattlesnake Rock.”
Steve Powell, quoting Michael Powell
At the time, news media were reporting on plans for a large public search for Susan in the Simpson Springs area of Utah’s West Desert.
“Michael has joked that Josh should make a comment like Brer Rabbit, such as ‘search anywhere, in West Valley, in Simpson Springs, in Salt Lake City, but please, please, please don’t search near Rattlesnake Rock,’” Steve wrote.
West Valley City police discovered that journal entry after seizing several computers and hard drives from Steve Powell’s home during a search warrant raid on Aug. 25, 2011.
Detectives had gathered intelligence during Operation Tsunami that suggested Josh might have disposed of Susan’s body near the Dugway Geode Beds or Topaz Mountain.
On Sept. 12, 2011, police launched a major effort to scour the region surrounding Topaz Mountain using cadaver dogs. They began near the geode beds, then moved down to the southeastern side of the Thomas Range.
Officials search in the area of Topaz Mountain, Juab County as they follow up on information regarding the Susan Powell missing person investigation, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011. Photo: Ravell Call, Deseret News
Several of the cadaver dogs indicated at a small pile of rocks on the eastern flank of Topaz Mountain on Sept. 14, 2011.
This Sept. 15, 2011 photo shows a possible grave site near Topaz Mountain in Utah’s West Desert. Police excavated the site during their search for the remains of Susan Powell. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
West Valley police announced that the dogs had located “human remains.”
“When the news reports started about this information, investigators intercepted numerous calls regarding the search,” one detective wrote in a warrant affidavit. “Conversations by Joshua Steven Powell again affirmatively indicated the police would not find Susan Marie Powell at that location.”
Detectives had been monitoring Josh and Steve Powell’s phone calls since Aug. 16, 2011. However, the court order authorizing the wiretap was set to expire as the Topaz Mountain search was unfolding. Police immediately requested and received a 30-day extension from Utah’s Third District Court.
Human Remains near Topaz Mountain
Police spent Sept. 15-17, 2011 excavating the supposed gravesite and sifting through the dirt for any sign of human remains. They succeeded in locating only some fragments of charred wood. Once they removed the wood from the pit, the cadaver dogs lost interest in the site.
Charred wood found during a search near Topaz Mountain in the Susan Cox Powell investigation. Photo: Pat Reavy, Deseret News
Police delivered the cinders to the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner for forensic testing. Those tests did not detect any DNA.
The cadaver dog search around Topaz Mountain continued until Sept. 22, 2011. GPS tracks obtained by Cold show that by that point, the dog teams had made a complete circuit around the Thomas Range. They did not locate any other sites of significant interest.
This map shows tracks and waypoints recorded by West Valley City, Utah police and supporting law enforcement agencies during their September, 2011 search of the Topaz Mountain area. Cold has added the Solar Wind #1 claim Josh and Susan Powell visited on May 30, 2009 for reference.
However, the tracks also show only one dog made a pass through the Solar Wind claim during the Topaz Mountain search.
Hear what Susan Cox Powell’s dad, Chuck Cox, carried home from the pit in Episode 12 of Cold: Topaz Mountain
Steve Powell’s public flaunting of his missing daughter-in-law Susan Powell’s childhood journals proved to be a major miscalculation on his part.
He went on NBC’s “Today” show on July 14, 2011 to share his theory that Susan had “absconded” to Brazil with another missing person, Steven Koecher. He showed the TV camera crew the journals, which he and his son Josh Powell had scanned, transcribed, annotated and started to publish online.
This Aug. 25, 2011 image shows one of several volumes of Susan Powell’s childhood journals which police seized during a search warrant raid at the home of Steve Powell. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
“Them coming forth with the media and letting the media into Steven Powell’s home was great,” retired West Valley City, Utah police detective Ellis Maxwell said in an interview for the Cold podcast. “I was like ‘right on’ because that’s what I needed to get inside Steve’s house.”
A Multi-State Operation
Ellis Maxwell had developed a close relationship with Pierce County Sheriff’s detective Gary Sanders in the year-and-a-half since Josh Powell had relocated from West Valley City, Utah to his father’s home in South Hill, Wash. The two detectives had collaborated on several prior operations connected to the disappearance of Josh’s wife, Susan, on Dec. 7, 2009.
“West Valley was calling the shots,” Gary said. “We were just the auxiliary team, I guess you might call it, assisting them.”
However, in August of 2011, Ellis provided Gary with the even more inside information about his investigation.
“Yes, we wanted Josh to see this on the news and see what he had to say about it.”
