The Psychology of Josh Powell (Chapter 9 - Cornered)
Added 2024-06-07 11:00:09 +0000 UTCDr Kirk Honda and Humberto provide a deep dive on the tragic disappearance of Susan Powell, along with Josh’s suicide, the children’s murder, and Josh’s father’s depravity.
00:00 Recap
01:45 Images of CP
14:05 Addendum hearing
20:10 Suicidal ideation
33:41 The murder-suicide
44:21 The 911 call
1:00:27 The aftermath
1:19:56 The Charlie & Braden law
1:24:14 Michael's suicide
1:27:03 The Cox's sue DSHS
1:45:22 Steven's death
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June 7, 2024
The Psychology In Seattle Podcast ®
Trigger Warning: This episode may include topics such as assault, trauma, and discrimination. If necessary, listeners are encouraged to refrain from listening and care for their safety and well-being.
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Comments
Wow. Their ultimate cause of death happens to be carbon monoxide poisoning- considering what the neighbors were worried about when Susan first went missing that is so full circle. Bizarre. Thanks again for this deep dive!
Patti
2025-08-08 03:23:34 +0000 UTCYou bring up some very good points & I appreciate your point of view!
SC Mommy
2024-06-13 07:24:06 +0000 UTCSuper long comment ahead-I just have so many thoughts! I was debating with myself on whether or not I felt like this series was one I would have to skip because of its nature. I had to pause for a week or so after hearing some of the details in part 1, but I am glad I was feeling well enough to come back to it and stick it out. I used to really enjoy listening to true crime podcasts and YouTube videos, but they left me feeling really anxious and just generally sad. I stopped tuning into that material and ended up finding this wonderful channel in the process of finding a different type of material to consume. Even though this story was the darkest I’ve personally listened to on this channel (maybe even in general), I wasn’t left feeling hopeless or sick. And maybe part of that is because the way in which it is discussed feels purposeful and not just for entertainment? So thank you guys for taking so much time to research this, I hope everyone involved in the project is doing okay themselves after diving into all of it ❤️. Second part of my way too long comment: I used to work at a 911 dispatch center. I was equally dreading and eager to hear the 911 call when you first mentioned it in episode 1 I believe. As part of our training, we had to listen to some pretty horrific selected calls from various agencies around the country and essentially pick apart what went wrong (or sometimes right) in a call…and I’ve heard some really off the wall recordings in regards to how terrible a dispatcher handled a call or caller. Unfortunately, I’ve even worked a few shifts where I’ve overheard a co-worker’s interaction that I wouldn’t condone. I have a few thoughts about this call: 1. As you said, hindsight is 20/20, so it would have been incredibly difficult for the caller to convey the exact situation unless the dispatcher was just familiar with the case. So I can completely understand his confusion BUT, even the details she did provide early on should have perked his ears up if he was paying the attention that you’re supposed to pay to every call. He seemed very tuned out, but if I’m looking at it in a generous way, maybe that was because of Super Bowl Sunday. Any type of “holiday” brings out the worst in a lot of people because there might be people drinking more than they normally would out in large groups they wouldn’t normally be in and it makes for A LOT of disturbance calls. I doubt that they were experiencing that much of an increase in call volume over things like that given the time of day, but perhaps he might have just had a high call volume unrelated to the event and he was trying to prioritize the calls. Which brings me to my second point. 2. The DFS worker sounded sooooo much calmer than 99% of callers I’ve talked to who were in WAY less dire situations, if their need was even an emergency at all. Honestly, it would have been a godsend for me to get a caller calm enough to give the information she provided without screaming, shuffling around the phone, or telling me to “just get someone here”, but maybe because she wasn’t hysterical, he registered her call as being not that urgent? I’m not saying that would be okay and it goes against the training I received, but just a thought. 