WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Early Friday evening a detective with the West Valley Police Department served a subpoena to ABC 4 News Director Matt Malyn. The subpoena's language broadly asked for video related to the Susan Powell missing person case. But detectives only seemed interested in one tape containing the original interview with Josh Powell conducted last week on the steps of the Powell family home in West Valley. In fact, police also delivered similar subpoenas at the other TV news organizations in Salt Lake City seeking raw tape of their interviews with Powell.
Police would not say why they want to hear everything Powell said to the media. Powell has been called a "person of interest" in the disappearance of his wife, Susan Powell.
Josh Powell claims he last saw her late Sunday night, December 6. He said she went to bed and he took camping their two young sons -- ages 4 and 2. Susan's family has questioned that story saying Susan was too good a mother to allow the boys to go camping in freezing temperatures as a major winter storm was hitting Northern Utah.
A family friend said she called Josh Powell that next day to ask where he was and to say his wife was missing. He returned home with the children around 5:00 p.m.
Detectives and forensic teams have twice searched the Powell home. The latest search warrant was executed Thursday afternoon. An ABC 4 camera recorded detectives removing something in brown paper sacks, but they would not say what was in those sacks.
On Friday a police spokesman reiterated their desire to question Josh Powell again. But, he said the manner of questioning proposed by Powell's criminal defense attorney is unacceptable. ABC 4 has also learned that Powell was asked to take a polygraph test.
Meanwhile friends of Susan continue to talk to the media. JoVonna Owings and Kiirsi Hellewell both appeared on ABC 4 Friday in an interview with Marti Skold. Though Facebook, Hellewell has assembled a small army of people willing to volunteer to do whatever it takes to find Susan. But for now, there is little for them to do other than pass out flyers and say prayers. With no clues to Susan's whereabouts, at this point a search is impractical.
