The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell

- I can't tell you how many times I've talked

about this case.

You can retire.

You can walk away and go about your life,

but you're always gonna have to answer

questions to this case.

You want me to tell you?

The story about the ring.

Okay.

You're too close.

- I'd get frustrated when people would be like,

"Hey, don't you know her?"

They'd just talk about it lightly,

and it's my friend that's gone .

When I look at this case in its totality,

I think it's the most tragic, horrible case

I've ever seen reported anywhere.

Susan Cox Powell.

You know, she was beautiful.

Ta-da.

She had these young boys.

Say, "Hi".

She came from a great family,

and then she just disappears.

We have two box fans that were

blowing on a couch that was recently cleaned.

The house is completely locked up.

Susan's purse is in her bedroom, undisturbed.

It makes no sense.

- Josh Powell is a person of interest in this case.

- Anybody whose spouse is missing, they're gonna say,

"I'm gonna look everywhere."

- I don't even know where to start looking.

Josh tells police he took their two young sons

camping at midnight in sub-zero temperatures.

- When you guys came home from camping,

who came home with you?

When you look at the breadcrumbs,

she left all the evidence.

Yeah, everybody missed it.

If something happens to me or my family,

covering all my bases.

All of a sudden, this story started

to sort of branch out in another direction.

- She's the most beautiful thing that ever walked the earth.

- Josh's father, Steve, was obsessed with her

and in love with her in a sick and twisted way.

He was infatuated with Susan Powell.

Bags of toenail clippings, hair clippings,

dated and had her name on it.

She did that for me.

- For the first time ever, an exclusive interview

with a family member who will tell her side of the story.

- So, here we are, daddy and daughter.

- What I saw is different than what everyone else is claiming.

How many people knew?

Did anybody know?

I hope nobody was in there.

- Where is she and who really killed her?

My name is Stephanie Bauer.

I'm an investigative journalist who's covered notorious crimes

across the country for over a decade.

Susan Cox Powell was a young woman who dreamed of being

a wife and a mother,

then mysteriously disappeared in 2009.

What could've possibly happened to Susan, and why?

For years, authorities have named Susan's own husband,

Josh Powell, a person of interest in this ongoing case,

but what could be Josh's motive?

Okay, one more smile,

then I'm going to get the other camera.

- I've worked hundreds of cases, if not thousands,

but the Susan Powell case is probably right up there

at the top.

Everybody you talked to with the evidence that was there

believed that Josh was somehow involved when she went missing.

For the first time ever, we've unearthed

boxes of home videos made by Josh Powell's father, Steve.

And here I am.

- These are all his original tapes?

- Yes. - That were taken into evidence?

Those are all original tapes that were

taken into evidence.

Steven likes to document everything.

He takes, like, these bizarre, lifelong videos.

- We knew that her father-in-law had an obsession,

but I... it's...

You don't see how bad it was

until you really see this evidence.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, I've seen some sides of Steven that I never,

ever want to see, and I can never, ever un-see.

He had a deviant mind and an evil intent,

and then, as you can see,

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree with Josh.

All right.

See, I married good, huh?

Yeah, no kidding, wow.

- From the beginning, we set out to piece together

a definitive account of what happened to Susan Cox Powell.

For the first time ever,

Susan's family and the Powell family

speak out.

- We're hoping by showing this or getting stuff out,

somehow somebody will have a clue that leads

to finding Susan.

Yeah.

When I was 12,

we moved to Puyallup, Washington,

And it was just the six of us,

my three sisters and my parents.

Susan was there to support me no matter what I did.

- She made me feel happy, but I could tell if she was

not feeling herself or unhappy, but that was rare.

Most of the time, she was happy and full of life.

Okay.

Susan was very positive, always interested,

and very determined.

She was willing to do whatever work was required

to get what she wanted.

And there's more stuff...

In high school, she decided she wanted

to be a beautician.

- And this stuff makes my skin,

my face match my arms because my face doesn't tan.

- But most of all, she wanted to be married and have a family.

She loved kids.

- She was very impatient to get to that point

and was looking around for,

"Okay, now I got to find me a potential husband."

That's when she met Josh.

So he was shopping for a ring,

and he told me it was going to be for his mom,

and so I was helping him look,

and he was looking at this ring that I have on.

He bought it, and actually I paid for it

so he could get the associate discount-

Ah.

- And then he turned around and wrote me a check for it.

Uh-huh .

You're too close.

So then he eventually proposed.

- In the Mormon Church, they have what they call

a single adult ward where people go to meet each other,

and Josh was attending the same ward.

Two, three.

Susan had been dating Josh for only

two months before they got engaged.

Whenever he's ready, he's going to let it go.

- Josh was very, very loud,

very overbearing.

His opinions were the only right ones,

and he was very obsessive.

- Let's get one in this background.

Let's all come over to this background, get one more.

- He would talk so much about himself.

I'm opening my present.

I feel privileged.

This is something you can actually wear to church.

I thought, "Wow,

this guy just wants attention or something."

There goes Josh into the sunset or something.

- He thought that he knew it all,

and no matter what you said or did to him,

he just shrugged it off.

I just knew.

I mean, you know ...

You know when you know, don't ya?

Yeah.

My parents asked her not to marry him.

I asked her not to marry him.

- I said, "Go out and date like crazy

for a couple years and have fun", and she goes,

"Well, what about Josh?"

And I looked at her

and I said, "I'm sorry Susan.

I look at Josh and I see darkness."

Susan loved the religion.

It was for her.

She enjoyed the rules.

She believed in the church.

If you're in the church and you get married, you're stuck.

There is no way out.

You just got to deal with it.

You made the decision.

- In the LDS church, one of the most important

beliefs that we have is that families are

the most important thing after God.

Your grandchildren will love this.

Mm-hmm .

Do you have grandchildren?

Josh had tried to be a real estate agent.

It didn't work out.

So, they were planning to move to Utah

for better job opportunities.

See ya later.

Okay, bye.

- When Susan found out she was pregnant,