As police end their 3 1/2-year search for missing Utah woman Susan Powell, newly released home video and personal documents paint a chilling picture of her troubled marriage.
Powell disappeared from her home in West Valley, Utah, in December 2009. In February 2012, her husband, Josh, killed himself and their two sons in an explosion in Puyallup, Washington. West Valley police released home videos, thousands of documents and pictures from her missing persons file this week after closing the active investigation into her disappearance.
Video: Susan Powell's parents: 'She stayed too long'
In a hand-written will, Powell indicated she was afraid of her husband.
“For mine and my children’s safety, I feel the need to have a paper trail at work which would not be accessible to my husband,’’ she wrote. “If I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one. Take care of my boys. I want my parents, (my father) Chuck Cox very involved and in charge of their lives.”
Police also released a home video from July 29, 2008, a year and a half before she disappeared, in which she records the family’s assets.
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“Covering all my bases, making sure that if something happens to me or my family or all of us, that our assets are documented,’’ she says on the video.
In another home video, with her son Charlie playing nearby, she holds up a broken family ornament that she claims was wrecked by her husband.
“Got in a rage as you can see and broke this,’’ she says.
She tries to strike an optimistic tone at the end of one video.
“Hope everything works out and we’re all happy and live happily ever after as much as that’s possible,’’ she says.
Powell has never been found.