Josh Powell Takes His Secrets & Sins To The Grave

Susan Powell

It's been several years since 28 year old Susan Powell vanished from her Valley City Utah home in the middle of the night.  Susan was the mother of 2 year old Braden and 4 year old Charlie, the sons that by all accounts she absolutely adored. It's tragic that she didn't know she was married to a monster named Josh Powell until it was too late.  The police have long assumed Susan Powell was dead, and the only real viable suspect was her husband.  From that first newscast when Josh Powell told the media about the late night camping trip he took his two young sons on in the middle of a snowstorm, suspicion was that he killed his wife and removed her body.  

The police were alerted to Susan's disappearance after she failed to show up work and attempts to reach her at home were unsuccessful.  When authorities entered the Powell's modest home, they discovered a large fan drying what appeared to be a still-damp area of carpeting in the living room. It appeared that someone was trying to wash away evidence, and that fact with Josh's impromptu Sunday night camping trip put him directly in investigator's cross hairs.  Where was Susan Powell?  Josh didn't seem overly concerned, suggesting she may have simply walked away from her life or ran off with another man, leaving her entire family behind.  That theory was never really plausible.  We all know how this heartbreaking story ended.  With a veil of suspicion cast over him, on February 15, 2012 Josh Powell attacked his two young sons with a hatchet before setting the house on fire - killing all three of them.  What you may not be aware of is that police had a theory that Josh may have had an accomplice in disposing of Susan Powell's body and other evidence.  It was his brother Michael. That theory gained steam after investigators discovered Michael had left his car at a junkyard in the weeks following Susan's disappearance.

There are also theories about the possibility of Josh and Michael's father Steven having a lot more knowledge about Susan's fate than he has previously disclosed. People close to both families have revealed that Steven Powell had an unnatural attraction to his daughter in law Susan. Susan and Josh stayed with Steven Powell for some period of time earlier in their marriage, and Steven made Susan feel so uncomfortable that they eventually had to move out of the house. Steven took countless photos of Susan, wrote and recorded love songs about her. Creepy stuff. Steven Powell was arrested in September of 2011 on charges of voyeurism and child pornography - it doesn't get much creepier than that.  Did Steven's obsession with Susan drive Josh to kill her? Did Steven and/or Michael Powell assist Josh in hiding Susan's remains? Steven isn't talking for now.  And Michael Powell isn't talking, ever. On February 11, 2013 he committed suicide by jumping to his death from a parking garage in Minnesota, taking any secrets he had to the grave.

This story couldn't get more tragic. How could Josh Powell kill the mother of his two children, and why?  And how could any father murder their own children, the most innocent of all victims? Police and Susan's parents have a theory.  Braden and Charlie, both very young at the time of their mother's disappearance were beginning to talk about what happened on the night their mother disappeared.  They drew pictures and began describing their mom as being in the trunk on the night of the infamous camping trip in the snow. They were the silent witnesses that weren't so silent anymore.  Until Josh Powell silenced them forever with his cowardly and cruel act of murdering them. The body count from the Susan Powell disappearance stands at five.  Susan, Josh, Charlie, Braden and Michael Powell are all dead because of the acts of one man - Josh Powell.  It's difficult to imagine how any father could attack his two young boys, who he claimed during a fierce custody battle with Susan's parents to have loved so much that he couldn't live without them.

He put a lot of thought into murdering those kids. In the days before his last 
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Fire ravaged home of Powell

owardly act on this Earth, he methodically donated his son's toys and belongings to various charity drop off spots. He called and sent e-mail messages to family members saying he was sorry and goodbye. Then he waited for the social worker to bring Charlie and Braden over for a supervised visitation.  He rushed the children into the house and slammed the door in the face of the social worker. She banged on the door, she called 911 after noticing the distinct smell of gasoline - then she watched in horror as the house went up in flames.  Sounds like a scene straight out of hell.  So many lives were senselessly lost because of Josh Powell's demons.

Police have learned that Josh Powell seemed to have a secret life.  It was discovered that Powell had been having sex with a woman he met through a dating service and he had paid her approximately $800 for 5-6 encounters or dates. Sounds an awful lot like she was a prostitute, although her identity is unknown (to my knowledge it hasn't been made public).  The "dates" occurred 6-7 months BEFORE Susan went missing. The woman knew Powell as "John Staley" and claims she didn't know Josh was married until after she saw a newscast about the disappearance of Susan Powell. She called police within days of seeing the story, but at the time she declined to provide proof of the relationship with Josh.  Police have also confirmed they found a small amount of Susan Powell's blood on the floor near the recently cleaned sofa and carpet.
Josh was also found to be in possession of Susan's cellphone the night he went on the camping trip, but the SIM card had been removed. He never could explain why he had her phone.

