Behind Dark Eyes: Susan Cox Powell

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This is triggered, and you will be.

Good bye, Mike.

Good bye.

Yeah, more.

I like mirror.

I came so it was funny because I was laying there like three in the morning as I do.

I was like, Oh, yeah, we're going to say hello in languages of our listeners,

and the fucking,

I was like, Australia is a huge listening base, and I was like,

how do I say hello in Australia,

And then I was like, Ashley, you're a fucking idiot.

That I might.

It's just English with a twine.

But here's the thing.

I've never told anyone this.

Oh, no.

OK, so growing up, my favorite movie over every movie

was Crocodile Dendi.

I know that word.

I know the beginning saw the music.

I can twang it.

And then I know word for word.

Growing up, I was like, Paul Hogan is going to show up

in his tight pants.

And like, take me away.

We're going to eat snakes on a fire.

And he's going to wrestle with Crocodile.

I've known you a really long time now.

And these little tidbits of things

that I did not know about you always, they never cease to

amaze me.

Like, if we ever watch this movie together,

like, you will be so annoyed.

Because I'll be like, that's not a knife.

This is a knife.

You know, like a whole thing.

It's really fucking ridiculous.

But here we are.

Wow.

Well, that's where my love for older men came from.

Australia, or just, just Hogan.

I never understood the cougar, the cougar generation.

Cougars out there in the world, fucking get it.

But like, my whole thing was always like a salt and pepper

man.

Like, give me the salt.

Give me the pepper.

I can't.

I am very biased, as you know, because I am into, oh,

my man is a bit older than me.

Yeah.

The kids are always so devastated when we're talking about,

like, my childhood or something.

And I'm like, yeah, when I was 10, and then one of them

will be like, ew, dad, you were 20.

I'm like, let's not talk about it.

It doesn't count until you're older.

Far back.

No.

Okay.

So I have been, because I don't know that I've mentioned it,

but I'm moving in like a week and a half.

So I'm living in chaos.

Because you know what, guys, you should know this about us.

By now, we're fucking insane.

We're always fucking around moving.

But anyways, I have extra people of the world moving in with me.

So we need to expand the home and make room for all of the chaos

that is about to be my life.

However, I'm getting a super big,

because my studio right now is teeny tiny.

I'm getting a whole room, which is like,

she's also getting a whole room, but like,

so I've been like designing it,

but I'm designing it to be like stepping back into time.

So you've been my modern-ass house

and you're gonna walk into this room.

And I will not have overhead lighting.

It's gonna be like color-drenched in blacks and reds.

It's gonna be like walking back into like the late 1800s,

early 1900s.

And my husband just got me on marketplace.

There was this woman who had this like built,

I think in like 1920, like a couch set with like chairs.

He got it for me last night.

And you know what, we discovered the people

of the night, early 19 and 1800s.

They were tiny little people,

because the couch is so low.

Yes, tiny little people.

You know, like that fucking cartoon

where the girl sits on the big comfy couch there,

the big comfy couch show?

I feel the opposite of that.

I feel like Andre the giant sitting on like...

Like, it's so funny because you guys,

like, Ash will send me, she'll be like,

oh my god, look at this chair.

And I too, and designing my office.

And it's like moody and witchy and all those things.

But with comfort in mind, like comforts the most important thing

to me, not to Ashley.

These chairs look like, like if you added a couple straps,

it's a torture device.

And she's so for it.

Listen, if I were to live in like the 1918 hundreds,

I'd be in a fucking corset so tight,

I wouldn't even be able to swallow my food.

Because I love like, I love that era.

The dress is in the fucking discomfort.

What do you comfortable?

You know what?

These fucking kids and their sweatpants all the time.

You all took it too far.

I often think back to like my early 20s.

And I took so much pride in how I left my home.

Yeah.

And like, I'm not calling out the kids

because I am just as bad.

But we've gotten to this point where there's no,

like I don't know if it's Walmart culture or what it is,

but there's no pride.

Listen, if you could take me back,

gladly put on a corset and wear a big dress every day.

Like I want that.

I know you would.

So fucking bad for everybody.

No, like I remember my early 20s.

Like if I knew that I was getting a delivery to the house,

I was getting dressed.

When I met you, you were in these like fancy slacks

and a fucking blouse.

I know, I looked so cute.

You were so cute.

Let me tell you, we've gone the wrong way.

We need to bring it back.

Let's bring it back.

Let's bring it back.

And boys, I want to see a man in a fucking,

I want to see, like my husband pretty much does dress up

like every day because he's very, but I want to see men

in like vests with a little pocket watch hanging.

That steamy punk energy, a little metro sexual action.

Those like peaky blinder hats.

Yeah, but with what's going on tattoos.

Ash, we have a fucking story to tell.

You better calm down.

I know.

I know.

Okay.

What are we about?

Speaking of discomfort.

Hmm.

Let me take you to a place you are going to not like,

not like at all.

All right.

Today I am telling a story that I've known about

for quite a few years and it's one of those cases

where every time that I hear it again,

whether another podcast does it,

or I read something about it,

I'm continually brought to a place of shock and disgust.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this is what we're doing today.

