Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
WEST VALLEY CITY — An experiment by KSL's COLD Podcast has revealed the likely source of a key piece of evidence in the death of Susan Cox Powell, 15 years after she disappeared.
The evidence is a chunk of melted metal, along with a few charred wire scraps. Police located them during a search of the Powell family's minivan on Dec. 8, 2009, the day after Susan Powell was first reported missing.
Investigators suspected Susan Powell's husband, Josh Powell, might have melted the object using an oxyacetylene torch he purchased less than two weeks before his wife disappeared. Police theorized the melted metal might have been a cellphone, GPS unit or hard drive. COLD previously put that theory to the test and disproved it.
Further research of the Susan Powell case files by COLD suggested the metal object might instead have been a small handheld power tool. In an effort to test that hypothesis, COLD obtained a Ridgid impact driver and subjected it to high heat from an oxyacetylene cutting torch.
The result bore a strong resemblance to police photos of the melted metal object located in Josh Powell's minivan.
Susan Powell was last seen on the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009, at her home in West Valley City. Josh Powell had prepared a late lunch of pancakes for Susan and a neighbor, JoVanna Owings. She was the last person, other than Josh Powell, to see Susan Powell.
The following morning, Josh and Susan Powell failed to show up for work. Their children, 4-year-old Charlie and 2-year-old Braden, also did not arrive at day care. The family's day care provider, Debbie Caldwell, became concerned and notified the Powell family's emergency contact, Josh Powell's sister Jennifer Graves.
Graves and her mother, Terrica Powell, headed to Josh and Susan Powell's house, while also calling 911 to notify police the family was missing. Police officers forced entry into the home, fearing the family might be unconscious inside, due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
However, the officers discovered there was no one in the house. Susan Powell's wallet, purse and keys were in the master bedroom, but the family's minivan was not in the garage. Police also noticed the living room couch was damp, having recently been cleaned, and a pair of box fans were pointed at the wet spots on the couch.
Busy in the garage
Police suspected Josh Powell had murdered his wife, but they lacked probable cause to obtain an arrest warrant. They turned the home over to Josh Powell, after he promised to meet detectives for a follow-up interview.
A neighbor on Sarah Circle later reported that at about 11 p.m., Josh Powell pulled his minivan partway out of the garage. In a written statement, the neighbor said Josh spent "10-15 minutes walking around the van, going in and out of the house and opening all the different doors of the van."
The following morning, Josh missed his interview appointment. Graves arrived at the house and found her brother cleaning.
Graves later told police there was "a lot of water on the floor and it looked like there was some sawdust mixed in."
Josh Powell arrived at West Valley City police headquarters after 12:30 p.m., more than three hours late. At the same time, Jennifer Graves took Charlie and Braden Powell to the Salt Lake County Children's Justice Center.
Why would you destroy something like that? It's quite feasible that the destruction of that … was involved somehow in Susan's demise.
–Andrew Robinson, AirGas employee
Charlie Powell told a detective his mom had gone camping with the family but stayed behind, "where the crystals are." Josh denied that when asked.
Police served search warrants on the minivan and the house. In the minivan, police located a plastic trash bag hidden in a floorboard compartment. It contained several sheets of badly burned drywall, three short wire segments that were charred, a few small screws, a screwdriver bit and the chunk of unidentifiable melted metal.
A visit to AirGas
A week and a half before Susan Powell's disappearance, Josh Powell visited an AirGas metal-cutting and welding store in South Salt Lake, where employee Andrew Robinson, assisted him.
"I approached Josh and asked if I can give some assistance in particular that he was looking for. And he spoke back saying that he was just having a look around," Robinson told COLD. He returned after 10 or 15 minutes and asked what it was Josh was looking to do.
"He was interested in welding equipment, what we had in the way of that. I asked what it was in particular that he wanted to weld. And he said he was interested in making jewelry," Robinson said. "I did get that impression from Josh that he didn't have a great deal of knowledge regarding the use of the equipment."
Robinson steered Josh Powell toward a torch kit suitable for doing light welding and provided him with small tanks of oxygen and acetylene gas to fuel the torch. Rather than purchase the recommended kit, Josh continued looking at other products. He eventually decided to purchase a larger torch, more suitable for cutting steel.
"That struck me as odd," Robinson said. "It was, let's say, a little bit of overkill."
Torch troubles
Soon after leaving the AirGas store, Josh Powell realized the kit he'd purchased could not connect to the tanks he'd been provided. He went to a hardware store to attempt to purchase an adapter, but that didn't work either. His phone records showed he made several calls to AirGas over the next few days. He then returned to the store on Nov. 30, 2009, one week before Susan Powell's disappearance.
"I could see he was a little bit irritated," Robinson said, adding that they provided larger tanks of oxygen and acetylene gas, as well as the adapters he'd need.
"The upgrade in cylinder size would not be something that you would purchase for a little home jewelry-making," Robinson said. "That would be more along the lines of either wanting to weld or cut steel."
Robinson learned from news coverage that Josh Powell was claiming to have been camping on the Pony Express Trail the night that Susan Powell went missing. He was also aware of public speculation that Josh Powell might have killed his wife and left her body in an abandoned mine.
"A thought that entered my mind was that he was wanting to cut steel with (the torch)," Robinson said. "Maybe the grates on the mine shafts, he may have wanted to cut those open."
Police photos show the torch was in the Powell's garage during Josh Powell's "camping trip" on Dec. 7, 2009. The photos also show blackening on the tip of the torch, showing it was used between when Josh Powell returned home from the Pony Express Trail and when he met with detectives the following day.
The evidence suggests he employed it to destroy a metal object in the garage and concealed the object in the minivan. West Valley City police found the melted metal object before Josh Powell could dispose of it and submitted it to the FBI for forensic analysis in 2010. The FBI was unable to identify the object, but a report stated it was "predominantly steel," with calcium and strontium also present.
Strontium is an element commonly used in the construction of small electric motors. This, combined with the presence of the charred wire segments in the trash bag with the melted metal object, suggested to COLD the item Josh Powell likely destroyed could have been a power tool.
"Why would you destroy something like that," he said. "It's quite feasible that the destruction of that … was involved somehow in Susan's demise."
Robinson did not personally believe Josh Powell purchased the oxyacetylene torch to destroy a power tool, but the evidence and circumstances seemed to suggest Josh's melted metal object might have been a murder weapon.
"Whether he premeditated it — 'I'll go to AirGas, I'll buy this equipment because I'm going to do this and then I'll melt the weapon,'—I don't believe that to be the case," Robinson said.
