I Was All Set To Name A Bitch Of The Week! Then, I Heard The Story Of Joshua Powell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 Let me tell you something, darlings.  I never cared for "The Book Of Mormon" on Broadway, and, after hearing Joshua Powell's story, I am not sure how I feel about those who practice Mormonism.  I know Josh is not representative of all Mormons, but the problematic hypocrisy behind his upbringing is perhaps more what led to this ultimate tragedy.

                                  Josh has been described as a predator.  I disagree.  He is a family annihilator.

                                  Let's start with his problematic upbringing.  His father, Steven Powell was some kind of sex pig perv who reveled in fantasies of polygamy and kiddy porn, that he exposed his children, like Josh, to.  This  man was an animal, and, coming from such a place, Josh could not have turned out well.

                                   Josh Powell and Susan Cox were married, in April, 2001, in a Mormon church in Portland, Oregon.  They eventually moved to Utah, because of the predatory nature of Steven Powell, who was lusting after Susan.  I bet he wanted he and Josh to both have sex with her, simultaneously.

                                    Susan could not take it, and so they moved.  Josh, with a business degree,  became a corporate honcho wannabe.  I say wannabe, because I think part of his problem was that he was never really successful at anything.  The program I saw his story on never once mentioned how he supported himself, for all he kept attesting to the validity and reliability of his parenthood.

                                      Susan first worked as a cosmetologist, and, later, when they moved close to Salt Lake City, Utah, she worked in a bank.  And in Washington, too.  Sounded like she was more grounded than Josh.

                                        On film, he comes across as some cocky, arrogant thing--definitely homophobic, and in favor of everything I am against.  I would have liked to have beaten him to a pulp.   But he got his.

                                          The marriage was tanking by 2008, with Susan, saying in a video, made in July, 2009,  that if something happened to her, it might not be an accident.  That's when red flags should have gone up. Susan was definitely sending out signals.

                                            Things start to get murky.  Josh was also an alpha control freak--why should I be surprised?????--causing Susan to fear for herself and her children.  At first, the entire family was reported missing, by relations, on December 7, 2009.  Eventually, Josh showed up, around 5PM that day, with the two boys, Charles, then 4, and Braden, then 2.

                                              Susan was definitely missing.  And the heat was on Josh.  It was also suggested--and I agree--that his perv Papa had something to do with it, too.  Maybe they jointly killed Susan, or he helped to cover it up.  When questioned in 2012, Josh's eldest, Charlie, then 7, said he and his parents went on a camping trip, at the time.  Their mother went with them, but did not return.
A teacher later reported Charlie saying his mother was dead. And when Braden, then 5, was asked by police to draw a family portrait of the trip, Susan was not in it.  Braden told the police she was in the car trunk.

                                                 So, something definitely happened on that trip, though, to this day, no one quite knows what,  except that Susan is presumably dead.  And her body has never been found, and now there is no one, save maybe Steven Powell, to reveal where it is.  And he ain't talking.

                                                   Then came the custody battles.  Susan's parents,  Charles Cox, and his wife, Judith, felt Josh was not fit to raise those boys, and they were right! By 2010, Josh had moved with his sons to Puyallup, in the state of Washington, sharing a house with his two sons--and father, Steven!!!!!!!!!!  Eventually, in August of 2015, this sick Daddy was ordered to serve five years in prison--not enough, as far as I am concerned; give him LWOP!!!!--for child porn and voyeurism charges.  But he was guilty of far more than that.

                                                    It was a psychological tug of war for those boys.  The Coxes kept winning, and Josh kept fighting.  Finally, each was granted six months time with the boys.  Though Josh had undergone psychological and psycho sexual evaluations, in early 2012.  He was found fit as a parent, financially stable, able to support the boys, and had no criminal record of violence or abuse.  But he had the disappearance of Susan hanging over him, and the nightmare presence of his sexually deranged father.  Who, of course, the arrogant prick stuck up for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                     Someone should have seen this coming.  Weeks before the tragedy, on February 5, 2012, Josh began taking action.  He purchased five gallons of gasoline, donated his children's toys to area charities, and took out a $7,000 insurance policy, leaving it to his brother, Michael.  On the morning of February 5, 2012, key people in Josh's life began receiving emails, texts, or phone calls, from him, saying goodbye, with a tone of utter finality.  No one seemed to sense what was coming.

                                                       Charles and Braden, now 7 and 5, had grown fond of the Coxes, and looked upon them as parental figures.  They were not happy about having to visit Josh, but the law decreed it.  Although they arrived supervised by a social worker, Josh received the boys into the house, but pushed the social worker out.  While she called 911, he was in the house, drenched with gasoline, taking a hatchet to the boys--probably to spare them a fiery death, but it did not work; they all died from carbon monoxide poisoning, and head wounds were found on the boys.  The house went ablaze, blowing up, with Josh taking the life of himself , and his boys.

                                                           When I heard this story, I could not think of a better, and more heinous, choice for Bitch Of The Week.  Josh is not the only family annihilator to make this list, and he, unfortunately, will not be the last.   What interests me is that the "Dateline" program on which I was made aware of this, did not cite a motive for Susan's murder or Josh and his boys.  But it is clear to me.

                                                              Like many family annihilators, Josh very likely suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  He is indispensable, and the only one who can raise those boys, and has the right to.  So, if he could not have them, no one could.  As for Susan, she very likely had some of her own ideas about how the boys should be raised, which did not jive with Josh's, leading to conflict, and eventually the decision that it would be better to get rid of her.  Which he did.

                                                                 Add to this mix, having had Steven Powell as a father.  It could not have helped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                Having known several people in my life who committed suicide, I am extremely sensitive to this matter.  I do not feel sorry for Josh, but I hate that he took his life.  He should have been legally sentenced to death, or given LWOP.  But no one was going to tell him what to do.  Had Josh killed himself, well, his family would have been upset, and I am sorry for them too.  But taking the boys' lives into his hands, and making an irrevocable decision for them is inexcusable, and rates him one of the biggest Bitch(es) Of The Week, on here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                I believe that Josh is now getting the comeuppance he deserves, while Susan is reunited with their boys.  I hope so.  They endured enough Hell on earth!!!!!!!!

                                                                  I wish this story had a happy ending, but it does not.  On July 11, 2017, Steven Powell was released from prison, and is now a free man.  Like his son, he is probably arrogant enough to return to where he once lived.

                                                                    I hope someone recognizes him, and kicks him in the teeth!!!!!!!!!!!!