If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder

Description: If I Can't Have You by Gregg Olsen, Rebecca Morris Bestsellers Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris investigate one of the centurys most puzzling disappearances and a father who killed his sons. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description A DEVOTED MOTHER GOES MISSING Every once in a great while a genuine murder mystery unfolds before the publics eyes...Such is the tragic case of Susan Powell and her murdered boys, Charlie and Braden. When the pretty Utah mother went missing in December of 2009, the media was swept up in the story--with lenses and microphones trained on Susans husband, Josh. He said he had no idea what happened to Susan--and that he and the boys had been camping in the middle of a snowstorm. It was hard to know what, or who, to believe. AND A CYCLE OF DEVASTATION BEGINS... Over the next three years, bombshell by bombshell, a world of secrets about the Powell family came to light. Joshs father, Steve, who was sexually obsessed with Susan, would ultimately be convicted of unspeakable perversion. Joshs brother, Michael, would commit suicide. And in the most stunning event of them all, Josh Powell would murder his two little boys before killing himself. Why did he do it? What really happened to Susan? This is the shocking true story of the Powell family that no reader will soon forget. Author Biography Gregg Olsen is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author whose books have sold over one million copies. Olsens books have been translated into multiple languages, and he has been interviewed on various TV programs. For more info, see: Review Quote Praise for Gregg Olsen: "Olsens [writing] is both gossipy and sympathetic, searing and brilliant. . . . A must read for true crime aficionados and students of abnormal psychology! I read until 3 a.m.!" -Ann Rule on If Loving You is Wrong "Gregg Olsen is one of this countrys favorite true crime writers…Olsen takes readers behind the scenes of this fascinating case." - Tucson Citizen on A Twisted Faith "As good as it gets." -Lee Child on A Wicked Snow "A rapid-fire page-turner." -Seattle Times on A Twisted Faith "A disturbing portrait of a community undone by its appealing young pastor…. An unsettling story of a man who committed murdered and then used his charm and his power as a man of God to exploit his congregants and satisfy his sexual obsession." -Publishers Weekly on A Twisted Faith "Dark, atmospheric, riveting suspense . . . Gregg Olsen is one of the best." -Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author of Fear No Evil on A Cold Dark Place Excerpt from Book 1 Every moment I step back and take stock of what Im dealing with, it feels like a never ending cycle but Im too afraid of the consequences, losing my kids, him kidnapping [them], divorce or actions worse on his part … -SUSAN POWELL E-MAIL, JULY 5, 2008 Debbie Caldwell pulled up in her Ford Club Wagon-the one with fifteen seats to carry all the children who attended her day care-and observed how quiet her friend and neighbor Susans house seemed. It was 9:00 A.M. on Monday, December 7, 2009, and West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City, was in the middle of a three-day winter storm. Freezing temperatures and four inches of new snowfall made the roads so icy that the local news described the streets as "mayhem." Susan, twenty-eight, and Josh, thirty-three, usually dropped Braden and Charlie at Daydreams & Fun Things Child Care as early as 6:00 A.M. When they didnt appear that morning, Debbie started trying to reach the young parents. Susan was always prompt and conscientious. Josh was another story. He tested Debbies patience regularly, bringing the children late-which complicated the morning, since Debbie needed to know how many children needed breakfast. He also neglected to pick up the boys on time in the evening, cutting into Debbies time with her own family. The other day-care parents avoided Josh because he talked incessantly and acted as if he was an expert on anything and everything. They had a nickname they called Josh behind his back: Rocks for Brains. One day, when Josh had given Debbie a hard time because Braden had lost his socks, one of the mothers said, "That idiot must have rocks for brains." It stuck. Charlie and Braden, ages four and two, respectively, had been attending Debbies day care for a year and a half, and like many women who had met the outgoing Susan, Debbie had become a confidante. Susan and her circle of friends were young, committed Mormon wives. Their children and their marriages came first. The friends had heard, because Susan told them, that Josh wouldnt give her money to buy groceries and diapers, wouldnt have sex with her, and wouldnt go to counseling. One friend joked that Josh treated his pet parrot better than his wife and sons. Susan also voiced displeasure that he was spending too many hours on the phone talking with his father, who had left the Mormon church. Steve Powell, Susan told her friends, had been inappropriate with her-disgustingly so. Susan was so open with her complaints that her friends were feeling a bit apathetic. Theyd heard it all so many times. That morning, Debbie, forty-seven and the mother of four daughters, was on her way home from dropping the older children at school. She still had three toddlers in the car, and as she parked the van in front of 6254 W. Sarah Circle she told them she would just be a minute. She knocked on the front door several times. No answer. She expected to find Josh, harried anytime he had the slightest responsibility, getting the boys dressed, or more likely sequestered on his computer in the basement where he liked to hide. In any case, Susan would have phoned Debbie if there had been a change in plans. By the time Debbie was at the Powells front door Monday morning, she had already called Susan on her cell phone. When there was no answer, she tried Susans work phone at Wells Fargo Investments and, finally, their home landline. Again, no answer. Debbie dialed Joshs employer, Aspen Distribution, a trucking and shipping firm where he did