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Nancy Grace
Utah Police and Family Are Still Searching for Susan Powell
Aired February 18, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.
GRACE: So many cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: So few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness seen the suspect on the "NANCY GRACE" show.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "NANCY GRACE" show was out there for us.
GRACE: Found alive, 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at these photos. What do you see? A loving family, a loyal wife, a dedicated mother. But look closer because these pictures may be deceiving and this life not picture perfect at all.
December 7th, 2009, a blizzard hits West Valley City, Utah, and Josh Powell claims he and his two sons are camping in the dead of night. Wife and mom Susan is left at home, sleeping. They return, and he insists Susan Powell has vanished, her cell phone and car left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any idea what happened to her?
JOSH POWELL, HUSBAND: No. Thank you. And any help to try to find her would be appreciated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While searchers scour a nearby mine and police knock on doors, Susan`s family insists she would never just leave her sons and begin to doubt Josh Powell`s story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he knows something that he`s not telling us. He doesn`t seem to show concern or love or care. This is just not a way a husband should react with his wife missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than a year later, police are no closer to finding Susan. Josh Powell remains the only person of interest in the case but has not been charged. He maintains he and his two young sons were camping during a blizzard the night Susan vanished.
POWELL: I -- I didn`t do anything. I mean, I don`t know where she`s at. I don`t even know where to start looking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the boys? What do you tell them about their mom?
POWELL: I haven`t told them anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan Cox Powell`s life appeared picture perfect. A successful financial adviser and a proud mother of two, family was most important to her. Now her family has little more than pictures to hold and a mystery which still haunts them.
CHUCK COX, FATHER: I would like to hear a credible story. I`d like to know the facts of what happened. Where is my daughter at?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America, disappear, vanish, families left waiting, wondering, hoping, but never forgetting. And neither have we -- 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, grandparents gone. But where?
Tonight, live to Utah and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a gorgeous young stockbroker, mother of two, 28-year-old Susan Powell, last seen when Daddy suddenly announces midnight Sunday night, he`s taking his boys, ages 4 and 2, camping in the snow. Repeat, camping, midnight, snow. Then Daddy says when they get back home, Mommy`s just gone. Poof. Vanished. Husband Josh Powell finally breaks his silence, blaming whom? Susan Powell herself, claiming she, quote, "absconded" because she`s sexually and financially motivated and embarrassed to come home.
Tonight, what happened to mother of two, Susan Powell? Sam, a mother of two little boys financially, sexually motivated to desert her own children? What kind of BS is that?
SAM CHAMPION, GUEST HOST: We`ll find out tonight, Nancy. Susan Cox Powell, 28, would be 29 this past October, 5-foot-3, 130 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes, beautiful, smart, happy in all the pictures. Purse and keys and cell phone found in the home. She is not.
Jim Kirkwood, reporter from KTKK Newsradio. Jim, take us back to the beginning with this story more than a year ago. What are the circumstances surrounding Susan Cox Powell`s disappearance?
JIM KIRKWOOD, KTKK NEWS/TALK (via telephone): Well, none of us could believe it to start with. The facts are simple. He leaves -- as Nancy said a few minutes ago, he leaves with the two children, age 2 and 4, in a virtual blizzard to go over to the Simpson (ph) Springs area near Tawilla (ph), which is pretty desolate country. People deer hunt and rabbit hunt and that sort of thing in that area. And he supposedly goes over there to make smores.
And then Monday morning, he was starting -- had just started a new job. He was supposed to be to work. He doesn`t show up. He doesn`t take the kids to day care. And Susan doesn`t show up. And the sister is concerned because she can`t get ahold of anybody, was concerned about carbon monoxide poisoning. So she called the police, and they broke in and all they found was a couple fans on a wet spot on the carpet and nobody at home.
They finally reached Josh Powell in the afternoon and told him Susan was missing and, What`s going on? And he says, well, he`ll come back, but he said he was in the area, but it takes him two hours to get back. So this is a really strange story, Sam.
CHAMPION: Natisha Lance, "NANCY GRACE" producer. Natisha, you know this story well. So what kind of searches have been done for Susan Powell in the year and some odd months that she`s missing, still missing? And what`s the current status of the investigation?
NATISHA LANCE, "NANCY GRACE" PRODUCER: Well, the current status of the investigation is that it`s still active and police are still calling Susan a missing person. Now, the most interesting thing about the searches here, Sam, is that Joshua Powell has not really participated in any of those searches for his wife.