I'm talking about Susan Cox.

She was known as Susan Powell.

And we're going to get into it and it's going to be messy.

I'm just going to cause so much discomfort

because it causes me discomfort every time I hear about it.

So we all think at some point in time

that our families are fucked up.

Well, yeah.

Like every single teenager,

and even in, I remember like,

well, listen, even today,

sometimes I'm like,

wow, we are special.

Us there.

But sometimes we look at cases

and these awful cases basically bring to light

a whole bunch of family secrets

and a whole bunch of family drama that normally,

the average person wouldn't have known about.

And it's in those moments where I'm like,

oh my God, actually my family is great.

And there's no problems.

Seriously, thank God.

Like I have like a fucking dumpster fire of chaos in my family.

But I do have to shout out my stepmom

because she just stays steady.

She's so lovely.

I know she's so lovely.

She's so steady.

And I'm like, so if things are like getting crazy

and I call, she's like, all right, baby, what's up?

And like I can like spew the most fucking crazy,

like I just throw shit at this poor woman.

This poor woman has my dad who is like,

kind of like I've mirrored my father.

So she's got my dad, her husband on one side.

And then she has me and this poor woman

is just sandwiched in between these two fucking crazy people.

And she's just vibing.

Oh, Carol's the son.

She's so sweet.

So sweet.

Well, that is not today's story.

So I'm going to get it into it and you'll see why.

Susan Marie Cox was born in 1981 and grew up in Washington State

in a close-knit Mormon family.

Her parents Chuck and Judy raised their children

in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We hear a lot of drama and a lot of bullshit stories

that come out of the Mormon faith.

But the truth is the average person

who practices Mormon faith, family life and faith

are just deeply entwined.

It's the focus of their entire living their entire life.

And I think that's beautiful.

Oh, it's, I mean, I think any belief system

really truly can be beautiful.

Yeah, until I watch the secret lives of Mormon wives.

Well, this is what I mean.

And we see that and it's dramatic and it's full of

absolute BS.

But the average family that is part of the Church is not like that.

Like they're just very family-focused,

very raising their kids as best they can.

And I think that's beautiful.

You want to do right, you know?

And it sounds like you're trying to do right.

Yeah, that's exactly what Chuck and Judy were about

by all accounts.

Susan, what was this beautiful human being

who had this warm, thoughtful personality?

Friends often describe her as someone

who tried to see the good in everyone.

She would go out of her way to help others

even when she was really busy

or she wasn't in a financial situation to help.

She would figure it out.

She was known for her creativity and independence.

She loved music and writing.

She was actually a pretty good writer.

Her reflective side showed up in journals that she kept

throughout her entire life.

I'm going to say something.

Because when you said that, my heart swelled 10 times.

Guys, Shintel is writing a book.

And she's a writer to you.

I am writing a book.

And I just wanted to say like.

Everyone calm down because it's going to be a while.

But we will keep you guys informed.

All right.

Susan had this stable home that she grew up in her future.

All she wanted to be was a wife and a mom.

I think let's bring that back.

Like Susan's got a great idea.

We need some more wives and moms in this fucking one.

And I'm happy.

Because you know, I don't care what side of the fucking coin

you're on, but we need more stability in houses.

Yeah, and I always think it's so beautiful.

Because I've always been a really career driven woman,

even the way I'm a mom.

And I just, I always have such a soft spot in my heart

for these women.

That's all they ever wanted was to be a wife and a mom.

And that was Susan to a team.

In the early 2000s, she met a man named Joshua Powell.

At first, their relationships seemed promising.

Josh was quiet and intelligent.

And he shared the same religious background as Susan.

So Susan was like, this is incredible.

This is perfect.

He's everything that I need.

But right away, there were some red flags.

And we're going to talk about a lot of red flags today.

Primarily, all of Susan's family

was like, there's something dark about Josh.

Now, now, I understand our moms, like Azamom,

nobody is ever going to be good enough for my kid.

No, I don't care.

I do not care how lovely you are.

I do not care what your job is.

I do not care what kind of family you come from.

There's going to be something that I'm like,

hmm, you could do better.

Although, I can, I would like to throw this out there.

Yes.

Yours is special.

I have Gavin.

And he's my daughter's partner.

And I love him.

But if any young girls are planning on dating my son,

get out of here.

Get the fuck out of here.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I fully understand when moms are like, well,

blah, blah, blah, I don't like this about hip.

But that wasn't the case here.

It was not only Susan's mom that was raising alarms.

It was literally everyone around her.

So everyone was picking up on like something's off.

Literally, her friend said there was a darkness

behind his eyes.

And guys, listen, listen, listen, listen, Linda.

If some, if you are dating someone

and someone close to you says, hey,

there's a darkness behind his eyes,

I need you to really think about that.

Cause that's like a deep statement.

And like was not doing anything to give them this impression,

like he was just a vibe.

It was just a vibe.

It was just they initially right off the gate

when they first started dating.

They were like, I don't know, girl,

like there's just something that doesn't seem right.

