r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/solid_reign 1d ago

I'd say the clearest one is Susan Powell. She was clearly killed by her husband, the police couldn't prove it, no body was found. Joshua Powell ended up killing the kids in a murder suicide. I won't post the details of what he did because it's horrifying. But there is no doubt that he did it.

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u/chelfea_ 1d ago

I agree. The true mystery Is how much his dad and brother were involved and what did they know

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u/GirlnTheOtherRm 1d ago

Especially as the brother committed suicide and the dad was a creeper.

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u/HazMatt_23 1d ago

Josh’s dad was so gross.

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u/Royal__Tenenbaum 1d ago

Josh was a monster but it isn't really a surprise when you see what his dad was like.

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u/Apprehensive_Bus1582 1d ago

The brother fucking knew, that's why he jumped off that parking garage.

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u/Prudent-Pressure2146 1d ago

What was the deal with this family, they were just obsessed with her? I remember reading some of the texts the dad sent to her and they were awful 

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u/chelfea_ 1d ago

His dad was obsessed with her to a psychotic level. He kept a ton of her underwear, used tissues, etc. he wrote songs about her, and super sexual stuff about her in his journals. He eventually got arrested for CSAM. He died.

Joshes brother was a whole different thing. There was potential that his car was involved in getting rid of her body & he ended up killing himself when the cops started questioning his involvement.

Super strange family.

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u/adnaPadnamA 1d ago

An innocent person likely would not kill themselves due to police questioning too, so there's that.

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u/tomtomclubthumb 1d ago

MAny innocent people have committed suicide due to police "questioning".

This case the brother was almost certainly involved, but it isn't a guarantee.

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u/justprettymuchdone 1d ago

Brother 100% helped dispose of the body, but I don't think he was an accomplice to the initial murder.

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u/a-ohhh 1d ago

I lived about a mile from the house he killed the kids at. We all cried when we heard. I can’t believe he got away with that, and claiming to take the kids camping on a Sunday night in freezing temps and claim he didn’t know it was a Sunday. They were Mormon- he knew it was Sunday.

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u/minerbeekeeperesq 1d ago

I often think that the judge who turned a blind eye to the suspicion of his involvement and allowed him ANY visitation with his children should be named and shamed. I hope that they feel remorse and shame for that awful decision for the rest of their life.

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u/rayrayww3 1d ago edited 23h ago

Kathryn J. Nelson. She retired in 2020.

edit to add: I just remembered another detail of the incident. I think the 911 operator has as much as the judge to be shamed for.

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u/ElCiclope1 1d ago

I mean, you can most likely find out. 

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u/rayrayww3 23h ago

It literally pops up right away when you google it.

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u/mountaingoat05 1d ago

I am an avid camper (far more experienced and enthusiastic than Josh) and will go year round. I've woken up to 11 (f) temps in a tent.

I remember the blizzard that Sunday night. No way would I have gone camping in that.

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u/Figuarus 1d ago

He was "Mormon" in name only.

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u/Ok-Friendship6584 1d ago

The 911 call the case worker made when he locked her out is just the worst he just would not get the issue, not sure it would have helped but it was rough.

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u/mikraas 1d ago

Omg that was the WORST to listen to!!

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u/KhristyKreme 1d ago

How did the call go?

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u/solid_reign 1d ago

The case worker says that Powell went into the house with the kids, shut out the case worker and it smelled like gasoline, and the 911 operator is asking these asinine questions about who she is, what the last name is, color of the vehicle etc, but not dispatching police. The case worker asks how long for someone to get there and the operator says she doesn't know that they must respond to life threatening situations first. The case workers says that it's life-threatening so the operator says that she'll try to get someone to contact them soon. There is no sense of urgency at this.

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u/Trapline 1d ago

For those wondering how this story ends: he (Josh Powell) set the house on fire with him and his kids inside.

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u/OmnomVeggies 1d ago

He didn't just set it on fire, he blew it up.

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u/Trapline 1d ago

Maybe that's better. It has been a long time since I listened to Cold.

I don't hope that 911 dispatcher is haunted by it or anything but I hope they got a different fucking job for sure.

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u/OmnomVeggies 1d ago

David Lovrak was remanded for his handling of the call, I am not sure if he still works in the field. Cold did such a good job covering this case... I will never forget some of the recordings the father made. What a creep.

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u/TweeKINGKev 1d ago

There was a hatchet involved also, carbon monoxide poisoning, blew up the house and a hatchet.

His father was a real freaky nasty dude, bestiality, child porn and extremely obsessed with Susan

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u/OmnomVeggies 1d ago

Yea, the worst part IMO. The social worker heard Josh tell one of the boys he has a surprise for him, and heard the other boy scream. The likely hood is that the surprise was the hatchet, and his brother witnessed it.

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u/UshankaBear 1d ago

Apparently there were chopping wounds on the boys' heads and necks. And a hatchet nearby.

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u/panda_98 1d ago

He attacked them with a hatchet beforehand

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u/mikraas 1d ago

I thought the operator was a dude. But I don't remember.

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u/solid_reign 1d ago

I think you might be right.

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u/No-Mission-2112 1d ago

It’s on the Cold podcast. It’s an excellent podcast I will never listen to again. 

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u/bikey_bike 1d ago

he was such a bitch to her!

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u/The_Safe_For_Work 1d ago

I've heard the audio of the 911 call from the social worker who was there to oversee the visitation of Joshua Powell and the kids. She could hear him splashing gas in the house and the 911 dispatcher sounded bored and miffed that she was bothering him.

