#braden powell

[cassie-darlin]

how many more known abusers will have their parental rights put over the safety and lives of their children? how many children will die at the hands of their own parents due to the negligence of the CPS/DFPS system? how many until we say its enough?

[catsandtruecrime]

The Tragic Case of Susan, Charlie, and Braden Powell

Stay away from guys with the last name Peterson (see Scott, Drew, and Michael).

Do not move to Puyallup, Washington (seriously, so many murders and disappearances happen there).

These are two things that the world of true crime has taught me to avoid. While today’s story isn’t about a man named Peterson, Puyallup is where our story about another wife murdering psycho starts and ends. I would consider this case one of “my” cases. Other true crime junkies know exactly what I’m talking about; “my” cases are the ones that I never stop thinking about. I want to share them with everyone I know and whether solved or unsolved, they live in my head rent free, as the kids would say.

Today’s story is neither solved or unsolved; it’s a bit weird in that way. While most people are confident that Susan Powell’s family will never see her again, her body has never been found, so she’s never been confirmed dead. With that said, though, the end of this story makes it pretty easy to assume that that’s the case and that Susan’s death can be attributed to her husband, Josh. But I’m getting ahead of myself, so lets start from the very beginning.

Susan Cox and Josh Powell both grew up in the Mormon community in Puyallup, Washington. Susan was born in 1981 and was one of four daughters. Her family remembers that she loved riding horses when she was younger, and spent a lot of her time singing in her school and church choirs.

When Susan was 18, she met Josh Powell at an event for young Mormons that they had both decided to attend. Their church regularly held services for congregations of young, single Mormons; it was as much a church service as it was a place to potentially meet your future spouse in their eyes.

Josh was 5 years older than Susan, making him 23 at the time that they met. He’s described by family and friends as being ambitious and confident, but also nerdy and awkward. Apparently Susan saw something in him, because after just meeting in October of 2000, the pair were engaged by December of the same year.

Susan and Josh Powell were married in April of 2001 and Susan quickly took on the role of the provider once they relocated to West Valley City, Utah near Salt Lake City; Josh was constantly in and out of jobs while Susan worked at the local branch of Wells Fargo in investments.

What seemed like a relatively happy marriage only seemed to become more picturesque once Susan and Josh had their two sons, Charlie in 2005, and Braden in 2007. While Susan was a doting mother who showed unconditional love for her boys, Josh was described as an “unattached dad” and Kiirsi Hellewell, Susan’s best friend, said in the 20/20 episode on Susan’s case, “Josh held Charlie when he wanted to show him off…he didn’t want to change diapers or bathe him…” It seemed to most people that unless his kids were making him look like a respectable, attentive, great father in the eyes of the public, Josh couldn’t care less about them.

Susan’s friends and family also described Josh as “controlling,” and Susan herself showed fear that Josh’s abusive tendencies could one day become her downfall. Before her disappearance in December of 2009 (we’ll get there…don’t worry…) Kiirsi eventually convinced Susan to meet with a divorce attorney after repeatedly expressing concerns about Josh’s controlling and manipulative behavior. Although Susan was the one making money for the family, Josh was the one who liked to spend; he regularly made extravagant purchases for himself, while monitoring and policing the purchases Susan wanted to make with her own money. As there was clear strife within their marriage, her attorney advised her to document her assets on video, which she did, along with documenting property damage that she attributed to one of Josh’s fits of rage.

Susan burned the video to a DVD which she then locked in a secret safety deposit box, along with a makeshift will that police later found when investigating her disappearance. In her will, Susan made several concerning statements, including, "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.”

On the night of Sunday, December 6th, 2009, JoVanna Owings, one of Josh and Susan’s friends from church, came over for dinner. JoVanna recounted that while she and Susan chatted and crocheted, Josh and the boys took to the kitchen to make everyone dinner. From Josh, who had never taken an interest in anything domestic, this act was seen as odd and out of character from everyone involved.

JoVanna also described that the way in which Josh cooked struck her as strange; he had decided to make pancakes for everyone, and JoVanna noticed that he made the pancakes one by one, and served everyone one by one. In the 20/20 special on Susan’s disappearance, JoVanna described how she and Susan ate their pancakes in the living room, while Josh and the boys ate in the kitchen. Kiirsi Hellewell points out that this was incredibly out of character and not a normal routine for the family at all. “That would  have been completely out of the ordinary. I’ve never, ever, ever seen them eat in the living room.”