Ellis Maxwell
Police planning documents obtained exclusively by Cold revealed West Valley police had conceived of a major multi-state operation they code-named “Operation Tsunami.” It hinged on the use of a court-authorized wiretap to monitor phone calls made and received on three phone lines: Josh Powell’s mobile, Steve Powell’s mobile and the landline at the Powell family home.
Ellis Maxwell declined to discuss specifics of the Operation Tsunami plan when interviewed for Cold, citing a need to protect police tactics.
[Editor’s note: Cold independently gained access to many of the wiretap records. Details of what they contained are included in the bonus episode Justice Delayed.]
West Valley Police Sgt. Mike Powell leaves a press conference about new developments in the Susan Powell case in Ely, Nev. on Aug. 19, 2011. Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Operation Tsunami was to include a series of coordinated events that would prompt discussion between Josh and Steve Powell, including a public search of abandoned mines near Ely, Nev. and a “Remember Me” honk-and-wave event in the area of Puyallup, Wash.
West Valley needed Pierce County’s assistance with perhaps the biggest piece of the Operation Tsunami plan: a search warrant raid at the Powell house.
Probable Cause for Operation Tsunami
Gary’s search warrant affidavit spelled out why police believed Josh Powell had committed the crimes of murder, kidnapping and obstruction. It explained that Susan’s journals held potential evidence of those crimes, as they likely included her first-hand perspective on her relationship with Josh.
West Valley police had asked Josh and Steve Powell to voluntarily turn over the journals in November of 2010, a request which the father and son had refused.
Pierce County Sheriff’s detective Gary Sanders authored this affidavit supporting a search warrant for Steve Powell’s house in August, 2011. The primary target of the search warrant was Susan Powell’s childhood journals.
“With the lack of cooperation and criminally obstructive behavior from Steven and Joshua Powell refusing to provide the journals to law enforcement,” Gary wrote, “a search warrant must be executed to recover this evidence and in addition, any and all digital copies.”
Susan Cox Powell’s journals were not the only target of the warrant affidavit. It also sought digital media, images or papers that might contain passwords for Josh’s encrypted files, photographs or videos, trace evidence and “any items determined to be evidence of the crimes listed” that would help detectives complete their investigation.
A Pierce County Superior Court judge issued the warrant on Aug. 24, 2011. West Valley police, with the assistance of Pierce County deputies, U.S. Marshals and FBI agents, served it the following day.
The Puyallup Raid
Ellis and Gary led the service of the warrant together. They and a team of more than 20 law enforcement officers swarmed the house at 18615 94th Ave. Court East in the early afternoon.
“Hot day,” Gary said. “I remember because the house didn’t have A/C and it was a huge house.”
Josh Powell was at home with his sons, Charlie and Braden, as well as two of his younger siblings, John and Alina Powell. The police ordered them all out of the house.
Steve Powell was not at home, having traveled to the Tri-Cities area of Washington to investigate a business opportunity.
West Valley City, Utah police helped arrange a business meeting for Steve Powell in Kennewick, Wash. on the same day detectives were serving a search warrant at Powell’s house in South Hill. This was part of a strategy aimed at getting Powell and his son, Josh, talking on their cell phones.
Ellis declined to confirm if that business meeting was arranged by police, again refusing to discuss operational details.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Ellis said. “I don’t know if it was valid or not. I wasn’t there for that business meeting.”
However, the documents obtained by Cold revealed that business meeting was, in fact, part of the Operation Tsunami plan.
The detectives told Josh he was free to leave, but they would not be able to release his minivan until they’d searched it. Josh, John, Alina and the boys waited in the yard.
“We were hoping to get some more information from Josh but he just, he wouldn’t talk to us,” Ellis said.
Josh Powell provided police with a USB key “token” required to boot his desktop computer, as well as a user name and password needed to access his laptop on Aug. 25, 2011. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
Josh also handed over a USB device, a “token” without which his desktop computer would not boot.
As soon as police completed a search of Josh’s minivan, he left the house.
Steve Powell’s House of Horrors
The detectives made a methodical, room-by-room search of the Powell family home.
Many of the rooms and hallways were clogged with clutter. Shelves of Steve Powell’s books lined the walls in many of the rooms.
Clutter, boxes and bookshelves made service of a search warrant at Steve Powell’s Washington home on Aug. 25, 2011 difficult. Police were looking for evidence related to the disappearance of Susan Powell, as well as any possible passwords for her husband Josh Powell’s digital devices. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
“A hoarder is your biggest nightmare on a search warrant, just because you know you have to go through every item,” Gary Sanders said. “If you’re not being thorough, you’re not doing a good investigation.”
