SALT LAKE CITY — Five years after Utah mother Susan Powell went missing, a court battle is raging over millions in life insurance money between her parents and the family of her husband, the only suspect in her disappearance.
Saturday marks five years since Susan Powell vanished. Her body has never been found. While husband Josh Powell was investigated as a suspect, he wasn’t arrested before he killed himself and the couple’s children two years ago.
Now, Josh Powell’s family says they’re entitled to half of $2.3 million in proceeds from life insurance policies taken out on the couple and their two sons. They want a judge to declare that Susan Powell died the day of her disappearance: Dec. 6, 2009.
While the Powells say they are protecting their legal rights, lawyers for the family of the missing woman says they still hope she’ll be found and accused their former in-laws of trying to profit off her death.
“After arguing for years that Joshua had nothing to do with Susan’s disappearance, they are now trying to prove he killed her in hopes that they might obtain a piece of her estate,” the lawyers wrote in court documents.
Powell attorney Joshua Lee denies that, telling the Salt Lake Tribune they’re not weighing in on how she died.
If the judge finds Susan Powell died in 2009, her in-laws say it would mean they would get $1.15 million, half of what a federal judge in Washington has decided should go to her family. U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton awarded a much smaller amount, about $793,000, to the Powells in a May ruling.
Sister Alina Powell has denied her brother killed his wife. She and her mother argue the money was originally supposed to be split between the two families and Susan Powell’s father, Charles Cox, wrongly shut them out last year.
Judge Mark Kouris dealt the Powells a setback Friday, denying a motion that would prevent Cox from using the money.
The Powells are also appealing another order that found they don’t have a right to the money because they waited too long to object to Cox’s actions, even though he didn’t follow all the proper procedures.
