One thing for certain we can say is that the investigation concerning the disappearance of the young mother of two small children, Susan Powell from Utah in 2009 has not gone cold. Detectives found themselves inside the home of the woman’s husband, Josh Powell, where he now lives with their two boys in Puyallup, Washington.

They searched through the house and the vehicles for several hours going through it all while wearing rubber gloves looking for anything that could help them solve the mystery as to what happened to Susan. They thoroughly examined a van in the driveway, looking through every CD, flipping through scraps of paper and examining under seats. They seized computers and boxes and bags of stuff that was loaded into a mobile command center that was parked at the house.

West Valley City police Lt. Bill Merritt said Thursday night “We came here looking for specific things, and some of those things we’ve been able to find.” He even stated that the evidence they have collected were very, very important to the investigation.

“What we have here today will help us draw closer to a conclusion,” Merritt said. “Whether it’s the conclusion that everybody wants and hopes for, we don’t know. It may be a conclusion that nobody wants to admit could happen.”

This search comes only a few days after an investigation led the detectives out to the desert area in Ely, Nevada where they called the search as being a “successful” one but it wasn’t disclosed as to what they found, if they indeed did find something.

The police claim that Josh Powell is the only person of interest so far in this case but they have yet to charge him with anything. Josh’s father, Steven Powell has been making himself known to the camera on TV by appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America Show and shocking everyone by announcing that he and Susan were falling in love and he even hinted that they had a sexual relationship, but his son was unaware of it.

“Susan was very sexual with me,” Steve Powell said. “We interacted in a lot of sexual ways because Susan enjoys doing that.”

Susan’s father, Chuck Cox denies all of Steve’s claims though by saying his daughter told him years ago that something had happened with her father in law that made her really uncomfortable. She didn’t give him any of the details though.

“She said something about Steve had wanted her to be a common wife for him and Josh,” Chuck Cox said. He also said his daughter did discuss it with her husband but he didn’t think anything of it saying it was just the way his father was.

Even more surprisingly, Josh Powell’s own sister, Jennifer Graves made claims against her own father saying that the accusations of Susan being flirtatious and sexually charged with her father-in-law were completely false. She says it was her father that made the sexual advances toward Susan, not the other way around.

“My dad is saying all kinds of things about Susan that aren’t true — Susan wasn’t like this. Steven Powell is,” Graves said. “At this point we need to focus on the investigation. All the slander is not helping to find Susan — we need to go back to an investigation mode instead of a mudslinging mode.

“[Susan's husband] Josh and my dad have done nothing to help, they’ve done a lot of talking but it’s nothing to help find Susan. They’re not talking to police. It doesn’t portray a man who wants to find his wife,” she added.

There has been an ongoing battling feud between the Powell’s and The Cox family since Susan disappeared. It got so bad that a judge has now ordered Josh Powell and Chuck Cox not to come within 500 ft of each other now.

Susan disappeared on December 6, 2009 when they lived in West Valley, Utah which is just outside of Salt Lake City. She was reported missing the next day when she didn’t show up at work which apparently was very unusual for her. Her car, her purse and her cell phone were all still at her home but she was no where to be found and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Josh claims that just before midnight that night he left Susan at home (because she wasn’t feeling well) to take their two sons, ages 2 and 4 at the time, camping. This normally would be no problem but that night there was a terribly heavy blizzard going on so who in their right minds would go camping in the middle of that, especially so late at night? I can understand it if the blizzard started after they were camping and they got caught up in it, but no one would take those children out in that kind of weather to sleep inside a tent. I am just not buying it.

Josh is trying to convince the police that his wife left him and her children on her own free will. He even implied that she could have left with a man named Steven Koecher, who happens to have disappeared within the same month as Susan did. He has described his wife as being “extremely unstable.”

Personally I would look at both the husband and the father-in-law. It seems to me like they could both be a person of interest in this case. At any rate the two little boys should be allowed to visit with their mother’s family. It is unfair to them to keep them away out of spite or revenge. They are innocent in all this and if Josh Powell was any kind of a man he would realize those kids need their family right now and Susan’s side is indeed their family as well.

My prayers are that Susan Powell will be found, preferably alive and well, but either way, she needs to be found. I do hope that somewhere along the line that a judge will rule in favor for these children to be allowed to be a part of Susan’s family as well as the Powell’s. I pray for God to watch over the well being for these children.

Jan Barrett