Sister-in-law of Susan Powell releases book of her experiences


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Susan Powell case has garnered national attention and now her sister-in-law has written a book about the experience.

Jennifer Graves, sister-in-law of missing West Valley mom Susan Cox Powell released her book "A Light In Dark Places" on June 24 with a book signing in South Jordan.

Graves is well-known in Utah and Washington as being an advocate for Susan and her deceased children, Charlie and Braden after Susan went missing in 2009 and the boys were killed after Josh Powell blew up their family home in February 2012.

Graves said that she felt a strong urge to write the book of her insights into the Josh and Susan Powell tragedy.

"You know I felt 'a call' if you will, pretty soon after she disappeared and I was freaked out about it and I wasn't sure I was up to it, but it just kept coming back to me and coming back to me and so I pursued that," Graves said.

In her book, Graves shared her experiences of growing up with Josh and details from his childhood and teenage years. She also gave insights into Josh and Susan's early relationship and marriage.


I do hope that people will find the courage to get out of the situation if they are in a potentially disastrous situation with this.

–Jennifer Graves, author


"I noticed in retrospect that there were clues that we probably didn't even notice were there," Graves said. "For instance, the killing of animals, small animals without any heart. It's apparently a sign of a potential killer."

Graves also disclosed information about her father, Steven Powell. Powell was arrested in September 2011 on charges of voyeurism and possessing child porn.

"I knew as a young child and especially as a teenager that (my father) was going down a pretty bad path and we chose, my husband and I, early in our marriage that we wouldn't have that strong of a connection with him for the benefit of our children," she said. "We wanted to make sure that (our kids) were safe from the twisted effects that we saw in my sibilings."

Graves and her co-author, Emily Clawson, hope that the book will help people to have courage to get themselves out of bad situations.

"I do hope that people will find the courage to get out of the situation if they are in a potentially disastrous situation with this. Maybe they will find the courage finally to say, ‘You know what? My situation is fairly similar to this.' And they will make the moves and get out of it."

"A Light in Dark Places" in on sale on amazon.com and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Susan Cox Powell Foundation and Chainbreakers Foundations.

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Faith Heaton Jolley

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast