Original subtitles

Previously on The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell.

- I have a missing daughter.

I want to find out what happened.

- I want to find my daughter.

- Do you want me to tell you?

- This case is one of the most bizarre stories

that I can ever remember.

[Ellis Maxwell] We have two box fans are blowing on a couch

that was recently clean.

Susan's purse is in her bedroom...

undisturbed.

And so finally, Josh pulls up to the house and I ask,

"Where is Susan?"

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

camping at midnight in subzero temperatures.

- It was unbelievable watching this thing unfold.

I mean, how do you not be affected by it?

[Reporter] Detectives have named Josh Powell

a person of interest in the case.

- He does not express any concern.

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

[Chris Jones] Do you have any idea where she could be?

- No.

[Ellis] Josh researched all kinds of remote areas

where there are mines.

Did he take her out there and dumped her off in the mines?

He was very confident that we would never find Susan.

She had a safe deposit box

and we were like, "Man, what is in this thing?"

- Covering all my bases,

making sure that if something happens to me or my family

or all of us that our assets are documented.

- She had said so many times to me,

"This is not the man that I married."

- I did hear him say, "Over my dead body will you leave me."

- This is so much more than the disappearance of a young woman.

There's allegations of dark family secrets

and cryptic videotapes.

- Susan told me that Josh's father, Steve,

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.

[Anne Bremner] Steven was obsessed with her.

Steven had pictures of her.

[Ellis Maxwell] He was infatuated with her.

He would video her.

He would video her walking to and from buildings.

Susan's father-in-law has an alibi

for the night she went missing,

but could he be the mastermind behind her disappearance?

- When I first met the rest of Josh's family...

creepy.

- Does a member of Josh Powell's family hold the answers?

- Alina Powell, Josh's sister, depending on who you ask,

some people viewed her as a possible accomplish.

- Okay, all right.

You're doing okay?

[Stephanie] We piece together a definitive account

of what happened to Susan Cox Powell.

[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.

Authorities speculate that Susan Cox Powell

was most likely killed by her husband

the day she went missing nearly 10 years ago.

- I don't call it a tragedy.

Tragedy sugarcoats it.

Tragedy puts a distance between.

What this was, was a horrible murder,

let's call it that.

Let's make stark statements about that.

- By all accounts, Josh was abusive.

Every day in America, more than three women are murdered

by their boyfriends or husbands.

What or who could have pushed Josh Powell to evolve

from controlling husband

to calculated killer?

- We all thought Josh was pretty harmless.

Creepy, but harmless.

[Denise] It's so puzzling on where it all went wrong.

- It's hard to know what was in Josh's mind,

but the truth is,

most violence, most abuse is gradual.

It happens over time being raised by Steven Powell

and what's been described as some of his parenting behaviors.

- Josh learned this from his father.

- 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?

- I absolutely believe he knows what happened to her.

- The key to unraveling Susan's disappearance

may be the Powell family.

Josh's siblings witnessed everything that happened

between Josh, Susan, and Steve before and after

Susan went missing.

- The Powell family is not at all what they seem

or not at all what they wanted to present.

They know something.

- Alina Powell is the last person who may

hold all of the answers,

but she's never revealed her side of the story

until now.

- Alina was the youngest child in the Powell family.

She has only known Steve Powell and the way he is

as her father.

She's, she's never had anything to compare him to.

So in my mind it was very logical that she would

support him as long as she could

and try to be open to her brother

even if she had personal doubts about them.

- My family was automatically convicted

two and a half years ago.

[Reporter] Thank you, Alina. [Alina] Thank you.

[Reporter] Take care, Alina.

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

told about the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell.

It brings everything into question and provides a

compelling counter-narrative.

Could Alina's insight explain why Susan disappeared?

- Here we are at Stonehenge, daddy and daughter.

- What I saw is different than what everyone else

is claiming.

[Susan] [on video] Josh, careful with him.

[dog growling] - Get him.

[Alina] My parents liked to say Josh marched to the beat

of his own drum.

I kinda didn't--

I kind of couldn't stand him in a lot of ways.

It sounds terrible.

I know it sounds terrible to admit that I didn't really care

that much about having a relationship with him.

He was my brother but, but he kind of drove me nuts.

[Stephanie] When Josh and Susan were newlyweds,

they lived with the Powell family.

This is when Steve's intense infatuation with Susan

played out and was witnessed by Alina Powell.

- When he moved in, the two of them took over the

dining room area of the house

and made that a bedroom.

- Like hung up curtains over the, the doorways and stuff.

- There wasn't a lot of tension or issue living with Susan

and sharing a household with her.

It was Josh that drove me nuts.

Frankly, I kind of liked Susan better than Josh.

There is a side to Susan that, you know, the other side

doesn't want you to see, doesn't want to expose.

[Susan giggling]

[Alina] We saw glimpses of that.

I just remember I was like--

I was actually hanging out with Dad

and she came bounding in and she was all like excited

and she totally bypassed me.

Like just ignored my existence.

Went straight to my dad and started being, like,

"Look, I just waxed my legs."

And she threw her leg up and she's like,

"Here, feel my leg, I just waxed it.

It's so smooth."

- I'm thinking like, "That's really weird."

Like, "Why is she doing that?"

And then I'd start, over time, I'd start seeing her kind of

do like little flirty movements,

flirty expressions and different things like that.

At first, my dad was oblivious, you know.

He just had no idea what she was doing at first.

But then over time when I started seeing him actually

clue into it and respond,

then I started to get worried that he might be

taking this seriously.

- What?

- I pulled him aside one time and I said,

"Look, this is a game.

She's not into you."

- Stop it.

- You're giving her attention and she wants the attention.

That's all.

- Ta da.

- He was kind of like this, this puppet at first, you know.

He was kind of just being played along at first

and then he started to clue in.

- I'm going to walk past you now, so you you'll

have to turn off the camera.

[Steve] Okay.

[Alina] She was playing a game with him and getting into

dangerous territory.

- There's lots of indications of intergenerational abuse

and Susan was swept into it.

It's not her fault.

It's very normal for a 19, 20, 21-year-old young woman

to want healthy attention from men,

to want to be validated and seen

and appreciated and loved.

[Steve] Okay, Susan, open this mysterious gift right here.

- This one? [Josh] The big one.

- The pretty wrapping paper?

- It's very normal for young women to want to know

that the family system that they're in,

that the men love them and care about them.

- From my favorite F.I.L,

aka father-in-law.

- He, uh, he definitely used that to his advantage.

- Watching the video, the extensive videos

that Steve took of Susan...

- ...he's stalking her and he has this inflated

sense of self.

He's created this fantasy that she's really wanting

this attention from him.

- The really disturbing part to me is the

psychological abuse that he's perpetrating on her.

So psychologically, emotionally...

- ...she doesn't feel safe.

- She's constantly being observed.

- And obsessed.

- And harassed in this way.

[Jenn] And that's really, that's really tragic.

[dramatic music]

- My dad, he wasn't there when Susan disappeared.

He was three states away with me

and he, himself, loved Susan.

- I called my dad and told him that Susan was...

gone.

The police, they let us just enter their home

and Susan's purse was right there.

Her keys.

I opened her wallet.

Her driver's license was in there.

Her credit cards.

I mean it was--

like all of her stuff was in there.

It's like that is really alarming that she would

leave without that.

It was a strange circumstance.

- I think once it became apparent that,

okay, well Josh and the boys are okay, they've come back,

but then Susan is not around.

I think that any of us could fall into that trap

of feeling like, "What could he have done?"

- There, I'm in here too.

- Over time, we were like, "Well, it's looking more

and more likely that he didn't do it."

- Why would Josh Powell talk about bad things about her?

- Why do you think that she would just run off

with another man?

- She's a very sexual person.

[Stephanie] Steve secretly recorded a conversation

with Susan.

[Gary Sanders] We developed this tactic to do a search warrant.

- I thought they were going to arrest Josh

and it turned out to be Steve.

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] Tell me a little bit how you're feeling.

- I just miss her and I love her.

My boys love her.

- In the month after Susan disappeared, Josh claimed

that he was not involved in her disappearance,

but he would not help authorities

or the Cox family search for Susan.

- All I ask is that anyone who can, just help us

try to find her.

Um, I'm just trying to think of ways to do that.

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] The husband of Susan Powell is about

to abandon the Utah house they called home.

Joshua Powell is reportedly planning to relocate

to Puyallup where he can move into this house

with his father.

Neighbors are more than shocked.

- His actions did not correspond with somebody

who is expecting his wife to return.

His actions corresponded with somebody who knew

she was not going to return.

- If you think your wife is still alive

and if somehow she is freed from bondage

or was unconscious

or had been held a prisoner and she gets free,

the first place she's going to come is back home.

[Jennifer] Josh packed up his entire house

and moved to Washington.

I knew this just didn't feel right.

Did he do something to Susan?

But I kind of was denying it because this is my brother,

I don't want to believe it.

[dramatic music]

- Reflecting back on that, I mean, it's very clear

that he's confident that we're not going to find her

and so now he needs to move forward and put together

a game plan for his life with him and his boys.

He's calling her chiropractor, canceling appointments.

He's calling the babysitter saying,

"We no longer need your services."

He's filing paperwork with her employer to get her retirement.

He knows that she's gone.

She's not coming back.

[dramatic music]

- He moved in with my dad and they all hunkered down

around him and my siblings were living there with them.

It was kind of like he had just gone and moved into Fort Knox,

you know.

It was like a fortress, can't get in there anymore.

- What else should he have done besides moving in

with the one household that was able

and willing to receive him?

Dad was the one person that he could go to

through that really torturous time.

- Josh moving to Washington made the case a lot more complex,

a lot more difficult to investigate because,

as a police officer in the State of Utah,

I'm authorized to investigate cases in the State of Utah,

not in the state of Washington.

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] Chuck Cox holds a candle at his daughter,

Susan Powell's vigil.

The worried father's surrounded by dozens of relatives

and friends.

- Where is she?

Where's my daughter?

- A lot of times when people feel helpless,

like the- that there's nothing they can do, you know.

They've been out searching.

They've called everybody they can call.

A lot of time the candlelight vigil is kind of like that

last ditch effort to do something,

and so there were a series of candlelight vigils,

not only in West Valley City, but back, uh, home where,

uh, Susan grew up in Washington.

[Reporter] Cox and many people in the somber crowd were

surprised when Susan's husband Josh showed up.

He's a person of interest in his wife's disappearance.

- We had a vigil here and he showed up at that

with one of the boys

and I could not believe he would show up at it.

[Reporter] Strangely enough, Cox wasn't allowed to see

his grandson, a group shielded the child and Josh Powell

from everyone's view.

- We were not allowed to talk to the children

because, by that time in the media, we were saying,

"Josh, why aren't you talking to the police?

"Why aren't you willing to tell the police what you know

about Susan being missing?"

I was certainly wanting to see the children and there wasn't--

they wanted to see us,

but he was prohibiting that

based on he just didn't want them near us.

Here, the leg is there.

I got to peek at Charlie.

He's, he's looking pretty good.

It looks like he doesn't have a clue what's going on.

- We, ourselves, are wondering what the hell happened

and could he have done something?

We pretty much just came to the conclusion that, well,

they're not finding anything yet.

They're not finding any evidence yet,

and Josh insists that he's innocent.

- His face looked really long and everything at the tribute

and he just legitimately looked upset

and concerned and worried.

And obviously it could be a mixture of,

"Am I going to get caught?"

"What did I do?"

That was the last time I saw him.

[Reporter] Powell tried to sneak away and dodge our cameras.

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

Do you have anything to say?

Why did you take your kids camping

in sub-freezing temperatures?

- What they didn't understand

is that we weren't supporting

what we believe to be a guilty man.

We were supporting innocent until proven guilty.

- As the investigation into Susan's disappearance continued,

many people thought Josh Powell's arrest

was imminent.

But without a body, police continuously questioned

whether they had enough evidence to make an arrest.

- I see him fall?

Certainly.

I see him responsible?

Certainly.

And yeah, did I want to pull Josh in and just slap him

around a little bit, do a little 1950s police work?

Absolutely, I wanted to.

But there's no physical evidence or forensic evidence,

no witnesses, no confession to hold him accountable.

You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and, and you,

you can't lose your focus.

Then you bring in the Elizabeth Smart case.

Elizabeth Smart was missing for how long?

Nine months.

[Reporter] Elizabeth Smart's father, Ed has been speaking

to Susan Powell's family almost daily.

He's been offering them counsel and advice,

things he learned during the nine months his daughter

vanished back in 2002.

- Elizabeth Smart, at the time, was 14 years old

and she was kidnapped from her bedroom here in Utah

in the middle of the night.

Her sister described a man coming in and, and that there

was a knife and that she was spirited away

and it triggered searches all over for months

and months and months.

[Reporter] There are similarities between

the two cases.

One point, Ed Smart and other family members

were considered suspects in Elizabeth's disappearance.

- I think that might've affected why we hadn't seen

somebody bring a case on circumstantial evidence

because Elizabeth Smart had just popped up out of nowhere.

So, I think officials, the DA, were afraid that they might

bring charges against Josh and the next thing you know,

here comes Susan, you know, popping up on the street

in West Valley City.

- With the District Attorney's office, for them to

move forward on a no body homicide,

they wanted to wait at least 12 months

and that's fine.

You know, I get it.

- The police thought they had to have a body.

They thought they had to have

bullets and blood.

- They had quite a bit of circumstantial evidence

in this case;

you know, the fans,

Susan's purse was in the house.

Josh faked a phone call to her.

[Anne] He didn't stay in Utah to help find her.

- Did we have circumstantial evidence

in the Susan Powell case?

Absolutely.

- So why didn't they arrest him?

- I got really frustrated with the police.

I still, to this day, believe they had enough to arrest him.

I know they had enough to convict him.

- If we would've charged Josh Powell

and the District Attorney's office would have moved forward

and I would have been the one sitting on that stand,

a defense attorney would have chewed me up.

[Anne] Anybody that watches CSI or any crime shows

knows that you can go forward without a body.

Some cases aren't that strong,

but you take them to a jury.

There's so many failures in this case that everybody

needs to answer some questions.

- For anybody looking outside in to critique

our investigation is...

ignorant.

Just look at the Casey Anthony trial.

[Reporter] Prosecutors brought an end to their

first-degree murder case against Casey Anthony

accused of killing her two-year-old daughter, Kaitlin.

- Casey Anthony was acquitted because of the

defense that blamed her father for her daughter's death.

So it's conceivable that Josh could have done the same thing.

Even though Steve had an alibi,

it's possible that his obsession with Susan

could create enough reasonable doubt

to find Josh not guilty.

[Reporter] A psychiatrist says Anthony told him that her father

had molested her when she was young,

a claim that George Anthony has vehemently denied.

- I saw that and then I looked at this case,

I could see a defense attorney going down that road

and pointing the finger at Steven Powell,

which will be super easy because of his infatuation.

- A good defense team could sort of muddy the waters

and sort of do everything they could to sort of

shift blame to Josh's father.

And add to that the fact that you didn't have a body;

there were too many loose ends.

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] At this point, are you just working off

the presumption that he killed Susan

and now you just got to put the pieces together where she is.

- We're not going to make any assumptions.

We, we still have to resolve whatever happened to,

to Susan.

- Over time we were like, well, I mean, it's looking more

and more likely that he didn't do it

because I can't imagine how he could have gotten away with it,

gotten rid of all evidence.

It just became such an implausible scenario.

Dad was 100% convinced that Josh was innocent.

- Did Steve truly believe that Josh had nothing to do

with Susan's disappearance or is this something he claimed

to cover up what he knew really happened?

Is there a darker truth between Steve and Josh?

They responded to the ongoing police investigation

by going on a bizarre media tour in which they described

Susan as mentally ill and promiscuous.

[Reporter] Josh Powell speculates his wife may have

led a double life.

They claimed her childhood diaries showed she was

mentally unstable, suicidal, and fixated on sex.

- I mean, who in like loving memory,

or in trying to find a spouse,

why would Josh Powell talk about bad things about her?

[Abbie Boudreau] When we spoke to Steven and Josh Powell

last month, they both claimed Susan was flirtatious

and had a history of being promiscuous,

even with her own father-in-law.

- She did it.

I did-- I mean, we interacted in a, a lot of sexual ways.

- I think he had this idea that if he just explained

the situation, people would kind of like, get it.

He was helping to explain the real Susan;

the, the version of Susan that the Cox's don't want

the world to see.

- There's no question in my mind that the

feelings were mutual.

- It was hard to see the world judging her from what

this monster and his son were saying about her.

A lot of people were believing it.

- If Josh was responsible for Susan's disappearance,

as police suspect,

imagine the maliciousness it takes to commit a murder,

then go on national TV and blame the victim

for their own demise.

[Abbie] Has she ever been unfaithful to you?

- Never that I know of.

- Then why do you think that she would just run off

with another man?

- She is a very sexual person.

- Josh and Steven were trying to defend themselves

in the media because it had become such a huge media focus.

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

attacking, of all people,

Susan.

- I don't really think she's dead.

Never.

I mean ever since that time, I really haven't felt that way.

- It really felt like we were watching this

horrible movie on TV.

Steve Powell was so horrible and sort of disgusting

as to try to make it seem that Susan was interested in him

when we all knew that she hated him.

She was so disgusted by him.

He was just pretending that his fantasies were real life.

- Why would a father-in-law, why would someone 30 years older

think that it's okay or wanted to engage

with someone this way?

Those are the questions that we need to be asking.

- You're staring at me.

[Steve] I offered to rub her feet, to rub her toes

to give her some stimulation and...

Oh, my God.

- There were other people that were aware of this.

There were other people that were probably contributing

to how it was being normalized and minimized.

- The only thing I cared about was I didn't like

that she was flirting with my dad

because it was like,

"Okay, if you want to do that kind of stuff,

"go do that wherever you want,

but keep it out of the family kind of a thing."

[Abbie] Do you think a part of you started

falling in love with Susan?

- I, I... that's pretty likely.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I... yeah, I will say so.

I've been in love with her for a year and a half or more now.

I can't even think of anything else.

- What Steve is doing is the classic defense

of someone who has perpetrated violence and abuse

and really tried to attack someone psychologically

and emotionally.

It's his defense that she wanted it.

- Never heard so much evil visited on one family

by one man and that's Steven Powell.

[Steve] Yeah, that's fine right there.

Just stand right there

and then I get on that side of Susan, right?

- Growing up, my father of course was in charge.

There was a lack of feeling to other people

and their situations and their, and their needs.

- Regardless of the fact that, that he might be accused

of doing something bad, in some other direction,

I'm just not the type to twist something around

into something that it's not.

So I'm not going to say that while he did something bad

in this direction that has nothing to do with me

and then be like, "Well, now I'm a victim of that stuff."

- I knew what I had gone through,

what my siblings had gone through and I knew the

twisted perspective on life that they had come through with.

- So to say that, that we were all victimized by

him or whatever, you know, however she wants to

characterize it,

is unfair because he was a good father to us.

- Alina, she was the casualty as well as my other siblings.

They were all casualties...

of my father.

[dramatic music]

- We had spoken to hundreds of people.

We had followed up on every lead that you could think of.

- We try to stay busy.

We try to keep focused on finding her.

There was a knock on my door and I opened it

and it was a bunch of police detectives and they said,

"Josh tells us that you're hiding her in your house

"and that you conspired with her to get her out

and to make her look like she disappeared."

I laughed.

I was like, "I can't believe that he said that.

"I cannot believe that,

"but you're welcome to search my house.

"Go look everywhere you want to.

I will do anything I can to help you find her."

- Investigators today are returning to a remote section

of eastern Nevada looking for Susan Powell.

[Reporter] With the media invited to observe,

the detectives focused on the scores of abandoned mines

and deep caves.

- Police went down and set up this big elaborate search

out in the desert.

I think it was Topaz Mountain

and I remember with the lead investigator at the time

told us, he's like,

"Frankly, we're just trying to rattle his cage."

Police are searching mines like this one.

This one, for example, goes straight back horizontally

about 20 to 30 feet, but there are a lot of mines out here

that drop straight down.

- We had to somehow get Josh to confide into somebody else

or say something

or visit the site

or something,

do something so that either we can find Susan,

get some more evidence or get somewhat of an admission.

- The police were open to anything that could

generate any kind of lead.

At the same time, the Powell family started publicly

claiming that Susan's teenage journals

could prove their outlandish theory that she was alive

and had run off with another man.

- Josh and Steven Powell had in their possession

some of Susan's diaries.