And of course, she overlooked it

because this is what we do, right?

And we have to remember there was a driving force behind Susan.

She wanted to be a wife and a mom.

This was really important to her.

So they started dating

and within a pretty short period of time,

they were married.

So she met him in 2000.

They were married in 2001.

Jesus.

Yeah, so they went, they went hard.

Like test drive the car before you buy it.

I know, I know.

Jesus.

So like all newly married couples,

they were young trying to figure out

how to build a life together.

They eventually left Washington

and settled in Utah where Josh had found work.

And over the next couple of years,

they welcomed two sons into their family.

The first was Charlie.

He was born in 2005.

I know.

I love that name.

And Braden was born in 2007.

Brady.

Yeah, for a while,

their life was pretty ordinary.

They lived in a modest home in West Valley City,

which is a suburb of Salt Lake City.

Susan worked at Wells Fargo Financial

and co-workers remember her as reliable and friendly.

Like she was one of these girls.

If she had to take a day off, she was calling in.

Outside of work, she focused all of her time

on raising her boys.

They were very young.

When this story takes place, super young, like two and four.

As the years passed, people close to Susan began noticing

that her marriage wasn't as stable as it might appear

from the outside.

Friends later said that pretty quickly into their marriage,

even before they had the boys,

Josh was controlling.

And when I tell you how controlling,

you're going to be upset.

Josh refused to let Susan use the car on a regular basis.

What the fuck do you mean?

So at the time, yeah.

So at the time that this story takes place,

Susan is actually the only one working.

Josh can't hold down a job.

Okay, right.

She was being not allowed.

That's a fucking plague.

Like right away, if you can't hold a job,

you're that much of a dick that you can't keep a job.

Like get out of there.

Yeah, so he wasn't working.

And he would basically say, like,

you have to take your bike to work.

So she would bike seven miles to Wells Fargo.

I dislike this person so much already.

It gets worse.

I found quite a few sources that said,

he wouldn't let Susan buy her own socks.

She had to knit them.

So, okay, stop.

So not only is she the breadwinner, the mom,

the house, probably the housekeeper, the cook,

but she can't even buy herself a pair of fucking socks.

Like, what are you talking about?

This is insane to me.

This woman did everything.

Josh was, and guys, before I say this next sentence,

I don't have a problem with gamers.

I don't.

I think gaming can be a very healthy, fun hobby

for people to have, but similar to other drugs,

it can get out of control very quickly.

And the reality was, Josh did very little,

even to the point where the boys were in daycare.

Which he could game.

You're at home and your wife is out working.

I don't think your kids need to be in daycare.

But you know what's funny?

I have heard of this, this thing so many times.

Like, women, you know, we wear many hats,

and I have actually seen where women

are fucking busting their ass,

and the men are just kind of there.

Like, if you're gonna fucking be gaming,

you better be making money.

So my PSA for today, and this is something

that's real close to my heart, guys.

Anyone who is in a relationship,

I don't care if you are a guy, I don't care if you're a girl,

I don't care if you're in the same sex relationship.

I don't care.

Do me a favor today and have a real hard look

at the equality in your relationship.

Just do it.

Just have a real hard look at, okay, is it equal here?

And another thing that I want people to start to accept

because it's not 1940 anymore,

just because you make more money than your partner

does not always mean that you get a free pass at home

because you make more money.

If you're both working the same amount of hours every week,

they are just as tired as you are,

whether you're making more money or not.

100%.

And that is my thing for the day,

because I see friends who are in these situations

all the time where they're just,

they get the short end of the stick.

They're still working eight hours a day,

but because their spouse makes more than them,

all of the household, everything falls on them.

And guys, it's 20, 26, like we gotta let that go.

Anyway, my money is like, it's so funny

because my husband always says this to me,

I'll be like, babe, I would like to take you out for a coffee.

And I'm like, and he's like, aw, honey,

are you gonna pay with your big girl money?

My husband literally always giggles,

because I'll be like, he's paying the bills

and I'm like, my treat, my love,

I pull out a crisp $20 bill.

I'm like, this is on me.

And I feel like such a big dog.

I'm so happy.

I'm like, look at me.

I'm so funny.

But I think, and he's never, like he always says to me,

like, babe, I got you.

Like you, someone like paying for the kid's stuff

and like, whatever it is, you and Shantelle are doing.

And that is my life.

Whatever you two lunatics are up to this week,

like, do you think, no, and this is just the thing.

And like, I understand that every family

and every relationship is different,

but to just something to think about,

just have a look at your relationship today

and just put it into the scales and just have a look.

That's it.

Okay, so obviously,

shit was whack at the power home.

Josh and Susan fought primarily about finances.

Josh had accumulated a large amount of debt over the years

and they actually had to file for bankruptcy in 2007.

And that's hard.

Oh, it's so hard.

Especially when like, like Susan was busting her ass.

She was leaving her kids every day to go to work

and then to, to on top of that,

even though you're busting your ass

your way from your kids all the time

to have to file for bankruptcy

would be such a discouragement.

You'd be defeated.

