Estimated read time: 3-4 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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 podcast “Cold” returns with five bonus episodes beginning Wednesday as the 10th anniversary of Susan Powell’s disappearance nears.
Three of the new episodes to be released over the span of the next few weeks will feature a closer look at new discoveries since the show launched, while the other two include new interviews with Powell’s parents and audio from the show’s live event at Eccles Theater earlier this year.
“They are very much investigative-focused, following up on loose ends that didn’t make it into the full first season,” Dave Cawley, “Cold” creator and host, said of the three investigative episodes.
He explained the team, which is working on a future season that will focus on a different case, put together the bonus episodes of the first season after finding a good enough reason to return. Cawley added the episodes contain some “significant” new discoveries in the case that may help clarify more of what actually happened.
“Without giving away too much information, the last of our new episodes will include a revelation that I think many people will be very surprised to hear,” he continued.
Wednesday’s episode centers around data recovered from a GPS tracking device authorities used to keep tabs on movements made by Josh Powell, Susan’s husband and the person widely believed to be connected to her disappearance. Susan Powell was last seen on Dec. 6, 2009, and was reported missing the following day.
As you may recall from earlier episodes of the show, police had placed the device on Josh Powell’s minivan after he had returned from the West Desert. Some of the places he visited were reported on, but the hard data was never revealed on the show.
The "Cold" team had copies of the GPS tracking “but — without getting too technical — it’s very voluminous," Cawley explained. "The amount of data that was recorded is so large that it takes a long time to sit down and sift through it point by point because, over the space of the first couple of weeks, you’re talking about tens of thousands of individual points that were recorded by this tracker.”
The “Cold” team decoded the data and picked apart odd locations Josh Powell may have visited that police might have missed while they tracked his whereabouts.
For the most part, the locations were already known through other records; however, Cawley said there were other “anomalous” trips starting the week after Susan Powell disappeared until when he left Utah on Dec. 18, 2009, that don’t appear to have been included in police files.
Cold provided West Valley City police with their findings and requested comment. In an email, police spokeswoman Roxeanne Vainuku said “the absence of a location being documented in a log does not equate to investigators being unaware of the location.”
One of the unusual locations was a dumpster at the Serengeti Springs apartment complex in West Jordan. Records show Josh Powell drove from his home in West Valley City to the dumpster on the morning of Dec. 14, 2009, which was a week after Susan Powell was reported missing. Why he went there and what he did there remain a mystery.
Look what we found. New episodes begin this week. pic.twitter.com/KloA4ZfvgB
— Cold (@thecoldpodcast) November 25, 2019
The show previously revealed Josh Powell had traveled to West Wendover, Nevada, where he purchased fast food before traveling back to Utah — making odd stops along the way. He also visited a chiropractor 10 days after Susan Powell's disappearance.
Cawley described the episode as a “key piece” in the circumstantial case against Josh Powell that pinpoints him at suspicious locations. That said, he acknowledged it’s likely impossible to ever determine exactly what Josh Powell was doing at each site.
"Had law enforcement been able to follow up at the time, I believe it’s likely they would have discovered evidence that would have been significant,” he said.
All five of the new bonus episodes will be available wherever you get your podcasts. Previous episodes of the podcast, as well as evidence from the case can be found on the podcast’s website.
