Morbid - Episode 82: The Tragic Case of Susan Powell Mini Morbid

Episode Date: July 23, 2019

In Ash's Alaina-length Mini Morbid, she bravely took on the heartbreaking mystery of Susan Powell's disappearance and the murder of her two beautiful boys. It's one part mystery, one part hor...rific Texas Chainsaw Massacre family dynamic and one part absolutely devastating murder/suicide. This is a tough one but it will have you engrossed from beginning to end.  ****This episode contains the death of children, please use discretion!**** The unbelievably infuriating 911 call we mentioned that the social worker made in a desperate attempt to save Josh Powell's two sons from their father: https://youtu.be/qrfqCGeDXXE See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:01:20 So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGi.com. This episode is super, super special because it's sponsored by the lovely people at Care of. Yay! Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I am still Raspeelina. And this is a mini morbid. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini morbid. Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid!
Starting point is 00:01:55 You did it! I know! And it's Ash's centric. But it's kind of like a Lena's on track because I did the damn thing. She did. I stayed up until like 3.45 in the morning, researching AF. You did in the Lena. I did.
Starting point is 00:02:15 And I see it. I see the pages of research in front of me right now. Look at all of it. And I still apologize that I still sound like Lindsay Lohan. I think that you shouldn't apologize. I think I should apologize for not sounding as he loves him. Well, people are happy that they can finally tell us apart now. That's true, because I'm the one that sounds like I'm dying. Yeah, Alina's dead.
Starting point is 00:02:35 But, you know, we're... I'm drinking tea. I'm trying to make it go away, guys. There's a reason for the vocal fry that we'll explain to you later. It's true. If you stay tuned until the middle of the episode. What a good way to make you all listen. Mm-hmm. Yeah, later on in the episode we have some fun news. Yeah, so should we just hop right into mom and em all,
Starting point is 00:02:54 but I think we should. All right, so I went on the Instagram and asked you guys for some suggestions and a lot of people said, do Susan Powell, So, woo! I did Susan Powell. She did it. And I didn't really know this case. I'd heard of the name,
Starting point is 00:03:12 but I didn't know like any crazy details about the case. And my life has been ruined. So thank you. It's a bonkers case. I stayed up very late, watching a documentary about it. And then I was like reading articles and all this stuff. I listened to a podcast about it and then I was like reading articles and all
Starting point is 00:03:25 this stuff. I listened to a podcast about it, shout out to Crime Junkie. They did a pretty good episode on it. We love Crime Junkie. We love them so much. But here's my episode on it. Yay! So Susan Cox Powell and Josh Powell got married April 6th, 2001. They had only dated for two months before they got engaged. Wow, that's love. Yes, 2001. They had only dated for two months before they got engaged. Wow, that's love. Yes, totally. Um, and Susan's family was skeptical. Weird.
Starting point is 00:03:52 Yeah, I think she was like 19 and he was 23, I want to say, when they got married. Okay. Which like 19 is like pretty young to get married. It's pretty knowing somebody for two months. Yeah, I think that compounded on top of it. Yeah, so like, maybe take a second. They, they met at like a, like a church function kind of thing for like young singles.
Starting point is 00:04:14 They were both involved in the LDS church, which is the church of the Latter-day Saints. Yes. So, like I said, her parents were skeptical and her sisters and her mom urged Susan not to marry Josh. There was just like something about him that they didn't like. He seemed to be pretty arrogant, attention seeking, creepy, and they couldn't put their finger on it,
Starting point is 00:04:37 but something was just wrong about him. Oh, that's not good. You gotta listen to people when they do that. When they say, I can't put my finger on it, but there's something weird here. You gotta listen. And it wasn't that. When they say, I can't put my finger on it. But there's something weird here. You gotta listen. And it wasn't just like one person fault this way. It was like her mom, her sisters, her friends.
Starting point is 00:04:51 Like a lot of people were like, and no, no, no. Because if it's just your mom, you're like, all right, mom. Yeah, relax. But if it's everybody around you, it's like you're like, I don't know. There could be a notion to this. There might be a common denominator here.
Starting point is 00:05:03 It might be this creep. And actually, Susan's mom remembered saying to Susan, I look at Josh and I see darkness. Ooh. Which is like something I totally feel like mom would say. I was just thinking that because she just can read the future. Yeah. My mom would 100% say that. She, you know, you know what she would say?
Starting point is 00:05:20 She'd go, there's just darkness around him. Yeah. And she'd move her hand. It's always sickly. Yeah. Like, she'd go, there's just darkness around him. Yeah. And she'd move her hand. It's always sickly. Yeah. Like, she just feels. And then I would trust her. And then I'd be like, bye, Josh.
Starting point is 00:05:31 Yeah. Bye, my Uber is here. So they got married anyways. Well, Susan loved him. The two things that Susan wanted most in life was to be a mom and a mom. I almost as a, she wanted to be a mom and a mother. Yeah. She wanted to be a mom and a mom. I almost said she wanted to be a mom. She wanted to be a mother. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:45 She wanted to be a wife and a mother. Like those were two of like the very most important things to her. Which I get. She just seemed like so pure. Oh. Yeah. So after they were married, they got married
Starting point is 00:05:58 in Pawalup, Washington. That's where they lived for a little bit. Well, that sounds like a fun place. Pawalup. Pawalup. It's just fun to say. Pawalop. Pawalop.
Starting point is 00:06:07 Yes. I like it. But they moved to Utah and that's when they started their family. They had two sons together, Charlie and Breeden, which was like, oh, cute. Those are the cutest they ever. And for a little while, they were like really happy. For a little while.
Starting point is 00:06:22 For a little while. Oh, no. But things, as they always do went downhill. Yeah, this podcast is never like, things just kept going great and they bought a house and then they saved some money and they got a nice car. They got a 401k. It was tired early.
Starting point is 00:06:39 Well, actually my heart just heard a little bit. I know, right? So Josh was quick tempered. Like he never, from what I read, he never physically hurt Susan in their marriage. Like he never like hit her or anything, but he would like break things and like yell a lot. So he threw adult temper tantrums.
Starting point is 00:06:59 Correct. Yeah. Correct. And he was very controlling. He controlled every last thing. That's no good. She wasn't allowed to drive the family car without permission.
Starting point is 00:07:15 She had to bike seven miles to work on like a busy road. In some sources, I don't know if this is totally true, but I read a couple places and Crime Drunkie also stated this, he made her knit her own socks. Yeah, I just want to, I want to know the reasoning. I just don't need my own, to save money, is in his mind.
Starting point is 00:07:38 To save money, she needed to knit her own socks. He was super controlling. Socks is, don't, socks is socks. He was super controlling. Socks don't, socks, socks. Socks don't seem like that big of an expense. I feel like, like, I've never calculated what I spend on socks. But I feel like it doesn't make that big a dent in our budget. Do you know what? I never really wear socks. I barely wear, like, even when I, this is really gross.
Starting point is 00:08:02 But when I wear sneakers, I don't wear socks. Yeah, that's gross. but I just hate the feel, it constricts my toes, but then your feet are smelly. I came out of the womb, I smell like I'm trash, goodbye. Oh, he also controlled like what the kids ate, like he, you wanted them to split a hot dog rather than each have their own hot dog. So just like weird, like neurotic things.
Starting point is 00:08:25 Like it was just to control something, I think. Oh, it had no actual reasoning behind it. It was just like, I wanted that way. So that's how it goes. Yeah, it wasn't like, oh, they had, they're having a big dinner. So let's just do half a hot dog. It was like, no, I just need to have control
Starting point is 00:08:40 with it at all. And also like he didn't like to do the cooking. Like she did the cooking. It was just, I don't know, he was just like to watch like he was he was really on another level. Yeah, it sounds like that. But she didn't want to get a divorce because her faith was very important to her and they are not huge proponents of divorce. Yeah, so she tried to make it work. But after a while, things started to get like shittier and shittier. And Susan started asking her friends
Starting point is 00:09:09 what her legal options were. Like, wow. It started to just get bad. So she was planning on actually making a move. And I don't know if Josh caught wind of this if he found something that gave him information that she was like thinking about leaving, if she might have given him an ultimatum,
Starting point is 00:09:28 that's what I've heard in some places that she was like, if you don't shape up by like this date, like I'm fucking out of here. Good for her. I hope that's what she did. Yeah. But he said to her, over my dead body, will you leave me and over my dead body,
Starting point is 00:09:41 will you take those boys away from me? Oh, that's no good. And her sister heard him say that. Oh, that's so no good. Yeah, which is so, so fucked up. Yeah, that's just that that threat is never an empty threat. I feel like whenever it's said in these cases, you're like, eeeh, I don't think either in my life have I ever been like over my dead body.
Starting point is 00:10:03 I don't think, yeah, that's a very, I definitely never said it in like a threatening way to someone. No, no. So that's kind of like the background of their little family dynamic, dynamic, exactly. Let's flash forward a little bit to December 7th, 2009. Josh's mom calls 911 to report, Susan, Josh, and the two boys missing. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:10:28 Susan and Josh should have already left for work. The boys were normally dropped off at daycare at this point. And I think the daycare woman was like, this is super weird. Like, they should be here right by now. So she called, like the emergency contact, I believe was Josh's sister. And then Josh's sister lived with his mom. And she was like, everyone was just like, this doesn't make sense. Where are they? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:53 So they called. I'll hold with the kids. At this point, they were, I want to say they were two and four. At this point. So little, they were little babies. And they're so cute. So police go to the home and they end up breaking in with the permission of Josh's family, his mom and a sister,
Starting point is 00:11:13 to the home through a window. And immediately a few things struck the police as odd. The couch had been freshly cleaned and there were two box fans hooked up and blowing onto the couch as it to be like drying it. Yeah. Susan's purse was in her bedroom, like untouched. And the house was completely locked up. That's weird. So it just didn't make any sense. And also fresh snow had fallen and there was no tracks leaving the house or entering the house. So it was like, whatever happened, like they haven't been here in a while. Yeah. So Giovanna Owings was a family friend of Susan and Josh's and she was the last person to see the family before all of this happened.
Starting point is 00:11:58 So she went over there the day before and basically she was at their house just hanging out with Susan and Josh was in the kitchen making pancakes with the boys the day before. And basically, she was at their house just hanging out with Susan and Josh was in the kitchen making pancakes with the boys the night before. Okay. It was like early afternoon. The weird part about the fact that Josh was making pancakes is like I said earlier, he never really cooked. Oh yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:18 Like he wasn't, that wasn't his thing. Susan did the cooking. Huh. But shortly after finishing the pancakes, Giovanna said Susan told her she wasn't feeling well. She was like super tired and she just wanted to go lay down. So she was like, I'll talk to you later. Like thanks for coming over.
Starting point is 00:12:31 And Josh like hurried Javana out of the house. And was like, I'm going to take the boy's sledding. So like, I'll see you later by. And he like peeled out of the driveway before she even got into her car. Wow. Yeah. And she was just like, I don't know. Like some sketchy. It was just weird. Yeah. And she was just like, I don't know, like some sketchy was just weird, like, just very strange. So the day the family is reported missing, no
Starting point is 00:12:51 one's heard from them in 18 hours. Okay. And then all of a sudden, Jovanna gets a hold of Josh because she's been calling Susan and Josh. And she tells him that everyone's been so worried and like, where are they? And he says, oh me and the boys are over in West Valley. I took them camping last night. And Susan should be at work or something. And she's like, well, yeah, everyone's really worried. Like Susan never showed up to work and where like you guys have been gone forever
Starting point is 00:13:20 what's going on. Yeah, like, hi. She was like, the police are at your house, you need to get here. This is actually serious, we called the Pope. Yeah, exactly. Like this is felt really wrong. Yeah, like, hi. Like, she was like, the police are at your house. You need to get here. This is actually serious. We called the Pope. Yeah, exactly. Like, this is full-run.
Starting point is 00:13:28 Yeah, like. So he's like, oh, OK. Like, I'm on my way home. But then, he turns around, drives 20 minutes in the opposite direction, and leaves Susan a voicemail telling her that he's on his way home. Hopefully you got to work OK. So he says, hey, we're on his way home. Hopefully you got to work okay. He says, hey, we're on our way back.
Starting point is 00:13:47 Hopefully you got to work okay. Like, one, why did you turn around to make the call? And two, she just told you, Javana just told you that she never showed up to work. So why are you calling her saying, I hope you got to work okay? Yeah. Ellis Maxwell was the lead detective on the case
Starting point is 00:14:06 and he calls Josh and he's like, dude, where are you? What are you doing? Like you said you were supposed to, like you were on your way, like what's going on? And he's like, your wife is missing, she never showed up to work. This has gone on for far too long, like, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:21 So you're looking creepier by the second dude. Yeah, exactly. So Josh is like, okay, like yeah, I'm on my way home. I just have to feed the kids. Oh yeah, let's eat a meal first. And also, you just want, like you normally just give them half a hot dog. So like, can you just get home
Starting point is 00:14:36 and find half a hot dog in the fridge and give it to them? And literally it's like your wife is missing. Your wife is missing. And their mother is missing. Right. Maybe a meal can wait. Exactly. And like, he's just telling you to come home.
Starting point is 00:14:47 Like, you know, food there. Like, this food they don't understand. You're not going to like, Jupiter. Exactly. So he's like, okay, like, please just, like, come home because we want to talk to you. And Josh was like, okay. And then instead of going home, he goes to Susan's work.
Starting point is 00:15:03 So he leaves her a voice mail and he's like, hey, Susan, it's me, I'm outside of your work. I'm here to pick you up. Like, come on out. What the fuck? And it's like, no, she never showed up to work. We have told you this, Javana told you this, the detective told you this.
Starting point is 00:15:19 They are telling you to get home. So instead of turning around and driving in the opposite direction and then going to her work and being like, hey, I'm here, maybe go home and find out where your wife is because she's nowhere to be found. That is bizarre. The weirdest. And then he's not being like, hey, I'm outside.
Starting point is 00:15:36 Are you in there? Like everyone's freaking out. Right. He's just like, hey. What's side babe? Just here to pick you up, girl. It's like, no, she's not in there, sir. We've told you this.
Starting point is 00:15:48 Like, your wife is missing. Like, a detective is telling you this. It's so bad. So obviously she never comes out because she's no work. And so Josh finally returns home and Maxwell, the detective is like, all right, we're gonna go down to the station just to ask you a few questions.
Starting point is 00:16:05 It's fine. Don't worry about it. We just need to cover all our bases, figure out where Susan could be. And Josh tells Maxwell the last time he saw Susan was at midnight the night before. Like I said, he had taken the boy's sledding. I think it was around like 435-ish when they went sledding. They came home, watched a movie. He couldn't remember what movie they watched.
Starting point is 00:16:28 He thought it was like a Christmas movie. He was like, oh, we watched a Christmas movie. I don't remember which one. And they were like, yeah, movie names are hard. Also, they were like, 12 out of it last night. Like, it wasn't that long ago. And then he was like, I decided to take the kids camping at midnight.
Starting point is 00:16:47 As one does. And like it didn't bother me that it was a snow storm. No. And it's fine. Yeah, like they really wanted to make s'mores. So we went camping at midnight. Often take my children camping in the middle of the night during a snow storm. Yeah, I don't get what's wrong with this.
Starting point is 00:17:07 I don't understand what the night deal is. Nothing's weird at all. To take your two and four year old camping in the middle of the night. Yeah. That's a very regular act. To take them anywhere in the middle of the night is totally fine.
Starting point is 00:17:17 Yeah, it's fine. Like I put them to sleep so that I can wake them up in the middle of the night exactly. To go bring them somewhere. So they were like, okay. They were like, that's probably legit. They were like, you took your two and four year old kids, camping at midnight, an 18 degree weather
Starting point is 00:17:34 with a storm coming. Okay, he's like, it all adds up to me. That makes sense. So the detective is like, oh, let me write that all down. He's like, okay, well Susan never showed up to work. Like, I've told you 45 times. So where else would she have gone? And Josh goes, I don't know, I feel like she would've tried
Starting point is 00:17:53 to go to work. Dude, I'd feel like, are we failing to communicate with what? Does the word work mean something different in Josh language? Like, what's happening? What's happening here? How are we having to break down of communicating? I don't know if she's trying to go. It didn't work out. And so he's like, well, okay, she never got there. And he's like, well, I don't know where she could be. Like, can I leave now? And he's like, he's like, done with the interview. Like what? He's like, I'm ready to go. And they don't, I mean, they can't keep him. Like, they don't have anything. So he's like, he's like done with the interview. Like what? He's like, I'm ready to go. And they don't, I mean, they can't keep him, like they don't have anything.
Starting point is 00:18:28 So he's like, yeah, you can go. My wife and the mother of my children, I don't know what she is. Like, geez, I don't know where she could be. Can I just fucking leave now? Yeah, like I know, I know. I know shit to do. I ain't got no worries.
Starting point is 00:18:37 Yeah. Hakuna Matata. What a wonderful phrase. Like what is this dude? So they make plans to do, because this wasn't like a wonderful phrase. Like what is this dude? So they make plans to do, because this wasn't like a formal interview. So they're like, come back tomorrow for a formal interview and at this time.
Starting point is 00:18:53 And he's like, okay, we'll see them. Cause your shit is off. Cause there is something going on here that we don't know about. And you definitely have the answers. So the next day he's supposed to go in at some point in the morning. Josh's mom and sister go over to the house and he's cleaning the house and his car, like cleaning everything up,
Starting point is 00:19:12 which is weird because he like was like Susan did the cooking and the cleaning, like he didn't really lift a finger. And he's supposed to be at his interview at the time that they get to his house. And his sister's like, why are you not at your interview? Like, you need to go. Like, let's go, buddy. So he shows up to his interview four hours late with no explanation as to why he's four hours late. One might say that's excessively late. Very late.
Starting point is 00:19:40 Like, if I showed up four hours late to work, I think my boss would be like, why don't you go home and never come back? Like that's tarniest fuck. Yeah, don't be tarny for the party, for your interview. Yeah, like Josh, come on now. So like I said, no explanation as to why he's late. And Maxwell's like, you know what? Whatever, because I'm probably not going to get any any answers out of you. So let's just start this fucking. Because you are the strangest man.
Starting point is 00:20:05 He's like, something has gone awry here and I'm gonna find out what it is. It's fine that you're four hours late. So he's like, you know it's weird Josh. Like you kept calling Susan, but you had her phone. Oh. So like, why are you doing that? And Josh was like, oh, I forgot that I had her phone.
Starting point is 00:20:25 Like, I didn't realize it was there. And Maxwell was like, OK. I feel like he's just trying to say these bonkers things as confidently as possible. Oh, I didn't even know I had her phone. They'll believe me if I just say it with a lot of confidence. He doesn't even have a lot. He's just like, he's just like, mwah.
Starting point is 00:20:44 But that's a thing. He's like like, he's just like, mwah. But that's a thing. He's like, I just, I just didn't know how to. The sky is yellow. Literally. I feel like at some point in his life, he said that. It just is. It's just that's just the way it is. And it's just like everyone around him
Starting point is 00:20:57 is gonna be like, you know what, Josh, you're right. It is. All right. We'll always find the sky with the yellow. So, he's like, yeah, well, that's weird anyways. He's like, does Susan have any enemies? Like was she suicidal? Was she depressed?
Starting point is 00:21:10 Like where the fuck could she be, bro? Help. And Josh hops all over that. And he's like, oh yeah. She was suicidal. She's enemy of the state. She's like everyone. She has so many enemies.
Starting point is 00:21:22 She hates her, which is not true at all. He didn't say she had any enemies, but I don't think he could have, because she was very, very into her church, and she made tons of friends on this church. Like, she had a lot of friends. So he knew even that would have flown. But he was like, she was definitely suicidal.
Starting point is 00:21:39 He was like, you know what that says? And everyone is like, yeah, no, not at all. Like, that doesn't make any sense. So they finish up the interview and also inform him that they got a search warrant for his home and for his car and that they were right now finishing up the search of his car.
Starting point is 00:21:55 And that he could make himself comfortable in the waiting room and or like the waiting area, whatever the fuck they do in interviews, I've never been arrested. Well, he wasn't arrested at this point either. But that they would be done in about like 15 minutes or so. So just hang out and you can have your car back. Hang tight, Josh. Instead of hanging out, he takes a taxi to the airport and rents a car at the airport.
Starting point is 00:22:20 He's really good at following directions. Yeah. So instead like, and the thing was, it was only going to be like 15 minutes. Like, it wasn't going to be a very long time for his car to be like, and they were going to give it back to him. It wasn't a matter of like, well, it's going to take a few days. Yeah. It was like, just wait, just wait out here for a minute and we'll be done. Right. And he was like, no, I'm all set. He's like, I'm gonna drive to the airport and run the car. He ends up putting over 800 miles on this rental car and disappeared for 20 hours.