There have been individual search crews who have gone out and they have been particularly interested in some of the mines in the area, one mine in particular, Copper Leaf mine, which is about 50 miles away from the area where Joshua Powell was camping with his two boys, or where he says he was camping with his two boys. They were able to drop down a remote- operated vehicle of sorts into that area with a camera on it and get a better look at that mine.
Nothing has been found so far that has connected to Susan Powell, but police continue to investigate every tip and lead that comes in, hoping for the one tip or lead that will lead to Susan Powell.
CHAMPION: With us tonight, Chuck and Judy Cox, Susan Cox Powell`s father and mother. And first of all, Chuck, Judy, thank you so much for being with us tonight. We`re so sorry for the situation that you find yourselves in, your daughter missing for more than a year now. And prior to that, it seems like you guys have a wonderful family situation, everything parents and grandparents could ask for. Tell me a little bit about your daughter tonight.
JUDY COX, MOTHER: Go ahead.
CHUCK COX: You go ahead.
JUDY COX: She was a happy, carefree person, and she was loved by many. She could talk to people. They liked her first meeting her. She had lots of friends. She got involved in things.
CHUCK COX: She was a dedicated mother. She loved her children. She loved -- she wanted her family to be that ideal family and she wanted to be the best mother she could, mother and wife.
CHAMPION: This does not sound like a young woman who wakes up in the middle of the night, discovers her family`s camping, doesn`t grab her keys, doesn`t grab her cell phone, just decides to head for the door. Did that sound anything like what was possible to you when you first heard it?
CHUCK COX: Absolutely not. If she did wake up in the middle of the night and found everybody gone and was worried about it, we would have been called. She would have immediately contacted -- she had a lot of support and she would have immediately used all that support to go find her family.
CHAMPION: We need to talk a little bit about your son-in-law, I guess, who is a person of interest in this case, Josh Powell, who now lives in Washington state with his dad. And you know, you`ve heard -- I guess Natisha Lance was the one who was talking to us, and Jim Kirkwood, as well. He hasn`t really been that active in the many searches that have been out there for his wife. Tell me about the relationship that you believe the two of them had.
CHUCK COX: Well, they were -- they had issues. Mainly, they`d been struggling financially for quite a few years, and they had issues there. And they -- I thought their relationship was on the mend, and so did my daughter, at least that`s what she told us, that things were getting better because he had found some steady employment and she was doing well. And it looked like things were going to -- were looking up for them.
CHAMPION: She seems to have a good relationship with other members of the family. One side of her in-laws, she seems to be very fond of her. Is that the case? Does she have a good relationship with everybody in the family?
JUDY COX: As far as we know.
CHAMPION: And so this doesn`t seem like a troubled household. It doesn`t seem like you guys went to bed every night going, I don`t feel good about where my daughter is tonight.
CHUCK COX: Oh, no, not at all. We were confident that she knew what she was doing and that she was taking care of her safety and her children`s safety and the family`s safety. And we didn`t really have any concerns on that. We felt sure we`d just talk to her again. We talked to her, it seemed like, about every two weeks or every week. She would call us and let us hear the -- our grandchildren. They would do something cute, and she would call us with that information.
CHAMPION: Natisha Lance, "NANCY GRACE" producer, you`re still with us. And now the family has set up what they believed was going on in this house. And it`s a happy, loving family. Oddly, after the disappearance of their daughter, the son-in-law, the husband doesn`t really come forward with anything but, it seems right away, criticism of her and even some odd stories. Fill us in on his path of discussion after she`s missing.
LANCE: Well, most recently, Sam, Joshua Powell gave this pretty extensive interview to "The Salt Lake Tribune." And in that interview, he says that he believes that Susan left on her own accord, that she ran away with another man.
And particularly, Joshua is also responsible for maintaining a Web site to help find Susan. It`s called SusanPowell.org. And on that Web site, he now says that he believes that she ran away with this other man who went missing around the same time that she did, but from Las Vegas. He says that this is a man who had connections to Brazil, that he was in West Valley, Utah, the area in which they lived, around the same time that Susan disappeared. However, police have not been able to substantiate any of the claims that have been made by Joshua Powell.
CHAMPION: We`re looking for Susan Cox Powell. Tonight, we`re going to be asking for your help and we`ll tell you everything you need to know about this missing young mother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POWELL: We just miss her. She`s somewhere. She`s somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any idea what happened to her?
