Harrowing mystery disappearance of mum before dad blew up their children

Susan Powell, 28, disappeared from her home in West Valley City, Utah, in December 2009, and has never been found

The nation was gripped by the mysterious case of Susan Marie Powell, a young Utah mother who vanished without a trace in December 2009. Susan, 28 years old at the time, disappeared from West Valley City.

Susan Cox, born on October 16, 1981, in Alamogordo, New Mexico, encountered Joshua Powell while he studied at the University of Washington and lived in Tacoma. The future partners met at a dinner party they both attended as part of an LDS Church Institute of Religion course.

They began dating shortly after and married in April 2001 at the Portland Oregon Temple. Joshua struggled to find stable employment despite his business degree, and Susan used her skills as a cosmetologist to secure a job with Wells Fargo Investments, coinciding with their move to West Valley City, located just outside Salt Lake City.

They had two sons: Charles on January 19, 2005, and Braden on January 2, 2007. However, family life was strained, particularly by Joshua's father, Steven's open obsession with Susan, which included writing love songs for her.

Their marriage was further marred by conflicts over Joshua's reluctance to take part in church and his "extremely controlling" behaviour towards Susan. Financial troubles also plagued them, culminating in Joshua's 2007 bankruptcy filing when he accumulated over $200k in debt.

The situation was so dire that Susan recorded a video in July 2008, documenting property damage she believed was caused by Joshua. Additionally, she secretly drafted a will containing the ominous phrases, "I want it documented that there is extreme turmoil in our marriage" and, "If I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one."

Tragically, Susan's darkest fears would soon become a reality after she disappeared on the afternoon of December 6, 2009. Initially, the entire family was unaccounted for, prompting Joshua's relatives to launch a search when they realized the boys had missed daycare.

Joshua's mother and estranged sister contacted the authorities, who broke into the Powell residence, fearing a potential carbon monoxide incident.

The house was empty, yet police officers noticed two fans directed at a damp spot on the couch, which seemed unusual. When Susan failed to appear at work on December 7, her purse, wallet, and identification were found at home.

Her cell phone was discovered in the family's Chrysler Town & Country minivan, which Joshua had been driving.

Around 5 pm, Joshua returned home with his two sons and was subsequently taken to the police station for questioning. He claimed that he had taken his boys on a camping trip, leaving Susan asleep at home just after midnight on December 7 and heading to the Pony Express Trail in Western Utah.

However, when the police scoured the area on December 10, they found no trace of the campsite Joshua had mentioned. The detectives were sceptical about Joshua's decision to take his young sons camping in the middle of a blizzard past midnight, especially when they were due at daycare in a few hours.

Adding to the mystery - Joshua hadn't told his employer that he wouldn't be coming in that day. His strange explanation to the police was that he had mistaken Monday for Sunday.

Joshua faced another round of questioning on the evening of December 8, right before he rented a car at Salt Lake City International Airport. His whereabouts after leaving the airport remain a mystery, but roughly 18 hours later - around 4pm on December 9 - he called his mother from a new phone while driving south on Interstate 84 in Tremonton, heading back towards the state capital.

The police later discovered that Joshua had added an extra 807 miles to the rental car's odometer.

Traces of Susan's blood were found on the floor of the Powell house on December 9. Police also discovered life insurance policies on Susan for US$1.5m and a handwritten note from Susan expressing fear for her life.

Law enforcement grew suspicious of Joshua's behaviour after his wife disappeared, with him hastily accessing her retirement funds, cancelling her chiropractic sessions, and pulling the children out of daycare. Particular alarm bells rang when he was heard discussing potential methods of hiding a body in Utah's remote mine shafts.

Their elder son Charlie, during police interviews, validated Joshua's camping trip account but crucially contradicted his claim that Susan had not joined them – he said she did go but didn't return. Further stirring concerns was the disturbing revelation by one of Charlie's teachers weeks after her disappearance; they shared that Charlie had spoken of his mother being dead.

Adding to the tragic scenario, Susan's bereaved parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, told authorities about an alarming incident at daycare: Braden had drawn a picture featuring a car with his family inside and chillingly said, "Mommy was in the trunk."

Detectives announced plans to re-question Joshua, who unbeknownst to the public was already considered a person of interest since around Christmas 2009 and was showing increasing hostility towards law enforcement.

Tensions escalated between and within the Powell and Cox families as the investigation into Susan's disappearance continued. A website, SusanPowell.org, emerged shortly after she vanished, claiming to be "the official website of Susan Powell." The anonymous posts on the site portrayed Joshua as a victim of an unfair character assassination by Susan's family and the LDS church.

It was widely believed that the Powell family was behind the website, using it to control the narrative around Susan's case.

The website also hinted at a possible link between Susan's disappearance and the case of missing journalist Steven Koecher, who vanished in Nevada the same week Susan was last seen. Both Joshua and his father suggested that Susan had abandoned her family due to mental health problems and alleged she had run off with another man - claims that were strongly denied by Susan's family as being "unsupported" by any evidence.

In late September 2011, Jennifer Graves publicly stated her belief that her brother Joshua was "responsible for his wife Susan Powell's disappearance."

This led to a court injunction preventing the Powells from sharing content from Susan's diaries and ordering them to return or destroy any published excerpts. On September 22, Steven was arrested on charges related to voyeurism and child pornography.

Authorities found out he had secretly been filming young girls and numerous women, including a woman named Susan. John Long, assistant attorney general for Washington State, remarked that Joshua was a "subject" in the investigation.

The day after Steven's arrest, Susan's father, Chuck Cox, applied for custody of her kids. A Washington state court granted Cox temporary custody of the boys, with conditions that Joshua leave Steven's home to regain custody.

Joshua underwent court-required assessments which recommended supervised visitations with his sons multiple times weekly, monitored by a social worker. On 5 February 2012, a horrific event unfolded when social worker Elizabeth Griffin Hall, who brought Charlie and Braden for a scheduled visit at Joshua's South Hill home, called emergency services.

She reported that Joshua grabbed the boys and locked her out.

Soon after, a deadly blaze engulfed the house, taking the lives of Joshua and his children within. The authorities dealt with the incident as a double murder-suicide, surmising it was deliberate.

After a swift probe, authorities affirmed the blast at Joshua's residence was intentional. They concluded Joshua and his two sons died from carbon monoxide poisoning, with the coroner highlighting severe chop wounds on both children's heads and necks.

"I don't know anything else I could have done and they're still dead. My daughter's still missing, and now the children are dead," lamented a devastated Chuck Cox at that time, as per ABC.

A hatchet found close to Joshua's remains led detectives to believe he assaulted his sons before succumbing to the toxic smoke and gases. The fire inquiry also unearthed two five-gallon petrol cans at the scene, plus signs suggesting petrol had been dispersed all around the home.

Just minutes before the tragedy, Joshua emailed farewells to acquaintances; some, including his bishop, were given instructions regarding his finances and how to discontinue his utility services.

Records further disclosed that Joshua took out $7,000 from his bank prior to the incident and donated his children's toys and books to local non-profits the day before. The boys rest in peace at Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup, Washington, alongside a tribute for their mother, while Joshua's body was incinerated.

Susan, who has been missing for over 15 years, is widely believed to have been murdered by her husband Joshua, given the tragic fate of their sons. In March 2018, there were calls to legally declare her dead, with homicide being the suspected cause.