Susan Marie Cox was born on October 16, 1981, and raised in a Latter-day Saints household in Oregon before moving with her family to Washington. Friends remembered her as bright and outgoing, and in 2001 she married Joshua Powell, a relationship that quickly became the center of her life.
Early in their marriage, the couple sometimes lived with Josh’s father, Steven Powell. Years later investigators would reveal that Steven harbored a disturbing obsession with Susan. The Cold Podcast documented how he filmed her without permission, spied using mirrors, and wrote diaries confessing he was in love with her.
By 2003, those diaries revealed even more. Steven admitted stealing her underwear and cataloguing her possessions. ABC News reported that he described himself as “madly in love” and even attempted advances toward her. Susan rejected him firmly and quietly shared her discomfort with friends.
Tensions also grew between Susan and Josh. She worked as a cosmetologist and tried to maintain her social life, while he accumulated debt and showed controlling tendencies. Friends later recalled she felt isolated and uneasy with how closely Josh aligned himself with his father.
On June 28, 2008, Susan wrote a letter and placed it in a Wells Fargo safe deposit box. In it, she warned that if she died, it would not be by accident, and she asked that her children be protected. KUTV later reported the discovery of this letter after she went missing.
She also created a video recording of the family’s possessions, listing furniture, jewelry, and electronics. ABC News later explained that the footage was intended as a record in case something happened to her, a precaution that highlighted her growing sense of danger.
December 6, 2009 appeared ordinary. Susan attended church with her sons, Charlie and Braden, and returned home in the afternoon. A friend visited that evening and later said nothing seemed unusual. That night would be the last time anyone other than her husband saw her alive.
Josh later told police that he had taken the boys on a spontaneous midnight camping trip in Utah’s west desert, leaving Susan asleep at home. The Salt Lake Tribune noted that conditions were freezing, making such an outing implausible. Susan was never seen again after that Sunday.
The next morning, coworkers and daycare staff sounded alarms when Susan failed to appear. Police who entered the Powell home found two fans blowing on a damp spot on the carpet. Deseret News reported that DNA tests confirmed the stain was Susan’s blood. Her purse and identification were still inside.
Later that afternoon, Josh returned with the children. Questioned by police, he insisted Susan had stayed home. His explanations failed to address the blood evidence or her sudden disappearance. Investigators immediately identified him as the primary focus of the case.
Searches of the desert followed. Crews deployed cadaver dogs and checked abandoned mines near Simpson Springs and Topaz Mountain, but no remains were found. KSL reported that despite exhaustive efforts, no trace of Susan was uncovered, leaving the case open and increasingly complex.
By late 2011, the investigation had consumed more than 6,800 hours of police work and cost over $150,000. Detectives seized journals, computers, and recordings from the Powell home, hoping for a breakthrough, but the most critical evidence—the location of Susan—remained elusive.
What did investigators uncover about Steven Powell, Michael Powell, and the Utah evidence in the Susan Powell case?
Despite mounting suspicions, Josh Powell was never arrested in the months after Susan’s disappearance. Police acknowledged that the lack of a body kept them from pursuing formal charges. Investigators nevertheless concentrated on him, convinced his alibi and behavior were inconsistent with innocence.
Attention soon shifted to his father, Steven Powell, after police discovered hundreds of images and videos he had secretly taken of women, including Susan. ABC News later reported that his journals described a fixation bordering on obsession. The revelations deepened the sense of dysfunction surrounding the Powell household.
In September 2011, Steven was arrested in Washington on charges of voyeurism and child pornography. The Seattle Times noted that the case centered on explicit images of neighborhood girls along with material involving Susan. His conviction and subsequent prison sentence further damaged the Powell family’s standing.
The fallout extended to Josh. That same year, Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services raised alarms about the children’s safety and recommended placing them with Susan’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox. KSL reported that the court followed through, granting custody of Charlie and Braden to the Cox family while restricting Josh to supervised visits.
Those visits became the center of a bitter custody dispute. Josh fought to regain control of his sons, but courts continued to limit his access. Friends later observed that he grew increasingly desperate, seeing his supervised time with the boys as both a humiliation and a last lifeline.
On February 5, 2012, Josh lured the boys into his Graham, Washington, home during a scheduled visit and locked out the supervising caseworker. Minutes later the house erupted in flames. ABC News confirmed that Josh, Charlie, and Braden all died in the blast, which investigators determined was fueled by gasoline deliberately spread throughout the residence.