POWELL: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Searching for a missing mom of two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan Cox Powell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 28-year-old Powell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan Powell simply disappeared without a trace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her husband said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Josh`s story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He and their two kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were camping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were on a camping trip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that where you were camping?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say the case is very suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspicious.
POWELL: I didn`t -- I didn`t -- I didn`t do anything. I don`t know - - I don`t know -- I don`t know where she`s at.
POWELL: We just miss her. She`s somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any idea what happened to her?
POWELL: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAMPION: Still missing tonight, 28 years old, would be 29 this past October, beautiful Susan Cox Powell, lovely, smart, talented, fun, happy, by all pictures that we`re seeing tonight.
Marc Klaas, president and founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation. You know a lot about missing people. What do you make of this case?
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I also know a little bit about human nature, and I know that in the middle of blizzards, in the middle of the night, one parent doesn`t normally decide to go have a camping trip with his kids, and the other parent doesn`t decide that they want to get out of the relationship, so they get up and leave. Nothing about this guy`s story makes any sense whatsoever. And I think that the focus has to remain on Joshua until he can prove himself to be innocent, and he`s not even begun to be able to do something like that. He remains the person of interest in this story.
CHAMPION: Jim Kirkwood for KTKK Newsradio. And what does Josh Powell say?
KIRKWOOD: Josh Powell doesn`t say much. In fact, he congratulates himself on his discipline for not giving interviews and talking.
CHAMPION: But when he does talk, or when he has talked recently, there`s always some kind of odd story, it seems, that she may have run off with somebody, that she may be unstable, that she may -- so he was talking before.
KIRKWOOD: Well, he put that Web site up, and he put on there about her supposedly having run off to Brazil with this fellow from St. George, Utah, Kirker (ph) or something like that. And what`s interesting is the fellow that`s missing from St. George, Utah, his passport was among his belongings, so he didn`t go to Brazil. It`s just -- it`s a bizarre story, Sam.
CHAMPION: And I have to ask you, Chuck and Judy -- and I`m glad you`re with us tonight and we`ll come back and forth and talk about this a lot throughout the night tonight. But had you heard anything about this camping trip? Were you surprised when you first got a phone call?
CHUCK COX: I had not heard anything about a camping trip. As far as we knew, they were just home and they were getting ready for Christmas.
CHAMPION: And you get a phone call when?
CHUCK COX: Monday about 10:00 o`clock in the morning and telling me that they hadn`t been able to get in contact with them.
CHAMPION: And then what happens for you?
CHUCK COX: Well, they wanted to know had I talked to her or had she contacted -- the family contacted myself or her sisters or anything. So I started calling around to see if anybody had talked to her. And nobody had.
CHAMPION: And was it a regular pattern for you guys to check in with each other?
CHUCK COX: Not really. Normally, she was busy with her work and she would do her work or she would be working with the kids, and they would just -- they`re living their life. And we would hear from her about every two weeks or so. She would call and update us that things were doing well.
CHAMPION: And did Josh contact you soon after that?
CHUCK COX: No. Josh didn`t contact me.
CHAMPION: And as a matter of fact, you guys haven`t even talked to the grandkids in what may be -- how long now?
CHUCK COX: Since April of last year.
JUDY COX: April 10th, yes.
CHAMPION: All right. We`re going to talk about this later this morning -- or later tonight.
To tonight`s "Missing Case Alert." A missing Florida boy featured on "NANCY GRACE" show last night has been found alive. Eleven-year-old Everett Little kidnapped last October by his father, who took off with the child while wanted on an arrest warrant linked to a divorce and a child custody case. Well, Everett found safe in Michigan. Neil Little is now in custody.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are desperately searching for a missing mom of two who allegedly vanished from her own home in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her husband said he and their two kids were on a camping trip when the woman went missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they returned the next afternoon, Susan was gone.
POWELL: We just miss her and we want her back and -- and I love her and my boys love her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police reportedly find Susan`s cell phone, purse and keys all in the home. Family and friends say Susan would never abandon her two children.
POWELL: And any help to try to find her would be appreciated. So really -- that`s all. We just...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAMPION: Thirty-three years old, Joshua Powell is the only person of interest in this case, but he has not been charged. What sounds odd and unusual to a lot of people who hear this case -- not a camping trip with two boys, but a midnight camping trip in 14-degree temperatures. That sounds a little odd.