computer programming. They said that Josh hadnt shown up for work. When no one answered the front door of their house, she phoned the name listed as Josh and Susans emergency contact, his sister, Jennifer Graves. "Hi Jennifer, this is Debbie Caldwell, Josh and Susans day-care person," she said when she got Jennifers voice mail. "Its nine oclock. Im at Josh and Susans house. No one is home, and they didnt drop Charlie and Braden off this morning. Do you know whats going on?" A few minutes later, Joshs mother, Terrica (Terri) Powell, heard the message. A quiet woman who never really got back on her feet after the divorce from her husband Steve, she lived with her daughter Jennifer, her son-in-law Kirk Graves, and the couples five children fifteen minutes south in West Jordan, Utah. Terri conferred with Jennifer and they went over to the house. Finding it locked up tightly they tried both Joshs and Susans cell phones, which went to voice mail. Then Terri phoned the West Valley City police to report the family missing. * * * The Powell residence looked like hundreds of others in West Valley City; maybe thousands. It was a white tract home with blue trim and blue shutters, and some stonework in the front. There was a tiny porch, a bay window, and a two-car garage. In the front yard was a wooden swing Josh had built for their two little boys. In back was playground equipment a neighbor had lent the family and a dormant vegetable garden. The garden wasnt a mere hobby for Susan, it was a necessity. Occasionally its produce was the only thing Josh allowed his family to eat. Susan sometimes called friends to ask if she could borrow some hot dogs. "The boys are hungry," shed say. Within minutes of Debbies call of concern, Joshs sister Jennifer met the police at the Powell house. The police logged it as a "welfare check" call. Jennifer, a soft-spoken woman with long, brown hair and her fathers blue eyes, was shaken. There was fresh snow on the driveway and the steps to the door. After accounting for Debbies tracks, it was clear that no one had been in or out of the house for at least several hours. When police knocked and got no answer, she gave them permission to break a window. They all braced themselves. Salt Lake City had just had several deaths attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by faulty furnaces and that was on their minds as they entered the house. There was loud music blaring from a stereo and two box fans were angled to blow air on a damp spot on the carpet and a love seat near the front window. At first there was a sense of relief: Josh and Susan and the boys were not dead in their beds. But something was wrong. They werent home at all. Where were they? Jennifer went into the master bedroom. Despite the clutter, she noticed Susans blue leather purse on a table by the foot of the bed. It contained her wallet, credit cards, and keys. There was no cell phone. The house was messy, but that was normal. There was no sign of forced entry or a robbery, home invasion, or struggle. Susans red nylon snow boots, which she wore whenever she left the house, were in the living room. West Valley City police issued a statewide attempt-to-locate bulletin so that law enforcement in other jurisdictions would be on the lookout for the Powells 2005 light blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan. The police sent Jennifer home so they could search the house. Jennifer called Susans father, Chuck Cox, in Puyallup, Washington, nine hundred miles to the northwest, to ask if he had heard from Susan or Josh. He hadnt, but he wasnt alarmed. Josh was known to make impulsive, last-minute decisions and the family liked to go rock hunting or camping. Yet, Chuck agreed it was odd that neither Susan nor Josh had called their places of employment or day-care provider to say that theyd be away. Jennifer phoned her fathers house, also in Puyallup, and talked to her younger sister, Alina. Jennifer believed that Susan had moved to get away from her father, Steve, because Susan said he had made sexual advances toward her. In the background, Jennifer could hear her father talking while she asked Alina if they had heard from Josh and Susan. Alina asked everyone in the house, but no one had heard from Josh or Susan. Jennifer called Kiirsi Hellewell, Susans best friend, who lived down the street from the Powells. Kiirsi hadnt talked to Susan since Sunday, when they had walked home from church together. "Susan didnt say they were going anywhere," Kiirsi told Jennifer. Kiirsi then phoned the Relief Society president-the head of their wards womens group-and the two of them joined Jennifer at the Powell house and talked to the police. "I was still thinking at that time that maybe they went for a drive because Susan had posted on her Facebook page that they had gone to a work party on Saturday night and Josh had won a camera," Kiirsi remembered some time later. "I thought, Well, it would be just like them to drive up in the mountains and take pictures." Then she began to imagine a different kind of threat than the carbon monoxide poisoning Jennifer and the police had feared. "Maybe they slid off a cliff and theyre all dead at the bottom of it or stuck on some back road. Because knowing Josh, hed drive on some back road in fresh snow." Word spread among friends and church members that the Powell family was missing. In the early afternoon Kiirsi sent a text message to JoVonna Owings, who knew Susan from the church choir. Susan, Josh and the boys are missing. We dont know where they are. They havent been seen since church. * * * But JoVonna Owings had seen the family. Shed been wi Details ISBN1250066689 Author Rebecca Morris Pages 288 Publisher St Martins Press Year 2015 ISBN-10 1250066689 ISBN-13 9781250066688 Format Paperback Short Title IF I CANT HAVE YOU Language English Media Book DEWEY 364.152 Residence Olalla, WA, US Illustrations Yes Publication Date 2015-05-13 Imprint Saint Martins True Crime Subtitle Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children Audience General/Trade We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:93968696;

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