Autopsy reports revealed that the boys had suffered sharp force injuries before the fire. The Associated Press detailed how a hatchet was found inside the ruins, leaving no doubt that Josh had attacked his children before igniting the explosion. The act was ruled a murder-suicide.
The supervising social worker later testified that she smelled gas immediately after being locked out and called 911. According to call transcripts cited in local coverage, she reported hearing the children’s cries just before the house exploded. Her account intensified scrutiny of the state’s handling of visitation arrangements.
In the days that followed, Washington’s child welfare system faced widespread criticism. NPR reported that experts questioned why visits had been allowed at Josh’s home instead of a neutral, secure facility. Legal analysts noted that the unresolved disappearance of Susan and Steven Powell’s arrest should have disqualified Josh from any private visitation setting.
For Susan’s parents, the deaths of their grandchildren compounded an already unbearable loss. Chuck and Judy Cox spoke publicly of their devastation while vowing to hold the state accountable. Their grief quickly evolved into a legal battle that would later reshape how Washington assessed child safety in high-risk custody cases.
What happened after Susan Powell disappeared, were her remains ever found, and where does the case stand today?
After the fire, West Valley City detectives reexamined the Powell family’s movements in the days after Susan vanished. Investigators noted that Josh liquidated bank accounts, canceled his wife’s appointments, and withdrew the children from daycare, patterns they viewed as evidence of planning rather than grief, according to files later summarized in the case record.
Suspicion soon fell on Josh’s brother, Michael. He had quietly disposed of a Ford Taurus in Oregon not long after Susan disappeared. KSL reported that when police tracked the car to a Pendleton salvage yard, a cadaver dog alerted to the trunk, raising suspicions it had once contained human remains.
DNA testing on the vehicle was inconclusive, but investigators continued to believe Michael played a role. He moved to Minnesota for graduate studies, where police questioned him in 2013. According to Wikipedia’s account of the case, officers found him evasive. On February 11, 2013, he died by suicide after jumping from a parking garage in Minneapolis.
Shortly after Michael’s death, West Valley City police held a briefing. They announced that the active investigation was ending but emphasized their belief that Josh had killed Susan and that Michael had helped conceal her body. FOX 13 reported that the case would remain open for credible new tips.
Steven Powell, meanwhile, completed his prison term for voyeurism and was released in 2017. In July 2018 he died at a Tacoma hospital. The News Tribune noted that his death closed off any chance that he might provide more information about what happened to Susan.
The Cox family then turned their energy toward accountability. In 2020, a Pierce County jury ruled that Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services had been negligent in allowing Josh’s visitation at home. The News Tribune reported the jury awarded $98.5 million to the estates of Charlie and Braden.
The state challenged the verdict, and a lower court reduced the award. The Cox family appealed, and in April 2023 the Washington Court of Appeals reinstated the full amount. The court’s published opinion explained that the jury had sufficient evidence to hold the agency accountable for systemic failures in safeguarding the children.
Even as the legal case concluded, searches for Susan continued. In February 2022, volunteers lowered into a 225-foot mineshaft in Utah’s west desert and recovered bones and clothing fragments. KUTV confirmed that testing showed the remains were not human, ending hopes that the site held Susan’s body.
Other digs have followed, but none have uncovered definitive evidence. FOX 13 reported that items sent to state laboratories showed no connection to Susan, highlighting how the desert’s vastness and abandoned mine shafts make recovery efforts extraordinarily difficult.
Projects such as the Cold podcast assembled Steven Powell’s journals, police interviews, and court documents, piecing together the Powell family’s dynamics. These records illustrated the escalating control and isolation Susan experienced, helping the public better understand the environment that led to her disappearance and the suspicions that followed.
Following the civil verdict, Susan’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, shifted their efforts toward broader child safety reforms. They argued that warning signs in custody disputes must result in stronger protections. At the same time, they continued to stress that Susan remains missing, urging the public not to forget her case.
Police in West Valley City have maintained that the investigation is inactive but not formally closed. Officials have repeatedly stated their belief that Josh Powell killed Susan and that his brother Michael Powell helped conceal her remains. Without the discovery of a body, prosecutors never filed charges, leaving the case unresolved in court.
Fifteen years later, Susan’s body has not been found. Tips still arrive from time to time, though none have produced new evidence. Authorities continue to emphasize that they welcome credible information. For Susan’s family and many who followed the story, closure depends on finding answers that remain hidden today.