Could an abandoned mine in remote White Pine County be the final resting place of a Salt Lake City woman missing for two years?
A small army of West Valley, Utah Police detectives, White Pine County Deputies, news crews and a scouring the Ely area this 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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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, 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 accompanying the searchers. White Pines County Sheriff Dan Watts estimated there are a couple hundred mine shafts in the area.
“We’re going to check every one we can get to,” the sheriff said.
Watts said his office was contacted two days ago by West Valley police who informed him that detectives would be in the area to follow-up on leads in the Powell case.
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 Thursday. “Anything that gets us closer to that is a good thing.”
Koecher
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.
Ramon Somoza, of American Fork, is charged with murder in the Dec. 28, 2009, slaying of 46-year-old Jesus Landin.
When the body was discovered wrapped in garbage bags in a remote area near Wendover, police had no idea who it was. Coincidentally, when news broke of the body’s discovery, American Fork police were questioning a man about the disappearance of one of his employees.
“This will be a rather lengthy trial,” said prosecutor Chad Grunander. “There are several witnesses and it’s also an important case — we’ve alleged murder and obstruction of justice and desecration of a human body.”
Police say Somoza invited Landin over to discuss money that Landin believed Somoza owed him from when Landin worked for Somoza as a security guard at the dance hall. That evening, police say Somoza shot Landin six times.
According to investigators, Somoza then wrapped the body in garbage bags and duct tape, loaded it into his truck and drove out to Nevada near Pilot’s Peak, approximately 20 miles from the border. Once there, Somoza left the body in a shallow ditch, covered in a white shower curtain to disguise it with the patchy snow in the area.
Somoza’s defense attorneys acknowledged that dumping the body was the wrong decision, but say the shooting was a case of self-defense.
Prosecutors said they will present evidence to dispute that claim. “We were not going to be cavalier in our approach to the case,” said Grunander. “We are going to present what evidence we have and make the arguments we can best make to obtain a conviction.”
Landin was from Mexico, and prosecutors said he was working in Utah to support his family. No one in Landin’s family is attending the trial, but prosecutors are keeping his widow and family updated on the progress of the case.
“We will do our best to represent him and his interest and that of his family’s,” said Grunander.
