In December 2009 wife and mother Susan Powell disappeared, seemingly having vanished overnight. Her husband Josh came home from a camping trip with their two young sons the next day to a cacophony of concerned police, family and friends. Despite claiming he had no idea where his wife was Josh was the one and only suspect in her disappearance and presumed murder.
The police never had enough to arrest and charge Josh though and sadly that isn’t the end. Three years after his wife disappeared Josh killed both his sons, Charlie and Braden, before taking his own life.
This is the story of Susan, Charlie and Braden Powell.
In December 2009 wife and mother Susan Powell disappeared, seemingly having vanished overnight. Her husband Josh came home from a camping trip with their two young sons the next day to a cacophony of concerned police, family and friends. Despite claiming he had no idea where his wife was Josh was the one and only suspect in her disappearance and presumed murder.
The police never had enough to arrest and charge Josh though and sadly that isn’t the end. Three years after his wife disappeared Josh killed both his sons, Charlie and Braden, before taking his own life.
This is the story of Susan, Charlie and Braden Powell.
Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. So welcome to episode 21 of Killer in the Family podcast and part one of another two-parter. Before we start, we will dive quickly into the episode, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for your support in nominating Killer in the Family for the True Crime Awards. I'll put the link in the episode notes and thank you again for just being amazing listeners. So the story that we're going to talk about in the next two episodes is one really close to my heart. I remember hearing it years ago and it's just really stayed with me. It is definitely going to be a tough lesson and there are links to information and support, if you need it, in the episode notes.
Speaker 1:
In December 2009, wife and mother Susan Powell disappeared, seemingly having vanished overnight. Her husband, josh, came home from a camping trip with their two young sons the next day to a cacophony of concerned police, family and friends. Despite claiming he had no idea where his wife was, josh was the one and only suspect in her disappearance and presumed murder. The police never had enough to arrest and charge Drosso and, sadly, that isn't the end. Three years after his wife disappeared. Josh killed both his sons, charlie and Brayden, before taking his own life. Heartbreaking case of control, deceit, murder and ultimately, fatal power. This is the story of Susan, charlie and Brayden Powell familiar side in slow motion. If something happens to me, josh had something to do with it. Susan Powell wrote that in her journal in the year she went missing. We're going to talk about how she came to fear her husband, josh, and be scared that he will do something to her. It's a heartbreaking story of control, abuse and ultimately, murder. These two episodes are also going to be a bit different. Some of the stories we've talked about before, although it does involve familiar side. It is familiar side in slow motion, with the perpetrator presumably killing his wife first and then his children. Years later We'll explore what brought him to this point and whether any of them could have been saved.
Speaker 1:
There's lots out there about Susan's case in the media and popular culture. My beloved crime junkie podcast has an episode about Susan, as does the going west podcast. There are a few documentaries out there as well and many news articles and videos. One of my main sources for this episode has been a podcast called Cold by Dave Corley. Now the Cold podcast is 18 episodes of in-depth investigation into Susan's story by Dave, and I really recommend a listen if you're interested in more details. There are two other seasons of the Cold podcast, too, investigating other unsolved crimes against women, and I'd really recommend them. Dave is a great host and a really diligent investigator and, in an irre coincidence with Lacey and Connor Peterson's story, I've also read a book by Josh's estranged sister, jennifer Graves, about the case. Her book, a Light in Dark Places, talks about how she believes her brother, josh, killed Susan and how she's been trying to prove it ever since. As usual, I've linked all my sources in the episode notes and will add links to my socials too.
Speaker 1:
So Susan Marie Cox was born on the 16th of October 1981 to parents Chuck and Judy in New Mexico, usa. She had an older sister, mary, and was a pretty happy child. One of the most important things to Susan was her faith. She's a member of the Latter-day Saints religion, lds, and we've talked about this religion before with the Haight family. It's quite a strict religion with very close community ties, and it was so important to her as she grew up, and it was through this religion that she met Josh Powell. Josh Powell was born on the 20th of January 1976, so he was five years older than Susan. He was born to parents Steve and Terry, in Washington State. He had an older sister, jennifer, who wrote the book that I mentioned earlier. Two little brothers and a little sister.