Shortly after eating, Susan began to feel ill and decided to lay down to take a nap. JoVanna took that opportunity to leave for the night, and Josh followed JoVanna out, saying that he was going to take Charlie and Braden sledding for a bit. JoVanna was still sitting in her van in the Powells’ driveway when Josh and the boys left.

The next morning, on Monday, December 7th, 2009, Charlie and Braden didn’t show up to daycare, and Susan and Josh were both absent from their jobs. Naturally, everyone who knew the Powells became worried when they didn’t hear from anyone in the family that morning. Friends and family worried that the family may have fallen victim to carbon monoxide poisoning, and the police were called to perform a wellness check.

When they arrived, police entered the home to find no sign of a disturbance, and none of the Powell family members inside. They noted that Susan’s purse was on a table with her wallet and credit cards inside. Police also noted that there were two box fans running on high, pointed at wet spots on the living room carpet. There was no vehicle in the garage.

On the evening of Monday, December 7th, at about 5 pm, Josh finally showed up at his house with Charlie and Braden in tow. He explained that he had taken Charlie and Braden to go camping at Simpson Springs Campground, about two hours away from their home. They had left sometime between midnight and 12:30 am according to Josh. Keep in mind here…Charlie is 4 and Braden is 2…not a move from the world’s greatest dad, waking your toddlers up in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT to go camping. That night, temperatures were below freezing and a blizzard was expected to bring 2-4 feet of snow throughout the day on Monday, beginning in the early morning hours.

When Josh and the boys returned, police questioned him regarding Susan’s whereabouts and they also searched the family’s van that Josh and the boys had returned in. Inside the van, they found Susan’s cell phone in the center console, as well as a generator, gas can, tarps, blankets, and a shovel. The SIM card was removed from Susan’s cell phone and Josh was unable to explain why he had it or why the SIM card was missing.

While Josh was at the police station being questioned on Monday night, police say that he quickly went from putting on an emotional show to entirely emotionless and unhelpful. Josh gave minimal information and asked no questions about his wife or whether the police had any leads. Later, Josh also refused to participate in any searches for Susan.

The same day, Charlie was also interviewed by police regarding the camping trip he had supposedly gone on with his father and brother. Charlie told the interviewing officer, “My dad came home, but mommy stayed at [the park]. She’s where the crystals are.”

In subsequent interviews over the years, Charlie would also say that “We can’t talk about Susan or camping,” and “We can only see Mommy if we go camping again.” Later, when questioned about a picture that he drew of his family in the car, Braden would say “Mommy’s in the trunk.”

After police searched the family home and seized the family’s van to search for evidence, Josh rented a car from the Salt Lake City International Airport; when he returned it 18 hours later, there were 807 additional miles on the odometer. To this day, no one knows where he went.

In subsequent days after Susan’s disappearance, friends and family of the Powells reported that Josh seemed completely disinterested in Susan’s case and didn’t seem to care at all whether she was found or not. Josh arrived late to one of the vigils held for Susan and then left almost immediately. Within weeks, on Friday, December 18th, 2009, Josh took Charlie and Braden back to Puyallup to stay with his father, Steve, “for the holidays.” He had also cashed out all of the couple’s accounts and intended to rent out their West Valley home.

While Josh was living with Steve (spoiler alert, they never went back to West Valley, Utah, they just kept living with Steve), Josh’s sister, Jennifer, worked with police in an attempt to get Josh on tape confessing to Susan’s murder. Jennifer always believed that Josh was the one who had caused Susan’s disappearance and went to visit him while wearing a wire. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to secure a confession from Josh, and Steve kicked her out while calling her names for not supporting her brother.

On August 24th, 2010, Josh and Steve appeared on an ABC interview where Josh was distant; Steve, on the other hand, ended up commandeering the interview when he claimed that he and Susan had had a sexual relationship. As police began investigating this claim, they found that it was half true; Steve had indeed had a sexual view of Susan, but she wanted nothing to do with him.

At the beginning of their marriage, Susan and Josh lived with Steve for a short time. Susan’s family and friends reported that she had mentioned numerous times that she thought Steve was creepy and how uncomfortable he made her. At the time that they lived with him, Steve was never without his video camera.

I bet you’re wondering what could possibly be so interesting that you’d want to be filming at all times. Well, when you’re obsessed with your daughter in law (and Steve was OBSESSED with Susan) you don’t want to miss a moment! When police were eventually able to gain access to Steve’s computers and videos that he had taken over the years, they found hours of footage of Susan, both filmed with and without her knowledge. Some videos included videos taken through cracks of barely open doors, videos underneath of bathroom doors, and videos focused on too conveniently placed mirrors that gave views into other rooms. Steve also had videos documenting things that he had stolen from Susan, including her discarded trash and clothes that Steve had taken from her room. Steve also read Susan’s journals and documented himself leafing through them as well.

Steve also wrote and recorded songs both about and dedicated to Susan (who, again, is his DAUGHTER IN LAW in case you forgot) that he uploaded to a website he created. At one point when they were left alone in a car together, Steve told Susan that he was falling in love with her. Susan told him that she wasn’t interested and that his behavior made her uncomfortable. Steve would continue this behavior until Susan and Josh moved to their house in West Valley, Utah.

As touched on briefly, police were eventually able to gain permission to raid Steve’s house once it became apparent that evidence about Susan’s disappearance may be hiding in his home. They were mainly looking for Susan’s diaries that Josh had taken with him when he left their West Valley home, but they were also able to take all of Steve’s computers and videos that he had stockpiled over the years. On his computers, police also found photos and videos he had taken of the underage girls that lived next door to Steve. He was charged with various things, including voyeurism and one count of child pornography, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

After it was established that Charlie and Braden were being raised in an objectively terrible environment with their obviously incredibly creepy and dangerous grandfather, Charlie and Braden were placed in state custody, and then placed with Chuck and Judy Cox, Susan’s parents, a few days later. In an effort to regain custody of his children, Josh began renting a house in Puyallup and was eventually granted supervised visitation with Charlie and Braden.

On February, 1, 2012, during Josh’s custody hearing, West Valley police revealed that in initial searches of the Powells’ West Valley home, they had found a number of disturbing things on Josh’s computer, including depictions of beastiality, incest, and simulated child pornography. As he should have been, Josh was denied custody, and was also ordered to undergo a psychosexual evaluation and polygraph in order to prove that he wasn’t a danger to his children.

Over the next four days, Josh Powell reportedly donated children’s toys to the Salvation Army, and purchased two 5 gallon gas canisters.

Chuck and Judy Cox reported that on February 5th, 2012, Charlie and Braden insisted that they didn’t want to go on the supervised visit that was scheduled for that day. Nonetheless, social worker, Elizabeth Griffin Hall, picked the children up at Chuck and Judy’s house, and took them to the house that Josh was renting for their visit. Elizabeth describes that, as children often are, the two young boys were two steps ahead of her as they ran to greet their father who was standing at a door to the house. When they ran up to him, Josh pulled the boys inside and quickly slammed the door in Elizabeth’s face, locking it immediately.

What came next is possibly one of the most absolutely INFURIATING 911 calls I’ve ever heard in my 24 years of life. There’s no way to accurately describe the absolute incompetency that you hear in this call, so I just ask that you listen to it for yourself, here.

You can also find a brief transcript of the call here.

At the end of her first nearly 7 minute long 911 call which is mostly spent with the dispatcher questioning Elizabeth about insignificant details, the dispatcher tells Elizabeth that he’ll send a deputy to her location. Elizabeth asks how long it will be and the dispatcher replies, “I don’t know, they have to respond to emergency, life threatening situations first.”

At this point, I’m absolutely SEETHING and have no words to describe how enraged this particular part of this case makes me. In case you hadn’t guessed, this was indeed an emergency, life threatening situation as Elizabeth tried her hardest to explain to this dispatcher.

Inside the locked house, Josh was murdering his two children, Charlie who was 7, and Braden who was 5. As he pulled them into the house, Elizabeth had heard him tell Charlie, “I have a surprise for you.” Not only did he murder his wife (because come on), but this sniveling, absolutely TRASH excuse for a human, saw his two little boys running up to him that day, welcomed them into his house, telling them he had a surprise for them, and then struck them each multiple times in their little heads and necks with a hatchet. When this failed to kill them, Josh poured gasoline on their bodies and all over his house, which he then lit, causing an explosion.

Elizabeth then called 911 again and ran to Josh’s neighbors trying to find someone to help her get inside to save the boys. When firefighters arrived, they were able to put out the fire and found Josh, Charlie, and Braden inside the house, all dead from smoke inhalation. Charlie and Braden’s autopsies revealed that gasoline was not only covering them, but was also in their lungs, suggesting that they had inhaled some of it as their father doused them in it prior to lighting all of them on fire.

Investigators interviewed for the 20/20 special on the case described how Josh had been backed into a corner so to speak. He was looking at not only a psychosexual evaluation, but also a polygraph test where Susan would inevitably be brought up. Charlie and Braden were getting older and more difficult to silence, especially when he had limited access to them. They suggested that Josh knew that he was at the end of the line when it came to Susan, and killing the boys was his way of destroying the remaining evidence from his crime.