Starting point is 00:22:52 That's a lot of hours to be on a just be MIA. And to put 800 miles on a car. Like, where you go, bro? Where did you go? And they, I watched this documentary on oxygen. It was called the Susan Cox Powell Disappearance. And creative. It was truly very creative.
Starting point is 00:23:12 And they mapped out all the places that he could have gone and it was insane. There are so many options, but nobody knows where the question is. But none of them are really. He's totally unaccounted for in those 20 hours. So weird. And what's also weird, because you think no one can be unaccounted for in those 20 hours so weird and what's also weird because you think like No one can be unaccounted for for any amount of time now no and I mean
Starting point is 00:23:30 It's just it doesn't make any sense but also during those 20 hours Josh's dad Steve is also unaccounted for And he doesn't show up for work during this time and his phone was entirely shut down What is this family doing? Exactly. I need to know. Exactly. So once police learn this information, they learn how close Josh is with his dad. Like they have this like weird relationship,
Starting point is 00:23:56 like their bros. I have a feeling. Yeah. And they decide to interview Steve. And this is when shit gets fucking weirder than weird. Oh God. Like this case is bizarre.
Starting point is 00:24:08 It is bizarre. So Steve admits that he has very deep feelings, quote unquote, for Susan and says she, quote unquote, craved his attention. Now this is his dad. This is Josh's dad. So this is his father-in-law. And he's saying I had very deep feelings with her.
Starting point is 00:24:28 I craved, she craved my attention. Nothing is at all awful and scary about that. No, not at all. So skipping ahead a little bit, at one, at the end of this case, the police get their hands on these videos that Steve's been taking for years of Susan. at like family events, set like cookouts, but also when she's leaving her work job.
Starting point is 00:24:53 And her work job, which I don't know why I said that. And like across rooms when she's unaware. Oh, I made it. It is, have you seen, have you ever seen any of them? No. Oh, it is the most terrifying. Like, I was nauseous. I've never seen them, but I hate them.
Starting point is 00:25:12 Yeah, oh, oh, you hate them. Like, I'm so disturbed just thinking about them right now. So like I said, some of them, she's like aware of. Like, they show him videoing Susan putting on makeup and she's like, she's obviously uncomfortable. Like, she's like, yeah. Okay, him videoing Susan putting on makeup and she's obviously uncomfortable. Like she's like, okay, why don't we need to, and this family, they must have videoed everything because this documentary that I watched,
Starting point is 00:25:34 it's two parts and each part is an hour and a half long. And there's so much footage, it was a different video all the time. So he has some of her putting on makeup, talking at family cookouts, but like I said, they get weirder and weirder. He zooms in on her butt or he zooms in on her legs and he says things like, God, I worship her.
Starting point is 00:25:56 Oh, love. And at one point, I don't think she was aware of this video because it looks like she's leaving work and he's videoing from across the parking lot. And she gets into her car and she just kind of, when she sits down almost scratches her leg or fixes her skirt, she just touches her leg. And he goes, oh, she did that for me.
Starting point is 00:26:15 Oh my God, yeah. That's some creepy, voyeur nightmare. So then I learned that at one point in time before they moved to Utah, Josh was like in between jobs. He had just lost his job, which is, I think, it was very hard for him to hold down a job as like a running theme in this case. So they were living with her with Steve Josh and Susan were living with Steve. And that's kind of when he took a lot of these videos.
Starting point is 00:26:44 Yeah, that must have been a comfortable situation. And also, that's when he made advances towards Susan who was like, yeah, I'm not interested in you because you are my father-in-law. And I'm married to her son. Correct. And that's kind of when she was like, Josh, all set with the shit, like, bye.
Starting point is 00:27:02 Don't be terrifying. Yeah. And I've read different accounts on like how Josh handled it. And some articles I read that he was like, okay, like let's get the fuck out of here and that's why they moved to Utah. And then I've read somewhere he was like, it like my dad's harmless and like,
Starting point is 00:27:18 like how dare you. Yeah, like fuck you. But either way they moved, be like very quickly. Very quickly because of this. So like I said, she lived there. So Steve also has videos of stolen clothing of Susan's, which he refers to being like they smell so good,
Starting point is 00:27:36 including Browson underwear. Oh, that dude's a straight-up killer. Yeah, like that dude, oh, if you like you have to watch these Jews documentaries because and he also like like Josh was very like into himself and I think it came from Steve because Steve was like very clearly narcissistic and he's disgusting. Like I'm going to go and said he's he's gross obviously because of what he does. But also he's yucky looking like he looks like a creeper that I would be like
Starting point is 00:28:04 walk faster like he just oozes it. He oozes a slime ball. And he like takes these like videos doing creepy shit and then he like pans up to the mirror and he has this like weird smile and he's like, ew. Like it's weird as fuck. He's a fucking monster.
Starting point is 00:28:19 It's the most bizarre thing that my eyes have ever laid witness upon. No, it's weird. Hate it. Yeah. So. No, it's weird. Hate it. Yeah. So also apparently shits get, shits get really weird. And I don't know, this is like speculated,
Starting point is 00:28:31 but I also read in one place that Steve suggested that he and Josh share Susan. Oh, I was waiting for that. Yeah, I was totally waiting for that. Yeah, it's not, it's not total like confirmed, but it is like in some places. I can totally see that. Yeah, it's not total like confirmed, but it is like in some places. I can totally see that. Yeah, 100%.
Starting point is 00:28:48 So they move the fuck out of there. And it's like I said, it's unclear what his whole deal was with his dad after that, but I don't think they talked for like a little bit and their relationship was super weird. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So obviously I'm sure that puts so much strain
Starting point is 00:29:04 on their relationship, like even though they got away from it, it's like your dad is like not going to just like go away. He's fucking obsessed with me. And he's in our lives forever. Yeah. He's your dad. He's the fucking grandparents to my children. He's fucking weirdo.
Starting point is 00:29:18 But that wasn't their only issue. Josh was getting more and more controlling. He limited Susan's spending to like $100. She could only spend on gas and food. Like I said, this is when she was allowed to use the family car anymore. And she had to bike seven miles to work. Like God.
Starting point is 00:29:37 So like I said before, she didn't want to get divorced, but she also wasn't stupid. So this is when she contacted a divorce lawyer. A divorce lawyer. A divorce wasn't stupid. Yes. So this is when she contacted a divorce lawyer. A divorce lawyer. A divorce lawyer. A divorce lawyer who told her to walk through the house and record all of her assets throughout the house.