Speaker 1:
We're going to talk about Josh's childhood in a bit, but it's important to say that it wasn't a happy one. His father would hit him and his other siblings and he seemed to grow up with no rules or boundaries. Josh actually tried to kill himself when he was 14 years old and, despite his mother begging his father, steve refused to get him help with his mental health. Although he abused Josh and treated him awfully, steve and Josh would stay close throughout his life and become sort of co-dependent. Now, after school, josh went to the University of Washington and he was really interested in electronics and audio and visual equipment. Dave Coley's Cold podcast includes lots of Josh's audio diaries. He recorded them all the time and had loads of floppy desks and memory drives and USB sticks with them stored on them. He wanted to work in electronics or IT after he left university.
Speaker 1:
Now, at university, josh met a woman called Catherine Everett at an LDS church. They started dating and moved in together and in that relationship, josh was very controlling and Catherine talked about behaviour such as controlling who she could see, who she could talk to on the phone, and even him cashing her salary checks into his bank account. Now, when we go back to thinking about some of the examples of coercive controlling behaviour women's aid lists, for example, includes isolating someone from their friends and family, monitoring their time, taking control of aspects of everyday life, such as where someone can go and who they can see, and controlling their finances it's clear that Josh was coercively controlling Catherine in this relationship and she knew that something wasn't right. She actually ended up getting away from Josh when she went to visit a friend in Utah and just never came back. She broke up with him over the phone and managed to escape from an abusive and dangerous man, something that not everyone is able to do. So even pretty early on in his life, josh was displaying abusive and controlling behaviours towards women, and to even try and understand the way Josh treated women, we probably have to go back to his childhood.
Speaker 1:
Now, talking about their childhood, in her book, jennifer says quote Mom was a caretaker, the nurture of the comforter. My dad was just the guy who told mom what to do. She describes his parenting style as very aggressive, talking about how he would yell at her, josh and their little brother, john, and even hit them or drag them around, and apparently Josh got it worse out for three of them. When Josh was six, his second little brother, michael, was born, and Michael was followed by a sister, alina, who was the baby of the family, and it was at this point that Steve really started to turn against the LDS faith. He wouldn't go to church anymore and started talking about how much he hated the religion, and this was a real issue for his wife, terry.
Speaker 1:
Now there are a couple of incidents in their childhood that really stood out to Jennifer, which may have been indications of Josh's capacity for pain and violence. One was when Josh killed his little sister, alina's gerbils and made Alina, who was pretty young at this point, push her finger into their blood. And it's just really awful awful that poor, poor gerbils and that poor girl, and there's a lot of evidence that links cruelty and killing of animals to future behaviour of murderers. This seems to indicate that for Josh. Another incident that Jennifer recalls in her book is a bit more sinister, and it's when the whole family was on holiday. In a hotel with a pool, she, josh, and her brother John were swimming, and they sort of like nine, ten, eleven years old that sort of age. Jennifer was supposed to be watching the two boys but she lost sight of them. So she went looking. She found both Josh and John behind a wall pulling the swimming suit down off a five year old girl. Jennifer knew it was awful and wrong and found out that apparently they had done a similar thing to their sister Alina. This is really concerning for children that are so young and I can only imagine that they've sort of learnt that behaviour somewhere.
Speaker 1:
And one of the most concerning things about how a family growing up was the behaviour of their father, steve. Currently, he freely left pornography around the house. He kept journals that talked about wanting to marry other people, even suggesting polyamory to his non-consenting wife, terry, and talked about how people should be free to love and have sex with whoever they wanted. Now, really concerningly, steve also talked about having sexual feelings towards his daughter, jennifer, as she grew up, which is just absolutely horrific. And it's no surprise that when Terry and Steve finally divorced, jennifer stayed with her mum. The divorce apparently was very long and drawn out and Steve actually got custody of their other children. Josh was really happy to go and live with Steve, and I think Terry was as well, because in the years before the divorce Terry had become really frightened of Josh. He'd even once threatened to kill her with a knife In an awful moment of foresight. Jennifer's Aunt Becky said in the divorce document that quote these boys, I fear, are going to be getting into trouble with the law sooner or later, as they have a very unquestionable right to do anything. They darn well, please, combined with a very deep contempt towards women in general and any authority at all.