Those diaries showed up on TV.

- I do get emotional about the journals.

These are the private journals of a teenage girl

that has been writing it.

It's her diary.

And if something makes her mad,

she's going to write about being mad

and if something makes her happy,

she's going to write about being happy.

But here's a, uh, a pervert reading her journals

and using his self-taught psychology to interpret it

into his twisted world.

He had no right to look at them.

So we needed to get her journals back.

- Josh and Steven are trying to defend themselves

so they're like, "Hey here we've got Susan's journal.

This will prove our innocence."

West Valley had asked them, "Hey, if you share that with us,

we can hopefully solve the case."

- We approached Josh and, and Steve.

At first, they agreed to give us the journals

and then they back pedaled and said,

"We're not going to give you copies.

We're not giving you the originals.

We're not giving you nothing."

We talked about whether if we had enough probable cause

or reasonable suspicion to do a search warrant

to access the house and recover those journals.

We did not.

- The police knew that Steve and Josh

had possession of Susan's journals,

but they needed specific evidence to prove

that they were being kept inside Steve's house.

That's when they created a trap called the honk and wave.

It was designed to lure Steve in a public place

in front of cameras to go on record and admit

that the journals were in his house--

that would give the police what they needed to

secure a search warrant.

- We developed this honk and wave.

It was, uh, a tactic that we used to kind of work

a little bit closer with Mr. Cox.

- We sat out on the street with big signs

and you ask people to honk and wave to you.

Chuck called me up and he said the West Valley Police

want us to do it

and they need to have you guys do it the same day

at the same time so it won't look like we're just

targeting Josh and Steve,

but really we were just targeting Josh and Steve.

- So, right turn here.

- The location of the honk and wave was critical.

It had to occur at a place where Josh and Steve would see it.

- So right over there is, uh, Fred Meyer and that's

where the honk and wave was, right over there.

[Stephanie] Why this intersection?

- We were kind of given hints on where to hold it.

- We do want some pressure on him

in hopes that Steven Powell was say those journals

are in fact in his house.

- They wanted me to be the bait.

I was the bait.

[dramatic music]

[cars honk]

[Kiirsi] Thank you.

[Reporter] A simple roadside rally to keep Susan Powell's

disappearance in the spotlight.

[Kiirsi] We're just asking the public to remember her.

- So we were there honk and waving

and somebody said, "Hey, look, there's Steve Powell."

[Kiirsi] Oh, this ought to be good.

- Apparently, on Saturdays he goes to the bank

and I didn't know that, but police did.

Steve came walking over and Alina was with him

and they were going to take care of me, by golly.

- Chuck is a liar. - Do you have the evidence?

- No, he, he-- Chuck is lying.

[Alina] We shopped at businesses around there periodically.

We saw it as we were driving by.

I told him to, to leave it alone.

- How is you coming here helping to find Susan?

- How has your standing at our neighborhood market

helping to find Susan, Chuck?

- But Dad wouldn't listen to me.

- I'm thinking, okay, if you don't have enough now

for a search warrant...

- We went to the house and looked for the journals

and then from there, we found so much more.

It was crazy.

- What they found was enough to make anybody's skin crawl.

Are there other victims out there?

Yeah, probably.

[car honks]

[Kiirsi] Thank you.

[Reporter] A simple roadside rally to keep Susan Powell's

disappearance in the spotlight instead became a flashpoint

between families.

- They're only doing it in the neighborhood where we live.

- Susan's abusive husband and his father show up,

willing to confront her family in front of the media.

- Anyway, is there any other question that I can

answer for anybody?

I'm, I'm totally open.

- Steve cannot keep his mouth shut.

He likes to talk.

He likes to be the center of attention.

He just can't help himself.

And I think that that's what completely destroyed him.

- We're not talk--

I, I doubt that Josh will ever talk to the

West Valley City Police ever again.

but he'll talk to the FBI.

- He wanted to get in on this and so I'm kind of going

like this so they can get all his words because I know

he's an idiot and he's going to do something stupid.

- The only thing they told us is they believe she's alive.

They've told us that.

And Josh had nothing to do with her disappearance.

- I also held my arms folded because that restricts me

from doing something stupid myself.

- They know she's alive.

They wouldn't say they believe she's alive.

They know she's alive.

- It was obviously all a farce.

The Cox's and the police were out there essentially

trying to lie and exaggerate in this bullying campaign.

- You're not believable.

- Yeah, right, so.

Right, I'm not.

You are though.

Anyway, is there any other question that I can answer

for anybody else?

- We needed something, some sort of a clue

or evidence that those journals are in fact in his house.

- We've got a lot of information about the Cox family,

about Susan, a lot from her journals.

- And now here he is giving it--

putting it right out there.

- Josh lived with Susan for eight years before she left.

He knows a lot that is not in the journals

but the journals confirm what he knows

and Susan told him about her family.

- I could not believe he was doing it.

You have no right to those journals,

those are my daughter's journals.

- We will probably be putting it on Susan's Powell--

- You have no right to those journals.

- These were journals Susan completed when she was 20--

- How did you get a hold of them?

- They were, Susan was 20 years old

when she completed the journals

and she was married to my son, they are his property.

- I'm thinking, okay, if you don't have enough now

for a search warrant to get those journals,

I'm calculating in my mind

they've got to have enough evidence now.

- There's my probable cause that those journals

are in fact in his house.

- That was our in.

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] Susan Powell's diaries have taken center stage

according to the search warrant left at the Powell's home.

Diaries that her husband insists will help explain

her disappearance.

[Alina] We were actually outside in the driveway

and here comes this stream of police cars and I say to Dad,

"Oh, [bleep], what do they want now?"

You know.

- I was with the detectives when they rolled up

to Steven's House and we knew that there'd be a

search warrant going in.

We preplanned it and we knew that it would be a big event.

The interesting part about Steve's reaction

was that he didn't react.

- They used the journals as this excuse

to come busting in the house.

It was this like harassment campaign to damage our family

that we'll never recover from.

[Reporter] Police came looking for seven very specific diaries,

all written by Susan.

Two families divided and with very different reactions

to the increased police activity in this unsolved mystery.

- We went to the house and looked for the journals

and then from there, we found so much more.

It was crazy.

[dramatic music]

There was, uh, cotton balls where Susan had maybe taken

the fingernail polish off.

They were dated and had her name on it.

There was pair of panties that were in, uh, Ziploc bags.

Feminine hygiene products that were in bags,

toenail clippings,

hair clippings,

things that should not be kept.

We were all in awe of basically the house of horrors

we are now looking at.

[Ellis] We recovered a lot of 8MM cassettes,

external hard drives, laptops,

VHS cassette.

- There were 5,000 pictures of Susan.

He was one step away from building a pit,

like the Silence of the Lambs .

- And he's even videoing himself

masturbating to images of Susan.

- Being in law enforcement, you see a lot of things

that are out of the ordinary,

but this was beyond out of the ordinary for all of us.

- We saw more, more and more.

It just got creepier and creepier as it went along.

