Josh Powell's False Case Study

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Introduction Susan Powell lived in West Valley City, Utah with her husband Josh Powell and two young sons Charles Joshua Powell and Braden Timothy Powell. According to a detailed timeline provided by the Deseret News, a local newspaper, it was discovered by relatives that the entire family had gone missing on Monday December 7, 2009. Josh and his boys came back later that day supposedly from a camping trip in Simpson Springs, Utah. The shortest route from West Valley to the campground is 93 miles. Note that this camping trip took place in the cold winter desert of western Utah. The Old Farmer’s Almanac states that the high for that day was 24°F and the low was 10°F in the Tooele area (The Old Farmer's Almanac, n.d.). Tooele is the county seat where Simpsons Springs is located. After being taken into West Valley City Police custody for questioning, Josh claimed that he had left his wife home over the night (Deseret News, 2012). Police determined the disappearance of Susan to be suspicious. She had vanished without notifying co-workers and family, taking no personal …show more content…

When bringing the children to Josh’s home in Graham, Washington Josh grabbed the children and shut the door on her. She immediately called 911 after not being left in. Shortly after the home exploded killing Josh and the two children. Local authorities treated the act as a double-murder suicide and concluded that it appeared to be deliberate (Merryman, 2012). The official cause of death for Josh and the boys was determined to be carbon monoxide poisoning. The coroner also noted the boys had significant chopping injuries on the head and neck. A hatchet was recovered near Josh’s body suggesting he had attacked the boys before being overwhelmed by smoke and flames (KOMO Staff & news services, 2012). The fire was fueled by two five-gallon cans of gasoline as well as gasoline spread throughout the

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