Speaker 1:
Now, by the time Susan and Josh met at an LDS church, it turned out that they'd actually met before, when Susan was 12 years old and Josh was 17 years old. He was at Susan's house to see if he could take her sister Mary to prom. Now Mary had actually already gone to prom with someone else, but apparently Josh stayed for a while chatting to 12 year old Susan and her mum Judy. He actually mentioned later on that it was a shame that Susan was only 12, as he quite liked her. So a bit of a huge red flag there. On a side note, when Susan and Josh did meet later on and started dating, her sister Mary told her to end things with him. She didn't like Josh at all and thought he was weird and not a good guy. How prescient this would become Now.
Speaker 1:
Susan and Josh got married pretty quickly into their relationship and there's a story from going West podcast and cold podcast that when Susan was working in a department store, josh actually went in and asked for to look at the jewellery and that he wanted to buy a nice ring for his mother and like which one would Susan like? So he picked out a ring and asked Susan to buy it with her discount from the department store and it turned out that was her engagement ring. So he actually got Susan to buy engagement ring, which is pretty indicative of his control and attitude towards money and women, as we all talk about further. So but they got married and when they were first married they lived with Josh's dad, steve, in Washington. Now we've heard a lot about Steve already and I'm not sure I would want to be in the same house as him, especially as, because Josh's brothers were living in there too, susan and Josh didn't actually have their own room. They had to partition a bit off the living room with a curtain for their bed, and it turned out during this period that Susan's father-in-law, steve, came obsessed with her. He would video her without her knowing a mirror under the bathroom door when she was in there, and even give her massages without her wanting to. He actually told her that he was in love with her and she, in no uncertain terms, told him that she was his daughter-in-law and nothing would go any further. Steve was so deluded that years later, when he was talking to the police after Susan disappeared, he talked about how she had feelings for him too, and they had loads of chemistry. Just what a creep, what a creep. There is nothing as delusional as an entitled guy who thinks that every woman wants to be with him. The fact that Josh did nothing when Susan told him what Steve had said also says a lot about their messed up father-son relationship as well.
Speaker 1:
So in 2004, josh and Susan moved to Sarah Circle in Utah. Now I have no doubt that Susan was very happy to put some distance between her and her creepy father-in-law. They lived in a nice neighborhood and Susan got a job and started making friends. Josh, in true Josh fashion, got jobs, then left or got fired obviously never his fault and continued in that pattern, still spending Susan's money when his run out.
Speaker 1:
Now, unsurprisingly, considering what we know about Josh's first relationship, he was a very controlling husband. One of the things that he controlled so tightly was money and finances. So this is called economic abuse and is part of domestic abuse and coercive control, and we heard about how, with his first girlfriend, he would do things like take her paychecks and put limit on spendings, and he did this with Susan as well. He would also run up credit on her cards rather than his money, and Josh was so tight that he actually made Susan knit her own socks rather than buying them, and when he won who knows about knitting knows that I don't think it's cheaper to knit your own socks. This is about control over the smallest things and obviously these rules didn't apply to him, so he bought whatever he wanted, usually with Susan's money. Now, one of the worst things about Josh's control was the way he controlled what money Susan spent at the grocery store and on food, and according to the crime junkie podcast, he would sort of analyze every receipt and admonish Susan if she spent a few cents more on something which could have been found cheaper elsewhere. He was so tight with food, but when they had their two boys, he said that they didn't need feeding at home because they got a meal at daycare and only needed one meal a day. I mean, what the actual fuck? Apparently his kids ate so little that at one point they were diagnosed with malnutrition. Why someone didn't intervene, I have no idea, and obviously, again, these rules didn't apply to him. He ate whatever he wanted. Oh, just what an absolute douche here. It's such classic coercively controlling behavior and is so dangerous.