It’s believed that on the night of December 6th, 2009, Josh may have poisoned Susan, which is why he made each person’s pancakes individually, and why Susan fell ill shortly after eating dinner. That night, Josh likely took the boys and Susan’s body to Simpson Springs, where he likely dumped her in an abandoned mine. At a work party in the past, Josh had reportedly told a coworker that “the best place to dispose of a body is down a mine shaft.” With over 10,000 abandoned mines in Utah, it’s nearly impossible to determine where exactly she may be.

It’s also believed that Steve most likely either had something to do with Susan’s murder, or he knew the whole story and could have lead police to her body. Steve died in a hospital in Tacoma, Washington in 2018, one year after being released from prison.

Chuck and Judy Cox were awarded $32 million in August of 2020 in a civil case that they filed against the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services for negligence that led to Charlie and Braden’s deaths at the hands of their father. They were awarded $16 million for each of the boys, which Chuck says he intends to use to honor his grandchildren, saying, “I intend to use the award to try and help other people, [so] that we can save more children.”

All in all, that’s the end of the story of Susan, Charlie, and Braden Powell. This case is one that hits me so hard because it’s so completely senseless. Josh Powell and his father were both horrible shit stains on this world, and while the world is better without them in it, they managed to take three wonderful people with them for absolutely no reason other than their own selfishness and hatred. It hurts my heart to know that Charlie and Braden died such horrible, tragic deaths at the hands of someone who was supposed to always love and protect them. It hurts my heart to know that Susan still hasn’t been found and that her family still doesn’t have closure. It hurts my heart to know that while Charlie and Braden are buried next to each other, their mother is still out there somewhere and will maybe never be returned to her boys.

I think in every case, I try to find some source of hope, or some good that may come out of it one day. I think this is one case that makes that so incredibly difficult, but I do still hold out hope that Susan may be found one day. I really, really hope that she is so that her family can finally have answers and so that they can finally lay her to rest beside her children. I hope that Chuck and Judy and the rest of Susan’s family will be able to find peace in their journey to help other children and families in Susan, Charlie, and Braden’s names. And I hope that Josh and Steve Powell burn in the epitome of the “fire and brimstone” Catholic version of Hell for the rest of eternity. If anyone deserves that, it’s those two evil fuckwads.

REFERENCES, SOURCES AND OTHER READINGS

ABC News, “Where is Susan Powell?”

KUTV, “Timeline: What we know in the years since Susan Cox Powell went missing”

ABC 20/20 on Hulu, “If Something Happens to Me…”

Crime Junkie’s Episode, “Murdered: The Powell Family”

That Chapter on Youtube, “The Case of Susan Cox Powell”

And also there’s like a million other articles and documentaries out there on this case…

[americanlivewire-blog]

(Photo courtesy of telegraph.com) In a move that he had planned for some time, Josh Powell took his life and those of his two young boys, Charles and Braden Powell, on Sunday in Washington state. He is believed to have planned the explosion in his home beforehand, as he had donated his childrens' toys to charities and sent "goodbye" emails to friends, his pastor, his lawyer and his relatives. Then he spread two cans of gasoline, five gallons in each, throughout his home, turned up the gas, and blew up his rental home. A gas...

[shortformblog]

It was horrible ... especially for someone who has done this as long as I have and to re-listen to the call and to hear how clumsy and faltering I sounded, and laboring with what turned out to be a horrible situation but that I didn't recognize as such.

The 911 dispatcher who took the call before Josh Powell killed his two sons • Accepting the criticism he's received over his handling of the call in an NBC Dateline interview on Friday. The dispatcher kept social worker Elizabeth Griffin-Hall waiting by asking irrelevant questions, and faced criticism suggesting that he didn't understand the gravity of what was happening. The dispatcher admits, though, that even if he had figured it out, it might've been too late. "What if we had gotten deputies there two minutes later," he said. "They would not have immediately kicked the door and rushed in. They would have staged and cordoned off the area and treated it like a hostage situation." Charles and Braden Powell were remembered Saturday in a memorial service attended by hundreds.

[hlykndr]

Seriously breaks my heart.

I sat and watched the news cover this story as it was developing- for two hours today, with my great grandma. I am still in shock..how can a human being be so selfish, especially a father?

Rest in peace, Charlie and Braden.

My prayers go out to the rest of the family. I truly believe those beautiful boys are with their mommy now.