3. We’ve come a long way with technology and even now we can’t pinpoint a caller’s exact location every single time assuming they aren’t calling from a landline, but I’m fairly confident agencies had the ability at this time to get a caller’s general location without them saying it. Of course we shouldn’t rely solely on that, especially if you have a caller that is able to provide you the location, but I was most frustrated about how he handled that aspect honestly. Because the location IS the most important piece of information, why in the hell didn’t he work with her to figure out where she was instead of getting snotty about needing her location after letting her ramble when he knows it truly doesn’t matter what the emergency is if we don’t know where to send the help??? Ugh I’m angry all over again thinking about that. Like he could have asked for landmarks, potentially checked the GPS and asked if so and so street sounded right, etc…but he was definitely just annoyed for whatever reason and being very unprofessional about it, in my opinion. 4. I honestly wasn’t aware of any protocol my agency had for these situations, but I was at a small-ish center, so we knew every DFS worker in the county, at least by name. And if we ever got a call from them, we would be very aware that something was seriously wrong if they were calling for an officer. And when I got calls for assistance from one of them, it was a priority before they even had time to explain. Actually, it was rare that we were given much information in those situations because they typically needed to be discreet as to not further agitate whatever crisis they were handling. That said, this dispatcher’s agency could have been much larger and therefor unable to become familiar with all the agencies and it’s employees. In which case, I think a protocol for these situations would be absolutely warranted. 5. I appreciate Dr. Honda acknowledging that it was unlikely that the outcome could have been changed by the dispatcher. I’m sure that person is plagued by that call and probably beats themself up for it to this day. Dispatchers are humans, too, and burnout is very prevalent in that field. There should be more resources and help offered to first responders so that they can keep themselves healthy and able to keep providing quick, compassionate care…but a lot of agencies are lacking in this area. I have what was referred to as secondhand PTSD from calls I’ve taken that don’t hold a fraction of the weight this one would, so I hope the DFS worker and dispatcher are both doing okay and were able to recover. I miss 911 sometimes because it was so much more rewarding than anything else I’ve done career wise, but it’s most definitely not a path for everyone! It takes a special person to be able to maintain the balancing act of staying compassionate without getting compassion fatigue, probably similar to a therapist I would imagine. Thanks so much, PIS, for all that you do for your listeners!
Lauren Akers
2024-06-10 05:31:45 +0000 UTCI was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the the pyramid of crimes and tragedies involved in Susan and Josh and the kids alone, but to now learn that another Powell brother committed suicide as well is literally unbelievable. The entire house of cards fell around the family system in all of their twisted psychic landscapes.
Yaira Matos
2024-06-09 18:12:56 +0000 UTCSusan’s poor parents! They lost Susan, and the only comfort they had left was those boys, and Josh takes them away from them as well. I don’t know how they can be so strong. That would destroy anyone.
Victoria brewster
2024-06-09 01:05:50 +0000 UTCI keep thinking about Josh saying he can’t live without the kids. If the pictures on the lap top were not his, then why not just go through the sexual evaluation thing, what was he afraid of! Or is it because the grandparents got custody and he just couldn’t bear having just visitations with them. I don’t understand because he was not a participating parent until Susan died! This is just driving me crazy.
G
2024-06-07 23:24:05 +0000 UTCThe Honk and Wave WAS a setup for Steven and he took the bait 🙂 It's covered in the cold podcast.
Rachael Rutkowski
2024-06-07 20:59:51 +0000 UTCSomething feels fishy about Josh not knowing about the CSAM material. This man went through intense lengths to creating an unbreakable encryption but didn’t know about the CSAM stuff?
Rickele
2024-06-07 19:06:04 +0000 UTCI like the daydreaming about a parallel universe where Susan and her kids are healthy and happy. There's comfort in that idea.
Tracy & her cats
2024-06-07 18:47:00 +0000 UTCI’m in a Cold podcast by Dave Cawley chokehold now. The second season is also about a murder in Utah! So problematic
Lauren King
2024-06-07 16:29:54 +0000 UTCI forgot about this! Utah so problematic.
Lauren King
2024-06-07 16:28:18 +0000 UTCSo Utah… also a haven for wilderness camps and other “problem teen” behavior mod programs. Excellent documentary on Netflix called The Program, produced by a woman who was forced into one of these programs. Explores the impact on various teens, how the parents were manipulated and Utah figures prominently in the follow the money portion.
Jennifer Boyle
2024-06-07 15:59:17 +0000 UTC
