West Valley Police search mines near Ely. photo courtesy SLC Tribune
White Pine County Deputies are still scratching their heads over last weekends “invasion” by a small army of West Valley, Utah Police detectives and news crews that scoured the Ely area last weekend for the body of Susan Powell a Utah woman who disappeared from her West Valley home under suspicious circumstances two years ago.
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“Frankly I never saw anything like it,” said White Pine Sheriff’s Captain Scott Henroid. “We got a call (last) Wednesday from West Valley saying they would be out here. Of course we offered them our complete cooperation we sent out the press release Thursday they held a press conference Friday went looking into the hills and by Sunday they were gone.”
Susan Cox Powell, 28, a housewife and mother to two children was reported missing from her home in West Valley City on Dec. 7, 2009.
Susan’s husband Joshua Powell told police he last saw his wife getting ready for bed and then took the couple’s two boys, then ages 2 and 4, camping in the family’s van in a remote part of Tooele County. It was initially believed the whole family was gone, but only Joshua Powell and the boys returned the next day. A year ago, West Valley police identified him a person of interest in the case.
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However last December, some law enforcement sources began to link the disappearance of Powell with the disappearance of 30-year-old Steven Koecher of St. George Utah who also went missing at about the same time.
“I’m anticipating a very long, hot day today and possibly a long hot day tomorrow,” West Valley Police Sgt. Mike Powell said at the time, referring to numerous searches that detectives plan to conduct in the remote outskirts of Ely.
“The specifics I’m not able to discuss in any detail at all,” Mike Powell said at a news conference that prompted more questions than provided answers.
The sergeant attributed the lack of additional information to a court-ordered “secrecy order” and invited members of the media to join him and four police detectives on several searches in areas outside of town. The White Pines County Sheriff’s Office and members of the Bureau of Land Management were assisting in the searches.
Well over a dozen reporters and photographers were accompanied the searchers. White Pines County Sheriff Dan Watts estimated there are a couple hundred mine shafts in the area.
The two day search yielded nothing but given the number of possible locations where a body could be hidden that result was not unexpected by local law enforcement.
Officer Mike Powell indicated detectives are looking for something specific, but would not specify.
“This is the first time we’ve been here to follow up on information that led us out here,” the sergeant said, yet also said officers had earlier taken a “preemptive drive” to Ely. “This is definitely not a cold case.”
While Josh Powell has been named a person of interest in the case, but there have never been any official suspects. He and his father, Steve Powell, have since said they believe the woman ran away with another missing Utahan, Steven Koecher, and believe the pair may have been hiding out in Nevada.
“We’ve been working hard to bring Susan home,” Josh Powell told the Deseret News last Thursday. “Anything that gets us closer to that is a good thing.”
Koecher has been missing since Dec. 13, when he was last spotted on a surveillance video in a neighborhood outside Las Vegas.
Coincidentally trial is under way in Provo for a man accused of killing one of his employees and then dumping the body near West Wendover.
When the body was first discovered in Wendover yet unidentified, there was rampant speculation that it belonged to Powell.