Dan Horowitz, defense attorney, what do you say?
DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think it`s odd to live anywhere where it`s 14 degrees below or 14 degrees at all.
(LAUGHTER)
CHAMPION: A lot of people do, Dan.
HOROWITZ: They do, and they also go on camping trips, sometimes at night as an adventure with their children. It doesn`t make them criminals. You know, the fact that this guy is dumb as a brick does not mean that he`s a killer. His ideas about her running off with some random person is so insane that if he were really a cold-hearted planned killer, he could come up with a lot better than that.
So I think we have to keep an open mind and just say something happened, but there`s no physical evidence to blame him. And let`s just look and try to find her alive, I hope, but find her and resolve this and move on.
CHAMPION: He`s stopped talking. If you`re his defense attorney, are you telling him to be talking at all? Shouldn`t we hear more from him?
HOROWITZ: No because anything he says is going to be turned against him. Everybody`s just focusing on him. He can say the most honest, decent thing, and somebody will twist it and use it against him. He should be quiet. He should perhaps be working more with law enforcement to try to help find her. He certainly be sharing these children with the grandparents.
But right now, this guy`s totally on the defensive. And if he`s innocent, he`s really being maligned by the general population or the general feeling people have about him. So he has to be off the radar at this point and hunker down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK COX: I`d like to know the facts, what happened? What does he know? What does he not know?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joshua Powell remains their only person of interest in Susan`s disappearance.
POWELL: I just have to go get my boys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.
GRACE: So many cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: So few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness seen the suspect on Nancy Grace.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Grace show was out there for us.
GRACE: Found. Alive. 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at these photos. What do you see? A loving family? A loyal wife? A dedicated mother? But look closer, because these pictures may be deceiving, and this life, not picture perfect at all.
December 7th, 2009, a blizzard hits West Valley City, Utah, and Josh Powell claims he and his two sons are camping in the dead of night. Wife and mom, Susan, is left at home, sleeping. They return, and he insists Susan Powell has vanished. Her cell phone and car left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any idea what happened to her?
JOSH POWELL, HUSBAND OF MISSING MOM, SUSAN COX POWELL: No. Thank you. And any help to try to find her would be appreciated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While searchers scour nearby mine and police knock on doors, Susan`s family insists she would never just leave her sons and begin to doubt Josh Powell`s story.
JUDY COX, MOTHER OF MISSING MOM, SUSAN COX POWELL: I think he knows something that he`s not telling us. He doesn`t seem to show concern or love or care. This is just not a way a husband should react with his wife missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than a year later, police are no closer to finding Susan. Josh Powell remains the only person of interest in the case but has not been charged. He maintains he and his two young sons were camping during a blizzard the night Susan vanished.
POWELL: I -- I didn`t do anything. I mean, I don`t know where she`s at. I don`t even know where to start looking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the boys, what do you tell them about their mom?
POWELL: I haven`t told them anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan Cox Powell`s life appeared picture perfect, a successful financial adviser and a proud mother of two. Family was most important to her. Now, her family has little more than pictures to hold and a mystery which still haunts them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like to hear a credible story. I`d like to know the facts what happened, where is my daughter at?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America, disappear, vanish. Families left waiting, wondering, hoping, but never forgetting, and neither have we. Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, grandparents, gone, but where?
Tonight, live to Utah and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a gorgeous young stockbroker, mother of two, 28-year-old Susan Powell. Last seen when daddy suddenly announces midnight Sunday night he`s taking his boys ages 4 and 2 camping in the snow. Repeat, camping, midnight, snow. Then, daddy says when they get back home, mommy`s just gone. Poof. Vanished.
Husband, Josh Powell, finally breaks his silence, blaming who? Susan Powell, herself, claiming she, quote, "absconded because she`s sexually and financially motivated and embarrassed to come home."
Tonight, what happened to mother of two, Susan Powell? Sam, a mother of two little boys financially, sexually motivated to desert her own children? What kind of BS is that?
SAM CHAMPION, ABC NEWS WEATHERMAN: Nancy, we look for her tonight. 5`3", 130 pounds, brown hair, beautiful blue eyes. Happy in pictures like this. Her parents are with us tonight. We re-open the case tonight. We talk a little bit about it. She`s been missing since Monday, December 6th, 2009, just after midnight. Purse, keys, cell phone, all found in home. Natisha Lance, NANCY GRACE producer, you`re on this story. What evidence is there?