The main floor of the house held the kitchen, dining space, Steve’s office or music room, a back office space and the garage. All of the bedrooms in the house were on the upper level.
Josh’s bedroom was among the neatest in the house. Police found several interesting items there, including a multi-camera security system, draft documents for the susanpowell.org website and a banker’s box containing nine volumes of Susan’s childhood journals.
Josh Powell set up this multi-camera security camera system at his father Steve Powell’s home. It was active on Aug. 25, 2011, when police raided the home with a search warrant. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
The camera system showed views of the front porch, the driveway and the side yard of the house. Its screen was positioned so that Josh could have monitored all of the live feeds simultaneously from his bed.
“I think he was starting to, he was getting worried,” Gary said. “They knew something was coming.”
Charlie and Braden shared a bedroom. It held a single futon, a children’s play table and a few toys. Steve Powell’s book collection took up most of the space in the boys’ room.
Three large bookshelves occupied much of the space in the bedroom used by Charlie and Braden Powell. Police noted while serving a search warrant on Aug. 25, 2011 that it didn’t look like a typical child’s bedroom. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
Alina’s bedroom held few items of interest, aside from her computers. Detectives observed that one of her laptops was powered on and logged in and appeared to be running file eraser and encryption software.
West Valley police detective Brad Hardinger located a wireless router in Alina’s bedroom and disconnected it to ensure no one could remotely log in to any of the machines on the network.
John Powell’s bedroom presented police a significant challenge. Stacks of boxes filled the floor. Clothing was scattered about, along with piles of used tissues. John’s art projects also caught the attention of detectives.
Police located this art project in the bedroom of John Powell while serving a search warrant at his father Steve Powell’s home on Aug. 25, 2011. It included a paper creature and what appeared to be a hangman’s noose. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
“It had a noose, had a giant paper pterodactyl that was hanging,” Gary said. “His drawings of swords through women’s vaginas, just weird depictions and stuff.”
Even more bizarre were collections of what appeared to be toenail clippings and a bag of hair.
This bag of hair was one of several perplexing items located in the bedroom of John Powell when police served a search warrant at his father Steve Powell’s home on Aug. 25, 2011. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
“It was a house of horrors when we went through there,” Gary said.
They hadn’t even started going through Steve Powell’s bedroom.
Hear what Steve Powell had to say about the raid in Episode 11 of Cold: Operation Tsunami
Josh and Susan Powell’s first child, Charlie Powell, was a bright and curious boy.
Even at the young age of five, Charlie had a fascination with the natural world. He collected bugs, memorized facts about reptiles and dinosaurs.
This 2007 family photo shows Charlie Powell reading a book to his younger brother, Braden Powell. Their mother, Susan Cox Powell, sits just out of frame to the right. Photo: Powell family personal files
Tammy Forman taught Charlie in kindergarten at Carson Elementary School.
“He was really interested in rocks,” Tammy said in an interview for the Cold podcast. “He was kind of obsessed about worms and wanted to name every worm he’d ever run over with his bike, for some reason.”
Yet, there were also signs that Charlie Powell was haunted by the loss of his mother.
Charlie Powell on How to Kill a Bear
Josh Powell moved with his boys from West Valley City, Utah to the outskirts of Puyallup, Washington in early January of 2010, just weeks following the disappearance of his wife, Susan Powell.
That summer, he enrolled Charlie in summer camp programs at the Mel Korum Family YMCA.
Josh Powell enrolled his sons, Charlie and Braden, in summer camp programs at the Mel Korum Family YMCA in 2010. Charlie made several comments that caught the attention of staff members. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL
It didn’t take long before staff members learned who Charlie was and about the troubling circumstances of his home life. Their concern for his wellbeing grew throughout the summer, as he made a series of odd statements.
On Aug. 19, 2010, Charlie told a pair of counselors about the best way to kill a bear.
Two summer camp counselors at the Mel Korum Family YMCA wrote this statement to document a concerning story told by 5-year-old Charlie Powell about how to kill a bear
Just shy of a week later, on Aug. 24, 2010, Charlie explained during a campfire activity that it was important to kill Mormons.
A counselor at the Mel Korum Family YMCA wrote this statement about a troubling comment from Charlie Powell about killing Mormons on Aug. 24, 2010. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
Charlie Powell wasn’t alone in raising eyebrows at the YMCA.
On Aug. 4, 2010, Josh Powell told one of the YMCA managers that he wanted to make sure his missing wife, Susan, would not be able to pick up their boys. The statement baffled the manager, who spoke to Cold but asked that she not be publicly identified.