- What they found was enough to make anybody skin crawl.

- Steven had been videotaping neighbor girls in bathrooms

and girls in private moments and little girls that

he had no business taking pictures or video tape of.

- He was just progressively getting even more disgusting

and terrible.

- Like one video, he's videoing some young kids.

These kids are getting ready to do take a bath

and he's videoing those.

- I believe my dad aligned himself with evil.

- Very disturbing material.

I mean, the guy's a sicko.

- Yeah, the totality of that up.

That's not new and learned behavior.

That's something that we suspect he probably had been doing

his whole entire life.

Are there other victims out there?

Yeah, probably.

Will we ever find them?

Probably not.

- I was doing an interview and they said,

"Hey, there's helicopters around the house,"

and I thought, "Good, they're finally going to arrest him."

I thought they were going to arrest Josh.

They've found something, they're going to arrest him.

And it turned out be Steve.

- They showed up and they were like,

"Yeah, no, we're arresting him."

I was just like,

"What? Why?"

- I put the handcuffs on him and at that point

Alina was there and she started yelling at us.

- This idiot Gary Sanders, and he was like,

"Well, if you had seen the things I had seen..."

There was never any photo dissemination.

There was never, there was never anything that really

led to them suffering a harm to no, you know,

intimidation or stalking or harassment or threats.

- When we grow up in a dangerous, violent home

or we've been overpowered by men throughout our life,

sometimes there's a lack of awareness that they are

in a very seriously dangerous situation.

- There was nothing really to, to say that,

that he had ever actually tried to do anything to anybody.

It was pictures through an open window.

If people are visible, they're visible, you know.

If we choose to be visible,

people can see us.

I mean that's crappy.

It's inappropriate, but that's not what they made it out to be.

They made it out to be like he was some kind of monster.

- According to police, he had a window that faced

the neighbor's house.

And so he had a camera and he was videotaping the girls at,

uh, you know, different stages of undres

inside their bathroom.

You know, he had hours of videotape.

He would play the video on a TV screen.

[Steve] I'm hooked up to the TV here.

- And then he would videotape himself masturbating

as he watched those video tapes.

- When you're in the view of the public,

it's okay to videotape, but this was something

where he was going into the privacy of their home.

- He was videoing out of a window into another bedroom

and there were teenagers.

- You know, I guess in a way, it was relieving

that other people could see him for what he was.

And he couldn't just pull the wool over people's eyes

and charismatically talk himself out of any situation anymore.

- Josh came out and I said,

"Hey, Josh I'm arresting your dad today."

And I said,

"I'm also taking your kids under protective custody."

And he said, "Okay."

He didn't want to hug his kids goodbye.

He didn't want to say goodbye to them.

It was just kind of chickensh--.

[dramatic music]

- We found out that Josh would make them

sleep naked with them.

- There was a lot of animated pornography.

- We told the police he was going to try something.

[Anne] She heard one of the boys scream.

[crying]

- Previously on

The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell.

- Josh packed up his entire house

and moved to Washington.

[Ellis] He knows she's gone.

She's not coming back.

- The Powell family, they know something.

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

attacking of all people,

Susan.

- We interacted in a lot of sexual ways.

- She was the instigator.

- [Susan giggles] Stop it.

[Alina] I didn't like that she was flirting with my dad.

[Susan] Your dad zoomed in.

- We don't go to someone who was a bank teller

and was robbed and ask her why she had all that money,

but we do this to victims of sexual assault crimes.

- Was Steve Powell somehow involved

in Susan's disappearance?

- Josh and Steven were trying to defend themselves,

so they're like, "Hey, here, we've got Susan's journal.

This will prove our innocence."

- Susan was 20 years old when she completed

the journals and she was married to my son.

They are his property.

- We went to the house and looked for the journals.

And then from there we found so much more.

It was crazy.

[eerie music]

[Ed] Steven had been videotaping neighbor girls

in bathrooms and girls in private moments.

- Josh came out and I said,

"Hey, Josh, I'm arresting your dad today,

and I'm also taking your kids under protected custody.

[dramatic music]

- The police had executed a search warrant

to get the journals out of the house.

That led to Steve being arrested and arraigned for child porn.

- We knew what was going on.

We stressed over those boys living with Steve

every single day?

[Reporter] Susan's husband, Josh, wasn't in court

for his father today, but rather for his children.

The boys, ages four and six were taken last by the state

and now Susan's father is fighting to keep them with him.

- I am relieved that the children are no long-

no longer in that household.

- Josh was, uh, trying to get the boys back

and we are afraid we were going to lose them.

Susan's picture, we had it on the fireplace

and Charlie's sat there right next to the picture.

He sat down, said, "Grandpa,

take a picture of me with my mom."

- Josh, he was bound and determined to follow everything

that they were telling him to do and to go

above and beyond trying to, to make them see him

for the good father that he knew himself to be.

- Josh was going to accuse us of everything he could

because he'd done it in the past.

We knew we were under a microscope.

We had a psychologist who came to visit us once a week

and the kids went to see a psychologist.

- The boys were getting older.

They had like some behavioral issues at school.

- They were fighting.

They would hurt each other when they could.

They would take things from each other.

They were basically wild.

So we had bed time and we had, you know, we basically

had to teach them how to be human again.

- A family court judge gave Susan's parents

temporary custody of the boys,

but Josh was given a chance to regain custody

if a court ordered psychologist was able to

determine that he could care for them in a safe environment.

- My task was to develop a, uh, psychological evaluation

observing, uh, Josh with his two sons.

Question was, was Mr. Powell have enough parenting ability

to sustain the normal household?

- After Susan's disappearance, Josh chose to raise his children

in the same house as his sexually deviant father

who was obsessed with his wife.

Why?!

What influence did Steve have over Josh?

- I think you can see those links from Steven

all the way over to Josh.

- And this is my new haircut.

- When you look at the narcissism of Steven Powell,

it does make you wonder how that might have transferred to Josh.

[Stephanie] Doctor Manley is the only professional

psychologist who spent one on one time with Josh,

really giving him truly unique insight.

I just want to understand who Josh Powell is

and I can't even begin to.

It, it... he's such a complicated character.

- You're right about that.

I think that he had a lot of issues.

I think he was manipulative.

I think he was defensive.

I think he loved his children.

He didn't have a criminal history per se.

- Josh, was he evil or sick, in your mind?

- There could be a possibility of both.

- Did you worry he would be as evil as his father

and as such, such a deviant?

- Looking back in hindsight, I can see there's a lot,

probably lot more deviance than was at, at face value.

And he was patient and the boys liked him.

My conclusion was he was a textbook father,

did the textbook responses,

showed up on time, did the right things.

The children loved him.

There was clearly a bond between the children and the dad.

There wasn't anything to say at that time.

He would not be an inappropriate parent.

- But Manley, how can he say he's a good parent

when he took them camping at midnight in the snow in diapers?

I mean, is that a good parent?

I don't think so.

Or that moves away when their mom's missing,

moves to another state.

