Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

- I can't tell you how many times I've talked

about this case.

You can retire.

You can walk away and go about your life,

but you're always gonna have to answer

questions to this case.

- You want me to tell you?

[Steve Powell] The story about the ring.

[Susan Powell] Okay.

You're too close.

- I'd get frustrated when people would be like,

"Hey, don't you know her?"

They'd just talk about it lightly,

and it's my friend that's gone [crying].

[Susan] [laughing]

[Anne Bremner] When I look at this case in its totality,

I think it's the most tragic, horrible case

I've ever seen reported anywhere.

[dramatic music builds]

Susan Cox Powell.

You know, she was beautiful.

- Ta-da.

[Anne] She had these young boys.

[Susan] Say, "Hi".

[Anne] She came from a great family,

and then she just disappears.

[Ellis Maxwell] We have two box fans that were

blowing on a couch that was recently cleaned.

The house is completely locked up.

Susan's purse is in her bedroom, undisturbed.

It makes no sense.

- Josh Powell is a person of interest in this case.

- Anybody whose spouse is missing, they're gonna say,

"I'm gonna look everywhere."

- I don't even know where to start looking.

[Reporter] Josh tells police he took their two young sons

camping at midnight in sub-zero temperatures.

- When you guys came home from camping,

who came home with you?

[Chris Jones] When you look at the breadcrumbs,

she left all the evidence.

Yeah, everybody missed it.

[Susan] If something happens to me or my family,

covering all my bases.

[Chris] All of a sudden, this story started

to sort of branch out in another direction.

- She's the most beautiful thing that ever walked the earth.

- Josh's father, Steve, was obsessed with her

and in love with her in a sick and twisted way.

[Chris] He was infatuated with Susan Powell.

Bags of toenail clippings, hair clippings,

dated and had her name on it.

[Steve] She did that for me.

- For the first time ever, an exclusive interview

with a family member who will tell her side of the story.

- So, here we are, daddy and daughter.

- What I saw is different than what everyone else is claiming.

[Ben Winslow] How many people knew?

Did anybody know?

[woman] I hope nobody was in there.

- Where is she and who really killed her?

[dramatic music]

[theme music]

♪♪♪♪♪

[dramatic music]

- My name is Stephanie Bauer.

I'm an investigative journalist who's covered notorious crimes

across the country for over a decade.

Susan Cox Powell was a young woman who dreamed of being

a wife and a mother,

then mysteriously disappeared in 2009.

What could've possibly happened to Susan, and why?

For years, authorities have named Susan's own husband,

Josh Powell, a person of interest in this ongoing case,

but what could be Josh's motive?

[Steve] Okay, one more smile,

then I'm going to get the other camera.

- I've worked hundreds of cases, if not thousands,

but the Susan Powell case is probably right up there

at the top.

Everybody you talked to with the evidence that was there

believed that Josh was somehow involved when she went missing.

[Stephanie] For the first time ever, we've unearthed

boxes of home videos made by Josh Powell's father, Steve.

- And here I am.

- These are all his original tapes?

- Yes. - That were taken into evidence?

[Gary] Those are all original tapes that were

taken into evidence.

[Stephanie] Steven likes to document everything.

He takes, like, these bizarre, lifelong videos.

[dramatic music]

- We knew that her father-in-law had an obsession,

but I... it's...

You don't see how bad it was

until you really see this evidence.

- Yeah.

Unfortunately, I've seen some sides of Steven that I never,

ever want to see, and I can never, ever un-see.

He had a deviant mind and an evil intent,

and then, as you can see,

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree with Josh.

[Susan] All right.

- See, I married good, huh?

[Steve] Yeah, no kidding, wow.

- From the beginning, we set out to piece together

a definitive account of what happened to Susan Cox Powell.

For the first time ever,

Susan's family and the Powell family

speak out.

- We're hoping by showing this or getting stuff out,

somehow somebody will have a clue that leads

to finding Susan.

- Yeah.

[dramatic music]

[Denise Ernest] When I was 12,

we moved to Puyallup, Washington,

And it was just the six of us,

my three sisters and my parents.

Susan was there to support me no matter what I did.

- She made me feel happy, but I could tell if she was

not feeling herself or unhappy, but that was rare.

Most of the time, she was happy and full of life.

- [laughing]

[Steve] Okay.

[Chuck Cox] Susan was very positive, always interested,

and very determined.

She was willing to do whatever work was required

to get what she wanted.

[Susan] And there's more stuff...

[Chuck] In high school, she decided she wanted

to be a beautician.

- And this stuff makes my skin,

my face match my arms because my face doesn't tan.

- But most of all, she wanted to be married and have a family.

She loved kids.

- She was very impatient to get to that point

and was looking around for,

"Okay, now I got to find me a potential husband."

That's when she met Josh.

[dramatic music]

[Susan] So he was shopping for a ring,

and he told me it was going to be for his mom,

and so I was helping him look,

and he was looking at this ring that I have on.

He bought it, and actually I paid for it

so he could get the associate discount-

[Steve] Ah.

- And then he turned around and wrote me a check for it.

[Steve] Uh-huh [affirmative].

- You're too close. [laughing]

So then he eventually proposed.

[dramatic music]

- In the Mormon Church, they have what they call

a single adult ward where people go to meet each other,

and Josh was attending the same ward.

[Wedding MC] Two, three.

[Denise] Susan had been dating Josh for only

two months before they got engaged.

[Wedding MC] Whenever he's ready, he's going to let it go.

- Josh was very, very loud,

very overbearing.

His opinions were the only right ones,

and he was very obsessive.

- Let's get one in this background.

Let's all come over to this background, get one more.

- He would talk so much about himself.

- I'm opening my present.

[woman] I feel privileged.

[Steve] This is something you can actually wear to church.

[Denise] I thought, "Wow,

this guy just wants attention or something."

[Steve] There goes Josh into the sunset or something.

- He thought that he knew it all,

and no matter what you said or did to him,

he just shrugged it off.

- I just knew.

I mean, you know ...

[woman] You know when you know, don't ya?

[Josh] Yeah.

[Denise] My parents asked her not to marry him.

I asked her not to marry him.

- I said, "Go out and date like crazy

for a couple years and have fun", and she goes,

"Well, what about Josh?"

And I looked at her

and I said, "I'm sorry Susan.

I look at Josh and I see darkness."

[dramatic music]

[Denise] Susan loved the religion.

It was for her.