And you'd be like, what is off the store?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

But the problems in the Powell family

didn't exist in isolation

because there's another figure in this story

that will actually make you feel sick to your stomach

and it is Josh's father, Steve and Powell.

What the fuck, seeing doing?

Let's just talk about Stephen real quick.

Stephen had a long history of troubling behavior

within the family.

When Josh was about 16,

Josh's mom divorced Stephen.

Okay, alleging that the home environment

had become unstable and inappropriate.

But the truth is,

Stephen had four years exposed his children to pornography

and refused to maintain normal boundaries within the household.

So this dad would sit his sons down to watch porn.

You know what?

I'm gonna say this.

That is child abuse, that is sexual abuse.

Oh, 100%.

And that right there, to me, put them on the sex offenders list.

You're a fucking sex offender.

You fucking monster.

Yeah.

Well, it gets worse

because when Susan entered the family,

Stephen's behavior took an even darker term.

Over time, he developed an intense

and deeply inappropriate fixation on his daughter-in-law.

Stephen secretly recorded Susan on video

and I have seen some of these videos.

I will try to share one to our social media.

It gave me, you know the feeling

when it feels like your butt's gonna fall out?

Yeah.

It gave me that feeling.

It was so gross.

Some of the videos that Stephen took of Susan,

she knows that he's filming her

and you can tell she's uncomfortable as fuck.

It's so gross.

Like, it's your father-in-law.

And this is gonna upset people,

but I do really want to stress

how disgusting Stephen was before we get into

the whole bones of this story.

There are videos of him videotaping her leaving work.

So he's hiding in his car.

He is a videoing her leaving work.

There's one where he like, she goes to get into the car

and she gets into the car and the door is still open

and she adjusts her skirt.

And you can hear Stephen go,

huh, she did that for me.

Stop it.

Mom, dad, I'm not throwing shade,

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kind of slip in, no offense.

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Shantal, let's discuss it in interviews.

And this was the one where I was like,

well, I'm gonna throw up.

So I'm gonna stop listening to this.

There's an interview where he's talking

about how Susan would flirt with him.

The person doing the interview says, what do you mean?

And he's like, for example,

when the boys were babies,

and she would hand the baby to me,

she would like push herself,

her breasts into my body to pass the baby over to me.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

That right there.

Yeah.

I could fucking screw.

This actually reminds me,

I was reading about a case a while ago

and this guy started stalking this girl

because she was breastfeeding her child.

Oh, yeah.

And she was like, she was,

she was doing it to show me her breasts.

No motherfucker.

She wasn't.

You fucking fucked up motherfucker.

Like, no, she's not, we're not doing that.

So disturbing.

So at one point, Stephen tells Susan

that he has feelings for her.

And Susan immediately was like,

you are my father-in-law.

I do not feel the same way.

Now, my question is,

like did her husband ever tell her about like,

being exposed like what Stephen was like

when he was growing up?

Because right away,

I'd be like, you're not going near my kids.

I didn't see anywhere because later in the story,

you'll see that despite the way that Josh was raised

and despite what his father did,

they actually have a pretty close relationship

later in life, which is weird.

That's weird.

But you know what, fucked up people.

Yeah.

We'll gravitate towards each other.

We'll gravitate towards each other.

So I mean, misery loves company, right?

You're just festering in your family,

cesspool of shit.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So after Stephen confessed his undying love

for his daughter-in-law,

that was when Josh and Susan moved

from Washington to Utah.

So it sounds like part of it was like,

let's get the fuck away from this guy.

But unfortunately,

it may have solved the Stephen issue,

but it didn't fix the problem inside of their marriage.

By 2008,

Susan had begun quietly documenting aspects of her life

that made her uneasy.

She wrote extensively in her journals

about the tension in her marriage and the stress

she was experiencing at home.

Around this time and this video is so chilling,

she creates a video that her lawyer had suggested she make

where she's walking around the house

and she's describing certain items of property

and damage that she believed

had occurred during arguments with Josh.

It doesn't sound like Josh ever put his hands on Susan,

but he was like a destroyer.

So they would get into an argument

and he'd be chucking shit around the house

basically trying to trap her tantrum.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

In another step that would later take on chilling significance,

Susan wrote a will.

Inside the document,

she included a line that investigators

would later describe as deeply unsettling.

And every time I read this,

I get the chill right through my arms.

She wrote in her own handwriting,

if I ever die, it might not be an accident,

even if it appears to be.

Isn't this the saddest thing?

It's heartbreaking.

Unbelievable, yeah.

All right, as 2009 draws to a close,

the Powell family appeared to be moving through life

as usual.

Susan was working, the boys were growing

and the holidays were approaching.

On December 6th, something happened that would change everything.

That Sunday began like many others.

Susan attended church earlier in the day,

bringing Charlie and Braden with her.

Later that afternoon,

a neighbor stopped by the Powell home briefly

and spoke with Susan.

The neighbor eventually left around five o'clock in the evening.

Later, when they interviewed this neighbor,

she said it was kind of weird

because Steven was making dinner,

which was very unusual.

What is that?

