I've read comments from several of her friends (who were involved in the same church) who encouraged her to leave, a friend from WA who stopped having any contact with Josh and only kept FB contact with Susan. She mentioned early in the investigation that she witnessed Josh being too controlling in front of her and her husband while on a joint vacation. Another friend, the neighbor who made the swingset, disapproved of Josh and suggested Susan leave. Perhaps there were others, as well. Many knew that they had problems in the past, and believed that things were improving during the final year together. They said that Susan wanted to work things out.
For some unknown reason - she loved/was committed to Josh. I don't see anything in his personality that would be attractive. But she wanted to make it work.
I remember that Mr. Cox said that he purchased a cell phone and paid her monthly phone bills so she could always call him in an emergency. (He lives in WA, she lives in UT -- would have to be a big emergency to need to call her dad for assistance). He said that he wanted to make sure that she was never without a phone in the event of financial problems (didn't want them to cancel Susan's phone service for budget reasons). That suggests to me, that the Cox's (despite their public statements) had reasons to be concern about Susan. I remember he once made a statement that he asked if her marriage was okay. (I can't remember ever being asked by any person if my marriage was okay).
I don't believe that Susan was being pressured from the outside to make things work. I think she actually had encouragement to leave. I believe it was her desire to make the relationship work that led her to stay.
I honestly don't know what it was that she found good about Josh, but apparantly there was something.
