Hardback: It was 9am on Monday, 7 December, 2009, in West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City. It was in the middle of a three-day winter storm. Debbie Caldwell pulled up in her Ford Club Wagon in front of 6254 W Sarah Circle and observed how quiet her friend and neighbour Susan's house seemed.
She knocked on the front door several times. No answer. She had already called Susan on her cell phone. When there was no answer, she tried Susan's work phone at Wells Fargo Investments and, finally, their home landline. Again, no answer.
Susan, 28, and Josh, 33, usually dropped their children Braden, 2, and Charlie, 4, at Daydreams and Fun Things Child Care as early as 6am. When they didn't appear that morning, Debbie started trying to reach the young parents. Susan was always prompt and conscientious. Josh was another story.
Debbie dialed Josh's employer, Aspen Distribution, a trucking and shipping firm where he did computer programming. They said that Josh hadn't shown up for work. When no one answered the front door of their house, she phoned the name listed as Josh and Susan's emergency contact, his sister, Jennifer Graves.
Jennifer and her mother, Terrica (Terry) Powell, went over to their house. Finding it locked up tightly they tried both Josh's and Susan's cell phones, which went to voice mail.
Then Terri phoned the West Valley City police to report the family missing.
New York Times bestselling authors Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris investigate one of the twenty-first century's most puzzling disappearances and how it resulted in the murder of two children by their father.
Every once in a great while, a genuine murder mystery unfolds before the eyes of the American public.
The tragic story of Susan Powell and her murdered boys, Charlie and Braden, is the only case that rivals the JonBenét Ramsey saga in the annals of true crime.
When the pretty Utah mother went missing in December of 2009, the media was swept up in the story - with lenses and microphones trained on Susan's husband, Josh.
He said he had no idea what happened to his young wife, and that he and the boys had been camping in the middle of a snowstorm.
Over the next three years, bombshell by bombshell, the story would reveal more shocking secrets, Josh's father, Steve, who was sexually obsessed with Susan, would ultimately be convicted of unspeakable perversion.
And in 2012, in the most stunning event of them all, Josh Powell would murder his two little boys and kill himself with a brutality beyond belief, leaving a family destroyed and a nation in shock. Josh's brother, Michael, would commit suicide in 2013.
On 21 May 2013, West Valley City police announced that they had closed the active investigation into Susan Powell's disappearance. However, there may be future investigations and Susan Powell's family have not given up searching for her.
There is always hope, courage and love, no matter how dark things may seem.
About the authors: A New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Gregg Olsen has written nine nonfiction books, ten novels, and a novella, and has contributed a short story to a colleciton edited by Lee Child.
Rebecca Morris is the New York Times bestselling author of Bodies of Evidence (with Gregg Olsen) and Ted and Ann. She is an award-winning reported and has worked as a journalist in New York City; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington.
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