She enjoyed the rules.

She believed in the church.

If you're in the church and you get married, you're stuck.

There is no way out.

You just got to deal with it.

You made the decision.

- In the LDS church, one of the most important

beliefs that we have is that families are

the most important thing after God.

[Steve] Your grandchildren will love this.

[Susan] Mm-hmm [affirmative].

[Steve] Do you have grandchildren?

[Steve] [laughs]

[dramatic music]

[Denise] Josh had tried to be a real estate agent.

It didn't work out.

So, they were planning to move to Utah

for better job opportunities.

[engine rumbles]

- See ya later.

[Steve] Okay, bye.

[gentle piano music]

- When Susan found out she was pregnant,

she was extremely excited.

- Wait, wait, wait.

Here's my language.

[laughs] So there.

[Denise] 'Cause she always wanted a big family.

[Susan] Charlie, say, "Hi."

[Denise] When Charlie was born,

she was really excited because she gave Josh a son.

After she had Braydon, she had two sons.

- Susan seemed so happy in her life with Josh,

but you have to wonder, did anyone see any warning signs

in those first few years of their relationship?

[Susan] [laughs]

- She seemed to be on top of things.

So, as I got to know other circumstances,

I was really surprised.

Susan told me things leading up to her disappearance.

Josh had all these expectations on her and

just made her feel awful if she didn't meet up

to all of these expectations.

- Most of the time, Josh was downstairs in the

basement in his "office".

One time, I was watching the boys for them

because they were going on a date

and they were going to go see a movie

and go do dinner, and she just yelled to Josh,

like, "Hey, come on let's go.

We're going to be late," and he just snapped.

He turned and looked at her and was just, "I'm coming!"

It was like a switch.

He was screaming and the boys started crying.

- She had called me saying that Josh had pushed her,

and they were fighting, and I said,

"I'll come get you right now,"

and she said, "No. It'll be okay.

We'll work it out."

- Domestic violence is such a

complicated situation for people.

It's a type of violence and crime and abuse

that is so private, it's so stigmatized,

it's so embarrassing to people.

Someone who is really highly controlling, highly jealous,

controlling finances, these are things that aren't

as obvious sometimes.

All of these things cause serious emotional implications.

[Tara] As I got to see the way he treated her,

I couldn't even stand going over there anymore.

So, we would just visit either at my house or at a park.

I can't talk about this.

Sorry.

She had said so many times to me,

"This is not the man that I married."

So, she was watching things fall apart,

obviously, before her eyes.

Then I would just see him, I don't know,

losing respect for her as a person and as a woman.

As things progressed for the worst, she was asking me

if I knew, legally, what her options were

and I had no idea.

[dramatic music]

- We all thought Josh was pretty harmless.

Creepy, but harmless.

- Nice.

[Denise] But I did hear him tell her,

"Over my dead body will you leave me."

Over my dead body will you have those boys."

- On the morning of December 7, 2009,

Josh's mother called 911 to report that Josh, Susan,

and their children had gone missing.

This is the actual recording of that call.

- There was more to every character in this story

than what met the eye.

- The home videos we've unearthed are shocking.

[Anne] Steven was obsessed with her.

Steven had pictures of her.

Steven morphed pictures of himself with her.

[eerie music]

- On December 6, 2009,

a snowstorm covered the suburb just outside of Salt Lake City

where Josh and Susan Powell lived with their two children.

This house is the last place Susan was seen

prior to her disappearance.

There was a lot of turmoil in this house with

small kids and a young marriage,

but it's eerie to think something happened here

really, right where I'm standing.

[eerie music]

- My mom was living with us at the time,

and she come upstairs and said that Debbie Codwell had called,

and Debbie Codwell was their caretaker for the boys.

And Debbie mentioned that they had never shown up,

which was really unusual.

Susan was so dedicated to her children,

it was really rather alarming,

and so we decided to call the police.

[eerie music]

[Jennifer] The officer that was there called for backup

and three additional officers showed up.

And they kind of had a little powwow, and turned to us

and said "Well, we're willing to break into the house,

if you will take responsibility for the window."

And so of course we agreed.

And as the officer was breaking that window,

he pulled the blind aside and he was like,

"What's up with the fans?"

[Stephanie] When police officers entered the house,

the couch had been freshly cleaned

and two box fans were blowing on it.

Is it possible that someone was trying to cover up

whatever happened to Susan on the night she disappeared?

- I got into their bedroom,

and Susan's purse was right there.

That- That seems really odd to me that she'd

leave her purse behind.

- The Sergeant taps me on the shoulder

and tells me that patrol is out west in the city

on a missing family.

And I go out to the scene,

when I get there, I walked into the house

and I see the cops in there and-and Jennifer Graves

and these people in the house, and I was just, I was furious.

Kicked everybody out of the house then just started just

taking photographs of everything in the home.

We have a house that's completely locked up,

Susan's purse is in her bedroom undisturbed,

she hadn't gone to work, the kids hadn't gone to daycare,

they didn't reach out to nobody.

With all of these little things that kept popping up,

it would make it more suspicious as the day would progress.

- My cell phone rang, and it was a woman's voice,

and she said "This is Jennifer Graves, I'm Josh's sister.

When did you last see Susan?"

So I called up our friend JoVanna.

- Kiirsi texted me, and she said Josh and Susan

were missing and that no one had seen them

since right after church.

I texted Kiirsi and said that's not true

because I saw her yesterday afternoon.

[Stephanie] On December 6th, the day before Susan was

reported missing, JoVanna Owing spent the afternoon

with Josh, Susan, and their two children.

Whatever she witnessed could be crucial

in determining what happened.

You are such a key figure in this because you are

the last person to see Susan.

How does that make you feel?

I imagine you've gone through a range of emotions.

- Uh, it makes me- it really makes me sad that

I didn't clue in to the fact that there was possibly

going to be something that would happen to her.

But-

I just-

I can't change it.

- Okay, let's go backwards a little bit,

Susan had called you to come over.

- Right.

Susan and I sat down in the living room

and she was working on a blanket for one of her sons,

and then Josh and the boys were in the kitchen

preparing the meal.

- We heard later that Josh made pancakes,

which doesn't sound very sinister.

Except when you realize, Josh refused to make food.

And did Susan make any comments, about well

"Thanks for the dinner honey."

[JoVanna] Well no, but she did thank him for bringing

her her plate, and she thanked him when he

put a blanket on her.

