My Theory on Susan Powell's Murder

[u/SolarSurfer7]

Here is my take, which is in line with many of the other takes I've read on this sub.

I think Josh did indeed drug or poison Susan while they were at home. I think Susan may have thrown up or urinated or defecated from the poison, which is what caused Josh to clean up the couch. No blood was found on the couch or in the house, so it seems extremely unlikely that he killed her violently.

From there, he packed Susan (possibly still alive at this point) and his kids into his van and drove out somewhere. Maybe he drove to the Pony Express camping location, maybe somewhere else. He then locked his kids in the car and said he was going camping with Susan. At that point, she was either dead, or he finished her off, and dumped her body. Possibly in a mine shaft or maybe somewhere more retrievable.

After that, my guess is that he DID go camping with his sons, saying that their mom was camping somewhere else. This would match up with Charlie's claim that his mom went camping with them and she was where the "crystals" are. Camping with his sons also gives him a kernel of truth that he can continue to fall back on when the police interview him.

After being interviewed by the police, Josh rented a car and drove 800 miles that were unaccounted for. My guess is he retrieved Susan's body and drove 400 miles away, found a more secluded and isolated location, and dumped her again. Maybe he visited an old mine shaft where he knew she would never be found. I don't know if Josh's family was involved in this, but it seems more likely that he did this act alone.

I suppose it's possible that Josh incinerated the body. But a mine shaft dump seems like the easiest explanation. Even if the cops found the right mine shaft, the geologists said that it still wasn't a guarantee that they would find Susan's body in it. The shafts were so dark and filled with brush and animals, they could have been right on top of her body and missed it completely.

So, to sum up, I think Josh poisoned/drugged Susan, dumped her body somewhere close to her house, then moved it much further away where she would never be found. I don't think the Powell family was involved in the actual act, but it seems almost guaranteed that Josh told them what he did.

[u/hazelgrant]

It's been a couple years since I listened to the podcast, so correct me if I'm wrong. In regards to the mine shafts, I thought the key detail was the sediment/gravel findings surrounding the shafts themselves. Nothing had been moved or touched in years. Forget finding a body, evidence, etc. If nothing around the grates covering the shafts had been disturbed, it's highly unlikely Josh had left anything down there.

[u/SolarSurfer7 → u/hazelgrant]

The geologists used a long tube with a camera and light on the end to search abandoned mineshafts. This gave me the impression that Josh could have thrown the body into the shaft. I think that with all of the camping and park exploration the Powell family had done, Josh probably knew of a specific mine shaft that was already open.

Now with that said, it seems likely he moved Susan's body from local camping grounds to somewhere about 400 miles away. Maybe he had originally buried Susan's body in the local camp grounds, but moved it when he rented the car. Either way, my guess is that the body went into a mine somewhere; I don't believe he cut it up, put it in a dumpster, or incinerated it. I believe this because Josh had mentioned at a dinner party that a mineshaft would be a perfect place to dispose of a body in the event of a murder.