In a chilling twist in the case of missing Utah mom Susan Powell, her husband Josh cold-heartedly destroyed a loving “shrine of hope” outside her home, say friends.
Ribbons and hearts in 28-year-old Susan’s favorite color purple, as well as messages, teddy bears and optimistic signs hoping for her safe return, were ripped from the house and trashed.
“I found almost everything gone except a purple ribbon lying in the gutter,” angry neighbor April Lipsey told The ENQUIRER.
Adding to friends’ heartbreak, after the decorations came down, Josh, 34 – who’s been named a “person of interest” by police – moved renters into the home from which mother-of-two Susan vanished on Dec. 6.
Josh told police he left his wife asleep after midnight and took their children Charlie, 4, and 2-year-old Braden on a spur-of-the moment wilderness camping trip – despite a snowstorm and temperatures as low as 10 degrees.
He returned, he said, to find Susan missing. But he refused to pinpoint the campsite for detectives – and they soon learned that the devoted mom’s marriage was in trouble.
Then, shockingly, Josh abruptly moved with the children from their home in West Valley City, Utah, to his father’s home 900 miles away in Puyallup, Wash.
On Jan. 28, with the hunt for Susan at a standstill, strangers came from miles away to join her brother and sister-in-law and close friends and neighbors in turning the property into an emotional shrine of hope.
A large sign decorated with a heart proclaimed: “We Love You Susan.”
Another declared: “We Will Bring You Home.”
Purple ribbons, hearts and handwritten messages abounded.
Adding to the new drama, Susan’s parents publicly pointed the finger at Josh for the first time.
“He’s got to know something,” charged Chuck Cox. “He’s thrown a roadblock without his cooperation.”
April, whose own stepsister vanished 18 months ago and was later found murdered, told The ENQUIRER: “It makes everybody think he knows Susan isn’t coming back – otherwise he’d still be in their home, waiting and praying for her return.”