Starting point is 00:29:55 This video, knowing what you know at the end of this case, is fucking bone-chilling. Because she's just walking through the house and she's like, you can tell that she's just like very bubbly and like, even like while she's doing this, she's like walking through the house and she's like, you can tell that she's just like very bubbly and like, even like while she's doing this, she's like talking to the kids and like, it's just sad. Oh, she also wrote a will and testament up and said, and she wrote on it, for the family and friends of Susan,
Starting point is 00:30:17 all except Josh Powell, husband, I don't trust him. Whoa. She also wrote that she feared for her and her children's safety and wanted to leave a paper trail. And wrote, if I die, it may not have been an accident, even if it looks like one. Whoa. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:37 That is specific. Very, very specific. And very smart. Yeah. There's, they show pictures of it in the documentary that I watched and it's like so creepy to like it's in her handwriting Oh, obviously, but it's just like can you imagine being in that position where you're literally sitting there being like I fear for mine and my children safety Yeah, and if something happens to me it probably wasn't an accident Like you're literally sitting there having to be like when something awful happens to me. It probably wasn't an accident. Like you're literally sitting there having to be like, when something awful happens to me. Yeah. In the video, she says it too. She's like,
Starting point is 00:31:10 in case anything happens. And then she's like, I hope everything works out. And we all live. And she goes happily ever after. And she kind of rolls her eyes in the video. Well, it's so sad. It's, I like have chills right now thinking about it. Because like, girl, you can. Yeah. So she writes all that up, she takes the video, and she also had told her friends that Josh have been watching shows like forensic files and would make weird comments about murderers' mistakes.
Starting point is 00:31:37 Being like, if I were to kill someone, I'd make sure that I put their body in a place where no one would find it, like a mine. Oh God. And oddly enough, a search of the family's computer showed that Josh had looked up minds nearby places like Nevada, casual springs, etc. Very casual, totally. So I'm going to back up a little bit.
Starting point is 00:31:59 I'm going to talk about Steve and Josh and the siblings. Okay. So clearly clearly like I said, Josh's dad was fucked up, clearly. Creep of the highest order. Creep of the highest order. Josh's older sister Jen recalls horrible things from childhood. I'm not shocked.
Starting point is 00:32:17 No, she and all of her siblings, there's five of them, what the bed. And he would make them take ice baths to like shock it out of their system. Oh my God, that horrifies me. Yeah. He also had a very, very serious porn addiction. And it is speculated that he showed the boys porn
Starting point is 00:32:36 at the age. And there was, there's three boys and two girls. He also apparently was like really shitty to Josh in particular to the point where Josh like almost committed suicide, like attempted suicide when he was gone. I think he was like, I'm not sure exactly what we'll do us. And like, what a fucking dick.
Starting point is 00:32:56 And it's so weird because then later in life, they're so close. Yeah, it's just gonna say. It's like the emotional abuse. And I mean, physical abuse, perhaps that Steve like committed on these kids is so messed up That's some soul-murder shit. Oh, he so murdered murdered them because Josh didn't have soul clearly. Oh, that's so awful And one time wedding the bed thing like really an ice bath to shock it out on just to punish your child at all Yeah, it's an accident. It's like oh my god. Well, just to punish your child at all. Yeah, for what in the bed it's like,
Starting point is 00:33:25 oh my God, you're literally referring to an accident. As an accident. You never ever, ever punish my kids for that. That's awful. And Jen remembers, so Jen is like the oldest sister. She remembers going on a business trip with her dad, and they were staying at like a hotel, and she was like, they were in supper buds,
Starting point is 00:33:42 but he was literally like watching an x-rated channel like while she was like right there. Oh my god. Like this guy is fucked up. This guy's a fucking creep. He also mentioned either to his wife or like in his diary but somehow his wife figured it out that he was interested in polygamy and wanted to add another woman into their marriage. I have a sister wife.
Starting point is 00:34:05 And the wife was like, no, I'm not into that. But he must have been cheating on her something because he gave her a venereal disease while they were married. What? The fuck? Yeah, so messed up. They got to, they didn't get divorced
Starting point is 00:34:21 until Josh was like 16. No, shit. So I don't know like what these kids childhoods were like, but if this guy was like this messed up and like treating their mom this horribly, and they didn't get divorced until their second oldest kid was 16, like these kids must have seen some fucking shit. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:34:40 If so awful. Why do you do these things to your children? I don't understand this. That's the thing. So easy to not do those things to your children. So like I said, Josh had four siblings. First gen, she's the oldest. She's like the, she's kind of like the the voice of reason out of all these kids. That makes sense. Yeah. Then Josh, then John, who was mentally ill, he was bipolar and had schizophrenia. And then Michael was next, he was the younger brother, and then Alina. Okay. So, Jen says while they were growing up, Steve would often put the boys against the girls.
Starting point is 00:35:17 And honestly, the entire family dynamic was just very strange and very sexual, like undertones, like, eek. It was a very, very dark family. Yeah. And I feel like it's time for a pali-clenser. Let's reintroduce them. Yeah, let's reintroduce the pali-clensers with a pretty big, walking news everybody. So we mentioned earlier that we have,
Starting point is 00:35:43 they say we, like it's like, we mentioned earlier that we have that I say we like it's we mentioned earlier that we have big news So this is a lane up by the way. Yeah, this is not ash. Guess what guys? What there's a new little weirdo join in the crew John and I are having another baby And y'all she's not like three months pregnant. She's like pregnant as fuck. No, I'm like super pregnant. What are you eight months now? I'm literally like eight and a half months pregnant. She pulled a Kylie Jenner on your asses
Starting point is 00:36:13 and didn't tell anybody. I thought she was never gonna tell you guys until she had the baby. Oh yeah, I think that John was hoping that I would just let it go until we actually had the baby. But I got too excited and I couldn't let it. I couldn't hold it in any longer. So now you know.
Starting point is 00:36:27 So now you know. So yay, I've been pregnant for like, eight and a half months. That's a lot. So any of our little mishaps and sicknesses, probably due to me being pregnant. Also the reason she has this vocal fry, it sounds like Lindsay Lohan,
Starting point is 00:36:41 that's what we were talking about in the beginning of the episode. Because I don't know if you guys know this, but pregnancy can cause your vocal cords to swell in the third trimester. And that's what's happening. Wooo! Yay! Pregnancy. So, speaking of pregnancy, and thus trying to get healthier,
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Starting point is 00:38:23 for my current with child situation. I want to make sure that I'm providing this little nugget that we're growing in here with the best stuff on earth and this really felt really personalized to what my specific goals are now. And what's good is you can change it later if you need to. Right. You can totally update this whenever you know when this little little demon comes out, we can do some postnatal stuff. So depending on your personalized care of plan, you'll get daily vitamin packs and or protein powder, depending on what you're choosing, sent right to your door. For me, I got new prenatals and some iron supplements since I am lacking in that department right now. Also, it's super cute and customized. The packets even say your name on my favorite part.
Starting point is 00:39:12 They legit said hello, Elena. Hello, Ash. And I felt like my vitamins and I bonded immediately because of that. You're like, hey, vitamins. I was like, oh my god, high vitamin pack. These packs are all customized to your specific needs. So you're only taking what you need, which was really important to me. Yeah. Kera, make sure you're what you're putting into your body
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Starting point is 00:40:02 entering our exclusive promo code, morbid at checkout. Do it. It's fun. It's personalized. It says your fucking name on the package, guys. It's fucking great. Now we have to bring you back down from that fun, personalized vitamin pack to some dark, scary shit. Sorry about it. So Josh and Michael were like very close. So that's like his youngest brother. And the police learned this. So they start looking more into their relationship. The lead investigator on the case
Starting point is 00:40:33 starts looking through Michael's emails and finds this email to Apollo mapping and Boulder, Colorado, asking for a super high resolution photo of a wrecking yard in Oregon. Huh, did I say that right this time? Oregon, you did. I did. You said it right.
