PUYALLUP, Wash. — This week marks 14 years since a Washington woman, Susan Cox Powell, went missing in Utah.
She has not been found, but her story has gripped a generation, and as her father Chuck Cox tells us, her impact lives on.
It's the reason dozens gathered around the angel statue dedicated to Cox Powell at Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup for a candlelight vigil this week. As always, her family was in attendance. The Coxs live in Puyallup.
"Now it's kind of settled down to probably between 50 and 75 people a year," said Cox,
Early last year, Cox expressed his optimism for finding his daughter's remains after visiting a search of an abandoned mine in Utah's west desert.
He describes his daughter as loving and loyal.
“She wanted to be the best wife and mother and support her husband," said Cox.
It turned out, however, that the bones and clothing found were not those of his daughter.
"They thought it was a male, not a female," explained Cox.
As the years go by, he has gotten somewhat used to false alarms like these; to spare disappointment, he’s altered his outlook.
"You have to say, 'Well, somebody else has their loved one,'" said Cox.
Cox Powell vanished in December of 2009. Her husband, Josh Powell, was a person of interest in the case, but police told the family that there wasn't enough evidence to arrest him as a suspect.
"Because if you’re a suspect, they have to tell you what evidence they have," said Cox.
Powell told police he had taken the couple’s boys, Charlie and Braden Powell, camping on the night his wife disappeared.
Powell later lost custody of the boys. But tragically, during a visit that was supposed to be supervised by the state in 2012, Powell killed the boys, and himself.
"A father takes a hatchet to his children and lights a house on fire and blows the whole thing up," said Cox.
More than a decade later, Cox won a lawsuit against Washington state for nearly $100 million.
Cox invited KING 5 into his home and showed us the angel statuettes they have displayed around photos of their departed loved ones.
"Susan liked angels, and we consider the children were little angels when they were taken from this earth,” said Cox.
With her family's charity work, Cox said that the money he won in court has gone full circle to help domestic violence survivors.
Each year at his daughter's vigil, he said he meets new people who come to pay their respects.
"They say, 'Because of your story, my daughter got out of this,' or my child. And so, it’s helping people, so when you have that… it’s… it’s worth it," said Cox.
If you have any information that can help police in finding the remains of Cox Powell, you’re asked to contact the police.