A manager at the Mel Korum Family YMCA provided this statement about an Aug. 4, 2010 conversation with Josh Powell to West Valley City, Utah police.
West Valley City, Utah police, who were investigating Susan Powell’s disappearance as a likely murder, later collected statements from all of the YMCA staff members who had interacted with Josh or Charlie.
Charlie Powell at Carson Elementary
At the end of that same summer, Charlie enrolled in kindergarten at Carson Elementary School. His father, Josh, harangued the faculty to make sure they would not allow Susan Powell or her family anywhere near his son.
Josh Powell delivered this letter to Carson Elementary School on Sept. 19, 2010, ordering the faculty to keep “outsiders” away from his son, Charlie. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
The command seemed strange to Charlie’s teacher, Tammy Forman.
“I was certain that Josh had killed Susan and it was really creepy to me that one of the first things he had said to me was ‘Their mom is not allowed to see them,’” Tammy said. “Once I found out who he was, I thought ‘If you killed her, why would you even be saying that? Why would that be an issue for you?’”
Josh Powell caused concern for some faculty members at Carson Elementary School during 2010 and 2011. He at one point attempted to join the school’s PTA, over protests from other parents. Photo: Dave Cawley, KSL
Tammy appreciated Charlie for his inquisitive mind and love of science. He didn’t seem to make friends easily, but neither did he seem depressed or mopey.
“Even in the classroom, he could be sitting by other kids but he was completely engrossed in whatever he was doing and not paying attention to the kids around him,” Tammy said.
One day during free time, Tammy noticed Charlie coloring with a crayon. She asked what he was drawing. Charlie told her it was a gun.
Charlie Powell drew this picture during “choice time” while in kindergarten at Carson Elementary. He told his teacher, Tammy Forman, that it was a gun. Photo: West Valley City, Utah police
“He drew it kind of upside down so when I first saw it, it looked like people on a mountain or something,” Tammy said. “I right away felt very uncomfortable. Sent him off to the counselor. That poor counselor.”
Another day, Charlie overheard a classmate say that his mom was dead. Charlie marched over to the other boy’s table and shouted that his mom wasn’t dead, she was just away from her parents because they had abused her.
Tammy went to try and comfort Charlie after he had calmed down a bit.
“I asked if he was feeling better.’ He said ‘I’m feeling a little better because I’m really smart and I can figure out a way for liars like this student to go to jail for fourteen years,’” Tammy said.
Tammy Forman, who taught Charlie Powell in kindergarten at Carson Elementary School, shares her impressions of Charlie as a student. Video: Sean Estes, KSL 5 TV
West Valley City police gathered statements from Tammy, just as they had from the YMCA staff.
Puyallup Gem and Mineral Club
Josh Powell began taking both Charlie and his younger brother Braden to meetings of the Puyallup Gem and Mineral Club after encountering their booth at the Washington State Fair in September of 2010.
The club’s vice president, Nancy, noticed the new arrivals.
“Originally he was this nice guy. And he just seemed like a nice young man.”
Nancy, on meeting Josh Powell
“I didn’t even know who he was. And I would look at the little boys and I would think, ‘Where’s your mommy?’” Nancy said. “Then I’d just put it like ‘Well maybe they’re separated and he’s got custody every other week and this is where they go because it’s something to do, rather than just stay home on a Friday.’”
It didn’t take long before another club member set Nancy straight.
“Then I went home and I watched the TV, or you know I pulled it up on the internet and there his face is,” Nancy said. “I literally cried because, first off, that’s where’s your mommy. That was answered.”
Nancy asked that her last name not be used in Cold, out of concern for her privacy.
“I got frightened,” Nancy said. “I sent an email out to the board members and I said, ‘Don’t ever leave me alone with him again.’”
The vice president of the Puyallup Gem and Mineral Club sent this email to Washington DSHS social worker Forest Jacobson on Oct. 17, 2011. She shared concerns over Josh Powell’s parenting skills
Josh brought his boys to every meeting and several field trips, even though he was advised the trips were not safe for young children. He allowed the boys to use potentially dangerous tools, like rock tumblers, without supervision.
Nancy crafted new rules requiring young children to have an adult with them to take part in any hands-on activities.
“He went to the back where the kids would meet once a month — the kids had a special meeting spot — and I guess he came unglued with a gal that ran the kids group at the time,” Nancy said. “Just angry and saying ‘That’s not fair!’”
Nancy drafted a letter to Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services as a result of these and other experiences. She suggested Josh be required to take “extensive parenting classes.”
“I am doing this for Susan,” Nancy wrote.
Hear how police tried to use an undercover officer to get Josh talking in Episode 10 of Cold: Charlie