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: What evidence is there that she is missing? Well, there`s plenty of evidence that she`s missing. However, one of the things that police did do after Joshua Powell said that he went on this camping trip is that they went and they searched that location where he says he was camping. There was freshly snow that had come down, so they weren`t able to see any tracks or anything of that sort.
So, they haven`t been able to completely rule out that he was there camping, but they also have not been able to confirm that he was there either. They also took dogs into that area to see if Susan Powell was there to try to get a scent, and they weren`t able to get any scent that Susan Powell was in the area. So, that is good news, in that regard.
CHAMPION: What evidence is there from the home? What evidence is there that police have said that they have that might lead them or point them to someone? Have you heard anything?
LANCE: You know, there`s not much evidence that points either direction. There`s really no evidence that says that this is a woman who was abducted, and there`s also no evidence that says that this was a woman who walked away from her life. Just as you pointed out, her purse, her keys, her cell phone, they were all left there in the home. Now, I think Jim Kirkwood pointed out that there was this spot in their living room, and there were some fans that were blowing on it.
What Joshua Powell`s father told the "Salt Lake Tribune" is that Susan Powell had recently had the carpets cleaned, and that it was an area where the children had spilled some juice on the floor. Police have done forensic testing in that home. They have not revealed to the public what the results were from that forensic testing. They also executed search warrants on not only the home but also the vehicle that Joshua Powell shared with his wife, Susan. And those results have also not been given out to the public. And the search warrants have all been sealed.
CHAMPION: Jim, you heard Natisha talk about this mysterious wet spot on the carpet. A red stain. Fans drying that carpet coincidentally as mom`s missing. What do we know about that spot?
VOICE OF JIM KIRKWOOD, HOST, KTKK NEWS/TALK: The police did do the laboratory work, and they have not reduced anything. They have not released anything. We`ve tried to find out but have been unsuccessful so far to find out what evidence the police may have from that.
CHAMPION: And have they told you about any evidence that points to a person or her walking away from her beautiful life?
KIRKWOOD: Police maintain one position. They have one person of interest, Josh Powell, and that`s all they`re saying.
CHAMPION: Pat Brown, you`re a criminal profiler and author of "The Profiler." Now, the police are extremely tight-lipped, as we`re hearing, about the investigation. What does that say to you?
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Sam that means that the police do have only one person of interest which is Josh Powell. And let me say, very sadly, I believe this is not a missing persons case but a missing body case which is why Josh doesn`t really want to help finding out where his wife actually is because it will probably turn out well for him. And that wet spot, that is one of the most damning pieces of evidence.
Josh and his daddy have come up with a ludicrous fictional story about her running away with this guy to Brazil. But let`s look at it. Here`s the woman who doesn`t care about her family, doesn`t care about her husband or her children, or home, so much so that she`s just going to run off in the middle of the night, but she stops to clean up the carpet so her husband and her children can have a nice, fresh carpet when they return home from a camping trip. Really?
CHAMPION: Really. I love the way you put it. Now, when we hear that someone`s a person of interest, and I know, if you`re a viewer of this show, this is a familiar term to you, but help me understand, Pat Brown, why is he a person of interest a year and so many months after that day?
BROWN: Well, in the old days, and I don` know how far back we`re going to go, a year or two or three or five, they used to always call people persons of interest when they were looking at them. They might have a few persons of interests. As a matter of fact, they used to say the word suspect. In today`s world, they`re so nervous about that that even if it`s glaringly obvious they`re looking at somebody, they`ll say, well, he`s not a suspect or person of interest.
The fact that the police are actually willing to sit here and say, Josh is our person of interest, and they keep pointing at him and pointing at him, leads me to believe they absolutely believe he had something to do with what happened to his wife.
CHAMPION: You are a profiler. You look at these cases. You tear them apart. The rest of us may do it in our minds. We may do it at home when we see it, but you do it professionally. Do you see any evidence that could suggest that Susan Powell left the home at midnight after her family went camping on her own?
BROWN: Absolutely not. And that woman did not leave on her own accord. And there was no serial killer that magically appeared just when her husband walked out the door to take her away without any sign of violence in the home. No. There`s only one real good explanation and that`s why Josh Powell is the person of interest.
CHAMPION: The person of interest, wet carpet and all.