Is that a good parent?

Or somebody that lives with someone that's a voyeur?

Is that a good parent?

Or that gets in fights with their grandparents, you know,

on the airwaves.

Or somebody that refuses to answer questions

about where their mom is.

Is that a good parent?

I don't think so.

[dramatic music]

- Why it wasn't a slam dunk that the kids would end up

with Chuck just made no sense to me.

It made no sense to anybody really.

- When we were in court,

I remember a person of Washington State

telling the judge, "I fear for their lives, Your Honor."

And I feel like I heard her say,

"So what?"

- There's sort of the letter of the law,

you know, this idea that,

"Well, we can't do that because of certain statutes."

"We can't do this because, you know, we don't have the body."

You have to use common sense in a case like this

and sometimes it feels like common sense wasn't used.

- I did not harm her.

I did not have anything to do with her disappearance.

I've never been charged or accused of any crime.

- I'm notified by Pierce County that it's likely

that Josh would be given custody of the kids

and that's something we didn't want.

We need something to give to courts that would be concerning

and we were able to access some of Josh's hard drives.

There was a lot of adult pornography.

But there was also a lot of child animated pornography

as well.

So I meet with the County District Attorney's office

and I explained to them the importance of releasing

this evidence for the safety of the children

because we don't know what Josh is capable of.

- The pornography recovered from Josh's computer

depicted disturbing animations of incest

and young children.

- The pictures were deal-breakers.

I had to write an addendum to my report and then that's

when I referred him to a psychosexual evaluation.

And of course a psychosexual would take a polygraph.

One question would be, "Have you ever had sexual contact

with someone under the age of 18 when you were an adult?"

"What sort of things turn you on?"

"Have you ever looked at child pornography?"

- Josh has to take this evaluation which includes

a polygraph and they could ask him any question they want.

So they could say, "And where-- what about Susan," in there.

Well, maybe now we'll hear something.

Maybe now he'll tell us what actually happened to her.

Maybe this will help find my daughter.

[dramatic music]

- In February 2012, Josh appeared in court

expecting to regain custody of his children.

This is when police presented evidence of child pornography

to the judge.

- We showed the courts everything that we had,

child pornography and the information have been

a suspect in a homicide.

Unfortunately, the courts still ordered a visitation.

[Reporter 1] What's your understanding of who has

custody of your kids?

[Reporter 2] Who has custody of your kids?

Are the Cox's going to have them today, tomorrow, the next day?

- Susan's parents were granted temporary custody

and Josh was ordered to undergo a sexual evaluation

which included a lie detector test.

- My understanding was that he could have visitation,

but it had to be supervised

and it had to be in a government facility,

but that's just crazy.

Why would you even allow visitation?

If you're taking the kids away from somebody

and giving a temporary custody to somebody else,

then that person probably shouldn't have even visitation.

And what I learned is that there were other parents that

complained that Josh was there when they were there

visiting their kids, and so it made them feel uncomfortable.

So, that's why they allowed him to have visitation

at Josh's home.

- The last time Josh was cornered,

my daughter disappeared.

And he actually acted a little better

just before that.

He acted like he was going to be normal and then she's gone.

And when he was at the court,

he was acting, "Oh, okay, yeah, yeah."

And I'm going, "This is a warning sign.

This has happened before."

I'm afraid for the children.

I don't want them to go visit him.

I want you to have supervisors.

No, no, it's fine.

The lady will be fine.

He's supervised.

We're sure it's okay.

He showed no signs that there's a problem.

No, I'm sure it's okay.

It'll be fine though.

You, you have to do this.

- Dad.

- We knew he was going to try something.

We were positive.

We told the police; he called the social workers.

They all laughed at us.

- Twenty-twenty hindsight, looking back now,

I probably would have pushed a little bit more.

I probably would have, you know...

even gotten a little more physical with him.

Maybe even taking the kids and not letting him have them back.

Okay, "You fight me.

"You prove, you prove you're not involved.

"You go to your interviews and you answer their questions

and then you can have your kids back," kind of thing.

You know, maybe I would have been a little bit more forceful,

but I'm here.

[dramatic music]

- Super Bowl Sunday was going to be a great day.

I was having guests over so that, uh, we could watch the

Super Bowl and, and eat and enjoy the day like every other

great American who loves football.

- Wooooo!

- I woke out on Super Bowl Sunday.

I don't even remember who was playing.

- Let's go Giants.

- I got my girls.

We headed out to go dress shopping.

- We are at the Super Bowl.

[cheering]

- I remember it like it happened this morning.

I had just loaded my sons up into the car

and we were going to go over to another Marshall's house

and watch the Super Bowl.

[Ellis] That morning, Josh went to the bank,

withdrew some money and he also bought gas.

- On February 5th, a social worker picked up

Charlie and Braden from the Cox family.

She was instructed by the court to take them on a

supervised visit with Josh at a home that he had rented

down the street from his father's house.

- So, the lady that came to pick them up;

she is a 65-year-old woman

and she was just providing transportation

and she's supposed to stop Josh from running off with the kids.

I figured he'd hit her, you know, hurt her

and just take the kids

and leave and we wouldn't know about it.

[Interviewer] How excited were they about visiting their dad?

[Social Worker] They were very excited.

They were happy.

They wanted to see him.

In fact, um, one of them said what he wanted for his birthday

was to go home and live with daddy.

- We know that he said, "I have a surprise for you."

The kids ran in.

He slammed the door.

- They should not let him have those kids.

- Hearing that, that phone call was very frustrating.

You know, their decisions were made for whatever reasons

and it is what it is.

- I only wanted Charlie and Braden to be safe

and to have a safe environment to learn and grow

and develop and become healthy, strong individuals.

[Susan] Charlie say hi.

- We said, "Oh, no, you know, mommy is missing.

"Mommy didn't walk away.

She loves you."

The boys, they wanted so much to see their mom.

- If I had done things differently,

in the end,

sure, there's, there's always things.

- It's easier obviously to just be angry

with people whose fault, it isn't even their fault,

but you just always replay things in your head.

[crying]

- She heard one of the boys scream...

Charlie and Braden.

Those babies...

Susan would've done anything for them.

That she protected, that she loved,

that she was there for.

And then, and then look what happened.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

[dramatic somber music]

♪ ♪

- Josh spread gasoline throughout the house

and then soaked down the room,

himself,

and the area where the boys were,

and he lit a match.

[Woman] Oh, I hope nobody was in there?

- I got a text that the house was on fire.

I said, I, I know where that place is.

I want to go.

So they sent a person with me and we drove over there

and then I saw it and I just, "Okay, that's it.

You know, I knew they were gone.

[Susan] Watch out Charlie.

Yeah, come on.

[somber music]

- It was pretty awful.

That day was pretty low.

- It was just, uh, a range of emotions

from being sad for the kids and the Cox family

to, uh, being angry,

and, uh, extremely frustrated.

- Evil was in our neighborhood.

And now we're seeing here today.

It's not, not something you want ever to experience.

