09-17-2011 Topaz Mountain Search Yields Charred Wood and Decomp

[HatesSociopaths]

On Saturday, detectives were disappointed when they found charred wood and not human remains in what was thought to be a shallow grave site. The charred wood is now being taken in to be examined by a forensic anthrolopologist to see if it does have human decomposition on it.

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-s...ll-at-topaz-mountain-20110919,0,6802902.story

 

[spamelope]

From what I saw on the video, it is TOUCH DNA that they recovered, as opposed to decomposition. I remember at the start of this case, LE discouraged the good people of Utah from searching for Susan. I am sure that the numbers would have been in the thousands had they been allowed. Perhaps she could have been found then. They are just doing now what should have been done almost 2 years ago IMO. I don't think anyone can even begin to guess where she is, unless LE really does know something we don't. But I have to say that my confidence in LE has taken a serious hit here. I hope I'm wrong and something breaks soon in this case.

 

[mysteriew]

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-s...ll-at-topaz-mountain-20110919,0,6802902.story

Now that is weird. A forensic anthrolopologist studies bones, not fluids. I would think that checking for decomp would be more of a lab function.

Now if they were checking the char for burnt bone remains, I would think a forensic anthrolopologist would be helpful.

 

[DomCasual]

I'm hesitant to speak at the moment, but I will answer the best I can.

Susan talked about her prior life in Washington, and how she and Josh were buying the house at Sarah circle. She mentioned it was a HUD and that they had a lot of work to do to get the house in suitable conditions.

I got the impression from her that Josh was very controlling. She would say that "Josh said we can do this or that"...it was always Josh said yes or no. It was never "We decided..."

At that time, a lot of us would tell her that it was her money too, and she should enjoy it. When she got pregnant, she seemed to be happy about it, and I do think she was, but I also think she was worried. It seemed like Josh could never settle on a job, and she wanted to stay at home to raise her kids.

She never mentioned specific games, but I do believe he was into computers, yes. I'm an IT professional, and I can tell you looking at his websites, if he did spend a lot of time online, it wasn't on honing his web development skills.

I did notice in the picture of them at church the day prior, he is holding an SLR camera, which is something I use as well. Being a professional camera, I imagine he has an extensive photo collection. But, I'm also going to wager that he put photos of her on his .org site that intentionally portray Susan as unattractive. She was a very pretty woman and could have done so much better than him. But, she chose him and she was quite dedicated.

<modsnip> I had been seeing all these pictures of her in the media - especially living here in Utah. So, I had a pretty good picture formed in my mind as to what she looked like. Then, he puts up the site, and the pictures all had a consistent quality to them - that is, they made Susan look bad.

You could tell it was done deliberately, because EVERY ONE of them looked bad. So, what kind of <modsnip> deliberately puts unflattering pictures of his wife on ANY website - be it Facebook, or whatever? <modsnip>

Little did I know how accurate that opinion would prove to be.

 

[mysteriew]

From what I saw on the video, it is TOUCH DNA that they recovered, as opposed to decomposition. I remember at the start of this case, LE discouraged the good people of Utah from searching for Susan. I am sure that the numbers would have been in the thousands had they been allowed. Perhaps she could have been found then. They are just doing now what should have been done almost 2 years ago IMO. I don't think anyone can even begin to guess where she is, unless LE really does know something we don't. But I have to say that my confidence in LE has taken a serious hit here. I hope I'm wrong and something breaks soon in this case.

The only thing is 2 years ago LE would have had to search the whole state, as they didn't have anything other than JP's word as to the area to search.

But the fact that it has been 2 years, and they are now in a long term, involved search is what makes me think that they do have some info they feel is credible. Even though many of the searchers are volunteer LE, it is still quite a costly search. They wouldn't be searching and spending the money unless they feel she is or was in that area.

The problem as I see it, is even if they had specific info (such as "she was left on the south side of Topaz Mountain) that is still a huge area compared to such a small human body. And searchers may not know exactly what they are looking for. Is it buried, burnt, scattered, or intact? If buried they could potentialy walk right over it without knowing. If burnt, I am sure there are many campfire sites out there. And after two years, how much evidence of the burn spot would still be there? If scattered, the bones would be bleached and soil covered, and hard to spot. Grasses and bushes could also have grown through and around them. It is unlikely that after two years the remains would be intact now.

