If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children (4 page)

Police removed boxes of potential evidence, including computers and a large piece of the carpet where the box fans had been aimed. They loaded a rocking chair and Susan’s love seat—where Susan and JoVonna had sat and crocheted on Sunday—into a truck to take to a lab for testing. They bagged a pancake found in the kitchen garbage and dirty rags in the bathtub. They took dozens of photographs: Susan’s purse, still waiting for her on a table in the bedroom; the pancake on a yellow plate; an artificial Christmas tree in the living room; the wooden entertainment center Josh had built; the orange and yellow yarn Susan had been making into a blanket for Braden; and a bag of oranges on a kitchen counter just waiting for a mother to hand out to her young children. A photo of the refrigerator shows family pictures; a note reminding someone to make lasagna on Thursday; and seven magnets with Josh’s photo on them, reminders of his failed career in real estate.

They also took photos of drops of blood on the tile near the front door.

The police photographs told the story of the young Powells’ lives: a child’s potty seat in the bathroom; Susan’s beauty salon chair in the basement, waiting for the day she could open her own business; some of the Mary Kay products Susan sold when Josh let her invest in supplies; Josh’s parrot in a cage; and gaping holes in the bathroom walls where Josh had intended to install shelves—just one of his many unfinished projects around the house.

*   *   *

Like the evening before, Josh sat slumped in a corner of the windowless room at the WVCPD, as far as possible from Detective Maxwell, who was again questioning him. This time Josh was alone—Charlie and Braden wouldn’t be running in and out because they were with his mother and Jennifer. Josh never took off his jacket or the stocking cap on his head. He looked and acted cornered and lethargic and took long pauses before answering questions.

Josh was upset, but it wasn’t about his missing wife. Again and again during his second interview with the police Josh returned to the fact that they had broken a window in his house the day before—the day the entire family was missing and who knew what terrible tragedy had befallen them.

Several times Josh lamented the broken window. It was unnecessary, he said, because the day-care provider, Debbie Caldwell, had a key. Josh was also mad because he hadn’t known until the day before that Susan had given Debbie a key, just in case. He didn’t care that Debbie wasn’t at the house when Jennifer Graves and the police arrived and were trying to find a way in.

As with the prior interview, when he was fixated on telling the police over and over that Susan would never miss work, he was obsessed now with the broken window—and photos the police took of his hands.

On Monday night his hands were red and chapped and there was a cut on one knuckle when the police photographed them. On Tuesday, he brought it up with Detective Maxwell.

EM:
I [already] took photos (inaudible) photos of your hands.

JP:
Well, I thought you were implying you’re, you’re saying, you know, you really made a big deal out of this …

EM:
By asking you where you got a nick on your hand?

JP:
I thought you were trying to say I got some kind of defensive wounds, you know.

EM:
I never said that though, did I?

JP:
It seemed implied.

EM:
OK, but all I did was inquire about a nick on your hand and (inaudible) kinda get, um, you know, I mean you’ve been worried about that ever since we got here today. You want me to take photos again of your hands?

JP:
I kinda do.

EM:
OK, well …

JP:
’Cause …

EM:
A what does (inaudible) …

JP:
I want to have both photos available, you know?

EM:
Well, what does it tell you? I mean, I haven’t come in here with a camera. I haven’t even worried about your hands but you’re still worrying about …

JP:
Well, I just want my second photos, you know, because, I was just to prove that there [sic] … they do it on their own.

Josh informed Detective Maxwell that he had talked to a legal aid service, which suggested he get an attorney. “They said that, I’m, you know, pretty much in over my head,” Josh said. “I can’t even think straight.”

But there was a long list of things Josh hadn’t gotten around to yet. Calling an attorney was just one of them. He hadn’t talked to Susan’s manager at Wells Fargo. He hadn’t talked to his own employer. He hadn’t talked to his sons about where their mother was. And he hadn’t called the couple’s friends to inquire about Susan.

EM:
Did you talk to anybody last night?

JP:
(inaudible).

EM:
As trying to find out where she could have been? No? OK.

JP:
Um, I talked to my dad and my family.

EM:
Last night?

JP:
Yeah.

EM:
Why? Did he have any help?

JP:
Um, I think, you know, I, they just updated me the same things as other people did.

EM:
OK. All right. Um. Have you called any other places where she could be? I mean, have you checked any places where she could be?

JP:
I haven’t had much of a chance to do any of that yet.

Josh apparently hadn’t done one thing to try and find his wife—he’d been busy cleaning the van.

Josh did suggest that Kiirsi might be hiding Susan at her home. Police followed up by phoning Kiirsi about it, a phone interview that left her stunned by the suggestion.

Josh had no explanation for why Susan had left without her purse and keys, or how she might have made it to work—since Josh had the family’s sole vehicle.

EM:
OK. Why would she leave her … any thought on why she would leave behind her purse?

JP:
Well, she doesn’t always take her purse ’cause its bulky, you know?

EM:
Women go everywhere with their purses. That’s where their hair spray …

JP:
She …

EM:
… and their makeup and their money …

JP:
She doesn’t always take it.

EM:
OK.

JP:
I mean …

EM:
What are some examples of some times when she wouldn’t take her purse?

JP:
I don’t think she took it to that party. I don’t think she takes it to church. You know, most of the time if she doesn’t … you know, she’s just going somewhere …

The detective asked Josh about the wet spot on the rug and the two fans that he’d left running in the living room. Josh explained Susan had asked him Sunday night to do the cleaning.

EM:
OK. So when, um, so when you cleaned the couch? And she wanted you to … what, was the couch dirty? Was there a stain on the couch or something?