And she said "Isn't that nice?

He could see I was just a little bit cold?"

And I said, "That is sweet."

After a while, she said she was feeling tired

and that she thought she'd just go in

and lay down for a little bit.

- I never met Susan personally,

but talking to her friends and her family, she was a fighter.

Did Josh drug her or something?

That's possible.

[JoVanna] Josh told me he was going to go sledding,

and basically pushed me out the front door.

And drove off before I even had left.

[Ellis] JoVanna is the last person to speak with them.

- By noon of the following day, no one had heard from

Josh, Susan, or their two children for over 18 hours.

[eerie music]

[Ellis] I was sitting in my cop car,

and JoVanna came to my car and told me

she had just spoken to Josh.

Plenty of people had called him, he hasn't answered,

he hasn't returned any phone calls,

but this random lady just shows up at my car

and tells me she just spoke to him.

Where is Susan?

- I got him on the phone, and I said-

I said, "Josh, where are you?"

And he said, "In West Valley."

I said, "Well, you need to get home.

"Everybody's worried about you.

"They don't know where you're at,

"and they don't know where Susan's at,

and you need to get home."

And he said, "Okay, I'll be there in a while,

but Susan should be at work or something."

[Ellis] And after talking to JoVanna Owings

at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, he turns around

and drives 20 minutes from West Valley south

back to call Susan's phone and leave her a voice mail.

- Why did he drive back south 20 minutes

to make that phone call?

He was a smart individual.

I'd called Josh's cell phone,

and I basically tell Josh,

"Look, we've been here for eight, ten hours,

you need to come home now."

And he tells me, "Well, I need to-

need to go feed my kids."

And I said, "I don't care, like, you need to come home.

Your wife is missing."

[Stephanie] After Josh spoke to Detective Maxwell,

Josh didn't go home.

Instead, he drove to Susan's work, parked outside,

and called her on her cell phone to tell her he was there

to pick her up even though multiple people had told him

that she had never shown up for work that day.

- After I spoke with Josh, he doesn't show up

for like 45 minutes.

And so finally, and he pulls up to the house,

and I approach his van, and I ask him,

"Hey look let's go down to our substation

"where we can discuss this.

I can get some information from you about you, your family,

your wife, so we can try to find Susan."

[dramatic music]

[Stephanie] What you're about to hear is the actual

audio from the police interview with Josh

the day Susan was reported missing.

- As far as we know, Susan could have just packed up

with some boyfriend, she had some affair with somebody

and left the state.

- He told me that he had left between 12:30 - 1:30

in the morning and packed the van and the two boys up,

went to go camping out in the west desert.

And I'm thinking to myself, "Who loads up two little kids

"and goes out to the middle of the desert

knowing that there is a severe winter storm moving in?"

- I'm thinking to myself, "What the [bleep]?"

[dramatic music]

- On the day Susan disappeared,

police questioned Josh for only an hour.

Afterwards, they released him with the agreement

that he'd return for a scheduled interview the next morning.

- We took Josh back to his home

and released the house to him.

We talked about whether if we had enough probable cause

to do a search warrant for the home and for the vehicle.

The conclusion was that we did not

and so we left.

If there's anything different I could have done in the case,

it would have been to author a search warrant that night,

submit it, and if it was approved,

then we would execute it,

if it wasn't, then we would just move forward.

[suspenseful music]

[Jennifer] That morning my mom and I decided

to go back over there.

We actually got there just before he was supposed to be

doing his police appointment.

[Ellis] When Jennifer Graves and Terrica Powell

show up there, he- he's cleaning out his car,

he's doing laundry,

he's doing these things when he should be at the

police department sitting down with me doing an interview.

[dramatic music]

[Jennifer] He's like wondering around through

the whole house picking up things,

trading out laundry out of the washer/dryer.

This whole situation was odd.

I didn't know what he was really doing, ya know?

Did he do something to Susan?

- Josh arrived at the West Valley City Police Department

for his interview nearly four hours late

and offered no explanation.

- It's been 10 years since Josh's interview

with Detective Maxwell.

What was his strategy?

What techniques did he use to get information out of Josh?

Go back to that day.

What are you feeling knowing his coming in

and you get your crack at him, basically?

- I want to reach in there and slap him.

[laughs]

[Stephanie] He looks annoyed.

[Ellis] Yeah.

- Annoyed to be there, almost. - Maybe.

- The way he leans back sort of like,

"I don't really feel like being here.

This is a waste of my time."

Did you get that feeling?

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

So I'm irritated, I'm upset,

and I'm nervous because what has he been doing

for the last three and a half hours?

- Susan would not have allowed

him to leave in the middle of the night

with two little kids to go out to the west desert

when there's a storm moving in.

- How are you responding to this?

Are you making him feel like your story's crazy, come on,

or are you allowing him to give you more, more, more?

- I'm trying to just let him talk.

- We located Susan's phone the night before.

Josh let it in the mini-van.

I pressed him a little bit saying,

"Yeah but this is her phone.

There's no reason for you to have her phone."

- Mm-hmm [affirmative]

[Ellis] And you're calling her phone.

You know you have her phone, but you're calling her phone.

"Well I forgot I had her phone".

Just all nonsense.

He's full of lies.

- My blood pressures got to be up right now.

I mean look at him.

Look at him just sit there.

He does not- he does not express any remorse,

any concern...

he's just sitting there nonchalant.

He doesn't care that his wife's missing.

- He jumped all over that.

- I think the reason why he jumped all over that is because

he didn't have anything else to offer to us.

Cause what he did have to offer to us, he couldn't,

because it would implicate him.

I had no doubt that he was responsible,

however I could not prove it.

[Josh] [sobbing]

- After I interviewed Josh, I explained to him,

"Hey, we've secured a search warrant for your house.

"They're almost finished with your van.

"If you'll be patient, we'll get your van back to you

within the hour."

[Josh] I can leave?

[Ellis] Yeah, if you want to leave, you can leave.

[Josh] Now, and you're keeping my phone or?

[Ellis] I'm gonna keep your phone.

[door closes]

Josh hung out in the lobby of the police department

for maybe 15-20 minutes, and then he just left.

[dramatic music]

The next day, we learned Josh had rented a car.

- When Josh finished his interview,

police had not finished searching his car.

They told him to wait

and they'd return his van to him shortly.

Instead, he called a taxi,

went to the Salt Lake City Airport, and rented a car.