- I mean, I'll never forgive him for making that choice,

but, but I can't consider him the monster

that other people consider him to be because...

because I knew his heart where his kids were concerned.

One of the law enforcement officers actually said

that he wanted to break Josh

and, I mean, boy, did they ever break Josh.

- There was nothing that was going to survive that fire.

It was a total inferno

and it was just blazing away

and then as we found out, before he did that,

through the autopsy, it showed that he assaulted the boys

with what we believe is a pick or an ax.

[Anne] We know that they were running back to a room

where their toys were.

That's where they were found.

[Kiirsi] And they were holding hands with each other

and lying on the floor, holding hands.

Hearing those kinds of things was really hard.

- This is a horrible murder.

Let's not call it a tragedy to distance ourselves from it.

Let's not sanitize it.

Let's call it what it is.

It is something terrible.

It is something wrong.

It is something evil.

[somber music]

- The smoldering heap is still there.

I'm just standing here looking at it thinking,

"What more could I have done?"

I to- I di- I did everything I could to protect the children.

I, I, I told everybody I was supposed to.

Now, these- all these lives are ruined and everything is,

you know, these kids are gone.

I couldn't protect them.

What more could I do?

And the answer just came into my mind.

Nothing.

There's nothing more to do.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- That's a really nice picture.

And I like how Susan's included on it too.

How soon was that picture taken before she went missing?

[Chuck] Uh, it was the year they went missing,

in the summer.

- The boys were her pride and joy.

There were everything to her.

They lived however long that was between the mom missing

and their death...

without their mother and not knowing and being with

their crazy father with these visitation rights.

[Stephanie] Do you collect this stuff and take it

home every now and then?

[Chuck] Yeah.

[Stephanie] Because it would just be filled with things, huh?

- Well, the, the children in Charlie's school

were just all devastated.

And you know, how does a parent say, you know,

"Their daddy killed them."

How do you explain that to a child?

[Stephanie] Yeah, you can't really, I mean.

[Chuck] So, the kids would come down here

and there's always kids leaving things for Charlie and Braden.

It helps them; it helps the parents.

- The thing that upsets me the most about this whole saga

that we've been through is the fact that

Braden and Charlie were murdered.

Because we begged the police for years

to save them and to get them out of there

and they just kept telling us the laws don't support it.

- Our justice system, there's, there's flaws with it.

Offenders, many times, they're given so many rights

that the rights of the victims are overlooked.

I think the judicial system needs to work for

victims' rights a lot more and that's something that we battle

every day in law enforcement.

[Kiirsi] And I told them and more people told them that

he is going to kill those kids,

and the boys were murdered when they didn't need to be.

They could have been taken away and kept safe.

- The worst outcome of domestic violence happened here.

Having some basic laws and policies in place that say,

"This is not okay with us..."

that sets a tone.

I'm very hopeful that through education and awareness,

we can start to make change happen.

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] Steven Powell has faced cameras again and again

during the search for his daughter-in-law, Susan.

Today, he faced them in an orange jumpsuit.

- In the wake of Josh's horrific actions,

authorities hoped Steve's trial could provide the answers

that Susan's family was desperately seeking.

[Reporter] Powell entered a plea of not guilty to 14 counts

of voyeurism and one count of child pornography.

[Attorney] Sergeant Gray, what does 114 say?

[Gray] Also I enjoy taking video shots of pretty girls

in shorts and skirts, beautiful women of every age.

I sometimes use these images to self-stimulation.

- Susan was very much a part of the trial

even though she wasn't part of the trial.

The prosecution wanted to introduce evidence

showing that Susan Powell was as much a victim of voyeurism

as these neighbor girls were,

but the judge wouldn't allow it in

because Susan Powell was not there to say,

"No, I did not give consent to have these images of me taken."

- My dad's main defense was pretending

that it could have been anybody in the household,

including my mentally ill brother, John,

who was diagnosed mentally ill

with bipolar and schizophrenia.

[Steve's Attorney] In 2006, John was living there part,

during part of 2016.

- For a apart, but during the period where it's

thought that he made recordings--

[Steve's Attorney] Try to answer my questions, okay?

- Here's this, you know, disabled child

and he's willing to, to pawn it off on him.

He's willing to say that he was the one.

It was clear to me at that point that he would do anything

to protect himself.

- My brother, John, had been kicked out by my father

and he was wandering the streets at that time.

And um, it was, it was quite some time.

It was at least two or three months before he was back.

We found him after he had wandered the streets.

We got him into a different home

and he was not there the whole summer.

- At the trial, authorities believed that the prospect

of going to prison would be enough to get Steve to

tell them what, if anything,

he knew about Susan's disappearance.

What secrets was he protecting?

- I am certain that Josh told him stuff.

Even if he wasn't aware of it in the beginning

and planning it with, with my father,

I'm certain that he told him afterwards.

- In light of Josh's death, why not tell them everything?

- People thought he might say something.

Maybe the prosecutor can cut a deal with him to see

if he'll say where Susan is.

Everybody was waiting for Steven to crack.

[Chuck] Steve Powell took the Fifth Amendment on answering

any questions regarding Susan?

- I'm certain that Josh told him stuff.

- I think what little information Josh shared

with Mike Powell was probably just too much.

- They didn't investigate to try to see if anyone

had possibly come into that garage

and, and like assaulted him.

[Jennifer] Was there a desire for vengeance?

Was I ever going to see him appearing on my doorstep?

[dramatic music]

[Reporter] For a typically open and opinionated family,

it was a day of silence and court sessions.

Steve Powell said nothing before a judge.

- There was a lot of effort to try to get answers.

Susan's family certainly wanted this trial to potentially

give them some answers.

- I, I think if he wasn't involved in it directly,

he knows what happened.

I believe Steve knows exactly where she's at

and I don't get why he won't just tell us.

I mean, the damage has been done.

Susan's missing and he's lost Josh over this.

I've lost my sister and my nephews.

It's frustrating.

[Ben] They made it clear that Steven Powell was

not willing to give them any information about it.

- Detectives went and visited Steven in, in the jail

and he blamed the law enforcement community

as being the ones that forced Josh to do that.

He constantly blamed us for harassing him.

- Law enforcement agents from FBI,

West Valley City, Utah Police

and Pierce County, Washington Sheriff's Department

spent nearly two years investigating Josh Powell

and came up with absolutely no evidence against him

in his wife's disappearance.

- Steve Powell took the Fifth Amendment on answering

any questions regarding Susan, period.

And I believe that's because he knows where she is

or what happened and he had some part in it.

I can't do anything about that

because in our justice system,

people have the right against self-incrimination

and he took that right.

- I'm certain that Josh told him stuff.

Even if he wasn't aware of it in the beginning

and planning it with, with my father,

I'm certain that he told him afterwards,

at least some of the details.

[Reporter] The father of Josh Powell, father-in-law of

Susan Cox Powell was sentenced on child pornography charges.

- They saddled him with 10 years of prison and probation.

