Joshua Powell Case Analysis | Disappearance of Susan Powell

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of joshua powell just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first i'll look at the background in this case i'll move to the timeline of the crime then i'll offer my analysis starting with the background joshua powell was born in washington state on january 20 1976. his family was part of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints which i will refer to as lds his mother terry filed for divorce from his father stephen in 1992 it was at that time that we see she made various claims about what happened to joshua when he was younger there were claims that his father showed him explicit material did not discipline him essentially placed no boundaries on him whatsoever terry claimed that joshua had killed one of his sisters gerbils attempted suicide and threatened her with a knife despite having what appears to be a terrible childhood joshua made it through high school and enrolled at the university of washington in seattle sometime around 1998. while he was a student there he met a woman named catherine everett at an lds church joshua and catherine moved into an apartment together after which joshua became controlling and demanding he restricted how often she could communicate with her family and what she could say when she did talk to them catherine made a trip to utah to visit a friend and never returned to seattle she broke up with joshua on the telephone in november of 2000 joshua would meet a woman named susan cox during a party at his apartment she was also in the lds church the pair became romantically involved and they married in april of 2001. after their wedding they lived at the residence of joshua's father stephen this was in south hill washington stephen became infatuated with susan he engaged in a few different activities indicating the infatuation was becoming pronounced and obsessive for example he would steal her underwear from the laundry he followed her around the house while recording her with a camcorder he spied on her using a small mirror when she was in the bathroom he posted love songs online using a different name and he read her journals in 2003 stephen could no longer hold in his romantic feelings he confessed his love to susan she was surprised disgusted and quickly rejected him the situation gives new meaning to the word awkward joshua and susan move to west valley city utah which is not far away from salt lake city this move was in part to escape stephen joshua had a number of different jobs while in utah including working as a real estate agent and working for a trucking company susan worked for wells fargo investments the couple would go on to have two sons charles in 2005 and braden in 2007. the relationship between joshua and susan was becoming quite strained joshua would not cease contact with stephen his father even though stephen kept making advances towards susan joshua became demanding similar to what we saw before with catherine he refused to go to lds church services with susan and joshua started spending a lot of money much of the money he was spending was on items he did not need in 2007 the couple filed for bankruptcy they were over two hundred thousand dollars in debt in july of 2008 susan recorded a video she was documenting assets the couple owned in case something happened she recorded items like jewelry and power tools around that same time she wrote a will there were a number of items in that will but one particular statement really stood out she wrote if i die it may not be an accent even if it looks like one this takes us to december 6 2009 susan and her sons are visited by a neighbor in the afternoon the neighbor left around 5 pm at 8 30 pm a neighbor sees joshua powell returning to the residence in the family's minivan he pulled into the garage at 11 45 pm a neighbor hears a car alarm coming from inside the garage all the lights in the house appear to be turned off at two in the morning now on december 7 a neighbor who was sick and unable to sleep heard a man yelling get in the car get in the car then heard a woman yell back no no you're going to hurt me if i do the neighbor looked out of her window to see a minivan driving away all four members of the powell family were reported missing on december 7 when joshua and susan did not show up for work police officers forced their way into the residence but did not find any of the family members they did however notice something they found curious there appeared to be a wet spot on the couch and two fans were blowing on it susan's wallet purse and id were found in the house the family minivan was missing at 5 pm on that same day joshua showed up with his two sons he had cuts on his hands he was driving the minivan which was the family's only vehicle it was a chrysler town and country in that vehicle the police found susan's cell phone with the sim card removed they also found a shovel tarps a gas can a generator and blankets joshua was transported to the police station to be interviewed he said he left the house just after midnight on december 7 to go on a camping trip with his sons susan was sleeping at that time the police found it curious that joshua would take his sons out for a camping trip in the middle of a blizzard and when he was supposed to be at work just a few hours after he departed joshua explained that the reason he never told his supervisor that he was missing work is that he thought it was sunday when in fact it was monday the police asked joshua why he didn't answer his cell phone he said he didn't have the charger and was trying to conserve the battery the police noticed that his phone was plugged into the charger and the center console of the minivan investigators found a number of items of interest in joshua's house including life insurance policies for susan for 1.5 million dollars a note written by susan which indicated she was afraid for her life and traces of her blood on the floor as well as the blood of an unknown male the crime scene wasn't the only area where suspicious evidence would emerge josh's behavior after the disappearance seemed unusual as well for example he canceled regular appointments that susan had with a chiropractor he pulled his two sons from daycare and he cashed out susan's retirement accounts prior to susan's disappearance joshua told a woman at a work party that the best place to hide a body is in an abandoned mine shaft i guess the topic of increasing body disposal efficiency was the theme of that particular party as i mentioned joshua claimed that he went on a camping trip he said that the campsite was in a place called simpson springs this is in western utah the police went to that location but found no evidence of the campsite that joshua had described joshua's four-year-old son charlie however would tell the police that they did go on a camping trip except charlie