He would have had his own car back in 15 minutes,

so why would he pay to rent one?

[Ellis] Josh put, I believe, 806 miles on it.

806 miles is a long ways.

He could have went into southern Idaho.

He could have went into Wyoming,

Colorado,

Nevada,

Oregon.

What that meant to me was,

did he take her body and move it somewhere else?

- Josh was gone for 20 hours

and put over 800 miles on his rental car.

To this day, we still don't know where Josh went,

what he was doing, and who he was with.

- Some people believe he met up with his dad, Steven Powell.

[Stephanie] On the night Josh is unaccounted for,

there is zero activity on his cell phone.

Interestingly, there's also zero activity on his father,

Steve's, phone.

No one called Josh or Steve

and neither of them reached out to anyone?

This is the day after Susan disappeared,

and both of them are off the grid at the same time.

- And here I am.

[Stephanie] Could Steve be connected?

Does he hold the answers to why Susan disappeared?

- Steve was gone from work;

his telephone was completely shut down for one entire day.

He knows something.

He knows something.

[eerie music]

- It was strange how this- all of a sudden,

this story about Susan's disappearance

and Josh as a possible suspect

started to sort of branch out in another direction

and all of a sudden Steve Powell became part of the story.

- I know that Josh and Steve are close

so, as the investigation progressed forward,

my partners went up there within the week or two

and interviewed Steve.

[dramatic music]

- He became a little bit more interesting of a person

because he openly admitted this infatuation

that he had with Susan.

[Steve] You have a nice profile too.

It's really, um, pretty.

- I don't even pretend to be in his brain

figuring out why he was obsessed about Susan.

I have no idea why he targeted her.

[faucet running]

- You're staring at me.

[Jennifer] I think it bothered Josh a great deal,

but my dad was able to make him believe that

there was really nothing there.

- The video you're about to see is footage shot

by Steve Powell that has never been seen outside

the police investigation.

[dramatic music]

- I'm gonna walk past you now,

so you'll have to turn off the camera.

[Steve] Okay.

[Susan] No.

[Steve] Oh, move your hand, move the box.

- Steven Powell was narcissistic,

very self-absorbed,

out of touch with reality.

He was under the impression that any time he was

with Susan or saw Susan, she was hitting on him,

that she was interested in him.

[Ellis] He was infatuated with her.

[Ellis] He would video her.

He would be inside of his van

and video her walking to and from buildings.

[Anne] Steven was obsessed with her.

Steven had journals about her.

Steven had pictures of her.

Steven morphed pictures of himself with her.

- So ...

I probably do some pretty...

well some people might think they're weird.

I think she's the most beautiful thing

that ever walked the Earth.

- It progressively gets worse and worse and worse.

[Steve] What I'd like to is to have-

be able to do this actually on her body.

- If somebody looked at this case

and they only looked at Steven Powell ...

- I'm pretty sweaty.

- I think they would be quick to say

he was responsible for her disappearance.

- In reading Steve's journals and reviewing hours

of his personal home videos,

it's clear, his obsession began eight years

before she disappeared when Josh and Susan lived with Steve

for a brief period of time.

[eerie music]

- I've been in love with her for

a year and a half or more now.

I can't even think of anything else.

[giggling]

- Josh actually screwed up another job situation,

and they had to move out of where they were

and they moved in with my dad.

[Steve] I think it's a comforter.

- Susan first told me that her father-in-law

had a crush on her, which I thought maybe...

that's kind of odd.

[Steve] Oh by the way I got those pictures back

I took of you in the mall.

- In the parking lot? [laughs]

[Steve] Right.

- Those who knew Steve Powell have distanced themselves

in light of these disturbing revelations.

This is an exclusive interview with a woman who had

a long-standing friendship with Steve.

So we've agreed to protect her anonymity and appearance.

- My dad came onto Susan and made an offer like,

"Well let's just share.

Josh and I can just share you."

And Susan was so mortified and disturbed,

she was a newlywed, and completely devoted to Josh.

This idea was completely disgusting to her.

[Denise] She was not happy about that.

Ya know, shortly after she told me about

his advances toward her, they moved.

- Susan was really dedicated to her marriage

and really dedicated to her children.

She really, really wanted to make it work.

And it was okay for a little while.

- Susan had no idea what she married into.

Imagine trying to raise two children while navigating

severe emotional abuse by your husband

and your father-in-law.

- Unfortunately, for women in Utah,

domestic violence is a very significant reality.

Nationally, about 30% of homicides are perpetrated

by a current or former intimate partner.

In Utah, back to the year 2000, it's at least 42%,

some years as high as 55%.

Rules within the LDS faith are not always friendly to women.

They're very limiting and they're very traditional,

and they give a lot of power to men.

[Denise] Susan felt she could make things better,

and if she just kept going to church and did what

the Lord wanted her to do, then things would work out,

and no matter what I said, she just refused to leave him.

- After a while, Josh started talking to my dad again.

And he was able to convince him that it was all

a misunderstanding and Susan was just wrong,

and misrepresenting the situation,

or lying to him.

[Kiirsi] Every single time he got off the phone

with his dad, they would get into a huge argument.

Josh would just be really argumentative and really

awful to her, and so she said,

"His dad is trying to pull us apart on purpose",

and I said, "Why would he do that,

why would he want his son to lose his marriage?"

And she said, "Because he wants me for himself."

And she said, "Josh's dad has been obsessed with me

for a long time."

And I pushed her and I kept at her

until she went to a divorce lawyer.

- We are in the Sarah Circle house.

This is me, hi, sorry.

[Kiirsi] She said, "Okay this is what he told me to do,

he told me to walk through the house with a video camera

and record everything in the house."

[Susan] Just in case.

[Kiirsi] "And he told me to put that on a disk,

and keep it somewhere safe away from the house."

- She said, "In case anything ever happens to me..."

and I always thought that was so weird of a thing for her to say.

"In case anything happens to me"

So she was expecting it.

- Hope everything works out and we're all happy and...

live happily ever after as much as that's possible.

- She gave him an ultimatum.

You need to shape up, or I'm going to get a divorce.

[Jennifer] Josh was backed into a corner.

I knew he would explode.

- She wrote, "If I die, it may not be an accident.

Even if it looks like one."

[dramatic music]

[Ellis] As the days move on,

we don't have the evidence to support that Josh

is responsible for Susan's disappearance,

but detectives went out to Susan's employer

and the staff told us that she had a safe deposit box.

