Josh Powell had gone for an unexpected winter camping trip.
West Valley City, Utah police detective Ellis Maxwell was getting tired of waiting.
When Josh Powell returned home with his two sons on the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, he found the detective waiting for him.
“He clearly can’t get into his driveway with all the cop cars and everything,” Ellis Maxwell said. “I approach the passenger side of the vehicle and he rolls down the window and I ask him, ‘where the hell have you been?’”
Josh told Ellis he’d gone out to Utah’s West Desert with the boys, ages 2 and 4, even as a significant snowstorm was sweeping across the region. Josh expressed surprise over hearing his wife, Susan was nowhere to be found.
The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell
Debbie Caldwell, the Powell family’s daycare provider, had sounded the alarm that morning when the boys, Charlie and Braden, failed to arrive at her home as scheduled.
Police learned neither Josh nor Susan Powell had showed up for their shifts at work. Calls to both of their cell phones had gone straight to voicemail.
Officers feared the whole family might have been overcome by carbon monoxide gas. They’d broken a window to gain access to their home.
The house, on a quiet cul-de-sac called Sarah Circle, had been empty.
Officers found no sign of a struggle. They noticed family’s minivan was missing from the garage. When Ellis walked through the house, he found Susan Cox Powell’s purse sitting on the bedroom dresser.
“Her wallet’s in there, her ID’s in there, her keys are in there,” Ellis said. “You could tell there’s no credit cards missing or anything like that. No cash is missing. She had jewelry in the bathroom and the bedroom. None of that appeared to be missing.”
In the living room, Ellis noticed two box fans blowing air at a damp spot on the couch. It appeared as though the couch had recently been cleaned.
Josh Powell Camping Trip Alibi
Josh Powell’s return with the boys should have come as a relief. There was a problem though. Susan Powell was still missing. Josh said he had no idea where she was.
Detective Ellis Maxwell asked Josh to accompany him to the West Valley City police department’s west side substation for an interview that evening.
Ellis pressed Josh for details about the camping trip. Josh said he’d left his home between 1:30 and 2 a.m. that morning, driving his minivan down the Pony Express Trail.
“How far down the Pony Express did you go?” Ellis asked.
“Not very far. Maybe 20 miles. I don’t know,” Josh said.
Josh said he’d pulled off to the south side of the dirt road and made camp at about 4 a.m. He’d slept until about 7 a.m., then woke up and started a fire to make s’mores with Charlie and Braden.
That’s when he said he’d realized it was Monday, not Sunday, and that he’d missed work. Instead of rushing home to beg forgiveness, he’d wandered “all over the place” with the boys.
“We drove further out the Pony Express to that campground and we turned around. When it got old, we drove back,” Josh said.
Recreating the Josh Powell Camping Trip
Josh Powell’s story seemed a poor alibi. After all, what father takes his 2 and 4-year-old children out of bed at 2 a.m., to go camping in subfreezing cold? Surely, Susan Powell would have protested.
In order to test the timeline provided by Josh, I attempted to recreate his trip in early December, 2017.
I departed from Sarah Circle at around 2 a.m., just as Josh said he’d done. I drove north on 5600 West until I reached I-80, then headed west on the freeway. At Lake Point, I exited the freeway and headed south through the Tooele and Rush Valleys.
A cold wind howled as I turned off Utah State Route 36 onto the dusty, washboarded Pony Express Road. I drove about 20 miles down the dark trail, with only the lights from the nearby Dugway Proving Ground, an Army base, on the horizon.
About a mile or so shy of Simpson Springs, I left the Pony Express Trail on a rocky two-track path and parked near a well-used campfire ring. The 85-mile trek took just shy of two hours.
Like Josh, I went to sleep in the back of my car at about 4 a.m. I awoke about three hours later, bleary-eyed.
The trip proved that Josh’s timeline did work.
Josh Powell’s Carwash
Josh Powell told detective Ellis Maxwell that he’d stopped to wash his minivan at a carwash on the north side of Main Street in Lehi on the way home from the camping trip. Only one carwash matches his description. It sits at the corner of Main Street and 100 East.
Josh Powell stopping to clean his minivan in Lehi, 30 miles south of his home in West Valley City, didn’t make much sense at that time. Slush, salt and grime were still covering the roads thanks to that morning’s snowstorm. However, it would have been a wise move if he’d feared mud splattered on the wheel wells and body panels might give away exactly where he’d stopped in the West Desert.
At the conclusion of their interview, detective Ellis Maxwell asked Josh if he could search his minivan. Josh agreed.
The minivan was packed with supplies. Those included a shovel, rake, broom, electrical circular saw, folding hand saw, box cutter, gas-powered generator, plastic gas can, space heaters, humidifier, tarps, sled, fire extinguisher and more.
In particular, Ellis noticed a plastic tote containing camping supplies.
“Just ridiculous amounts of unopened camping equipment that you would find in Kmart or Walmart,” Ellis said. “This guy has all kinds of stuff back there.”
The most interesting discovery, though, came from the center console.
Ellis Maxwell’s partner found a pink Motorola cell phone buried deep in the storage area between the driver and front passenger seats.
“Then I say to him, I’m like, ‘Josh, why do you have Susan’s cell phone?’” Ellis asked.
Hear how Josh Powell responded in Episode 4 of Cold: Find Susan
Episode credits
Research, writing, hosting and production: Dave Cawley
Production assistance: Danielle Prager, Adam Mason
Additional voices: Kristen Sorensen (as Susan Powell), Eric Openshaw (as Josh Powell), Ken Fall (as Steve Powell)
Cold main score composition: Michael Bahnmiller
Cold main score mixing: Dan Blanck
Supplemental music: Dave Cawley
KSL executive producers: Sheryl Worsley, Keira Farrimond
Episode transcript: https://thecoldpodcast.com/season-1-transcript/find-susan-cox-powell-full-transcript
KSL companion story: https://www.ksl.com/article/46440552/cold-lead-detective-on-susan-powell-investigation-speaks