said that susan was with them she was there on the way out but not on the way back a teacher would later claim that charlie said his mother was dead susan's parents would later claim that charlie drew a picture of a van with three people in it and told daycare workers mommy was in the trunk charlie also made some statements that were clearly false he said they took an airplane to go camping joshua was of course a person of interest he had initially in theory anyway cooperated with the police but that started to change he retained an attorney and then in early 2010 moved back to washington to live in his father's residence joshua still had his sons with him one of joshua's brothers named michael had disposed of a ford taurus under somewhat suspicious circumstances he abandoned it at a wrecking yard in oregon and could not seem to give the police a straight answer about why the police found the vehicle but could not find any evidence in it connecting to susan's disappearance at this point in the case we see a lot of animosity between susan's family and joshua and stephen powell we see accusations going back and forth a website was started allegedly by joshua and stephen which contained information about susan's disappearance suggesting she ran off with a journalist who vanished around the same time perhaps they went to brazil joshua and stephen would later claim that susan was mentally ill the police started developing interest in stephen after seizing 4 500 images of susan from steven's house many of the images appeared to be taken without susan's knowledge the ones that were taken with her knowledge were in steven's possession when it appears as though she would not have wanted that stephen would later claim that he and susan were falling in love before her disappearance stephen would be arrested on september 12 2011 and charged with voyeurism and child pornography apparently he had not only recorded susan but other people joshua was not arrested but a prosecutor made it seem like joshua may have been involved in the same types of crimes his father had allegedly committed joshua temporarily lost custody of his sons he would eventually move out of stephen's residence to comply with a court order and get them back on february 5 2012 a social worker had taken charlie and braden to a supervised visit at joshua's house joshua grabbed his sons and would not permit the social worker to enter the residence within a few minutes the house exploded killing joshua charlie and braden it's not perfectly clear what happened but it appears as though joshua had attacked charlie and braden with a hatchet before igniting gasoline a little over a year later on february 11 2013 michael joshua's brother who got rid of the ford taurus would jump off the roof of a parking garage in minneapolis minnesota authorities believe that joshua and michael conspired to kill susan stephen powell would die on july 23 2018 which was just over a year after his release from prison now moving to my analysis i'll start by looking at joshua's personality characteristics and then i'll talk about the terrible situation that susan powell was in and her feelings about it joshua appeared to be quite narcissistic more on the grandiose side than the vulnerable he was low in openness to experience low in conscientiousness high in extroversion low in agreeableness and low in neuroticism he had a number of lower level jobs and a few jobs that even though they were entry level the position could have become like a mid-level job eventually he was very effective at interviewing many places offered him work but he was almost always fired shortly after starting work here a few reasons he was fired he would make up excuses about how he couldn't do the job after saying he could do it initially like at one job he said he couldn't lift even though lifting was part of the job he would criticize management and say he could run things better he would try to find ways to get more money from the employer without doing more work like asking for mileage when they didn't normally pay mileage one employer designated joshua as untrainable joshua believed that every job he had was beneath him his level of education and his superior intellect meant that he deserved better even though some people found joshua charming which explains why he did well in interviews many people found him to be odd and socially awkward to the point where they expected him to make unusual statements like at that work party when he talked about disposing of bodies people didn't really think that was out of the ordinary for him it was reported that joshua had a number of sadomasochistic sexual fantasies starting when he was young this is something he was embarrassed about joshua had to undergo a mental health assessment in connection with the custody of his sons he was found to have narcissistic traits paranoia and defensiveness if he had not brought an end to his life he would have been subject to another assessment one that looked at sexual attitudes some people believe he committed his final crime to avoid that assessment now moving to susan's feelings we see from susan's correspondence and other documentation that she realized her marriage was in trouble she had wanted to go to marriage counseling but joshua refused he was becoming increasingly controlling even over small amounts of money she said it felt like a never-ending cycle but she was too afraid to leave because of the consequences she was afraid that she would lose her sons and she was afraid that joshua would kidnap or kill her susan strongly believed that joshua had a mental disorder she wondered if it was bipolar disorder because there was a history of that in his family she really tried to figure out what was going on she believed that his behavior was outrageous that his opinions and beliefs were bizarre much different than when she first met him she held out hope that perhaps he could get treated and recover it appeared that susan was also influenced by the beliefs of lds they frown on divorce yet she kept coming back to the idea of divorce i think in one sense she realized joshua was dangerous but she didn't know what to do she was continually weighing the risk of staying with him against the consequences of divorce she was ambivalent she had strong feelings in both directions i think susan's feelings and reactions are a reminder that there are no easy answers in a marriage where one spouse is narcissistic and may be psychopathic especially when the couple has children susan only had choices that would result in pain she kept holding on to the idea that joshua would change even as that prospect appeared increasingly unlikely those are my thoughts on the case of joshua powell please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 92,218

Keywords:

Id: 97vdLlchb3E

Length: 15min 9sec (909 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/jaidenkatt]

You're awesome!