All language subtitles for The.Disappearance.of.Susan.Cox.Powell.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10

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.