Very unusual.

He was making pancakes

and he had brought out Susan's pancakes.

The neighbor said she ate her pancakes

and very soon after,

basically told her friend,

I don't feel very good.

I think I need to go lay down.

I don't know what's up.

I'm just exhausted.

I need to go to bed.

And that was when the neighbor left.

And the neighbor said, at the time,

she was like, okay, hun, like, yeah, for sure.

And she said that Josh came out of the kitchen.

As soon as he heard that Susan was going to bed

and he was like, okay, well, thanks for stopping by.

I'm gonna take the boys sledding so goodbye.

And she thought it was weird.

Like, it was a very strange encounter.

Like, he couldn't wait for her to get out.

Unfortunately, that was the last confirmed sighting

of Susan Powell.

I saw that coming.

The next day, Josh is missing,

Braden is missing, Charlie is missing

and Susan is missing.

Susan doesn't show up for work, no call, no show.

The boys don't show up to daycare.

Fuckin' Josh had nowhere to be.

So, missing is a weird statement

because I'm like, where were you supposed to be?

Nobody knows.

On your game.

Fuck.

Yeah, but the emergency contact at the daycare

was Susan's sister and she says that when they called

and said, Braden and Charlie haven't shown up

and she called the bank to be like,

hey, can I speak to Susan?

I just want to know where the boys are

because I got a call and they said she wasn't there.

She knew something happened.

Absolutely.

Either way.

Could you imagine as a sister,

you know that something's fucking wrong in this house.

You know there's something about this guy.

You know your sister's habits and all of a sudden,

your whole world would become so small and crushing

because you'd be like, he finally fucking did it.

Yeah, exactly.

And so they're panicking.

Susan's mom calls the police for a welfare check.

She's like, can you please go into my daughter's home?

We don't know where the boys are, we don't know where she is

and we don't know where the dad is.

Police gain entry into the home.

I guess Susan's mom had a key

and so she was able to let the police in.

And they walk into the house and it's quiet,

but there are a few odd things.

The couch is wet.

And there are two box fans,

so I want you to think like the big fans.

Plugged in, running, pointing out the couch.

Now you and I immediately go to something fucking awful.

Yes.

But the police were like, something happened on the couch.

They have young kids.

They washed it, they're drying it, not a big deal.

More alarming was Susan's purse was in the bedroom

and she wouldn't have gone anywhere without her purse.

We're not going anywhere without our purse.

No, the family vehicle is gone.

As police are looking through the home,

Josh pulls into the driveway

and they're like, oh my God, thank God.

Josh comes out, both boys are there.

He's like, hi.

And they're like, oh my God, like, where were you?

And I need everyone to brace themselves here.

Josh says, well, I took the boys camping.

Now, there was a snow storm.

Firstly, it's December 6th.

They said, was this a planned camping trip?

He's like, no, I decided to take them out

around midnight last night.

Do you know anybody who takes their two and four-year-old

camping on a whim in a snow storm at midnight?

Who the fuck is going camping at all in a snow storm?

Even without kids, like you're all cozy in your house

and you're like, you know what would be great?

Let's make ourselves extremely uncomfortable.

So the police are like, I'm sorry, Josh, I'm sorry.

Hold up.

Let me get this straight.

You woke up at midnight and thought, what a great time

for a camping trip.

You woke your sons up, put them in the car,

and went camping.

He's like, yeah, that's exactly what we did.

So they're like, okay, we're gonna have to talk to you

a little bit more.

Do you know where your wife is?

She didn't show up to work.

And he's like, no, like she should be at work.

She was here when I left with the boys to go camping.

They're like, okay, while in her purses here,

she's nowhere to be found.

Like, we got to figure out where she's at.

Let's talk about a couple weird things that Josh did

in the interim.

So police say, you know, try to find her.

In a couple of hours, can you come by the station

so we can take a statement?

Because if she's missing, we're gonna need that from you.

He's like, yeah, absolutely no problem.

In the time that they left, he drove to Susan's work.

So police are at your house.

And they've told you your wife is missing.

She didn't show up to work.

What the fuck are you going to her work?

He called her cell phone and left a message

that kind of went along the lines of this.

Hey, Susan, hope everything's good

and you made it to work, okay, sir, sir.

We have already told you.

Your wife didn't make the work.

What do you do it?

She's not there.

She is not there.

So here's the thing, you know, this just proves

that gaming nonstop will rot your brain

because you're clearly like, hello?

Like, who do you think you are?

Are you idiot?

Yeah.

The police end up coming back to the house

because they're like, we don't think Josh is gonna come in.

We don't think he's, we don't think he's stopping by.

So they, the police officers go back to the house

and at this point, Susan's been missing for hours.

And again, he's just reiterating the spontaneous trip

she had been at home when they came back the next day

they were there, she was gone.

At first investigators focused on gathering

basic information.

They're like, okay, where did you go camping?

How long were you gone camping?

He explained he had taken the boys

to the desert area west of Salt Lake City.

But like, again, you left after midnight in a snow storm

but Josh stuck to a story.