Starting point is 00:40:51 So this is interesting to know because the day after Susan disappeared, Michael and Alina went out to Utah to be close to Josh and the kids and they stayed for about two weeks. Then when they were driving home, they broke down. And instead of fixing the car, Michael had it taken to this salvage lot in Oregon because he knew it would be destroyed instead of repaired. That's right. That's shady.
Starting point is 00:41:17 Why did you want to spend way more money getting your car destroyed than just spend way less to just repair it? Yeah, that's strange. And you're going to send it all the way there when you could just like go to a mechanic close to here. No, it doesn't make any sense. No, no. No, no.
Starting point is 00:41:33 So the investigators find out about this and they send canines out who were trained to sniff out human decomposition. Okay, Dava dogs. Yes. They immediately go to Michael's trunk indicating that there had been a dead human in the trunk at one point in time. Oh no.
Starting point is 00:41:51 Which led police to believe that Michael may have been involved in like relocating Susan's body for jobs. So they send the vehicle in for forensic testing and it comes back insufficient and there's not enough evidence to make an arrest. Oh. It's, it evidence to make an arrest. Oh. It's, it's just like dead end.
Starting point is 00:42:09 Come on, dead end. They know that somehow this family gets off Susan and is like getting away with it and is doing it together. And they're, it's the scariest thing. Like this is like a Texas Chainsaw Massacre family. Oh it is. This is some dark shit. It's just like dead end after that And like I said, but Josh's sister Jen is fully convinced that her father and brothers are hiding some shit
Starting point is 00:42:32 Oh, she knows she's like she's like my family is involved in seasons disappearance and I will fucking prove it Oh my god. I can't imagine being in her position So she goes to the police and is like, put a wire on me. I'll show up at my dad's house. Boss bitch. Boss bitch moves. That's so hard. I was like freaking out for this girl.
Starting point is 00:42:53 I was like, girl, get out. She's like, put a wire on me. I will go to my dad's house. I know that my brother is like going to be having dinner there. I'm going to fucking infiltrate the situation. I'm going to crack this case while I'm gonna shove him into a corner and I'm gonna make him fucking admit what he did. Holy shit. So she goes through the entire dinner. It's literally sitting there wiretapped throughout the entire dinner. My god, I'm sweating.
Starting point is 00:43:16 Bullets. And they play clips and she's talking like she's killing it. Wow. So after dinner, she kind of Wow. So after dinner, she kind of like moves Josh into a study room. It's just the two of them. So she, like, tensions are running super high and she doesn't want him to leave without saying anything. And she's trying to like press him into it. She's like, what happened to Susan?
Starting point is 00:43:38 Like, if you admit it now, maybe you won't get the death penalty like blah, blah, blah. He's like, I don't know what you're talking about like blah blah. And at one point, he's like, my lawyer told me not to comment on anything so I'm not going to. And it's like, you know I'm your sister. Right. I'm like, I'm in our bonding talk with you.
Starting point is 00:43:55 And Josh just leaves. Like he's like, you know what, fuck this, I'm out. And just takes the kids and leaves. So then Steve gets wicked pissed off that she like accused her brother of this. And he starts yelling. And then Alina says that Jen, or excuse me, that Susan is a lying bitch
Starting point is 00:44:11 and that Jen, and then Jen eventually leaves. And she shits from the wire topping. So it's like this big huge family blowout. And it's like Jen against the world. Literally Jen against the world. Wow. It's crazy. So after a little while of trying to dad and do his thing,
Starting point is 00:44:30 Josh moves in with his dad and the two kids. So at this point, they're all live in their fucking house and in Steve's creepy ass, dark dungeon house. That sounds like fun. Yes. So fun. And their new plan of attack was to paint this picture of Susan as this like permscuous sexual being.
Starting point is 00:44:49 Oh God. Alina says that she specifically felt like Susan fennon to Steve's advances and flared it back. Oh yeah, it's totally her fault. Well, if you watch the video, it'll be a step. Oh my God, I was yelling at the TVO. I'm talking to you.
Starting point is 00:45:03 Oh my God. But if you watch the videos, like some of them, she doesn't even know that he's filming her in. Yeah, he's like, voiring her. And it's, oh my god, it's just going to become very evident to you who the real monster is. If you see these videos. So they're on this whole tie rate of making Susan look like a piece of shit.
Starting point is 00:45:22 And Josh and Steve have Susan's diaries from when she was a teenager. And they're saying like they might piece together like her disappearance. Like she says like some crazy shit in here. And they're making it seem like that. And they're they also said at one point Steve made this whole theory up that um Susan was having an affair with this like journalist that went missing at the same time that she did. Oh, so they're really trying to say that. But they weren't at all linked at all, like in any way, Shabr Fulbright.
Starting point is 00:45:52 So they literally just like, yeah, maybe she ran off with that guy. Yeah, totally. And then the world was like, no, that's not what happened. But they told police that they're going to hand these journals over and it's going to piece everything together and clear their names. Yeah, because I know my high school journals would totally piece together my future disappearance. Absolutely. They have everything to do with my current life. I feel like today at lunch we had coleslaw.
Starting point is 00:46:14 Yeah. If you look to my high school journals, you'd be like, whoa. I was also an AXD little bitch. That's what I was like. Like really good. But then they retract that and they're like, no, we're not handing those over like those are our property. So the police are like, what are you? Right. And the police don't have enough evidence to get a search warrant because they can't prove that the diaries are in the house. So the police come up with this like crazy like campaign thing. And it's in August 2011, they come up with this idea to do a honking wave
Starting point is 00:46:47 to bait Steve and or Josh like to because they do it near the house and they know that they're going to drive by and they have been talking in the media like crazy. So they know if they see like camera crews and like Susan's family because Susan's dad was there that it's going to cause like this scene and they're going to say something incriminating. Okay. Which is exactly what happens. Oh shocked. So it's like big groups of people and they're holding pictures of Susan and it's just like it says like remember me at the top and it's like for any information you've seen them. Yeah. So sure enough Steve and Josh drive by and Steve gets out of the car and he's being like a dick to Susan's dad and like they're going back and forth at each other
Starting point is 00:47:27 and he's like, he brings up the diaries and he's like, those are my son's property. Like, yeah, we have them and like, they're gonna piece together everything but blah, blah, blah. So he literally inserts this footage to- So there's mountains. Just dumbass. Because then the police get the search warrant
Starting point is 00:47:45 and they go to search the house, they find the diaries. And they're like, youink. And they find some other disturbing, crazy shit. Oh no. So this is where, this is when they find all those videos that I've been referencing this whole time. Like cases on cases, on cases of fucking cassettes or like whatever the fuck you put videos on.