And tonight, please help us find Samuel Riser. He`s 60 years old, vanishes December 8th, 2010, from Glasgow, West Virginia. He`s a white male, 6`1", 205 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. Now, if you have any information on this case, please call 304-357-0200.
If your loved ones are missing and you need help, go to CNN.com/nancygrace and send us your story. We want to help you find your loved ones.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Tonight, live to Utah in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a gorgeous young stockbroker, mother of two, 28-year-old Susan Powell. Last seen when daddy suddenly announces midnight, Sunday night, he`s taking his boys ages four and two camping in the snow. Repeat, camping, midnight, snow. Then, tdaddy says when they get back home, mommy`s just gone. Poof. Vanished.
Husband, Josh Powell, finally breaks his silence, blaming who? Susan Powell, herself, claiming she, quote, "absconded because she`s sexually and financially motivated and embarrassed to come home." Tonight, what happened to mother of two, Susan Powell?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any idea what happened to her?
POWELL: I didn`t -- I didn`t -- we just went to bed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Searches for Susan Powell now in high gear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crawling through smaller tunnels.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing small repels.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1,200 feet down --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve got another (INAUDIBLE). We need to search.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 28-year-old Powell simply disappeared from her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the middle of the night.
POWELL: A lot of times I just go camping with my boys overnight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He got confused about now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The National Inquirer" reports one of Susan Powell`s young sons allegedly blurted out, mommy is in the mine looking for crystals.
POWELL: My boys love her. They`ve been doing good as far as I can tell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reports also reveal Josh Powell allegedly told a friend that --
POWELL: She`s somewhere.
POWELL: The best place to dispose of a body would be a deep, dark mine shaft.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHAMPION: We`re asking for your help tonight in looking for now 29 years old, would have been 29 years old last October, Susan Cox Powell. Maybe this helps. The children that we`re talking about are now four and six years old. What are those kids going through? Now, they have been without a mother since Monday, December 6th, 2009. Just after midnight.
Patricia Saunders, you`re a clinical psychologist, you`re with us tonight. We want to know what these kids are living with. What are they - - what are they going through every day? Where`s mommy?
PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Awful anxiety, and I think, confusion, because daddy`s not only dumb as a brick, as Daniel said, but I think he is bizarre because there`s something really wrong with him, and he is withholding the truth. Kids pick up when parents are not telling the truth or when parents say things that don`t make sense. Confusion and terror are some of the worst things that kids can experience, and it`s going to impact the rest of their lives.
The way that they learn in school, their social relationships, and who can they really trust? I hope their relationship with the grandparents that daddy allows them to see is supportive and loving.
CHAMPION: Anne Bremner, attorney for Susan Cox Powell`s family. This is a perfect time to bring this up because we hear earlier in the show, the parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, coming on the broadcast tonight to talk about their daughter, their missing daughter, and they say, we haven`t seen these kids. We can`t see these kids. We`re looking for mom, but what can we do to get a visit with these grandparents?
ANNE BREMNER, ATTORNEY FOR SUSAN COX POWELL`S FAMILY: Well, and it`s been since April, and you know, Josh Powell has deprived them of their daughter and their grandchildren. And the fact is, we talked about a number of things here in this case in terms of damning evidence but haven`t even included that he left the state when she hadn`t been found and took the kids to our state, Washington State. He also drove a rental car for hundreds of miles.
And we don`t know why, where, or anything else. You know, that saying falsus in unum, falsus in plurium, which is false in one, false in all. You know, ice camping, midnight, blizzard, children, wife missing, doesn`t report her, et cetera. The key now is, will he be charged? Will there be an action in Utah? Because then, the grandchildren could well be where they belong, with their grandparents and with loving family.
But the other part is civil cases that can be brought, and his deposition taken, where he has to be under oath and answer questions about where she is. Not giving lies about whether or not she ran off with another guy who`s missing in Utah, not saying things like she was unstable and not saying things like she was sexually promiscuous. Lies and defamatory about her. So, it`s a horrible strategy. Chuck and Judy have persevered. And I think, their saying has been never, never, never quit and they will not quit.
CHAMPION: Is there any legal recourse they have? It`s hard for me to believe that a family in one state can`t see the grandchildren, the children of their daughter who`s missing. That someone won`t step in and say, oh, yes, they can, and bring them in.