JP:
It’s just all goobers and stuff from kids who wipe their noses on it and …

EM:
OK.

JP:
They just, they just do brutal things to the furniture. Like the other couch needs it, too.

EM:
OK. And when you talk to, um, Susan about taking the kids and doing s’mores and generator, tell me more details on that conversation.

JP:
She just, you know, I told her that I wanted to and she just said (inaudible) heater … you can’t take the boys out in the cold without a heater. I’m like, yep, I got my generator.

EM:
Um-huh, K, and that was it?

JP:
That’s basically … I mean, it wasn’t a long conversation.

EM:
She didn’t inquire as to when you’d be back, when you were going? Where you were going?

JP:
I told her, I told her I’d be back. I said I’ll come back tomorrow morning.

EM:
Um-huh, OK.

JP:
And then with the snowfall it … I got up a little later in the morning.

The detective asks Josh if Susan had ever been suicidal or depressed.

JP:
She was suicidal.

EM:
She was?

JP:
Yeah.

EM:
When’s that?

JP:
Well, I thought that was over.

Josh admits he was partly to blame for Susan’s moodiness.

JP:
… I don’t always do everything that she wants and, you know, for a while we were not affectionate, you know.

EM:
Um-huh.

JP:
I guess that was depressing and I don’t know if maybe she was upset about work or something but I don’t know it all. I mean, like I say, we didn’t do a whole lot of talking about it and I thought she was over it, you know … sometimes she thinks I’m lazy or something, you know?

EM:
Caused her to be sad? Are you saying that you caused her to be sad?

JP:
Um, I don’t know.

As far as Josh having Susan’s phone in the van, he said he had been looking up a number on it Sunday and accidentally put it in his pocket.

Ever the cheapskate, when Josh was offered a soft drink during the interview, he said he’d like to take it home to his boys. But Detective Maxwell didn’t have any cash and his inability to buy a soda for Josh prompted a discussion between the two about outrageous prices and the merits of bottles versus cans.

Josh stood up to leave and said he would like a “couple of days to think about answering questions.” Maxwell reminded him his wife was missing
now.

Maxwell told Josh that he wasn’t going to cuff him and take him to jail, but then after explaining that he wanted to continue the interview but had to follow procedure, Maxwell read Josh his Miranda rights, because “that lets me know that you understand that we’re just having a conversation here and you are free to go at any time.”

*   *   *

At the same time at the South Valley Children’s Justice Center a West Valley police detective named Kim Waelty had questioned Charlie.

KW:
Okay, Charlie, when we talk today it’s really important that we talk about things that are true, okay?

CP:
Okay.

KW:
Okay, and if I ask you a question, Charlie, and you don’t know the answer, it’s okay to say I don’t know, okay?

CP:
Okay.

KW:
Okay, well what did you do Sunday night?

CP:
Um …

KW:
Before you went to bed?

CP:
Go camping.

KW:
You went camping? Tell me about camping.

CP:
Camping is where we have s’mores.

KW:
Who were you camping with?

CP:
Um, my dad and my mom and my little brother.

KW:
So you went camping with your mom, your dad, your little brother, and you had s’mores?

CP:
Ya.

Although Charlie seemed to understand telling the truth, there were some fanciful elements to his story.

KW:
Okay, how did you guys get to where you were camping?

CP:
Um, we got in the airplane and the airplane went to Dinosaur National Park.

KW:
Oh you went in an airplane yesterday?

CP:
Ya, and our airplane brings us to Dinosaur National Park.

In the past, Josh had probably taken his boys to visit Dinosaur National Monument, 250 miles east of Salt Lake City. It’s nowhere near Simpson Springs, where Josh said they had camped. Although Josh hadn’t talked to his boys about where their mother was, he had told them he was talking to the police and even managed to blame the Coxes.

KW:
Okay. So Charlie, have you talked to your mommy today?

CP:
Nope.

KW:
Where’s Mommy at?

CP:
Um, at work.

KW:
Mommy’s at work?

CP:
Ya, and my dad is seeing the police.

KW:
Your dad is?

CP:
Ya.

KW:
How do you know?

CP:
Um … we had a broken window. That’s why he see the police … two times.

KW:
How’d your window get broken?

CP:
Um, my grandma and grandpa throwed a rock at our window … at our window.

KW:
Charlie, when you guys came home from camping, who came home with you?

CP:
My dad.

KW:
And?

CP:
And my mom stayed at Dinosaur National Park.

KW:
Your mom stayed there?

CP:
Ya.

KW:
Do you know where at the park?

CP:
No, she … my mom stayed where the crystals are.

KW:
How come Mommy stayed?

CP:
’Cause it had so much pretty…’cause it has so much pretty where the crystals grow.

Detective Maxwell returned to the room where Josh waited.

EM:
Um. I just spoke with some of our other detectives, um, and you’re gonna have to wait here with us. You’re not gonna go anywhere. Um, one of our detectives just interviewed your children and your children are telling our detectives that Mom went with you guys and that she didn’t come back.

JP:
She did not go with us …

EM:
K, well, with that, just getting that information, you’re not gonna go anywhere. I’m not gonna let you leave. I’m gonna detain you. You sit right here. If you want a lawyer and you want to talk, or you want to change your mind and talk, or take a CVSA [Computer Voice Stress Analyzer] test, um, then we can do those things, but …

JP:
They know that she didn’t go with us.

Another police officer, Detective Tony Martell, who is identified as CM in the transcript—and who seems to play the bad cop to Maxwell’s good cop—joins Maxwell and Josh.