Like, he was like, yes, that's exactly what I did.

He said the boys had slept in the car

and that the outing had simply been

just a spur of the moment adventure.

But this was not sitting well.

Please, and it does not sit well with me

and I don't think it would sit well with anybody

with half a brain.

The police began processing the power home

a little bit more carefully.

The fans blowing on the couch were puzzling.

They, like I said, it was wet.

The couch was damp.

And so they're like, something was cleaned up.

But, and they did discover small amounts of blood

on the floor, but the amounts were tiny, tiny, tiny.

So like, nothing that indicated

that a violent crime had occurred.

And the thing is, when we're living in homes,

you can have a nose bleed four months ago.

And, you know, a little bit gets on the ground

and then we have blood.

My son went through a nose bleed stage.

You could have sworn a murder happen.

Like, it was, oh.

I was like, oh, it's intense.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So at the same time, when the police were trying to get

like a straight logical story out of Josh,

Susan's behavior leading up to the disappearance

began coming into focus.

Because friends and co-workers said like she was uneasy.

She was talking to a divorce lawyer.

Josh had, at one point, said to her

when she brought up divorce, like she was basically

to the point where she said, hey, this isn't working.

I'm not happy.

I don't think you're happy.

Like, I think we need to start looking at other ways.

And he said, you aren't leaving me.

It'll be, if you leave me, it'll be over my dead body.

Guys, if someone says that to you, like, tell someone.

That's, this is not a cool, that's not like a,

you know, you and I joke about stuff like that all the time.

But if they're not joking, they're dead serious

and you're having a serious conversation, get out.

Right?

Okay.

Detect to speak with the Powell children.

Keep in mind they are two and four.

Charlie made a statement when police were talking to him

that would haunt this case for years.

Jerry won conversation with authorities.

He said that his mother had gone camping with them.

He said his mother had been there,

but that she hadn't come back with them.

Because Charlie was so young investigators

had to approach his statements very carefully

because children often mix imagination

and recent memories with other memories

and it becomes kind of, because he was four.

Charlie later told investigators that they brought mummy

so she could look for crystals.

Partying the fuck out of me.

They also found on Josh's computer searches

for local abandoned mines.

In their head, they were like, what the fuck happened here?

He brought her out there to an abandoned mine.

He killed her.

Like, that's what happened.

They told, he told the kids,

well, mummy's looking for crystals.

She's in the mine.

We'll get her later.

The fucking trauma.

I know.

I know.

Poor children.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely awful

that they had to go through that.

So search team spent days combing through remote areas,

volunteers joined law enforcement

hoping to locate any sign of Susan

and there was nothing.

They could not find anything.

She had simply vanished.

As weeks passed, the case began attracting national attention

because, of course, it did.

News outlets across the country picked up the story

of this missing Utah mom, like Havia Siener,

what happened in that house on December 6th.

Josh is so fucking weird in his interviews

because he did do.

He tried to stay away from media as much as possible,

but of course, you know, we know reporters.

They find a way in and he was always so weird.

He continued to insist.

I went on a camping trip with the boys.

I don't know where she is.

We miss her very much.

And we hope that she comes home.

He was so weird, so weird, yeah.

In the following weeks,

he took Charlie and Brandon from daycare.

So he would withdraw them completely.

He canceled all of Susan's regular appointments,

including visits to a cryore of proctor

that she had been seeing.

And at one point, he even began liquidating

some of Susan's financial assets.

Pardon?

I can see both sides to this.

Ish. Ish.

Your wife has only been missing for a couple of weeks

and you're selling off her shed.

Some people might say, okay,

but she was the breadwinner and now she's gone.

She's not bringing in anything.

Okay, cool.

Ask your parents for money.

Maybe leave her shit alone

because the hope is she's coming home.

Right there at that point.

Do you know she's not returning?

Of course he does.

And why else are you doing that?

Right?

Let's just make it more obvious you fucking moron.

So during the investigation,

back to fucking dirty dad, Stephen.

Investigators are blown away

because as they're investigating Stephen,

being like, hey, tell us about their relationship.

All he could talk about was how much Susan flirted with him,

how much she wanted him.

He even played a song that he wrote for Susan

for the investigators.

And I'm like, are you stupid?

She played the song for them.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh my God.

That's correct.

Like you, so like the apple

doesn't fall far from the tree.

These two are just,

it is literally so fucked up.

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Okay, so months, turns to years

and the mystery surrounding Susan only depends.

Nobody, nobody is ever found.

No evidence of anything ever hopping.

So no charges are laid?

No, because they don't have proof of anything.

They have proof of nothing.

So as years are passing,

Josh decides to relocate back to Washington state

to be closer to his fucked up dad,

which what are you doing?

Right.

He actually moves into his dad's home

with totally inbreeding.

There's poor fucking kids.

Yeah, but for the most part, it looked like

they were having a normal life.

They attended school.

They played with friends.

They tried to adjust to their new environment.

But investigators were still like,

hey, I don't know if you remember

but your fucking wife is missing.

So we're gonna have to keep looking into that.

Back in Utah, detectives continued pursuing

every single lead they could find.