Speaker 1:
And, as I mentioned, in their marriage, susan and Josh welcomed two children Charles, joshua Powell, or Charlie, who was born on the 19th of January 2005. He died on the 5th of February 2012 aged just seven years old, according to the website find a grave. I think there's a quote from a teacher on there who says quote Charlie had a great appreciation for nature, science and insects. On many occasions he tried to sneak a worm or caterpillar into the class. He was always a good sport whenever caught and he would always make sure the bug was safe and sound. Before joining the class, he was about to get glasses. He loved to write and dreaming up plans to market his books, and it should be noted here that when Susan went into labour with Charlie, josh did not company her or take her to the hospital. He called her parents to take her while he backed up his computer and, according to Jennifer's book, he was super disinterested in Charlie and supporting Susan and from the first day, like she did all the work associated with children. I mean Jennifer didn't know if Josh even changed her nappy. Charlie was joined by his little brother, braden, on the 2nd of January 2007. He also died on the 5th of February 2012, aged just 5. According to his finder gravesite quote, braden had an enthusiasm for life and took pleasure in everything he preferred cars and trains and the Halloween before he and Charlie dressed up as transporers. Braden loved to be tickled and there's a photo on that website of Braden with a huge snake on his shoulders, like wrapped around his shoulders. I would be absolutely terrified, but he had the biggest smile on his face.
Speaker 1:
Now it was the next year after Braden was born that Susan and Josh's marriage really started to deteriorate. Mostly pickers, josh, like his father Steve, had started to move away from the LDS faith. He no longer attended church regularly and this became a huge problem for Susan During 2008 and 2009,. Susan began keeping files at work Files and journals. She didn't want Josh just to see. She told people that if she went missing, they needed to look at Josh. She kept journals describing his controlling ways and how she was planning to leave him. She even took out a safe deposit box to keep some of her most important and private files in. In this safe deposit box is a letter that she had written. The letter said that Josh was not allowed to see it and it talked about how Josh threatened her if she ever sought a divorce. Apparently, he would say quote there will be no lawyers, only a mediator. And I will ruin you, you would be destroyed and your life would be over, and the boys will not grow up with a mum and dad. Susan wrote in the letter quote if I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one.
Speaker 1:
And according to Jennifer's book, susan had already got some free legal advice at this point about leaving Josh and what she would need to do. And in July 2008, she made a home video documenting her assets. In the video, she's walking around the house talking about everything that's in there. She says quote I am documenting all our assets just in case of emergencies fires, floods, disputes In their basement she describes all the new equipment that Josh has just bought from Home Depot on her credit card. Obviously, a circular saw a vac loads of stuff and she really pointed to the sales that he bought it with her credit card. There are so many tools in the house and so many computers, laptops and hard drives, and as she goes through the house she also points out things Josh has broken because he was angry with her. They include a jewelry dish and her DVDs. So at this point in 2008, 2009, susan seemed to be getting everything together, ready to leave and divorce Josh.
Speaker 1:
On the very cold morning of Monday, the 7th of December 2009 in West Valley, utah, debbie Caldwell was waiting for the arrival of her last two charges for childminding four-year-old Charlie Powell and two-year-old Braden Powell. When they didn't arrive and she couldn't get in touch with their mom, susan, or dad, josh, she became pretty concerned. This wasn't like them or at all. She called Josh's mother and sister to let them know what was going on and they actually travelled to Susan and Josh's house on Sarah Circle. Initially they were worried about carbon monoxide poisoning and apparently in Utah, this is quite a big risk in the winter and, according to the Utah Disease Control website, there were 201 emergency department visits and six deaths reported in 2022 due to carbon monoxide poisoning, so it was a really valid concern.
