Question of the Day - 4/30/23

[REQUIEM Puroresu]

What's your favorite true crime story?

[Aria Knight]

Making a Murderer. Kid just wanted to be out of trouble in time to watch Wrestlemania

[maddelinesatterfield]

The Trey Cooley case. Not a crime per say (his death was accidental) but it fascinated me how a combination of factors could lead to a bullet ricocheting in a precise enough manner to kill somebody sitting that far away. Especially at a gun range too, where you'd expect stringent safety guidelines.

[Deleted]

I don't have a favorite because to me, that sounds like I'm making the worst day of someone's life into a movie to decide I'm going to put on - but I'll say the one that sticks with me the most and haunts me is Susan Powell.

She documented her belongings and left notes indicating if anything happened to her, her husband Josh did it. The exact phrasing of a secret will she left at her place of work was "if I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one." It's a LOT: from meeting Josh who had already displayed abusive tendencies in his previous relationships, having to live with his father who became obsessive and voyeuristic to her, including writing love songs to her and stealing her underwear - this is his son's wife, I feel the need to repeat. He had thousands of photos and videos he took of her without her knowledge.

Josh bought his expensive belongings in her name and filed bankruptcy. He destroyed these items when he was angry. This was over $200,000 worth of damage and ruined her prospects of going anywhere else because she didn't have the credit anymore, and Josh's controlling and narcissistic ways didn't let up.

Susan "disappeared" on a December night. When questioned by the police Josh says he took their children camping so he doesn't know what happened to her... despite during a wellness check there were box fans blowing on the couch and it being frigid, freezing December. It's reported he told his coworkers in a previous job as he was a leech off of Susan during their marriage that if he was going to make someone disappear, he'd throw them deep in the mines. His children drew pictures in class of them on the car ride to this camping trip and in their pictures they were asked where Susan was and were told "mommy's in a bag in the trunk." Police determined his brother had taken the battery and Sim out of his phone for 3 days so it couldn't be tracked, then tried to dispose of the car at a junk yard where cadaver dogs had a positive indication a body had been in the car. They were closing in on his brother, who jumped off the roof and took his secrets to the grave.

Josh's dad was convicted of having illicit material featuring children and the courts ordered Josh and the kids to move out. Josh rented a house nearby but neighbors state no one ever moved in... it's thought he rented the house only to make it appear as if he satisfied the court order.

Even with this circumstantial evidence the judges couldn't take the Powells children from Josh until some time. It was when the police found hentai (as well as other disgusting images featuring animals) on one of his computers (over a year later as he had a LOT of encrypting that they couldn't break through) that he was recommended to be evaluated as the pornography itself wasn't illegal, but depicted young characters... as an overbearing parent to young children? It caused the subsequent evaluation which finally led to the children being placed with Susan's parents as their guardians and he was approved for supervised visits with a social worker.

Josh didn't take this well.

When the social worker came for the supervised visit? Josh invited the boys in and shut the door and locked the social worker out. The 9-1-1 call is on YouTube and it's very upsetting, the operator was so dismissive and undertrained. Inside the house? Josh was taking a hatchet to the kids while smoke and flames began to grow. Josh planted an explosive in the house that blew it up, killing himself and his already butchered children.

The children were buried where a memorial of their mother is but even in death, the Powells are still bastards. Josh's mom and sister wanted to buy a plot next to them, in order to bury Josh's remains with his boys... as if he wasn't the one that killed them and their mother. The city prevented this from happening by buying the plots around the memorial - some people question if this is the city overexpanding their reach and showing bias but most people tend to think it's just poor taste to allow a murderer to be buried next to his victims. Because of this, Josh was cremated and is not buried next to the children he killed.

Overall it just is wild to me that there were so many people willing to help Josh not only kill his wife but cover it up. He got away with it for over 3 years before facing the ramifications of having his children taken from him. Then to be approved for supervised visits when he's the suspect in a murder case? They should have cut his access to the kids off, full stop. His brother committed suicide to keep the secret of how involved he was. His dad died by natural causes after his family did and still never said a word. Susan's remains still haven't been found. He and his family made websites to slander Susan and try to cover or invent reasons for why she's gone - oh she's not dead, she is mentally ill, she ran off with someone else, here are her diaries from when she was young that show her lusting after other men - its just so frustrating how everything was handled and planned and 13 years later, there's still no answers.

[princessz]

Don't really watch/listen to/read true crime per se. But stories about grifters whose scams get increasingly complicated and ridiculous? I'll have a listen.

[Chloe Storm]

"The Innocent Man" is a Netflix doc about a double murder in Ada, OK (about 1.5 hours from where I live). It's a good watch and crazy story.

I've watched a ton of random stuff about the whole D.B. Cooper hijacking and it's so interesting haha. That one I'll always watch something about.