Starting point is 00:48:09 Oh, that's so dark. Oh, that's so dark. Oh, you think that's dark? They also find cotton swabs in plastic bags labeled Susan. And it was like cotton swabs for she had like taken off her nail polish. The, the, they also find underwear and bags, feminine hygiene products and bags, toenail clippings and hair, all in bags labeled Susan.
Starting point is 00:48:37 And they all have like different dates on them. I have left the atmosphere and there's pictures beyond. There's pictures. There's pictures. I'm beyond. That is nightmare. Nightmare nightmare nightmare. Like straight up nightmare. Like if you wrote that in a horror movie,
Starting point is 00:48:56 people would be like, come on. I've never even heard that in a horror movie because it's so dark. I don't know if you wrote a horror movie with a shit. People would be like, what? I mean, come you're you're like creating this really weird fantasy character and this is a real person Exactly. Oh Seven and 19 products like dude like you need it those bro like shit. That's gross toenails and toenails like what the fuck were you doing with their toenails some weird damn?
Starting point is 00:49:23 I don't know. I don't want to know what you needed with them Steve I don't love it yeah so I hate it um they also find over 5,000 photos of Susan and like in some of the photos he like morphed himself and like photoshopped himself and like this is like no single white female No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no's a literal monster. Yeah, so Steve gets arrested as fuck. He gets arrested as fun like arrested as fuck on the spot. Good. The children immediately are taken into protective custody. You yeah, I've been waiting for those words to come out of your mind. It's like when was that gonna happen? This whole time I'm like, God, those poor boys. And the investigators that were there that day said that Josh didn't even hug them goodbye. Like he was just like, oh, shit. What? Like this dude is weird.
Starting point is 00:50:31 So Susan's parents get granted temporary custody, but then Josh was given the chance to regain custody if he proved to a court-ordered psychologist that he could like raise the children in a healthy household. No, which he clearly fucking hadn't been. That's like for all these years a healthy household. No, which he clearly can't. He can't. That's for all these years.
Starting point is 00:50:47 I can answer it for him. He can't. And at this point, the kids are, I think they're like five and seven at this point. So they've already gone through some shit. Yeah. I mean, number one, your mother being missing, but number two. Your mother missing for years at this point. You're being raised by that guy.
Starting point is 00:51:03 By those two. And that family. missing for years at this moment. You're being raised by that guy by those in the family and first of all Susan's parents said that when they got the kids back Or like when they were granted custody of them that they were out of control And they were like very violent towards each other and it just it was very evident that like no one was parenting Yeah, like they weren't they were just running Rom values or lessons. And also, the kids were, there's, I don't
Starting point is 00:51:27 know if this happened like after the kids got taken away, but they show this clip in the documentary I watched where one of the boys is talking to a psychologist or a psychiatrist. And he said, they're like, what do you know about mommy? Like just saying like, do you like just like bringing up the mom? Yeah. And he's like, what do you know about mommy? Like just saying like, do you like, just like bringing up the mom? Yeah. And he's like, oh, mommy's missing. But we're not allowed to talk about that or camping.
Starting point is 00:51:50 I have a lot of secrets. I just got full bone chills. Yeah. That just ruined me. He said we're not allowed to talk about that. Oh my God. And at one point, I'm literally getting just like thinking about this little baby like that.
Starting point is 00:52:10 Yeah. He also had one of the kids at one point, like draws a picture of all of them in the van. And it's like Daddy's driving. That's Charlie. That's um, Braden. And then he points to the trunk and goes, and that's mommy in the trunk. Nope. No, no.'s mommy and the trunk. Nope, nope, nope. So I wanna leave. I have goosebumps right now.
Starting point is 00:52:30 I wanna go somewhere else. I want to be anywhere else. I want some ice cream. I just want, I can't. I love that I'm destroying you. You're destroying me right now. I hate that it's for this case because I'm destroying myself,
Starting point is 00:52:40 but typically it's me getting destroyed. Yeah. So you're welcome. I just can't imagine what, like, how do you just like destroy a sweet little baby and put all that like weight on them? How do you do that to your kids? How do you kill your fucking wife? Like there's just so many things and like, there's a lot of layers to this that I cannot
Starting point is 00:53:01 understand. I just think of these poor little brains having to like just stifle all of this and like, oh god. And the fact that he was like, we're not allowed to talk about that. Like I have to keep a lot of secrets. Yeah, like this is, I have to keep it. And it is a clip.
Starting point is 00:53:15 Like it is, it's, he said it. It's not just like a quote, like a, like an article quote. Like it's a video. Like I said, Josh has to prove that he's like capable of being what he hasn't been forever. Oh, good, dad. And, but while this custody battle is happening,
Starting point is 00:53:33 the police search Josh's hard drive and find it's not actually child pornography. It's like simulated child pornography. It's like, I don't know if it had to say it, if it's like animated, but it's like drawings, but it's like supposed to be. But it's not. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:53 Oh my God. But they can't arrest him for it because it's not technically. It's not actual, like children. Right, exactly. Oh my God. But he is ordered to take a psychosexual evaluation, which includes a polygraph test
Starting point is 00:54:06 where they can ask anything they want. And it's like you should never, I don't, if you're drawing those pictures, or you're looking after... You're using those images in some way. It's like you should never have children, right, again. So he's supposed to take this test, but in the meantime,
Starting point is 00:54:21 he is granted supervised presentations with the kids. Because the fuck, it's just the way the fucking system works. Such bullshit. So he was, they're supposed to take place at it like a government-funded facility, but that, and that's where they started. But then because of the notoriety of the case, other parents were like, yeah, it's a media frenzy and I just want to see my kid. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:43 So he was able to have them at his house that sounds safe yeah totally and they were still supervised but still so somehow Josh got away with this I don't know how this even happened like this is like a crack in the system yeah so Susan's parents were really nervous that something was gonna happen. And unfortunately they were right. February 5th, 2012 was Super Bowl Sunday. That morning, Josh was having a visit with the kids. A social worker picked them up, Charlie and Braden, at Susan's parents' home, and brought them to Josh's home that he was renting just down the street from where he used to live with Steve.
Starting point is 00:55:24 When she gets to the home, Josh lets the kids in, but like slams the door in her face. Like looks her in the eye and slams the door in her face while the other one. I have like a sick feeling in my stomach right now. And like makes me want to cry a little bit. Like I haven't had to say it out loud yet, but I've like heard it.
Starting point is 00:55:41 He, when he slams the door, she gets a whiff of gasoline in her face. Oh, God. So she immediately calls the police. This guy is an idiot. Like, the way that he handled this call, I don't know if he got fired or what happened, but he showed up. It's an awful.
Starting point is 00:55:58 It's horrific. So she calls and the dispatcher basically says he doesn't see it as a life threatening situation and says they're gonna, she doesn't know the exact address of where she is. It's like 2012 at this point, so I don't understand why they couldn't locate her situation. I was just gonna say, yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:13 And he's like, well, I don't know where you are, like I'm trying to figure out where you are. And then she says she can hear the kids crying. She smells gasoline and she's in fear for their lives. Like this is life threatening. How is this not a, oh my God, I'm so angry right now. And then all of a sudden the house fucking explodes into a burst of flames.