Speaker 1:
Once they arrived at the house, jennifer asked two of her children to go to the fence to see if they can see anything. Having no luck and not seeing anything sort of out of the ordinary, jennifer and her mom decided to call the police and while waiting for the police, they continued to call Susan and Josh's work. Now both said that they were due to work, but they hadn't turned up. Getting even more worried, jennifer called Susan's dad, chuck, and Susan's best friend, kersi. Now police arrived and asked for Jennifer and her mom's permission to break a window to get into the house. They gave it immediately. Going into the house for the first time, everything looked pretty normal on first sight. The only thing out of place was who fans directed the sofa, and they were both on, and Jennifer walked around looking for the family, but they just weren't there. She did find one thing that was very significant though Susan's purse. Her purse had her keys, wallet and everything else she needed in there, apart from her cell phone. Susan wouldn't get anywhere without this purse.
Speaker 1:
Now the main detective for the investigation was Ellis Maxwell and he was on the scene that Monday morning. He asked Jennifer and her mom if there was any domestic abuse in relationship, and Jennifer mentioned that Susan and Josh had actually got into a physical altercation a few months before when they were arguing. She didn't think that it had happened before that. Her mom, who is obviously also Josh's mom, apparently gave her dagger eyes when she was talking about that and huge props to Jennifer here. Josh was her brother, but Susan was her friend and she probably knew more than most about what Josh was capable of. She stuck up for Susan and wouldn't lie just to protect her brother.
Speaker 1:
As the Monday wore on, everyone was getting more and more concerned about the power family. Where were they? Were the boys okay? Then Detective Maxwell got a call. Josh had been in touch. He had actually answered a call from a neighbour called Giovanni. Apparently her son had called Josh from her mobile and he answered. She then spoke to him and told him to come home.
Speaker 1:
Now. Before we go on, giovanni is an important person in this story as she was actually at Susan and Josh's house on that Sunday afternoon before Susan went missing. Susan had asked her to come over and help and she needed her to untangle some wool she was using for knitting Maybe she was knitting her own socks. They sat on the sofa in the house and untangled wool together that afternoon. Meanwhile the boys were in the kitchen with Josh who was making pancakes and an omelet. This was a stranger occurrence for Susan, as he never cooked or helped around the house and apparently he'd called his dad earlier in the day to ask for a pancake recipe. I found this a bit weird as well, as I feel like Susan would know recipe. Anyway, josh made pancakes and handed one to Susan and one to Giovanni that afternoon.
Speaker 1:
After a while, susan mentioned to her friend that she was feeling a bit sleepy, so she was going to go and lie down. Giovanni said that she stayed at their house for a while after that untangling the wool and Josh was taking the kids sledding. So Giovanni left at the same time and saw Josh drive off. According to the COAL podcast, josh's version of this is slightly different, as he said that Giovanni left before he did and he just took Charlie sledding later on. Anyway, back to that Monday afternoon, so after he'd spoken to Giovanni.
Speaker 1:
Josh then called his sister, jennifer, who wanted to know if him, susan and the boys were okay. He said that they'd just been camping and Susan was at work. In fact, at that point he was at her work ready to pick her up. He had to pick her up as Susan and Josh only had one car, which was the minivan he was in, and Jennifer thought that Josh sounded pretty emotionless and not really that concerned that his wife was missing. She told Detective Maxwell and when Josh still didn't come home after a while, she called him again. Maxwell got on the phone and told Josh in no uncertain terms that he was to come home.
Speaker 1:
When Josh eventually came home with the boys this is what he said he'd been up to Apparently, he'd been camping with them. He said he'd left Susan around midnight the night before when he left with the boys to go camping. Never mind that it was Sunday night and a snowstorm was coming and it was freezing and your young children were probably already in bed. That's his story and he was sticking to it. When asked about why he didn't answer his phone, he said it was dead, even though in the van it was clearly on a charger and we need to talk about this for a minute.
