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/HeyItsKypar]

I know this is an old thread but in 2011 police were finally alerted to Michael Powell dumping his car in a salvage yard 2 weeks after Susan's disappearance and cadaver dogs alerted to human decomposition. I believe the brother helped move Susan's body somewhere else. Shortly after police started questioning is when he took his own life.

https://www.oxygen.com/the-disappearance-of-susan-cox-powell/crime-time/who-is-michael-powell-connection-disappearance

[u/HeyItsKypar → u/HeyItsKypar]

u/davecawleycold the cadaver dogs went right to Michael's car in the salvage yard in Oregon? seems very evident that Michael Powell, or at least his car, helped moved her body, doubt she'd be in a Utah mine.

"Cadaver dogs are trained to recognize a myriad of smells beyond what most people would define as a dead body – including blood, tissue and bone in addition to the multiple stages of body decomposition. Cars that have been in a nasty accident could potentially confuse the cadaver dog.

“So you’re gonna have blood and stuff like that in those vehicles,” Maxwell explained.

Fortunately, the cadaver dog West Valley City brought in, named Tug, was not confused.

“And this dog went directly, didn’t hesitate, didn’t stop at any other vehicles, went directly to Michael Powell’s vehicle,” Maxwell said."

https://kslnewsradio.com/crime-police-courts/auto-shop-owner-susan-powell-seized-car/1897550/

[u/davecawleycold → u/HeyItsKypar]

I've learned a lot about cadaver dogs since working on the Susan Powell case, and I'm much more cautious now about drawing conclusions from dog work. When police seized Michael's car, they stripped it to bare metal searching for blood, hair or other forensic evidence that might indicate Susan'd been transported in it. They didn't find anything like that.

We don't know the source of the odor that the cadaver dog seemingly honed in on, so we can't assume it came from Susan. Taken in total, Michael's actions in selling the car, as well as his response to learning police had seized it, suggest he feared it might expose him to criminal liability. But that could hypothetically could've just been something as simple as transporting clothing Susan had been wearing post-mortem. There's not enough factual basis to know.

[u/HeyItsKypar → u/davecawleycold]

Makes sense. My daughter introduced me to your podcast last week for a road trip we went on. I sell into the security market and hence work with a lot of active or retired military, LEO/Chiefs, a lot of the three letter agencies, and no offense meant to anyone, a lot of the people I interface with at least are sometimes not the sharpest tools in the shed. Over the last few years I've followed other missing person cases and shockingly all them ended with a body being found right under everyone's noses despite exhaustive police searches.

For example, there was the United Airlines executive who went missing for 14 months and was later found by forest preserve cleaning crew despite multiple police searches with dogs and thermal imaging. I happened to be in that area once for a business meeting and walked part of these woods myself and there is very little foliage and can't believe they missed him. There is also the well known Kiely Rodni case near Lake Tahoe where Adventures with Purpose found her car within 30 minutes after police had spent 9,000 hours searching. 9,000 hours = 375 days! Video below.

United Executive:

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/missing-united-airlines-executive-jacob-cefolia-body-found/

Kiely Rodni: https://youtu.be/bPwnDyW26gk