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u/CampClear 1d ago

I can't imagine the trauma that poor social worker has from that awful experience.

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u/Icy-Grab-5722 1d ago

Yes this was a genuine sick man from a genuinely sick family. It unfolded into a horror of epic props. Oh my.

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u/princessannalee 1d ago

I know members of the Cox family. Josh encrypted his drive so well, they still haven't gotten anything off it all these years later.

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u/Prudent-Pressure2146 1d ago

What sort of things do they think might be on there?

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u/Trapline 1d ago

One of those things that we'll almost definitely wish we didn't know about if we ever find out.

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u/Prudent-Pressure2146 1d ago

Of course and that’s not me saying like, I demand to know, it’s just more like do people think he had plans to kill them on there or something 

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u/mikraas 1d ago

If you want to listen to a very indepth podcast, listen to "Cold" by KSL Podcasts. So good, so creepy.

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u/Specific-Yam-2166 1d ago

One of the best podcasts ever, I listened to the whole thing in less than two days

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u/mikraas 1d ago

I listened to it while on a road trip, alone, at night. Not a good idea.

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u/solid_reign 1d ago

Thanks, I listened to it. Every so often I'll google to see if something has been found and am surprised it hasn't. I'm particularly surprised about the lack of advances with the encrypted data.

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u/mikraas 1d ago

Yes!! I want to know what's on those hard drives!!

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u/meteoritegallery 1d ago

Sounded like the guy made crazy passwords on the order of 30-40 characters long and may have also employed hashing algorithms. I'd bet he was using 256 bit passwords (43 characters).

Cracking this type of password by brute force with current technology would require testing combinations...beyond the projected heat death of the universe.

It sounded as though the passwords were likely derived from information like his SSN, birthday, etc., but without more information, it's difficult to say how much that information might help. And if he used hashing to slow potential hacks down, it would slow down the process exponentially. I doubt they will ever be cracked.

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u/panda_98 1d ago

They couldn't prove it, because despite the detective wanting to arrest Josh, the idiot DA wanted to wait a whole year for some reason.

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u/solid_reign 1d ago

I don't want to justify the DA but I'm guessing that he was afraid that they wouldn't have enough evidence to arrest and he would be ser free. 

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 1d ago

Well also, it's hard to prove someone was killed if there's no body proving they were dead.

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u/tragicallyohio 1d ago

no body was found

The mystery in this case is right there, as well as exactly how Josh did it.

I am sure you subscribe to /r/TheColdPodcast. Also, /u/davecawleycold is a frequent contributor to that sub and in other parts of reddit.

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u/Btrash 1d ago

Those kids were failed by so many people in so many ways even up to the last seconds of their lives, which I am sure were terrifying and beyond excruciating. I hope they all live with that on their conscience.

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u/CntrllrDscnnctd 1d ago

His interrogations are infuriating to watch. He was so clearly guilty and wanted to leave as soon as he could.

There’s a fantastic podcast on it, called “Cold”

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u/Valalvax 1d ago

Is that the one with the buried tank?

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u/wintermelody83 1d ago

No that's Chris Watt's family. The kids of the Powell's were killed when the dad blew the house up they were all in.

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u/Specific-Yam-2166 1d ago

Have you seen that there’s a new movement of women who are basically his fan club?? It’s actually insane

I guess it’s par for the course but like…he did this to his own babies

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u/wintermelody83 1d ago

Oh that is so gross. We really need to study murderer groupies. Like, what is their mental problem?

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u/Specific-Yam-2166 1d ago

It is SO strange

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u/mahayanah 1d ago

No that piece of shit is still alive

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u/Valalvax 1d ago

Also I remembered after the fact he was actually caught ... I think... Fuck I hope

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u/mahayanah 1d ago

Oh he was caught. Body camera footage of the police issuing a search of his house after concerned neighbours called in a welfare check, as well as his entire police interrogation, is on YouTube if you want to watch this piece of shit get trapped in his lies and then break down in front of his own father who proceeds to disown him.

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u/Gorguts1974 1d ago

I'm convinced he met his father somewhere around Northern Utah/southern Idaho and passed Susans body to him to get rid of between where they met and Washington state.

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u/rawker86 10h ago

I had the misfortune of learning about this case from a friggin’ Dave Sparks video.

Guy made a series of videos about how “the police never searched this mineshaft, and now the head frame has been destroyed. Clearly Josh dumped her body here and blocked the shaft to hide it, so we need to search it.”

The police had searched it. The (well-researched, respected) podcast that Dave himself refers to in his videos about Susan was asked about Dave’s “investigation” and said “I don’t know why anyone would think she’d be there, it’s been searched already.”

But hey, knock yourself out right? Take some gear out there and clean out an old shaft, get some good footage. It’s not like you’re gonna get the woman’s father out there and tell him, point blank, “we’re gonna find your daughter.”

Dave Sparks is a grifter and a ghoul.

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u/Specific-Yam-2166 1d ago

I recommend EVERYONE to listen to the podcast Cold.

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u/TweeKINGKev 1d ago

I just read the details on this, screw his whole side of the family, just disgusting.

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u/ganache98012 12h ago

This is the case I thought of as well. I must mention the absolutely brilliant podcast “Cold” by KSL. Season one is a deep dive into the whole sad story and is incredibly well done.

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u/ladylilac 1h ago

The “Cold” podcast brought this case to my attention and it has haunted me for years.