Featured Image Credit: West Valley Police
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Kit Roberts
A missing woman who is presumed to have been killed by her husband filmed an ominous video a year before her disappearance.
Susan Powell, nee Cox, disappeared in December 2009, with a police investigation quickly finding evidence against her husband Josh Powell.
Outwardly, Susan appeared to have a good and prosperous life.
Advert
She worked full time as a broker at a bank, and had a young family with two boys and a seemingly loving husband.
But on December 7 2009 Susan didn't turn up at work, with police interrogating her husband Josh.
Josh told officers that he had taken the couple's two children camping overnight.
But disturbing evidence began to emerge, beginning with the discovery of Susan's phone in Josh's car with the SIM card taken out.
They also found shovels, tarpaulins, a generator, and gas canisters.
Investigators also found an updated will from Susan which was kept in a safety deposit box and contained an alarming message.
It said: “If I die it may not be an accident. Even if it looks like one.”
The box also contained handwritten notes describing problems Susan had been facing at home.
She wrote: “I have been having extreme marital stress for 3 – 4 years now. “For mine and my children’s safety I feel the need to have a paper trail. He has threatened to skip the country and told me if we divorce there will be lawyers.”
The couple had initially moved in with Josh's father Steven.
While living there Steven had made unwanted advances towards Susan, as well as developing an obsession with her.
His behaviour included following her around the house with a camcorder, reading her journals, stealing her underwear, and using a mirror to spy on her in the bathroom.
The couple moved out, but tensions increased as Josh defended his father and the pair faced mounting financial troubles which culminated in Josh declaring bankruptcy.
In 2008, a year before her disappearance, Susan recorded a video which showed property damage which she said had been done by Josh.
She also documented her family's assets in the video, explaining: "Covering all my bases, making sure that if something happens to me, or my family, or all of us, that our assets are documented.
"[I] hope everything works out and we're all happy, and live happily ever after as much as that's possible."
After Susan's disappearance Josh moved back in with his dad, taking the children.
This ended when a police warrant on Steven's home discovered child sex abuse images, in addition to hundreds of photos of Susan, and he was arrested.
Susan's father was granted temporary custody of the children, but tragedy struck while they were taken to a supervised visit to their father.
Josh locked the accompanying social worker out of the house before incapacitating his children with an axe and setting fire to the house, killing them and himself.
Susan has never been found and she remains a missing person.
Many believe that she was killed by her husband, though she has not been declared legally dead.