UT - Susan Powell, 28, West Valley City, 6 Dec 2009 #7

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COLD also did great work regarding Josh's 3 suspicious car accidents. He got rear ended 3 separate times over the course of a decade, very likely purposefully, in order to get as much insurance money as he possibly could out of it. His last car accident was the August before Susan went missing, where he got rear ended at like 2 MPH, and claimed neck/back pain. He got a prescription for cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxer. There were only 6 missing by the time Susan went missing in December, so investigators believe this is what he likely drugged her with.

Also - Dave discovered that Josh had to get an IME (independent medical evaluation) AFTER Susan went missing in order to get insurance money etc, and only then was it discovered that he had a torn rotator cuff. He likely got this from moving Susan's body.

Ugh. God I hate him.
 
kelsie said:
COLD also did great work regarding Josh's 3 suspicious car accidents. He got rear ended 3 separate times over the course of a decade, very likely purposefully, in order to get as much insurance money as he possibly could out of it. His last car accident was the August before Susan went missing, where he got rear ended at like 2 MPH, and claimed neck/back pain. He got a prescription for cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxer. There were only 6 missing by the time Susan went missing in December, so investigators believe this is what he likely drugged her with.

Also - Dave discovered that Josh had to get an IME (independent medical evaluation) AFTER Susan went missing in order to get insurance money etc, and only then was it discovered that he had a torn rotator cuff. He likely got this from moving Susan's body.

Ugh. God I hate him.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. It's all so calculated, I don't think it was a crime of passion at all. Even if he didn't know when he would murder her, he certainly knew how and made steps to enact it. I hate him too.

It's a human right to be able to practice your own religion without fear of persecution and Susan couldn't even do that in her own home. I'm not religious at all but that really upset me how painful her life must have been. I can't believe how disgusting the Powells (aside from Jennifer, but I don't consider her a Powell anyway) were about her religion. All the lies as well that they came out with to save their own *advertiser censored**es... It's all just so awful and so perverted. How can that family become so brainwashed by Steve? It's crazy!

I realise after finishing the podcast that my comments in the encryption thread were kind of obsolete after the Project Sunlight bonus episode... but the point still stands I guess. I think they're wasting their time with the dictionary decryption technique and it's likely that just "brute force" that will be the way to get through the other layers of encryption. I know Josh probably wasn't that intelligent but it's not a stretch to think he could remember a random string of gibberish. I also thought that when the crypto guys were talking about the encryption program that Josh used, I was struck by the "If anyone knows how to hack **name of encryption program** please let me know, I'd love to meet them" comment (paraphrased). It sounds like they don't have much hope/ a bit of a depressing joke. If they all banded together and had a load of computers brute forcing it then maybe it would work. I don't know.

In the UK they have a law where if you don't surrender your relevant passwords you get a 2 year jail sentence. If only Utah/Washington had that law and the boys would likely still be alive and it would have given the FBI & Police enough time to gather evidence on Josh & co. If he had complied and given the passwords in that situation then we would probably have more evidence from whatever he wanted to hide on those devices and again, he would be in jail and the boys would be alive. Sadly though I don't think the boys would have been safe if they were alive, even with Steve dead and Josh hypothetically in prison simply because the Powells (minus Jennifer again) would make the Cox's lives a living hell with their lies and harassment.

Whew... sorry for all that!! I've been thinking about it all, all day.
 
I know I'm the last person who commented on this thread but Susan's disappearance has been weighing on me a lot. I finished the If I Can't Have You book and thought it was heart wrenching and was a good companion to the podcast.

I posted this part in the encryption thread but felt the need to put it here too:
My heart hurts for Susan and her story has affected me deeply. I've also been in relationships with a narcissist and a sociopath (separate people though, "thankfully") and I still feel afraid of them to this day, despite having zero contact. The sociopath tried to destroy my life and got very close, but thankfully I had the means to run far away and start over. I was planning my suicide. Thankfully now my life is good and stable and I'm grateful to be here. I wish Susan and her boys had had the opportunity to run far away and start over like I did.
 