- Susan Cox Powell's safety deposit box

contained two startling pieces of evidence.

The first was a self-made home video in which she

documented all the assets in her house.

- Covering all my bases, making sure that if

something happens to me or my family or all of us

that our assets are documented.

[Stephanie] The second item was a will that she

had hand-written on a loose-leaf piece of paper.

On the front Susan wrote,

"For the family and friends of Susan,

"all accept Josh Powell, husband,

I don't trust him."

[Ellis] It was-

it was emotional.

It's like, man, what is in this thing.

- Every day in the U.S.,

more than three woman are killed by their

husbands or boyfriends.

Imagine being abused by the person you love,

who you chose to marry, and feeling so helpless

that you write a will and hide it in case he kills you.

She wrote "If I die, it may not be an accident,

"even if it looks like one.

Take care of my boys."

- Several people are now wondering what went on

behind closed doors of the Powell residence.

- They were not really communicating well,

and I think she was contemplating

divorcing him at that point.

- Now according to public record, Josh had filed for

bankruptcy because they were $200,000 in debt.

- He would try to control the money and she had to

hide money here and there.

- Susan was given a-

a very small spending allowance,

less than a hundred bucks.

That was what she bought food on.

That's what she paid for gas on.

- He got mad at her for giving the boys

each an entire hot dog.

Instead of cutting one in half and them eating half a hot dog.

- Josh got rid of their second car

and that was another way he had to control her,

he claimed it was costing too much gas.

She had to ride a bike to work seven miles

on a very, very busy road.

[Kirk] Josh just had an absolute control

over what went on.

- Hope everything works out and we're all happy and...

live happily ever after as much as that's possible.

- I hope that if I have other friends in this situation

that I can help them figure out who to talk to,

which direction to take.

- He was losing control.

Definitely losing control in a number of ways.

Probably including a likely divorce.

- That spring, she kind of gave him an ultimatum

like you need to shape up

or I'm going to get a divorce.

You need to start loving me like you loved me,

supporting me, going to church,

helping with the kids,

being compassionate.

And I think something took place in that house...

that evening...

[Stephanie] Is this the motive for Susan's murder

or is Steve Powell's obsession the real cause?

Detective Maxwell thinks Susan Cox Powell

was most likely killed by her husband

the night she went missing.

It was interesting because I asked to see his hands

and the next time I see him, I take pictures of his hands,

he was very concerned that I was interested in his hands.

And I thought that was kind of funny,

and he was pointing out well I've got a little nick here,

and I've got dry hands.

[Chris] They had left him in the room for a moment.

I just remember him, the way he looked at his hands

and the way he was squeezing them together,

and I wonder what was he looking at and what was he remembering.

What did he see in his hands?

I mean, it just makes you think that those hands

had something to do with her death and disappearance.

- See, right here he's looking at his hands again,

he's so worried about his hands.

- He's concerned.

He's concerned that maybe he slipped up.

As you can see, he's looking at his hands again.

- Again with the hands. - Right.

You know, that's what leads me to believe that

he strangled her.

Those hands, right there, that's what took Susan's life.

- This is a police photo taken

the day that Susan was reported missing.

It shows the tile beside the couch,

the same couch police discovered had been

freshly cleaned the day they searched the home.

Did Josh clean the couch to cover up what happened,

but miss the blood caused by Susan's murder?

[Ellis] The blood droplets are off to the left

of the armrest on the title.

Come from her maybe coughing?

Because they're really minute, they're tiny,

little just droplets.

And I think that's where he tries to strangle her

and suffocate her.

[Stephanie] We're driving through one of the big highways

in Salt Lake I-80.

All I can think about is

did Josh Powell drive on this very road with his sons

in the back seat and his dead wife in the back of their car?

Is that conceivable?

Who was involved, how deep does this conspiracy go,

does this crime go, does this plan go?

If he got rid of Susan, did Steve help him plan it

and then help him dispose of the body after the fact?

[dramatic music]

- Detectives met again this morning and they say that they

are frustrated that they have had no real significant

developments in Susan Powell's disappearance,

it's like she just vanished into thin air.

- Three days after Susan's disappearance,

local media descended onto West Valley City.

At the same time, local police where tirelessly

searching the vast desert were Josh claims

he went camping the night Susan went missing.

[Reporter] Detectives have named Josh Powell

a person of interest in the case.

- I wanted to make sure that everything

was investigated that needed to be investigated.

The last thing that the department wanted

is to have Josh charged

and he get off because he don't have a body.

[eerie music]

During the course of conducting our interviews

with friends and family,

one individual shared that months prior

they got talking about crime television shows.

- Josh told them the best place to hide a body

would be in a mine.

There's thousands of these mines

and therefore, ya know, the body would never be discovered.

Going through Josh's computer files that we did have

access to, he did research the area of Simpson Springs

which is out in the west desert.

He researched Ely, Nevada.

He researched all kinds of remote areas like that

where there are mines.

Did he take her out there and dump her off in a mine?

Maybe.

- I think people don't realize here in Utah,

you've got mountains and it's tough to drive places.

It's rarely just a straight flat line to get to where

you want to go.

It took a long time just to get out to the west desert of Utah

to some of these search spots.

Then once you get there, you've got rolling hills,

ravines, canyons, gullies,

it's just physically difficult to search some of the spots

that they were searching for Susan Powell.

- Now, once again, Josh Powell is a person of interest

in this case.

I've tried to get a comment from him,

actually a couple days ago I knocked on his door

and a man on the other side says,

"He won't comment.

Get off the property".

- The media attention had already gotten ridiculous,

extreme.

We had people coming to our house, news cameras,

doing interviews.

[Reporter] Yesterday, Josh Powell held a press conference

through his brother-in-law Kirk Graves.

Powell wanted to set the record straight on speculation that

Josh had something to do with Susan's disappearance.

[Kirk] The initial reaction was not rejection by

the family for Josh.

It wasn't, "Oh Josh, what have you done?"

It's hard to know how to start a discussion like this.

There are so many emotions and so few facts.

It was really the next week that the family

started looking and saying,

"This is just not right, something's really wrong."

After Susan disappeared, Josh wouldn't say anything.

He just wouldn't talk.

[Stephanie] By all accounts, Josh had no problem

expressing his opinion.

Everyone I've talked to said he talked nonstop,

but after Susan disappeared, he stopped talking.