BREMNER: That`s the courts, and they have to do it themselves through counsel, but grandparents don`t have the kind of rights that we think that they should, especially in a case like this. And the ideas that the authorities have been so closed lipped which is great in the investigation, but that would be the real deal breaker in terms of grandkids being able to see the grandparents and to be with them almost full time or full time. But right now, they`d have to go to court, and it`s a tough case to bring in our state.
CHAMPION: Chuck and Judy, I know you`re listening. We see you right there, and it`s compounded our agony for you and your agony because you now can`t talk to your daughter. You can`t talk to your grandchildren. What - - how do you get up and go through this every day?
CHUCK COX, FATHER OF MISSING MOM, SUSAN COX POWELL: Patience. A lot of patience and confidence in what the police are doing. They tell us they`re working the case, they`re making progress every day, and we believe that that`s our best chance of finding our daughter, and we believe that there will be justice, and we believe that, eventually, we will get to see the grandkids.
CHAMPION: What do you want to tell us tonight, the folks who are watching as we look for your daughter?
CHUCK COX: It`s been a year, and I know people`s minds, you know, that things get fuzzy after a while, but they can`t -- there has to be somebody that saw something that knows something. And if you think you have something, please come forward and don`t forget, she`s still out there. She is still missing. Help us find her.
CHAMPION: Please come forward and help us find her.
And now to tonight`s "CNN Heroes."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KID ROCK, SINGER: It`s my honor to present "CNN Hero," Dan Wallrath.
DAN WALLRATH, CNN HERO: Being a top ten CNN Hero was just very humbling. The true heroes are servicemen and women who answer the call.
Since the show aired, we`ve been getting phone calls and e-mails and donations from all over the world. It`s just been incredible.
GEORGE VERSCHOOR, EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION: We had seen Dan on the CNN Heroes tribute, and we thought, that`s a perfect guy we have to team up with.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Patrick and Jessica!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ABC`s "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" joined forces with Dan to build a home for an Iraq war veteran wounded in the 2009 attack at the Ft. Hood in Texas. Thirteen soldiers died, but Staff Sergeant Patrick Ziegler pulled through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was shot four times. Once in the head. He`s just made a remarkable recovery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For Dan, who normally works with around 200 people, it`s a chance to help build a home on a much larger scale.
WALLRATH: It`s been probably 4,000, 5,000 volunteers involved.
We have tons of military folks helping us.
God bless you.
This house is going to be built in about 100 hours where normally we take about six months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And an event at Ft. Hood honoring Patrick and his fiancee, Jessica, Dan made a special announcement.
WALLRATH: We have established a Ft. Hood victims fund to reach out to all the families affected by this tragedy.
(APPLAUSE)
WALLRATH: I feel so good all the time about seeing these lives change. Now, we`re going to be able to change a lot more.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, father, mother, disappears. Families left behind. We have not forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lakeisha Archie is an endangered missing adult from Sydney, Ohio. Police say she was dropped off at her home by a family member and then disappeared. Lakeisha has her name tattooed on her neck in black ink and a tattoo of panther on her left hair (ph).
Vanessa Smith went for a walk on her own near her home in Merced County, California. She never returned. Her mother and the sheriff tell the story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We always hold out hope that she is still alive, that she may have been co-opted by her abductors, kind of a Stockholm Syndrome, and at some point in time, that she`ll hopefully realize that there`s a family here in California that still loves her and that will bring her back home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was last to see her go, and she took that walk. It`s just a rural road that just has almonds and peach trees on it. And usually, we walked together and talked about all sorts of things. She was all excited because she just graduated from the eighth grade, and she knew that she was going to Colorado. And she had a walking stick with her when she took that walk and her dad found it. Usually, she always went, took a nap or read in her room with the door shut.
And so, when she wasn`t in there, fear just clenched my heart. It will be 14 years that she`s been missing. She`s priceless. She means everything to me. Then my husband wrote a poem about Vanessa and other missing children. "Somewhere, there`s a child that`s been forgotten. Their faces are all over town. They`re on windows, doors, and sometimes, they`re inside the stores. Are they warm, are they fed, are they alive, or are they dead?" I want her home so bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Treyvon Bonslater is missing from Mason, Michigan, and would now be two years old. He may be in the company of his mother, and he could (INAUDIBLE) potentially. Call 1-800-the-lost if you have a tip.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I`m Nancy Grace. See you tomorrow night, 9 o`clock sharp eastern. And until then, we will be looking. Keep the faith, friend.
END