Dad being in prison, I mean, that was hard on him.

I know that he expressed how, how difficult that was for him,

that, that...

I know that he felt like he had somehow failed Josh.

[somber music]

- I'll never forget.

I was in the grocery store actually,

and I received a phone call

and they told me that Michael Powell

just committed suicide

and I was just dumbfounded.

[soft piano music]

- Michael Powell committed suicide on February 12th, 2013

while a student at the University of Minnesota.

Did Michael help Josh get away with murder

or did Josh confess to his brother?

Maybe Michael knew that his father was somehow involved,

even indirectly.

- He mourned the loss of Josh

and I think he was bothered with what little information

Josh shared with him.

It was probably just too much.

- Here's my little boy.

- He even told us,

"Even if I knew something, I wouldn't tell you."

I think it was all just too much for him

and that's why he chose to do a swan dive...

downtown Minneapolis.

- Mom and I went over there to his condo

to take care of his personal effects and his car

and all that stuff.

I was pretty appalled that they didn't investigate

to try to see if anyone had possibly come into that garage

and, and like assaulted him or anything.

It just, it just didn't make sense.

They didn't have anything showing suicide.

The only thing that anybody saw or witnessed or whatever

was when he actually hit the ground,

not how it started.

[Stephanie] This is the last footage of Michael Powell

entering an elevator and getting off near the rooftop of a

seven-story parking garage.

Minutes later, a witness saw Michael commit suicide

by jumping off the building.

[dramatic music]

Whatever Michael knew still remains a mystery.

[soft piano music]

- At the end, Stephen Powell was in a halfway house

where other registered sex offenders would stay.

- There was a key witness at his trial

and so there was a great deal of animosity still

over that, I'm sure, that he felt.

And, and, and was there a vengeance?

Was there a desire for vengeance?

Was I ever going to see him appearing on doorstep?

It was just, it was a constant thing in my, in my mind.

- When Steve was released from prison,

authorities believed that he was their last hope

in discovering what had happened to Susan.

By that time, Josh and Michael had both died,

but many believed that their secrets had not died with them.

Was it possible that Steve still held the answers?

Before detectives could speak with him,

he was admitted to a local hospital after

suffering a heart attack.

- Once we found out he was in the hospital,

we were going to send detectives up to talk to him,

he probably just would have taunted us again,

but we definitely were going to try.

But the next day, they called and told us that he had died.

[soft dramatic music]

- I was relieved.

He's not coming after me or my family.

- He's now gone, and nobody needs to worry about him

committing any other crimes

and being a victim of his sexual deviations.

- When my father passed...

I felt sadness for him

that he hadn't chosen to put his life in order, to repent,

to figure those things out.

And so that was sad to me.

- Steve dead now.

He's probably the last person who knew what happened to her.

- Uh, this is me, covering all my bases,

making sure that if something happens to me or my family,

or all of us, that our assets are documented.

- Was Steve Powell somehow involved

in Susan's disappearance?

What was the real motive?

Buried deep within the boxes of videotapes

made by Steve Powell,

we've found a secret recording that may be the final clue

of why Susan Cox Powell disappeared.

[dramatic music]

- To truly understand what happened to Susan Cox Powell,

we have to begin in 2001,

eight years before her disappearance.

This is when Steven started obsessing over Susan

in hundreds of journal entries and hours of home video.

[eerie music]

- Within the boxes of home video made by Steve Powell,

may be the answer.

We have unearthed a secret recording in which

Steve confronts Susan about his uncontrollable infatuation.

- This was recorded without Susan's knowledge

eight years before her disappearance.

- Steve's professing his love to Susan.

It sounds completely devoid of empathy to me.

It doesn't sound like he's considered

how she would feel at all.

It sounds like it's all about him.

- She's just trying to keep it contained.

She's trying to keep it safe and manageable for herself.

- She's trying to deal with a really uncomfortable,

unfortunate, completely abusive situation.

- He's blaming her.

He's telling her that she's caused those feelings

but that's a classic move used by an abuser.

- Her apology is a very typical response

for someone who has been disempowered.

- In Steve's journal, he writes about

Susan's reaction to this confession saying,

"I am still convinced she loves me

and is sexually attracted to me."

Steve confessed his love to Susan

and in his twisted mind, he heard her say

that they could be together if it wasn't for Josh.

- This was the beginning of a chain reaction

that fueled Josh's abuse

and ended in Susan's murder.

It was a plan by Steve to break off Josh and Susan

that inadvertently pushed Josh to kill her.

- It doesn't mean that she's complicit with any of this.

She's in a terrible situation and she's trying to survive.

- My dad had an incredible influence over Josh.

They would spend multiple hours on the phone

multiple times a week and like,

what do you talk about?

- At the time, it was really just,

I figured, you're listening too much to him

that his ideas are ruining your, your marriage.

- This is the motive for Susan's murder,

the real reason behind why Susan disappeared.

In Steve's journal, he wrote about what he was trying to do.

[eerie music]

- My dad, through his, his cunning

and his words, twisted everything

and Josh escalated it even further

turning it into...

a murder.

[Stephanie] On the day Susan disappeared,

Steve Powell wrote,

"I feel like Josh did a truly stupid thing

"and probably disposed of her body in a truly grotesque way.

"I think he probably went to some former industrial land

just west of West Valley City and cremated her."

Steve concluded his journal entry writing,

"Josh's life with Susan was utterly miserable.

"Evidently, this tragedy is my answer for why Josh hung on.

"He wanted to do it his way

and avoid a messy and costly divorce."

Steve was the puppet master.

Did Steve's ruthless infatuation lead to the deaths of

Susan, Josh, Michael, Charlie and Braden,

five members of his family

because Steve wanted Susan all to himself.

- Sometimes I have dreams about her

and it makes me feel good.

It gives comfort and I do feel peace that

things are the way they are for maybe a reason.

- I did a good throw, didn't I?

[Steve] You did, you did fine.

[Jenn] Susan was quite young when she met Josh

and maybe didn't have a lot of context

for other relationships.

How do you reach out for help?

How do you advocate for someone

when you know they're being hurt?

We want people to know that if you or anybody is ever

in a situation like that, you can reach out for help.

- Josh.

- Every nine seconds, a woman in the United States

is assaulted or beaten

and around the world,

one in every three women has been beaten,

coerced into sex

or otherwise abused during her lifetime.

This is unacceptable.

- This is me.

- We need to stand up and support laws like

the Violence Against Women Act,

a key piece of national legislation

that requires funding.

- We need to say with our tax dollars

and with our lives

that it is not okay to treat people violently.

It's not okay to be abusive

and it's not okay to use power and control with your family.

[Josh] She's locking up and then she's coming right back.

Say, Momma.

[Susan] Charlie!

- If you know someone who could be the

next Susan Cox Powell,

or if you could be the next Susan Cox Powell,

please get help.

Tell someone,

make a confidential call

to the national domestic abuse hotline.

[Susan] Hold on.

Yay!

- For more information, go to oxygen.com.