 

[Jacie Estes]

Thanks very much for your input! :loser:

BBM. I didn't know about him having attended church on Sunday. In the beanie video he says he didn't attend church that day. Good evidence for the trial.<snipped>

This is the picture of the church function where josh is holding the camera.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...C46B011217252DF8010DAEF6&first=91&FORM=IDFRIR

 

[Just-a-Guy]

Susan's earrings! I wonder if JP even took them out of her ears? I hope LE has a metal detector out there, heck all searchers walking should have one! Perhaps the key is detecting the earrings!

Given the hours involved, she may have removed them herself that night? I suppose LE should know that. Either they were in the apartment or not. Good question...

 

[passionflower]

Susan is wearing earings in the church photo, I agree searches should have metal detectors. Just in case.

 

[Jacie Estes]

Have you ever noticed how Josh has his mouth open in almost every picture?

Irritates the crap out of me.

EVERYTHING about him irritates me. He must be a mouth-breather.

 

[HatesSociopaths]

BBM

WVCPD; they must have an email addie.

Thank you. They have a place on their website to write to and I did. I just got a very nice response.

 

[hollyblue]

West Valley City Police Lieutenant Bill Merritt said in an email Sunday that his department has made calls to Federal Way Police to determine if there is any connection between the remains found there and Susan's case. Susan went missing in December 2009.

http://www.examiner.com/missing-per...-near-puyallup-wa-where-families-seek-answers

 

[DLT88]

Given the hours involved, she may have removed them herself that night? I suppose LE should know that. Either they were in the apartment or not. Good question...

Yeah, she might have. But it seems she went to bed early feeling sick, so she may not have removed the earrings. I know I have forgotten to remove mine when I feel like that and just want to sleep a little. With 2 small boys, I am thinking that she went to bed to take a nap to see if she felt better and planned on getting up later so the earrings might still have been in her ears, I think.

 

[HotLavaJavas]

<modsnip> I had been seeing all these pictures of her in the media - especially living here in Utah. So, I had a pretty good picture formed in my mind as to what she looked like. Then, he puts up the site, and the pictures all had a consistent quality to them - that is, they made Susan look bad.

You could tell it was done deliberately, because EVERY ONE of them looked bad. So, what kind of <modsnip> deliberately puts unflattering pictures of his wife on ANY website - be it Facebook, or whatever? <modsnip>
Little did I know how accurate that opinion would prove to be.

Pretty much. I know what that camera is capable of since I have a Nikon SLR myself. The pictures on his site look like something he dug out of a box..scratched up, poor lighting, etc, and not the most flattering photos of her. Those cameras, even for a novice, produce very nice, quality photos. The watermark, IMO, was ridiculous. Nobody would care if another site uses a photo of their missing wife...even the graphic design I am doing for her cause..it's free license, I don't care who uses it as long as it brings her home.

And, while I don't know if this has much bearing...I noticed that her hair in some of her professional shots looks very thinned out...which wasn't normal for her. She had very nice hair and was meticulous about her appearance. She also dressed well. I have a particular memory of her wearing a light gray with light pink pinstripes suit for a big meeting we had. She was barely pregnant with Charlie at the time.

 

[Jacie Estes]

Given the hours involved, she may have removed them herself that night? I suppose LE should know that. Either they were in the apartment or not. Good question...

Kiirsi Hellewell packed up Susan's things when josh was moving from WVC to WA; Kiirsi should know if they were in her things that she packed.

 

[DLT88]

Pretty much. I know what that camera is capable of since I have a Nikon SLR myself. The pictures on his site look like something he dug out of a box..scratched up, poor lighting, etc, and not the most flattering photos of her. Those cameras, even for a novice, produce very nice, quality photos. The watermark, IMO, was ridiculous. Nobody would care if another site uses a photo of their missing wife...even the graphic design I am doing for her cause..it's free license, I don't care who uses it as long as it brings her home.

