Disappearance of Susan Powell

Susan Cox Powell was a 28-year-old mother of two from West Valley City, Utah, who raised sons Charles (born 2005) and Braden (born 2007) with her husband. Friends described her husband's heavy spending and controlling behavior, and Susan's journals described tension over his refusal to attend church with the family. In 2008, Susan wrote a private will describing her marriage as being in "extreme turmoil," stating that if she died, "it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one."

On the morning of December 6, 2009, Susan attended church with her sons; a neighbor visited that afternoon and left about 5:00 p.m., the last time anyone outside the household reported seeing her. Relatives reported the family missing the next day after the boys were not brought to daycare. Police found her purse, wallet, and identification inside the home, and her cell phone in the family's van. Susan's husband told investigators he had left her sleeping at home after midnight and taken their sons camping on the Pony Express Trail; a search there on December 10 found no evidence of the campsite he described.

A search of the Powell home on December 9 turned up traces of Susan's blood, a $1.5 million life insurance policy on her, and a letter expressing fear for her life. The older son later told police the camping trip happened but that Susan had come along and never returned; the younger son separately told a daycare worker their mother had been in the van's trunk. Investigators identified Susan's husband as a person of interest, but he was never charged. Scrutiny also extended to Susan's father-in-law, Steven Powell, after a family friend described his fixation on her; a 2010 search of his home found thousands of images of Susan taken without her knowledge. Susan's husband's brother came under separate scrutiny after selling a car to an Oregon wrecking yard shortly after Susan's disappearance; a cadaver dog later indicated decomposing remains had been in its trunk, though DNA testing was inconclusive.

Steven Powell was arrested in September 2011 on voyeurism and child pornography charges after investigators found recordings he had secretly made of Susan and other women and girls; he was convicted in May 2012 in a trial that did not address Susan's disappearance. Around then, a Washington court granted Susan's father, Chuck Cox, temporary custody of Charles and Braden. On February 5, 2012, during a supervised visit, Susan's husband killed his sons and himself in a deliberate house explosion; a hatchet was later found near his body. In February 2013, Susan's husband's brother died by suicide in Minneapolis after investigators described him as "evasive" about the abandoned car. West Valley City police closed their investigation in May 2013, stating they believed Susan's husband had murdered her and that his brother helped conceal her body.

Chuck Cox won a court dispute over Susan's estate in 2015, and a jury later found Washington's child-welfare agency negligent in the custody case, awarding $98 million to her sons' estates. A cache of explicit images on a Powell computer was later re-examined; a 2019 report concluded they had likely been downloaded by a previous owner before Susan acquired the device, and no charges were filed over them. Despite a 2011 search near Nephi, Utah, and a 2022 mine-shaft excavation that recovered bones and clothing, no remains have been confirmed as Susan's; DNA testing determined the bones were not human. Susan remains a missing person, and efforts to have her legally declared dead have continued.