Naman Shrestha
When Susan Cox Powell went missing from her West Valley City residence in 2009, her loved ones feared that their worst nightmares would come true. Upon digging deep into the case, the authorities labeled Josh Powell, her husband, a person of interest. This led them to open a can of worms that Steven Powell, Josh’s father, had hidden in his closet. The episode titled ‘If Something Happens To Me’ of ABC’s ’20/20′ also covers Steven’s conviction and sentencing while featuring in-depth interviews with different people connected to the case, including his daughter.
Steven Powell Gave His Son Shelter While He Was Under Investigation
Born to Samuel Lester “Sam” Powell Jr. on December 19, 1949, in Portland, Oregon, Steven Craig “Steve” Powell was the father of Joshua Steven “Josh” Powell, the husband of the missing Susan Powell. Steve had a daughter named Jennifer and another son named Michael Craig Powell, who allegedly helped Josh in making his wife disappear from her West Valley City home in 2009. During the ongoing disappearance case of Susan, Steve claimed in TV interviews that his daughter-in-law was overtly flirtatious with him and that it made him fall in love with her. On the other hand, the loved ones of the mother of two said that she confided in them about Steve’s inappropriate advances on her. The situation had gotten to the point that she began despising his presence and denied him entry at their West Valley City residence.
Surprisingly, Jennifer Graves, Steve’s daughter, offered to help the authorities uncover the truth about Susan’s disappearance by wearing a wire and trying to get a confession out of his brother. When she visited her father’s house, where Josh and his sons stayed at the time, she tried her best but could not get anything on record. Instead, by the time she was leaving the house, she got into an argument with Steve, who disowned her then and there. In light of the evidence against Josh, who was the prime suspect in the case, the detectives obtained a search warrant for Steven’s Puyallup home in August 2011.
Steven Powell Was Found Guilty of Several Unrelated Charges
While searching for clues regarding Susan’s disappearance, the police stumbled upon thousands of photographs of a couple of minor girls, aged 8 and 9, through their bathroom windows and of his son’s wife, taken from a telephoto lens. According to his daughter, his pornography addiction began quite early on in his marriage. Jennifer claimed that Steve was mentally unfaithful to her mother at first and then became physically unfaithful as well. It eventually led to him videotaping young girls in his neighborhood. The police charged him with possession of child pornography and 14 counts of voyeurism. In his May 2012 trial, he was convicted of the latter charge and dismissed of the child pornography charge, sentencing him to 30 months in prison. His own daughter, Jennifer Graves, helped him get convicted by testifying against him.
However, the court reinstated the charge in 2014, and in August 2015, Steve received a five-year imprisonment sentence for the crime. Once he had been convicted, the two victims filed a lawsuit against him, and they won his Puyallup residence, from where he used to take their pictures, as part of the settlement. He was released from prison just a couple of years into his sentence in July 2017 due to his good behavior behind bars. Immediately after his release, he was placed under community supervision for the next two years. At the time, the detectives suspected that Steven might also have a hand in the vanishing of Susan. When they learned that he had planned a camping trip to Utah right before she vanished and took a couple of days off from the job the day after, all the focus was turned to him.
Steven Powell Succumbed to Heart Problems At a Tacoma Hospital
In 2018, Steven Powell suffered some kind of heart complications, for which he was hospitalized at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. In the next few days, the investigators were checking up on his condition regularly as he was the last link to the case of Susan Cox’s disappearance. On July 23, 2018, the 67-year-old former convict passed away while battling heart problems at the hospital. Skipping the autopsy, his body was directly transferred to a funeral home. Upon finding out about her father’s demise, Jennifer claimed that she was partly relieved as he would not come after her anymore for testifying against him at his trial.
Read More: Chuck and Denise Cox: Where Are Susan Powell’s Dad and Sister Today?
