As authorities launched a massive search for missing Utah mom Susan Powell, her husband, Josh, was drinking in a strip club — that’s the stunning claim of patrons and employees of the Duces Wild “gentleman’s club” in Salt Lake City, who recently told police they saw Josh Powell in the bar from 2:30 to 5 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2009 — the very day the search for his wife began.
Susan Powell was last seen the previous day, Dec. 6.
Josh told police he took their two sons, ages 2 and 4, on a camping trip just after midnight on Dec. 7, after she had gone to bed.
But witnesses insist Josh spent the afternoon carousing with naked women in the bar, which, if true, could blow apart Josh’s already shaky camping-trip alibi.
Four people – a bar patron known as “Sherman,” club owner Rydell Mitchell, the bar’s co-owner and a bouncer – all have told police that while at the strip joint, Josh was “belligerent” to the other patrons and the girls at the bar.
Sherman told police that Josh kept repeating: “I’ve had a really bad day” and “I’ve got a story to tell.” But Josh refused to elaborate, he added.
And according to the witnesses, Josh annoyed other patrons so much they actually applauded when he left the bar.
Police Capt. Tom McLachlan said that security camera tapes at the strip club had been automatically erased by the time police were alerted, so there are no images of Powell at the bar. Investigators say they have not yet been able to definitively prove he was there.
“At this point, we are not able to verify through independent means that that was Josh,” McLachlan said.
