That FIL was a sick man. Poor Susan. I would also bet she was afraid of what Josh would do to the kids if he got some visitation, which he more than likely would have. We see what he did with them. Her parents are the ones I feel for. I wish they could find her body.
I watched it last night. What a CF this case was, even more than we already knew. Also this quote from Josh: "I'm rather depressed, moody, irritable, when I get away from things I know are right." Ugh. Code for not being a proper Mormon.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2019 12:45PM by munchybotazv2.
I just watched this today. What a sick man Steven Powell was. He collected Susan's undergarments, her hair, even her toenail clippings! Who does that! She was so creeped out by him and his stalking. She didn't leave Josh because she hoped they could work out their problems and have that "happily every after" eternal marriage. What a sad and horrible life she had with him and that stalker of a father-in-law.
When I read your post just now, I went to youtube to view some of the commentary on the father. Although I knew about the son, boys, etc., I guess I had missed the FIL. What a freak show that guy was. Hope he is in prison for whatever. What she went through...unimagineable. Makes me wonder if the FIL had something to do w/ her disappearance. Josh, the nut, didn't fall far from the tree. At BYU, the impetus for marriage and cranking out kids overshadows the need for common sense, lengthy engagements, and discretion. Doubt she would have married him if she had lived w/ him for a year or two. Both of those dudes were sick F's.
Some older posters on this board may remember that 20 years ago or so, Steve Powell (the FIL) was fairly active in the exmormon movement. At one annual exmormon conference in Las Vegas about then, he and a group of six of us who had arrived a day early, spent an afternoon on a "research" excursion to the LasVegas temple in one guy's van. Steve had his video camera along and filmed us all as we drove along discussing what we had learned.
I remember that he mentioned his daughter-in-law at the time in a strangely intimate way, and I thought that what he said was very weird and inappropriate. He didn't seem to be embarrassed or think it was out of order.
Steve was quite proud of the fact that he had never resigned from the church and still held the office of "seventy" - he had been ordained a seventy when it was still just a level between elder and high priest. His ward authorities kept pushing him to accept ordination as a high priest, since there was no longer a seventies quorum in the stake but he refused.
He had written a comparison between the BoM and Bernal Diaz' book on the history of the conquest of Mexico, showing how it could have influenced Joseph Smith. I read it, but don't have a copy... too bad it was never published SFAIK.
One day after Susan had disappeared and Josh was living with Steve in Washington, I got a surprise phone call from them. during which they went on and on about how they were being harassed. This was before he was sentence to prison for child porn.