Speaker 1:
So you have a guy who thinks it's a good idea to take his two young children camping on a Sunday night in the middle of a snowstorm at midnight, and that we are supposed to think that Susan was okay with that. Absolutely not. It just doesn't fly. He thinks Elise and her family will believe. But not only was Susan absolutely fine with her husband and young kids going camping in a snowstorm, sleeping in a minivan, she would have known that it was a Sunday night. Her and Josh had worked. The next day, the boys had daycare. Susan would have absolutely known and I don't think she would have agreed.
Speaker 1:
Josh says that he didn't realise it was Sunday, but she would have. She wouldn't have let them leave and, as I said, when people got in touch with Josh on Monday afternoon, he was saying he was at Susan's work to pick her up, even though he had the minivan. So how would she have got to work? Another reason why she absolutely would have not let him go. Okay, and if you actually had gone camping at midnight on a Sunday in a snowstorm with your two young children in your family's only car and then come back to find your wife missing. Wouldn't there have been a bit more urgency and concern than Josh showed when he returned? His behaviour and this weird lack of concern really leads me to think that at this point on Sunday night Susan was either already dead or unconscious From the pancake Josh had made her earlier that afternoon.
Speaker 1:
So on that Monday afternoon Josh did his first interview with police. He wasn't under arrest. They were investigating Susan's disappearance. His interview didn't really warrant anything of interest. He stuck to his camping story and maintained that Susan knew all about his camping trip, which is just absolute bullshit. And he said that as far as he knew, susan had gone to work. How she got to work he didn't know, because he had their own car. The police didn't get much out of Josh that night and they let him go. They made an appointment for the next morning for another interview.
Speaker 1:
Now there isn't loads to criticise the police with their investigation here. They took the missing persons report straight away. They took it seriously. They invested resources into looking for Susan, investigating Josh. But on the cold podcast Detective Maxwell does talk about how he wished that he had served search warrants on that Monday night for the house and the minivan. Search warrants were served for both the next day. But when they got to searching the minivan they found that it had been thoroughly cleaned.
Speaker 1:
Now the interview the next day which Josh was hours late for, by the way weren't much the same as the first one. Josh was evasive, unemotional, basically just not very helpful. And I come back to this point of if you've come back from camping and your wife is missing, wouldn't you be trying to do everything you can to help people find her? And it was at this point that Detective Maxwell told Josh that they were searching his home in minivan and that he could have his minivan back when they'd finished. There were also detectives interviewing Charlie in a local child centre. Now to go to the police interview. Josh had left the boys with Jennifer and she consented to Charlie being interviewed by specialist officers. In his interview, charlie had apparently said that Mummy had gone camping with them in the minivan, but that she didn't come back. When Josh took this information, when police took this information to Josh again, he said nothing of use and just denied, denied, denied. It was over a day since Susan had gone missing. Her family, friends and neighbours were all hugely concerned, but Josh just didn't seem to care.
Speaker 1:
We're going to pick up in the next episode, looking at what happens with the searches of the house in minivan and the search for Susan. I think we also need to take some time here to think about Charlie and Braden at this moment. They must must have been so confused and scared, just not sure what was going on. Their routine had been disrupted, their mum was gone and I'm sure that they were as worried as Susan's family and friends. As we finish part one of this story, we have a controlling husband whose wife just disappeared overnight and he claims to know nothing about it. We have emerging evidence that she wanted to leave him and that she was scared something would happen to her. I really, I really wish that this was the end of the story in some way. What has happened already is devastating and heartbreaking, and I'm in no doubt that Josh has killed his wife in cold blood. But in the next part we'll hear about what happens to the two boys, charlie and Braden. This episode is dedicated to Susan Powell and her two sons, charlie and Braden, the lives they led, the happiness they brought to their friends and families.
Speaker 1:
This has been Killer in the Family podcast written and produced by me, claire Laxton, with music from the brilliant Tom Box and Pixel Bay. I'll be back next week with part two of Susan, charlie and Braden's story, so please subscribe, whatever you get, your podcasts. Don't forget to nominate Killer in the Family podcast for the True Crime Awards and follow me on social media at Killer in the Family pod. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care.