Missing woman’s father-in-law dies

Steven Powell, the father-inlaw of a long-missing Utah woman whose husband was eyed in a police investigation and later killed himself and his two young children, has died in Washington state.

Powell, 67, died Monday at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma, a year after he completed a prison sentence for possession of child pornography.

Authorities seeking evidence in Susan Powell’s 2009 disappearance searched Steven Powell’s home two years later. Journals and piles of photos found during the investigation suggested that he had a sexual and emotional draw to his daughter-in-law.

Susan Powell remains missing and she is presumed dead. Her family considered Steven Powell the last, most-likely person to know what happened to her.

“I hope maybe he left some notes behind about where Susan might be,” Chuck Cox, Susan Powell’s father, told The Salt Lake Tribune. “And it’s a sad thing that his family’s destroyed, and now he’s gone, too.”

The disappearance case remains open but has gone cold with all leads exhausted, authorities in Utah said Tuesday.

The death of Steven Powell doesn’t “make the case any more or less likely to be solved,” the West Valley City Police Department said.

Authorities named Josh Powell as a person of interest as details emerged regarding his dysfunctional marriage to Susan Powell.

The young mother wrote in her journal in 2008: “If I die, it may not be an accident even if it looks like one ... Take care of my boys.”