They searched the desert, examined financial records,

interviewed anyone who might have had

information about the Powell family.

And they began developing a theory

about what they believe had happened to Susan.

But proving it was another matter entirely.

Meanwhile, events inside the Powell House

in Washington began drawing attention

for an entirely different reason.

Cause this is just shit on shit.

Authorities discovered disturbing material

on Steve and Powell's computers.

You don't say.

During the investigation, detectives

uncovered thousands of images and videos

that raised serious concerns about inappropriate content

because Steven's been doing this his whole life at this point.

Steven was arrested and charged with voyeurism

and possession of illicit images.

The charges were not directly related

to Susan's disappearance,

but they painted this like troubling scene

of the environment around the Powell family.

As Steven's legal problems unfolded,

the state of Washington began re-evaluating

the safety of Charlie and Braden

because, y'all,

you can't have someone in your household

that has voyeurism videos and images on their computer

while there's children in the home.

That's a no.

Also, you know, as someone on the outside

and these investigators knew,

they're like, fuck, we just need evidence.

Like a campy circumstantial, it can't be, you know.

Yeah.

In theory, we need some kind of evidence.

You would be sitting back there

as an investigator being like, oh my God,

these kids are in imminent danger of being, you know,

assaulted or something.

It would just burn your ass every day.

Yeah, and the thing is,

Josh was buddy buddy with his dad,

but some of his up-their siblings were not.

So when investigators were talking to his siblings,

they're saying like, those boys shouldn't be there.

Like, here's all the things he did to us

when we were growing up.

So, child protective services steps in

and removes the boys from Josh's custody

while the situation was investigated.

For the first time since Susan disappeared,

the children were placed with Susan's parents,

Chuck and Judy.

Could you imagine taking your grandbabies

and just knowing that now they're safe?

Like that whole time,

they were probably beside themselves.

And they didn't get to see them at all.

Oh, of course not.

Like Josh has to go back.

Yeah, Josh kept them from the family.

And so this was like this bittersweet moment

because they were so grateful

to have their grandsons with them.

But the circumstances that led to that moment

was just heartbreaking.

Like, their mother is gone.

And who the fuck knows what they saw

in Steven's fucking house?

Despite the removal of the children,

Josh was eventually granted supervised visitation

with Charlie and Brandon.

These visits were meant to take place

under controlled conditions

with a social worker present

to ensure the children's safety,

which like hats off to children's services,

good job guys, that's the way it should be.

100%.

On February 5th, 2012,

one of those visits was scheduled to occur.

A social worker named Elizabeth Griffin Hall

arrived at Josh Powell's home in Graham, Washington

with the two boys.

So Elizabeth has the boys in the back seat.

The idea it was supposed to follow standard protocol.

They had done it quite a few times.

This was their social worker.

She goes to the door with the boys.

They all go in.

They have their visitation with Josh.

She takes the boys back to Chuck and Judy's.

Elizabeth says almost immediately

after arriving, something felt wrong.

Like she didn't want to get out of the car.

But this is her job.

She's done this a few times.

The boys hop out of the back seat of the car.

They're all excited to go see dad.

They run up the steps.

The door opens.

Josh grabs the boys and shuts the door on the social worker.

Oh, it's locked.

Elizabeth is banging on the door.

She's trying to open the door.

It will not budge.

She's like, Josh, let me in.

Josh, you can't have the kids by yourself.

Like she's doing her job, OK?

Moments later, she noticed something alarming.

She could smell gasoline.

Oh, no, no, no.

Realizing something was terribly wrong.

And my heart, I have heard that I'm one call from Elizabeth.

My heart breaks for this woman because I cannot imagine

being in a situation where you're so concerned about the kids.

But also for yourself.

And you don't know what to do.

Like social workers are such a beautiful, beautiful thing.

But at the end of the day, it is their job.

They shouldn't have to go to work into your life.

Yeah.

And she was just terrified.

She was like, why do I smell gas?

This is what's going on.

So she goes to her car and she calls 911.

And this is one of those 911 calls that

is so fucking frustrating.

Like I can't.

I was screaming at my speakers.

Elizabeth has worked up because she is very worried about the boys.

Absolutely.

So the dispatcher comes on.

And she's like, hi, my name is Elizabeth.

This is the address I met.

And they're like, OK, what's going on, Elizabeth?

And she's like, I am a social worker.

She explains the situation.

She's like, I brought the boys.

The dad took them inside and I can smell gas.

And the dispatcher basically is like, all right,

well, we'll send a you note over when they can get there.

I could have fucking rage right now.

And Elizabeth is panicking.

She's like, no, listen, he's not supposed to be in there

with them by himself.

He grabbed them.

And now I can smell gas.

Something is wrong.

He locked me out of the house.

You need to send someone right away.

They're like, unfortunately, you know,

they're dealing with other stuff right now.

This is a family issue.

They will get there when they can get there.

It's horrific.

I'm upset.

She ends up hanging up, which, of course, she did.

I think Elizabeth is a fucking incredible person.

And it's just heartbreaking.