I still don't get how the police didn't have enough to charge Josh for her disappearance.
She vanished under suspicious circumstances and there were bloodstains in the house. I've seen people charged for less.
 
ekardh said:
I still don't get how the police didn't have enough to charge Josh for her disappearance.
She vanished under suspicious circumstances and there were bloodstains in the house. I've seen people charged for less.
Click to expand...
Ellis Maxwell, the lead investigator, felt they had enough to go to trial and get a conviction. It was the State’s Attorney who would not go forward with charges. He kept telling police to get more evidence. LE were very frustrated with him.
 
ekardh said:
I still don't get how the police didn't have enough to charge Josh for her disappearance.
She vanished under suspicious circumstances and there were bloodstains in the house. I've seen people charged for less.
Click to expand...

Re: handling the boys' situation -- I think it's a case of "too many cooks."

LE where Josh Powell lived had information
LE where Steven Powell lived had information
LE where Michael Powell lived had information

but that information was not truly gathered together/assembled until the event of the children's murders.

RIP, Susan, Braden, and Charlie!

upload_2020-7-18_8-6-21.jpeg
image from Deseret.com
 
I hope the Cox family recovers against the State of Washington. There is NO way that he should have had supervised visitation at his house, especially after the court hearing earlier that week.

This case still rips at my heart. I imagine it always will.
 
ekardh said:
I still don't get how the police didn't have enough to charge Josh for her disappearance.
She vanished under suspicious circumstances and there were bloodstains in the house. I've seen people charged for less.
Click to expand...
no body cases are really hard to prove in criminal court. the standard for guilt is beyond a resonable doubt, that means if you have any doubt in your mind as a juror you should find the defendant innocent. without a body the prosectors dont know what cause her death (gun shot, stabbing, etc.), when she was killed (they cant definitively place the defendant at the scene or the crime nor do they usually no where the crime even occured), or what the motive was (was it heat of the moment, was it planned). Jurors like a story that makes sense and without this information alot of times only circumstantial evidence can be used to explain what happened. they cant for sure say what happened, when, where, or how. they cant for sure day the defendant was defandent was there or explain what triggered him. It leaves open alot of what ifs. If they take the case to trial without the body and the jury finds him innocent double jeopardy prohibits that person from being tried again. So its a really big risk to take and Susan and her family deserve justice.
 
After following Susan's case since she disappeared, it would have been very easy to make a circumstantial case against Josh. Hands down. No doubt after reading the evidence they had on the whole family. No doubt. Just so sad it turned out the way it did and Susan still not found. Many cases with no body have been tried and with successful convictions. jmo
 
WOW! That's an incredible amount of money.
Thank goodness Susan's family finally won at something.
It will never replace Susan and the boys or heal their pain but justice was long overdue for this family.
Maybe they can hire some search teams to go find Susan now.

Where are you Susan?
 
The Cox lawsuit against the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services and the enormous payout they won seems to have set a precedent... but I wonder if it will result in any significant changes for children caught in a dangerous bureaucratic web of custody battles when one of their caregivers is missing and the other caregiver is suspected of foul play?....will it result in any changes in The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act? In cases where a primary caregiver of a child/children goes missing under suspicious circumstances, and the other parent is being investigated for their disappearance and possible murder--shouldn't there be a universal State mandated law that automatically removes any child living in this situation? IMO, the only way Josh Powell would not have eventually killed his children would have been if he had been locked in jail or unable to locate his children. It seems to me that children deserve immediate protection against a potentially violent parent or caregiver--the idea of supervised visits for a parent who might have killed their spouse seems ludicrous and grossly negligent to vulnerable children caught in this family dynamic.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/189181.pdf
https://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/aaby-understanding-the-uccjea.pdf
 
I am so glad to read of the verdict and award for this case in favor of the Coxes. Nothing will ever bring Susan and the boys back to them, but perhaps it will help other children and families in the future if policies, processes, are re-written and followed and enforced.

I followed this case diligently...I'll never forget the horror of that day when I saw that Josh had killed himself and the boys in a house explosion. I felt sick, literally sick. The whole Powell clan is a bunch of sick people, starting at the top. Stephen Powell....the less said about him the better. Anyway I can't use the words I really want to here.

It's infuriating that the State Attorney did not push forward. They had enough circumstantial evidence. I think they would have got a conviction. Circumstantial cases can be quite strong.

I do hope someday Susan will be found and brought home to lay at rest with her boys.
 
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