And, while I don't know if this has much bearing...I noticed that her hair in some of her professional shots looks very thinned out...which wasn't normal for her. She had very nice hair and was meticulous about her appearance. She also dressed well. I have a particular memory of her wearing a light gray with light pink pinstripes suit for a big meeting we had. She was barely pregnant with Charlie at the time.

Very interesting. I also had a friend who had thicker hair and dressed very nicely at work until she married a controlling man. The hair then got very thin and unkempt and she never dressed nice again. The reason was because the controller got very jealous if she looked nice and demanded to know who she was trying to flirt with. Sounds like Josh and his dad saying Susan was a flirt just because maybe she cared about her appearance and wanted to look nice. Hair sure does react to stress, too, and can easily thin if there is too much stress over a period of time.

Thank you for sharing your experience of knowing Susan. It makes her more real for me hearing about her from someone who actually knew her.

 

[Jacie Estes]

West Valley City Police Lieutenant Bill Merritt said in an email Sunday that his department has made calls to Federal Way Police to determine if there is any connection between the remains found there and Susan's case. Susan went missing in December 2009.

http://www.examiner.com/missing-per...-near-puyallup-wa-where-families-seek-answers

BBM That's encouraging.

 

[Jacie Estes]

Pretty much. I know what that camera is capable of since I have a Nikon SLR myself. The pictures on his site look like something he dug out of a box..scratched up, poor lighting, etc, and not the most flattering photos of her. Those cameras, even for a novice, produce very nice, quality photos. The watermark, IMO, was ridiculous. Nobody would care if another site uses a photo of their missing wife...even the graphic design I am doing for her cause..it's free license, I don't care who uses it as long as it brings her home.

And, while I don't know if this has much bearing...I noticed that her hair in some of her professional shots looks very thinned out...which wasn't normal for her. She had very nice hair and was meticulous about her appearance. She also dressed well. I have a particular memory of her wearing a light gray with light pink pinstripes suit for a big meeting we had. She was barely pregnant with Charlie at the time.

I wonder if it was because of pregnancy or if there were other times when he made 'pancakes' for her [i.e. poisoning]. IMHO

I love this pic of her:

http://susanpowell.org/Content/Img/Susan-Powell-missing-woman-photo-89.jpg

 

[DomCasual]

Pretty much. I know what that camera is capable of since I have a Nikon SLR myself. The pictures on his site look like something he dug out of a box..scratched up, poor lighting, etc, and not the most flattering photos of her. Those cameras, even for a novice, produce very nice, quality photos. The watermark, IMO, was ridiculous. Nobody would care if another site uses a photo of their missing wife...even the graphic design I am doing for her cause..it's free license, I don't care who uses it as long as it brings her home.

And, while I don't know if this has much bearing...I noticed that her hair in some of her professional shots looks very thinned out...which wasn't normal for her. She had very nice hair and was meticulous about her appearance. She also dressed well. I have a particular memory of her wearing a light gray with light pink pinstripes suit for a big meeting we had. She was barely pregnant with Charlie at the time.

I've wondered that, over time. She almost looks like she has a medical condition - alopecia, or something - in some of the pictures. So, you never saw anything like that with her? I wonder if he Photoshopped them.

The thing is that EVERYONE takes bad pictures, like the ones he has on that site. The thing is that most people just drag them to the recycle bin on their computer, so that no one ever sees them. He seems to have deliberately chosen them.

 

[HotLavaJavas]

I wonder if it was because of pregnancy or if there were other times when he made 'pancakes' for her [i.e. poisoning]. IMHO

I love this pic of her:

http://susanpowell.org/Content/Img/Susan-Powell-missing-woman-photo-89.jpg

I have considered that...that she was poisoned over time. He's such a pansy I can see it.

 

[Ronso]

So many things can cause hairloss. My hair is considerably thinner since having kids and it bugs the crap outta me! It's especially thin in the bangs.... so I have to comb them to the side.

It could be he was poisoning her, but I'd lean more towards stress or hormones from having children as to her hair thinning out. I can't imagine living with that man was a walk in the park.