My heart literally breaks for her.

She ends up hanging up.

Because she's like, OK, what else am I going to do?

She calls back moments later.

And she's screaming because Josh lit the house on fire.

You know what?

These fucking dispatch.

Now, 90% of them, incredible.

Your job is probably one of the hardest jobs out there.

You have to make hard calls and keep people calm.

And you hear things in the trauma.

And I'm not saying that the 90% I'm not including them.

But that fucking 10% of those calls that we fucking hear.

This is not a family member.

You idiot.

Like if someone, a social worker, especially

because their train to be calm is for wreaking out

on the phone for wreaking out, yeah.

There's a problem.

Oh, yeah, I'm upset.

By this time emergency responders arrived,

the house was fully ablaze.

All three, Josh, Charlie, and Braden were killed in the fire.

Investigators who later reconstructed the scene found that

before he lit the house on fire.

Josh attacked his sons with a hatchet.

Josh, there is a special place in health for people like you,

you fucking monster.

Yep.

Yep.

Like not only did he allow his dad to fucking basically,

I don't know, fucking perpetrate on his wife,

he allowed a man who you knew, who you knew,

was a fucking sexual sadist or some fucked up individual

around your kids.

But then you were so selfish in such a fucktired

that you took their life, like they were fine.

They were fine.

They were with grandma and grandpa.

They would have had a perfect life, but no.

I wish we could bring him back to stone him

in the street's old school style.

I know.

I know.

The Galaties.

Absolutely awful.

So obviously, this tragedy shocked the nation in the aftermath

that investigators continued examining every piece

of evidence connected to Susan's disappearance,

because obviously that's where this started.

And although Josh was now dead, authorities in Utah

publicly stated they believed he had been responsible

for Susan's disappearance all along.

Yeah.

They also suspected that Josh had not acted entirely alone.

Let me tell you why.

Attention turned to Josh's brother, Michael.

Detectives believe Michael may have helped Josh dispose

of Susan's body in the days following her disappearance.

At one point, they discovered Michael had rented a car shortly

after Susan vanished, had driven it long distances

before eventually abandoning it at a wrecking yard at Oregon.

What?

So the heat starts coming down on Michael,

because you're the only one left.

OK, and where is fucking creepy fucking Stephen

in all of this?

He's just being creepy Stephen.

Doesn't know anything about it.

So the heat starts coming down on Michael.

He commits suicide, jumps from the roof of Barking garage

in 2013.

I hope he felt it.

This family.

Yeah.

So with his death, like any answers are gone.

Today, Susan's body has never been found.

Really, they don't know what happened.

They don't know how it went down.

They have no physical evidence.

For Susan's parents, the loss has been immeasurable,

because I can't even, I don't even know what to say.

We're not meant to outlive our kids and grandkids.

That's not the circle of life.

It's not supposed to be that these poor people, I know.

My heart just, when I think about Chuck and Judy,

to not only lose your daughter, but then they just

got their grandson's back.

They were just rebuilding with them.

What I think breaks my heart about this the most

is that the image of these two little sweet innocent children

excited to go see their dad.

They just wanted to see their dad.

He beat them with a hatchet and then let them on fire.

So I don't feel well.

I know.

I told you.

I told you so that's where that rests.

There was never any trial, never any responsibility.

And Susan is still missing.

And it's awful.

There's no, I can't imagine.

And my heart goes out to the Cox family.

I am so incredibly sorry.

I don't even know.

What do you even say?

What do you even say?

You can't even say, like, even I'm sorry, you know,

like, there's like not a language measurable for something.

I know.

I know.

So I have thought about them over the years,

since I first learned about this story,

I think about them often.

And although I can't imagine it, and I say this all the time,

that I hope that they found some semblance of peace.

I do.

I hope that there is some joy in their life.

But that is the awful, terrible story of Susan Cox

and Braden and Charlie.

Thank you for bringing that story.

This was definitely, this was, yeah,

like I think, you know, we bring some of the most horrific

stories, but in situations like this,

you just, like, I have, I'm angry.

I'm angry, this is sending.

Yeah.

And it's anger that has nowhere to go.

And there's nowhere, because I'm like, OK,

I want to blame somebody, the only, you know,

people to blame are, is that fucked up, fucking power, me.

But like, they're gone.

And Steven's out there, fucking, probably,

you know what I mean, you fucking push somewhere,

just act in a fucking creep.

And, you know what, like, I hope that that knowing,

like, and I know, like, I've never been in a situation

where I was a first responders, so please don't come for me.

But I hope that person was fired, because you had one fucking

job.

I know it's awful.

It's awful.

I don't know what happened there.

I'm mad.

But thank you for listening.

We love you guys so much.

And we have some big cases coming up.

Big cases.

Big cases, big, big things, big, big things.

All right, we love you all.

Thank you for listening.

And we will see you all on Tuesday.

Bye.

Bye.

Thanks for joining us on Triggered, where we dive deep

into the dark, the twisted, and the cosmic mysteries

of the universe.

Until next time, stay curious, stay cautious.

Always watch the stars and your back.

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