When he agreed to go back to be interviewed by police,

this time with a lawyer, he wouldn't say a single word.

- Your wife's gone and you're not...

contributing to the solution to the problem.

- Chris Jones is on our top story tonight

from West Valley, Chris?

[Chris] We were at the Sarah Circle house.

All the media was there, they'd been there for hours,

and I had gotten Jennifer Graves' address.

And I thought, well let's just, ya know, off chance that

maybe he's there.

So myself and our photographer, we drove over, we parked,

and literally as soon as the wheels stopped in the snow,

I'm like that's him, that's Josh.

And we started rolling the camera.

Josh?

Hey, I'm Chris Jones from channel two, how are yeah?

- I'm okay. - Yeah?

We walk up to him, and I remember thinking

okay, this is going to be a very sensitive, ya know,

how do you do this interview without, ya know,

getting him to spook and run away?

And the boys, I mean, what do you tell them about their mom?

- I haven't told them anything.

[Chris] As we started to get into some of those

more difficult questions, his discomfort level

started to rise, and so did mine.

He tugged at his hat and had just like

bad answers for all these very basic questions.

The report is neither you nor your wife called in sick

and they said that's not usual, what are your thoughts on that?

- Ya know, I didn't, uh...

I was somehow thinking that it was Sunday.

I didn't go to church and I...

I just...

missed a day.

- He says, "Well, I didn't go to church.

It was Sunday."

But then the next day would clearly be Monday,

so, um, you know, what exactly are you talking about?

Did you think there were two Sundays in a row?

Tell us what happened that night.

- Yeah, I just...

a lot of times I just go camping with my boys, ya know.

- He is absolutely uncomfortable,

but never once does he ask about,

ya know, "What have you heard?"

Or, "I wonder, where could she be?"

"Why are you here, why aren't you looking for her?"

There's absolutely no concern for her well-being at all.

It appears that your wife left her cell phone and purse,

do you have any idea- I mean does she go off

to sort of maybe clear her head, I mean,

do you have any idea where she could be?

- No.

- When you see his interview, you just say,

"Is that the way a guy acts when his wife has disappeared?"

It's more the way he acts when she's been murdered...

by him.

- Where is Susan Cox Powell?

Who knew?

How many people knew?

Did anybody know?

- The rest of Josh's family?

Creepy.

- Steve basically brain-washed them.

- Family can be a salvation

or an absolute destruction.

- The Powell family is not at all what they seem.

They know something.

[Stephanie] There's so much more to this case.

Dark secrets and disturbing revelations.

[dramatic music]

[Stephanie] Susan Cox Powell went missing

from her West Valley City home on December 6th, 2009.

[Reporter] Josh tells police he took their two young sons

camping at midnight in sub-zero temperatures.

- It makes no sense.

[Ellis] Yeah, if you want, you can leave.

I have no doubt that he is responsible;

however, I could not prove it.

- I did hear him tell her,

"Over my dead body will you have those boys.

Over my dead body will you leave me."

[Ellis] She had a safe deposit box and I was like,

"Man, what is in this thing?"

- Covering all my bases.

Making sure if something happens to me or my family

or all of us that our assets are documented.

- All of a sudden,

this story about Susan's disappearance

and Josh as a possible suspect

started to sort of branch out in another direction.

Steve Powell became part of the story.

- Josh's father was obsessed with her

and in love with her in a sick and twisted way.

- I've been in love with her for

a year and a half or more now.

- Steve Powell had an alibi the day Susan went missing.

He was in Washington state with his three adult children

who lived with him at the time.

If Susan was murdered by Josh,

Steve could not be physically involved,

but that doesn't mean he wasn't somehow connected.

Could Steve be the mastermind behind

Susan's disappearance?

Can a father's influence prove deadly?

[dramatic music]

- Over time, it became clear that there was

something off about every-

every member of the Powell family.

- I am at the head of the table.

[Michael] I am at the head of the table.

[Steve] Nobody is to defy my...

[Michael] My head [laughing]

[Steve] [laughing] My head.

[Michael] At the table.

- I'm the oldest,

and then Josh, he's the oldest boy,

then John, who was mentally ill.

And then Michael, who is the third,

and finally my youngest sibling, Alina.

[Steve] So Alina is gonna try it too.

I bet you she can't even hang on,

let alone pull herself up.

Oh, she pulled herself up, look at that!

- Shut up!

- We were polar opposites to his family.

[Steve] Move that camera out of your face,

I'm gonna get a still.

Look, look mom, geez.

- Steve's rules were basically there are no rules,

except for when he says something or talks,

well, you're listening to him.

[Steve] Turn around this way okay,

just turn around to the-

there we go.

Well now, turn back this way.

- Aw geez, you lost your chance.

[Steve] Okay, okay.

- Family can be a salvation

or an absolute destruction.

- When I met the rest of Josh's family,

it was just like when I met him:

creepy.

[dramatic music]

- We had a strained and problematic family situation.

My dad was quite divisive and he would pit the

girls against the boys frequently.

And was really negative toward my mother.

He pretty much treated her like dirt.

- The dynamic of that Powell family

is very skewed,

it's not your average American family.

I interviewed Terrica.

- When we were kids, we wet our beds

and my dad found it really frustrating.

He would make us go get in a tub of ice cold water

and lay down all the way until we were up to our necks in it.

I don't know why he thought that would be helpful,

but somehow, he thought that he could just

mentally shock it out of us.

My dad had a pornography problem

as long as I could remember.

He traveled frequently

and there was a time I went on a business trip with him.

We were staying in a hotel and I was in my bed,

snuggled up under my blankets,

and he turned on the television

and started flipping through channels,

and settled on this...

totally x rated program.

And I'm young.

I'm like, I don't even know, 10,

11 years old?

And I'm just snuggled up under my blanket

going, "Oh my gosh, what is he doing?

I know this is wrong."

Ya know, we've had lots of conversations about

my father's mental state,

there was a lack of feeling to other people

and their situations and their needs.

He just had this focus.

He just wanted to do what he wanted to do,

and it didn't matter if it was good for anybody else

or if it was even good for him in a lot of cases.

He was just tearing our family apart.

Dividing us into two opposite groups

and trying to turn us against our mom.

- He just basically persuaded those kids,

he brainwashed them.

Josh, Alina, Michael, John.

- My father didn't genuinely love us.

When you genuinely love someone,

you desire their continual

growth and spiritual development,

and he didn't.

