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emotionally ill, that somehow he could change if he had psychiatric treatment or took the right kind of medications. There were people in Josh’s family who suffered from bipolar and other mental disorders. Maybe that was what was wrong with Josh. Maybe he was clinically depressed and couldn’t help the way he acted.
    She vowed to try once more, and she emailed her friends about that.
    “I want him in counseling, on meds. I want my husband, friend, lover BACK. No more crazy, outrageous, outlandish beliefs/opinions.
    “I know everyone else will support me in whatever decisions I make, even if that means I crash anyone’s house in the middle of the night with my boys in tow. Hope that never happens! Or stay with him. But, believe me, my bottom line is HE WILL DO COUNSELING . . . I’m sure if he fixes himself, everyone else will see a much closer version of the guy I married. And it will be easy enough to forget the hell and turmoil he’s put me through.”
    At one time over that bleak summer, a friend had told Susan, “If you can’t have faith, have hope at least.”
    And Susan emailed the quote back to her, adding, “I WANT to have hope . . .”
    Susan Powell didn’t lack emotional support from her family, her friends, her church, and the worst of her troubles with Josh seemed to smooth over for the rest of 2008. He agreed to limited counseling for about four months, although Susan couldn’t see much progress; Josh wouldn’t admit to any fault on his part.
    She worked full-time and Josh stayed home and looked after Charlie and Braden. He was good with the boys. Susan clung to that. Josh loved his kids, and maybe that would be the impetus for him to work on their marriage.

Chapter Four
    In December 2008, Josh made some peculiar comments to their friends and to other men at an office Christmas party that Susan’s company hosted. But no one took him seriously. He was an odd duck and most of the people the Powells knew in West Valley City and Salt Lake City had come to expect him to be a little socially unacceptable. They liked Susan a lot, and chatting with Josh just came along with their affection for Susan.
    *   *   *
    Josh Powell was the second child to be born to Steven Craig Powell and Terrica Martin Powell. All families are different, but the Powells’ home was perhaps more bizarre than most. They were Mormons, too, but Steve was becoming more and more critical of those beliefs.
    Josh’s great-grandfather Samuel Lester Powell Sr. apparently embraced one branch of Mormonism that approved of multiple marriage. Born in Alberta, Canada, in 1904, he married two women—both around 1925. One was Ella Christina Reeves, who had two children before she married Samuel, and the other was Ouita A. Laughlin. The women were very close in age; both of them were born in the late spring of 1904. Ouita gave birth to Samuel Lester Powell Jr. in 1926. It may have been that Samuel Sr. was only giving Ella and her children a home, taking her under his wing as a platonic “wife.” Brigham Young had provided rooms and “protection” in his huge home for spinsters whom no men had chosen.
    The old man, the first Samuel, passed away in 1982 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, as did Ouita. Ella died in July 1989.
    Samuel L. Powell Jr. was Steven’s father. All of that connected family lived in Idaho.
    Steven Craig Powell, Josh’s father, was born in 1949, and his mother is listed on the family tree as Mabel J. Roach. Steven has always claimed that he was an abused child whose mother abandoned him often, leaving him with grandparents. According to him, his grandmother was cruel, telling him his mother was never coming back for him. Is this Steven’s imagination?
    It may be true. Or it may not. Steven was raised around Puyallup, Washington, in Pierce County, and later moved to Spokane.
    Who initiated the family tree page on Ancestry.com is unknown, but it was probably Josh because his name and those of Susan, Charlie, and Braden