

Kiirsi knew how to write quickly using a form of shorthand. Susan handed Kiirsi a stenographer’s notepad. On Friday, June 27, 2008, Susan Powell asked her close friend and neighbor, Kiirsi Hellewell, to come over to the Powell family’s home. But he started changing and being more strict and just being harder to live with.” In this Apwork email, Susan went back and forth about the state of her marriage. “Her first part of the married life she said was nice and good and they worked together and he was different. “She did want to make it work,” coworker Linda Bagley said. She vented about her husband, how poorly he treated her and how much she yearned for him to act more like the man she’d married. Susan Powell opened up to neighbors, relatives and even the occasional stranger about her troubles. They paid the monthly bill, to prevent Josh from seeing who she called or texted.

Susan’s parents bought her a cell phone, in case she ever needed to make a quick escape. Chuck Cox saw his daughter Susan Cox Powell as a victim of domestic abuse, even though her husband Josh Powell did not physically strike her. The counselor observed that Susan was being abused. On one occasion, Susan’s father Chuck Cox attended a session. Susan Powell saw a counselor and encouraged Josh Powell to join her, an offer he most often refused. Photo credit: West Valley City, Utah police It was hanging on the refrigerator when she disappeared 14 months later. “I’m wondering if I should do tit for tat and give him a white board ‘to do list’ or something lame like that for Christmas.” Josh Powell gave this whiteboard calendar to Susan Powell as a birthday gift in October of 2008. Which he immediately noticed and said he would fix,” Susan Powell wrote in an Oct. “The lining was white discolored to yellow in parts, plastic. When she unwrapped the gift, she noticed it was damaged. He gave her a cheap whiteboard calendar for her birthday in October of 2008. Josh would not even spend on gifts for Susan. Susan Cox Powell describes her garden in a 2008 video recording she made in preparation for a possible divorce. He became furious any time Susan spent more than he thought she should on necessities, including food for herself or their two young sons.

Josh took advantage of his wife’s devotion by exerting tight-fisted control over the family’s finances. Susan believed Josh was her eternal companion. She remained committed, both to her faith and to her marriage vows. Susan Powell described her husband Josh Powell as her “eternal companion” in a November, 2008 letter describing her unhappiness with his falling away from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Within a few years of their marriage, he quit attending Sunday services and pressured Susan to do the same. Josh Powell didn’t stick with the religion for long. They’d married in one of the church’s temples the following April, making vows “for time and all eternity.” Susan and her husband, Josh Powell, were both active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they met in October of 2000. “It felt like she really liked me because she would tell me things that you would think that you would only tell someone that you’re close friends. “She was very open, she was like an open book,” Susan Powell’s coworker Linda Bagley said. As she grew older and experienced deepening dissatisfaction with her marriage, the topics of her conversations often became much more personal. In her early 20s, Susan learned how to chat with strangers while studying and practicing cosmetology.