[Steve] Jenny is probably the most irrational person

that I personally know.

- [crying] Sorry, give me a second.

[crying]

Alright, we're gonna have to take a second.

[eerie music]

- Steve Powell, on the surface, seems normal,

but then as you peel it back, there's-

there's just the oddness of his personality.

You peel it back a little bit further,

there is what is a clear obsession with Susan Powell.

[Steve] She's so beautiful.

She knows I'm here.

[Chris] That sexual obsession that he had for Josh's wife,

that Josh had to know about.

How does that sort of color everything that Josh does?

[Steve] And I can't go too far because I'm

hooked up to the TV here.

[Chuck] I suspect that Steven Powell

knows about Susan's disappearance.

I think he knows, even if he wasn't directly involved.

[Steve] Okay, it's on.

- I thought to myself, "Steve Powell is huge

in this investigation," and it wasn't just me,

I mean my supervisor, my peers, all came to this conclusion.

[Steve] I'd love to spend the evening in here with Susan

is what I'd like to do.

That's the only person I would even be interested in.

- We had to prove or disprove his

involvement in this investigation.

[dramatic music]

- As the investigation into Susan's disappearance

progressed, police began undercover surveillance

of Josh Powell and his family.

[Ellis] We didn't have a body, so we had to see if

Josh eventually would say something.

So that either we can find Susan,

get some more evidence, or get somewhat of an admission.

- In an exclusive interview, we spoke with the actual agent

who worked the case.

This officer is still an active undercover operative,

so his voice and appearance have been altered.

[dramatic music]

[Ellis] Josh just wasn't close to anybody else.

He didn't have any like, close friends, a best friend.

And the person closest to him was Susan

and then probably the next person to him was Steve.

And he knew that Steve had this infatuation for Susan,

so if he spoke to anybody and he shared any details with anybody,

it was only with Mike Powell, that's it.

- You see us?

- This is the actual undercover police recording

of Michael Powell contacting a satellite imagery company

to obtain pictures of a salvage yard in Oregon.

What could this bizarre request

have to do with Susan's disappearance?

[Stephanie] The day after Susan disappeared,

Josh's sister Alina and his brother Michael

traveled to Utah to be with Josh and his children.

Approximately two weeks later on December 22nd,

Michael and Alina drove back to Washington in Michael's car,

but after driving a little more than 470 miles,

they found themselves stranded.

- Michael took $500 and just left his vehicle

when he probably could have just had it repaired.

That was very suspicious.

And I think a lot of us thought that was our big break,

this was our break.

This is where we're going to get our evidence.

We took specialized canines with us to see if the dogs

would hit on any decomposition.

And when they released these dogs,

these dogs went directly to Michael Powell's vehicle

and indicated on the trunk.

- We sent Michael's vehicle,

we forensically test it,

and the results come back.

- I called Ellis and asked would the police wire me

and let me go in?

I'll try to get Josh to confess.

- They're walking us through all this.

Okay, if this happens, we'll rush in and take care of things.

It's like walking into the lion's den.

[eerie music]

[Stephanie] After discovering indications

of human decomposition in Michael Powell's truck,

the West Valley City Police sent swabs to the

Utah State Crime Lab for DNA testing.

They wanted to know if Josh murdered Susan,

then recruited his brother Michael to help

relocate her body.

I wanted to drive the possible route

surrounding West Valley City.

Ellis Maxwell, the lead detective in Susan's

disappearance agreed to go with me.

[Ellis] So, yeah this would be the route that

Michael would take, right?

So when we learn that Michael's vehicle was up in Oregon,

we send it to get forensically tested.

They call me, they say, "Hey we have a DNA profile."

We're thinking, "Okay this is our big break."

Results come back...

nothing.

- The West Valley City Police did find

DNA in Michael Powell's trunk and compared it to Susan's DNA,

however the sample was insufficient to make

a complete comparison.

So even though they suspected Michael Powell's car

had been used to relocate Susan's body,

they didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest.

- Looking back, I realize that Michael was probably

fairly involved in the whole situation.

I don't know if he actually helped him plan it,

but based on conversations that I'd had with Michael,

which were kind of weird, he seemed to have this over

inflated sense of loyalty to family where you would do

anything to help cover up like shameful things.

It seemed like a twisted weird sense of loyalty.

- It's very likely that he could have relocated her body

knowing now that the police now are heavily involved.

- I believe that Josh probably called him

and asked for help.

I mean, maybe he knew about it before,

but at least, at the very least, he called him afterwards

to help cover up what he had done.

[dramatic music]

I called Ellis and asked him, would the police support me,

would they wire me and let go in

and I'll try to get Josh, my dad, or Michael to confess.

[Ellis] Jennifer Graves was kind of on the outskirts

with the family and had been for time.

She says, "What do you think about sending me in to

Steven Powell's home wired, kind of like what they do on TV,"

and I thought to myself, "You're crazy."

[Kirk] Jen had been talking about this with me,

this idea of putting on a wire.

My wife's kind of gutsy,

and when she finally gets an idea in her head,

she doesn't let go of it.

[Stephanie] What you're about to hear is the actual

audio recording from the undercover police operation

played publicly for the first time.

- Jennifer Graves' goal was to try to get Josh

separated from the rest of the family

to where she could basically call him out

and say, "What did you do with Susan?

Where is Susan?"

[Kirk] We're at the Tacoma Police Department

and they're walking us through all this,

"Okay, now if this happens,

we'll rush in and take care of things."

- I knew my dad had an extremely volatile temper.

I was pretty sure that Josh had done something to Susan

and that probably my dad knew what it was

or even participated and helped with it.

It was extremely nerve racking walking up to that door.

I really had no idea what was going to happen.

It's like walking into the lion's den.

My dad actually ended up inviting us in.

We had dinner with them.

The police were all, just waiting.

- We waited in a vehicle about a street away.

We were close enough we could pick up the signal,

but we had enough distance that if they were to come outside

that they wouldn't see us.

- Finally, after dinner, and they're starting to

clean up and everything, I just signaled to my husband,

I just pulled Josh off into a different room.

Unfortunately, everybody could see.

- Jennifer manages to get Josh into a study room

and kind of corner him,

just like she said she would.

- I'm a little nervous because, at this point,

I'm fully on board with the idea that Josh has killed

his wife, and how's he going to treat his sister any different?

- I just started trying to get him to say something.

And then my dad came in and interrupted it,

and that kind of just ended the conversation.

