If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children
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It was the largest missing person’s investigation in U.S. history.
* * *
Regarding the investigation, there were two bombshells. Steve Powell did not have direct involvement in Susan’s disappearance but may have learned about it later. He still refuses to cooperate with police.
It was Michael who, authorities now believe, was “heavily involved” in the disposing of Susan’s body. Susan’s DNA was not found in the car he abandoned—but dogs did indicate an odor of decomposition.
The police stopped short of saying Josh killed Susan. The most they would say is that Josh Powell was involved in the disappearance of his wife.
None of it helped to find Susan, or explained if Josh planned Susan’s death, or if she died accidentally and he disposed of her body. And it doesn’t explain why the WVCPD had told Chuck and Judy for years that an arrest was imminent.
Why wasn’t Josh Powell arrested? The police said that despite some droplets of Susan’s blood on the floor, there was no crime scene, there was no body, and most of the evidence was circumstantial. Two deputy district attorneys worked with the police department during the investigation and neither felt there was enough evidence to prosecute Josh.
The Coxes and Anne Bremner disagree. Bremner said not having a body can make it tougher to prove a murder charge, but prosecutors across the country have won convictions in such circumstances. In this case, she said, the circumstantial evidence was remarkably strong.
There may be future investigations. Bremner said a federal investigation is under way, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City, the FBI, and the WVCPD said they are not aware of any federal investigation.
Epilogue
We still have a small hope that maybe she is being held captive somewhere and will be able to get free. It’s not much of a hope, and it’s not realistic, we understand that. We still haven’t given up.
—CHUCK COX, OCTOBER 3, 2012
Chuck Cox has taken over the search for his daughter. With the closing of West Valley City’s case, he is driving Interstate 84 from Utah to Oregon, looking for someone who may have noticed two gray cars on a cold December day in 2009. If Josh and Mike met up wherever Josh had left her body, put it into Mike’s car, then headed north, they must have stopped for coffee or gas along the way. Chuck has calculated the time Josh had with the rental car, from Tuesday evening at 10:26 P.M. to 4:39 P.M. on Wednesday afternoon, when he activated a new cell phone in Tremonton. Josh drove 807 miles—or to round it off, about 400 miles away from the Salt Lake City airport where he rented the car and back in sixteen hours.
At one time the WVCPD prepared a map with a 400-mile radius that included Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and an edge of California. It’s a lot of states to search.
Chuck thinks the brothers went north, about 404 miles north. He knows there are dozens of farm roads off I-84 that meander west. Some even drop south, to the Simpson Springs and Topaz Mountain region.
Now it’s just Chuck and a private investigator driving the roads. Sometimes the sister that was closest to Susan, Denise, goes along. They hand out flyers with photos of Josh and Mike and their two gray cars. Someone must have seen something. If they did, there are volunteer searchers with trained dogs ready to help Chuck look.
Judy doesn’t join him on the rides. It is all so painful, even after the passage of time. She’s grateful for his resolve even when it takes him away from the family. He’s fighting for their daughter and their grandsons.
If anyone can find Susan, it’s her father.
Acknowledgments
Books like these can be written only with the cooperation of those inside the story. We were hamstrung a bit with If I Can’t Have You because of the ongoing legal issues involving the cases of Susan Powell and her murdered sons. It wasn’t until the WVCPD closed its case and released its files in May 2013 that we learned what the police knew and when they knew it.
We were unable to secure an interview with Steve Powell, whom the Coxes—and for a long while, the police—thought had played a part in Susan’s disappearance. We did have the opportunity to spend several hours on two different occasions with Steve’s daughter, Alina Powell. Alina, an intelligent, thoughtful, and troubled young woman, had lots to say about Josh and what happened in the family. Unfortunately, she declined to go on the record.
We are grateful to the many people who shared their memories of Susan, Josh, Charlie, and Braden, especially Susan’s circle of friends in Utah who have never given up looking for her and searching for answers to her disappearance. They include Kiirsi Hellewell; Debbie and Ken Caldwell; Rachel and Tim Marini; Michele and Stacie Oreno; JoVonna Owings; Amber Hardman; Barbara Anderson; Adam St. Louis; and Mike Khalaji. Thank you also to Charlie and Braden’s friends, Madee and Leif Austin; and Salt Lake City journalists Roxeanne Vainuku and Chris Jones. In Washington, Elizabeth Griffin-Hall; Lyn Okarski; Tim and Brenda Atkins; and Laurie Nielsen helped by sharing their time and experiences.
We owe a special debt of gratitude to Anne Bremner, who helped us understand the complicated legal issues.
We appreciate the limited cooperation of the West Valley City (Utah) Police Department; Police Chief Thayle “Buzz” Nielsen; Sergeant Mike Powell; and Detective Ed Troyer and the Pierce County (Washington) Sheriff’s Department.
We benefited from the advice of Ginger Adams Otis; Brad Arnesen; Nicole Hardy; Claudia Olsen; Jean Olson, and Sterling Morris.
Thank you to Cox family members, including Anne Cox; Pam Cox; and Susan’s sisters, Mary Estep and Denise Cox Olsen for trusting us with their memories.
Most of all, we thank Chuck and Judy Cox for the many hours during which they shared Susan, Charlie, and Braden—and themselves—with us.
—Gregg Olsen
Olalla, Washington
—Rebecca Morris
Seattle, Washington
January 2014
Also by Gregg Olsen
NONFICTION
A Twisted Faith
The Deep Dark
Starvation Heights
Mockingbird (Cruel Deception)
If Loving You Is Wrong
Abandoned Prayers
Bitter Almonds
The Confessions of an American Black Widow (Bitch on Wheels)
FICTION
The Fear Collector
The Bone Box
Betrayal
Envy
Closer Than Blood
Victim Six
Heart of Ice
A Cold Dark Place
A Wicked Snow
Run
Also by Rebecca Morris
Ted and Ann: The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy
Bad Apples: Inside the Teacher/Student Sex Scandal Epidemic (e-book only)
Also by Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris
Bodies of Evidence
About the Authors
REBECCA MORRIS is the New York Times bestselling author of Bodies of Evidence (with Gregg Olsen) and Ted and Ann. She is an award-winning reporter and has worked in journalism in New York City; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington. You can contact her at her Web site, at RebeccaTMorris.com, or on Facebook and Twitter.
GREGG OLSEN is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and has written nine nonfiction books, ten novels, and a novella, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.
IF I CAN’T HAVE YOU. Copyright © 2014 by Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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The Library of Cong
ress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-02714-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02575-3 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250025753
First Edition: May 2014