Starting point is 00:56:29 Oh my God. Josh had not only doused the house himself, the area the boys were in with gasoline, but also the autopsy later showed that the boys had been assaulted with an axe or a pick or like a hatchet and they had blows to their heads. But that's not how they died. They died because of smoke inhalation. Oh.
Starting point is 00:56:53 So he attacked his kids with a hatchet and then lit the house on fire. I am having such a moment right now. Yeah, I haven't had to say that out loud and like saying it out loud was horrible. Oh, and this is really gonna fuck you up even more. Oh, gosh. The boys were found lying on the floor holding hands.
Starting point is 00:57:13 Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I know. Oh my God, my heart feels like it's gonna fall out of my butt. And before this happened, Josh said goodbye to it, like,
Starting point is 00:57:27 called and left this voicemail with like a bunch of people and was like, I'm saying goodbye. Like, this has all been too much. Oh my god. So like, goodbye. So it, and, but he didn't say that he was going to like take the kids with him. Oh my god. Like, dude, why couldn't you have just killed yourself?
Starting point is 00:57:43 That's the thing. It's like, dude, because his whole thing was like, I can't live without my boys. Like I can't live without those children. And it's like, okay, cool. Then kill yourself. They don't have to die. Die. Because no one wants your under- And did you run through it? Why did you attack them with a fucking hatchet? Their last moments. I mean, that's the darkest shit. That's beyond. the darkest shit. That's beyond. The darkest shit.
Starting point is 00:58:06 That really is beyond. So a month after that, my heart hurts. Steve pled not guilty to 14 counts of voyeurism and one count of child pornography. The judge wouldn't... It's disgusting. He's so fucking gross, dude. The judge wouldn't let any videos of Susan count
Starting point is 00:58:25 as evidence against Steve, because she wasn't there to say that she hadn't consented to being on these videos. And the defense said, anyone could have taken those videos. Like it wasn't, it didn't necessarily have to be Steve, because in some of them you can't see his face. Sometimes the justice system man,
Starting point is 00:58:52 it's so fun. This case is a very clear show of how the justice system fails a lot. There's a lot of lapses here. The defense also even pointed the finger at Josh's mentally ill brother who I mentioned before, John, but he had been kicked out at the time by Steve himself. He didn't live in the house at the time that these videos were taken. And it's like you're just trying to find an easy target. Right. Every single time that a question was asked about Susan, Steve pled the fifth every single time. Because he's a fucking lying piece of shit.
Starting point is 00:59:21 So he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A year after that trial, Michael, Josh's brother, who I mentioned earlier, with the car, committed suicide. This is not shocking. And then, because I think they all have one big thing weighing on their conscience, fucking secret. And then in July of 2017, Steve Powell was released from prison to like a halfway house. And he had a heart attack and died before detectives could ask him up for any more information. Like, they wanted to get to Steve, like they heard that he had a heart attack and they
Starting point is 00:59:58 wanted to get to him and be like, okay, like deathbed confession. What's in your deathbed monster before they got there? He fucking died. That fucking asshole. Yeah, like, um, and in journals of Steve's, they later found that he wrote on the day after she disappeared. So it was like this, this seventh of December that the, the family was reported missing. On on December 8th Steve wrote in his journal, quote, 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 or just west of West Valley City and cremated her. Josh's life with Susan was utterly miserable.
Starting point is 01:00:45 Evidently, this tragedy is my answer for why Josh hung on. He wanted to do it his way and avoid a messy, costly divorce. Yeah, you don't want to deal with a divorce. So maybe this was obviously much easier. Like obviously. And much cleaner. It was so much better. Wow. So that is the story of the support disappearance of Susan Powell and she's never been found. Wow. And they went through like the because they found all those searches on his computer for like mines and shit. Yeah. They searched mines. They searched like places everywhere. Like nothing has ever been found. And all those fuckers just to the grave. Up and dead.
Starting point is 01:01:30 The only people that are left are John who I don't think was involved. Yeah. Alina who fucking sucks. Who I bet Alina knows. I don't even know if she knows. I think Alina is in denial because she's like, this whole thing has made my family look like monsters. And it's like, no, you are. Your family is monsters.
Starting point is 01:01:51 Yes, for the most part, you are. Yeah. In gent. And Jen is left. And she's the only one who's like, and she is so sad. Like, she's just in the, can you imagine?
Starting point is 01:02:01 In a higher interview, she's like, the saddest. Oh my God. And it drives her crazy that she wasn't able to get the confession out of him when she was wild. Oh, that probably weighs on her. And she said, she said it weighs on her every single day. Because it's like, and it's like what, she was as bad as who went into that. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:18 That would have been the most terrifying situation. I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine a wire in any situation. No. Not that I've worn a wire. I'm just saying I imagine. It's very scary. And she said she was like, those boys were supposed
Starting point is 01:02:29 to be full of like ambition and hopes and dreams. And they got robbed of it. In the most horrific way, gruesome. And the fucking 911 operator that answered the phone, I don't know where he is, but I hope he stubs his toe every day multiple times a day. Yeah, seriously, he, like, it is so, it, I can't even listen to the nine-month-one call again because I've listened to it like a
Starting point is 01:02:53 few times. And it is, I'm like, you are not like, who trained you? Yeah, like what do you, this is very clear, like, and who are you to determine whether it's a life and death situation? Right. You're nine-1-1. You just come. You just dispatch. And when they get there, they determine it. And I hate to say this, but I just feel like if a different person had answered it potentially
Starting point is 01:03:15 could have saved their lives. Because it took almost 20 minutes from the time that she made the call until first responders got there. 20 fucking minutes. Fuck. Fuck. Yeah. And just like that whole thing where like the door slams and she got a whiff of gas.
Starting point is 01:03:30 That it's the most haunting thing I've never heard of in my life. You just said it and I got chills and then no I know it fucking. And that she was saying she could hear them crying. She could hear them crying. That ruins me.
Starting point is 01:03:40 And he was like, turned like in the eyes and slammed the door in her face. Like that is what nightmares are made of. Yeah, that took a part of me and just threw it away. Yeah, never to be seen again. I didn't finish researching this case until 345 and then I stayed up until like 430
Starting point is 01:03:55 because I couldn't fall asleep. Did you have like the worst fucking dreams? No, I think I just passed out because I was so old. Cause it's my dream. Yeah, cause this is, I watched the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills after I watched the show. Yeah, we're gonna have to watch like something very brainless. Oh, we're about to watch a few of this.
Starting point is 01:04:12 Because Jonathan, Venice, I need you. I need Queer Eye right now. Queer Eye. Queer Eye will fix this. It will. It will. Woo! Well.
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Starting point is 01:05:58 survey. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash Scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers and often for committing only minor offenses. The FBI began
Starting point is 01:06:30 looking at two local judges, and when the full picture emerged, it made national headlines. The judges were earning a fortune, carrying out a brazen criminal scheme, one that would shatter the lives of countless children children and force a heated debate about punishment and America's criminal justice system. Follow American scandal wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wonder App.

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