My sense is that Josh Powell was a monster who knew the authorities were getting close to arresting him for the murder of his wife. He couldn't stand the thought of being exposed as the killer, nor could he ever give up custody of his two sons to Susan's parents or the Cox family. With his last cruel and heinous act, he ensured that would never happen by killing his own children.

Jodi Arias - "I'm Going Radio-Silent Soon".....

Is convicted murderer and Maricopa County jail's most infamous inmate finally getting serious about her upcoming sentencing re trial? Known for her outrageous Tweets throughout her murder trial, on January 30th she sent out a message that she is going "radio-silent" soon.  Jury selection is set to (finally) begin on March 17, 2014 as the justice system will finally decide Arias' punishment for the heinous and brutal murder of 30 year old Travis Alexander nearly 6 years ago.

Facing the possibility of landing on Arizona's Death Row, it appears that perhaps the overtly vocal Arias may be trying to tone it down in the final months before her trial begins.  There have been countless Motions filed by her attorneys regarding potential jurors use of social media resources - while their client may be the most habitual user of these avenues while behind bars and seemingly oblivious to the life or death penalty she faces going into the trial's final phase. Arias took to Twitter at the end of January with a series of bizarre statements about the dangers of eating brown rice, poisoning the ocean and fish and her announcement about the upcoming radio silence:

Jan 29:  I'm going radio-silent soon...but first a few things.
Jan 29:  Stop eating brown rice. It has toxic levels of arsenic. Ditto 4 brown rice syrups & brown rice powder. Check cereal, energy bars...baby food.
Jan 29: We poison the oceans and the fish, then harvest the fish that poison us.
Jan 30:  I recently read that drinking coffee or tea while eating seafood reduces the body's absorption of mercury by 50-60%.
Jan 30:  After today, I'm not going to tweet for a while. It's temporary but probably long term. This account will remain active.
Jan 30:  I'm thinking of giving control 2 someone else.  Hopefully they'll tweet updates and continue the quote trend, but that will be at their discretion. Whoever takes over this account for the time being will NOT be representing my views, opinions, philosophies, beliefs or creeds - but their own.
Jan 30:  Last thing for now: I'm crushed with mail. If you wrote and it made it past the red tape, please know that I hear u and feel your love. I'm humbled. 
Jan 30:  Signing off......

This woman is truly out of touch with reality. Why would anybody take advice from Jodi Arias about the potential dangers of consuming brown rice? Clearly she's had a whole lot of time to read magazine articles while passing time in lockup. She may be backing off Twitter for the time being, but who knows the real reason behind the self imposed radio silence.  Arias continues to solicit financial support to hire an attorney to represent her in the expected appeal following sentencing. Hey, this is the United States of America and everybody is entitled to legal representation in our country. If you happen to be able to afford a good attorney, good for you. I have no issues with that. What I find appalling about Jodi Arias is the way in which she has conducted herself since she was thrust into the spotlight back in 2008. Instead of being truly sorrowful about the crime she committed, she used her infamy as a springboard to launch herself further into the public spotlight - she truly seems to see herself as a brand, a celebrity of sorts. 

No remorse for taking a young man with a promising future out of this world forever. No apology to his family, his friends. What kind of person even has it in them to STAB another person that many times? But Arias didn't stop at stabbing, she chased her victim down and slashed his throat. And the evidence presented at trial showed that even after all that carnage was inflicted on Travis Alexander - she shot him in the face. In the FACE.  Then after a rushed clean up job and some snooping in his home, she slithered off to Utah and jumped into the arms of yet another man. That's just cold. It was calculated. I make no apologies for the person I see Jodi Arias to be.  I see her as a cold and calculated murderer. She told the jury that killing Travis was the biggest mistake she has made in her life.  But I got the feeling that she only meant that getting caught made it the biggest mistake. I don't think she's sorry she killed him. She's only sorry the police nailed her.

I'm thankful for the radio-silence. There are some crimes that are so cruel you never forget about them and what the victim must have gone through during those last terrifying moments of their lives. This is one of those crimes.  I recently read a blog article written about how people (women in particular) seem to like to unfairly trash attractive female defendants like Casey Anthony, Amanda Knox and Jodi Arias.  That's an overtly simplistic view. These young women may share a quality in that some see them as attractive, but each became household names because horrible crimes were committed. Casey Anthony was believed to have driven around in her car with her daughter's body in the trunk. She failed to report her own 2 year old missing for 31 days. 31 days!  I'm more inclined to think that Casey's own personal downfall was the lack of reporting, her fantasy life where she went to a job every day that did not exist and the fictional nanny. We may never know what really happened to little Caylee, but we certainly have a very good idea of what happened to Travis Alexander. He died a painful and terrifying death.

Jodi Arias' looks have nothing to do with the case or why the media has not particularly gone her way. Jodi did that all on her own.