SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Could Josh Powell have been in a bar the afternoon after his wife disappeared?
A bartender, a bouncer and at least one regular patron at the "Duces Wild" strip bar in South Salt Lake all say, “yes.”
They told West Valley Police detectives that Josh Powell put in an appearance the afternoon of Monday, December 7th.
One of the bar owners believes it was Powell’s first and only appearance at his bar. “As far as I know, we’ve only seen him one time,” he said.
Nevertheless, he claims Josh Powell made an impression. He said, “He acted a little bit off the wall.” His co-owner, Kimberly, said, “At one point, I guess, he took somebody else’s beer off the table.” She adds that Powell was talking loudly about what a bad day he was having. “He was belligerent to the other patrons and the girls at the bar,” said Sherman, a regular who explained that he sat next to Powell.
“He just kept saying over and over, ‘I’ve had a really bad day’ and ‘I’ve got a story to tell,” Sherman said. And yet, when he finally asked him, ”What is it?” Powell refused to elaborate.
He caused such a ruckus, that when he left the bar around 4:30 p.m. Sherman said, “Everybody applauded.”
It wasn’t until a week later, after Powell’s picture had been shown several times on the news, that folks at the bar say they figured out their guest had been Josh Powell. Sherman said, “He drew my attention because nobody forgets a jerk. And it’s just one of those things that bothered me … When I saw his face on TV I recognized that yeah, that is definitely the guy.”
West Valley detectives did investigate. A department spokesman explained that since there was no surveillance video, they could not verify the story.
At least one friend of Susan Powell doubts the bar story because it was “so unlike Josh.”
And if it was Josh Powell, where were his boys? Powell allegedly told police that he left with his then 4 and 2 year old sons just after midnight for a camping trip and returned home with them around 5:00 p.m. No one at the bar claimed to have seen the two young boys.