- We went back into the family room area,

and I haven't gotten what I wanted.

I was...

feeling really quite desperate

and they're gettin' ready to go.

I gotta do something.

I gotta do something.

So I push Josh and was like,

"Tell me where her body is, just tell me where her body is."

[dramatic music]

- Two months after Susan's disappearance,

her family was desperate for answers

which is when her sister-in-law Jennifer Graves

offered to wear a wire.

Is it possible that Josh would confess to his own sister

that he murdered his wife?

[Jennifer] I was feeling really quite desperate.

I pushed Josh.

I know you've done something to her

and we just want to have a regular burial

and just be done with this,

so just tell me where her body is.

- I'm nervous, I- my heart's beating.

What kind of information are we gonna get?

What's he gonna say?

If he confesses, what's our next move?

- He just immediately becomes defensive

and he starts reverting back to his attorney.

Saying that his attorney told him not to talk to anybody,

so he's kind of almost talking to her like he's talking

to the police.

And I just was shaking my head, I'm like this guy's pathetic.

- Josh comes storming back in and tells his dad,

"Jen's here to try and get me to confess."

And he's going on and on and so Steve, of course,

gets very abrasive.

Jen's still trying, she hasn't given up yet.

[Jennifer] Josh ended up leaving.

And, we're awkwardly staring at my dad,

and I'm like, "Well, I got one more shot."

Let's see if I can get anything out of my dad.

Well, that- that didn't really go...

super well.

- I'm thinking, this might work.

If we piss him off enough, maybe they'll both snap.

- He becomes very upset and he starts yelling

at Jennifer and her husband.

Steven's calling her names, degrading her.

- He doesn't want us to leave cause that would give up

his opportunity to scream and yell some more.

- My sister was jumping right onto the bandwagon

talking about how terrible Susan was anyways

and who cares if she's gone kind of thing.

[dramatic music]

- Steven's calling her names,

degrading her as she's walking away.

She eventually leaves the residence.

- I just cried...

cause I didn't get what I wanted.

I didn't get the confession that I knew was there.

- I think ya know all of us believed Josh would slip up

and say something to Jennifer but unfortunately,

we didn't get anything out of it.

[Stephanie] From the beginning, we set out to tell

Susan's complete story,

the victim of an abusive husband.

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women;

more than car accidents,

muggings, and rapes combined.

We thought we would be telling the story of domestic abuse

resulting in tragedy, but as we dug deeper,

we found a completely new revelation

that the media frenzy missed.

We started with the mission to uncover who could have been

responsible for Susan's disappearance,

but the why proved much more intriguing.

- We need to start asking a different question

and it's, "Why would someone hurt his loved one?"

"Why would someone use power and control against

their partner, their spouse?"

I've done this work for a number of years

and I don't know too many people who just, out of the blue,

start hurting someone.

This usually comes from a history of learned behavior

or exposure.

- There, I'm in here too.

- Josh seemed to be very much under Steven Powell's thumb.

He never confronted him, never did what most people

would do which is be disgusted and angered

by his father acting this way.

[Steve] Move your hand, move the box.

[Susan] No.

- He had control over Josh.

- The real question is, "Could Steve Powell

"be the mastermind behind Susan's disappearance

even though he didn't physically kill her?"

There's one person who may be able to provide answers.

- Okay, here we are.

Am I in there at all? - Yes.

- We've obtained a bombshell interview with Alina Powell,

the last member of the Powell family

who holds all the secrets.

She's never revealed her side of the story until now.

- I don't know, I don't want to answer any other questions,

thank you.

- Alina Powell, Josh's sister, is someone has been

very interesting in the case.

Depending on who you ask, some people view her as an enabler,

a possible accomplice, and that could be.

But I also saw her as someone who is very intelligence, who

was in a horrible situation.

- Turn that off.

[Elizabeth] Who, in her own way, may have been trying to do

what she thought was best.

The sad thing of course is if she had information about the

case and didn't come forward, that could have been helpful.

- Alina Powell's account challenges what we've been told

about Susan Cox Powell's disappearance

and brings everything into question.

[dramatic music]

You doing okay?

[Stephanie] Have the detectives wanted to

talk to you in Utah at all?

- It was like they didn't really care what I had to say

if it wasn't, "Yeah, I believe x, y, and z,

you guys are right" kind of a thing.

[Stephanie] Yeah.

[dramatic music]

- You know, there is a side to Susan that the

other side doesn't want you to see,

doesn't want to expose.

[Susan] [giggling]

Stop it.

[laughing]

Your dad zoomed in.

- She was bothered by how much her family wanted her

to be something else,

and how she felt like she couldn't be herself.

[Steve] Are you vandalizing?

- It's a thigh exercise.

[Steve] Thigh exercise, oh?

- I saw her behaving these ways.

She was playing a game with him and getting into

dangerous territory.

[Susan] No hair, woo hoo!

Do me a favor, when Josh gets home show him this, okay?

[Steve] Alright, okay.

- I don't think she was oblivious,

I think she was fully aware of what she was doing.

[Stephanie] For the first time ever,

we've pieced together the entire puzzle.

[Chris] Where is she and who really could potentially

have killed her?

Police say you're a person of interest, Josh.

Do you have anything to say?

There was more to every character in this story.

[Alina] We saw glimpses of Susan that nobody

on the other side of this would have seen.

[Reporter] The Powell's launched a strategy of their own.

Attacking of all people, Susan.

- A classic method used by an abuser.

- Susan who was a very flirtatious sexual being.

[Rose] It's victim blaming.

[Gary] Josh and Steven were trying to defend themselves

so they're like we've got Susan's journal,

this will prove our innocence.

[car honking] [woman] Thank you.

- We've got a lot of information about Susan,

a lot of it from her journals.

- They used the journals to come busting in the house.

- We were all in awe of the house of horrors

we were looking at.

- I thought they were gonna arrest Josh

and it turned out to be Steve.

- I said, "Hey Josh, I'm also taking your kids

into protective custody."

[Chuck] I'm afraid for the children.

I don't want them to go visit him.

- We told the police he was gonna try...

something.

- Let's call it what it is, it is something evil.

[Anne] Everybody was waiting for Steven to crack.

- Buried deep within the boxes of video tapes

made by Steve Powell,

we found a secret recording that may be the final clue.

- Is Susan's father-in-law

the mastermind behind her disappearance?

[Stephanie] For more information, go to Oxygen.com.