Welcome to the podcast, Crime Salad, where we talk true crime.

I'm your host Ashley, and with me always is my husband and partner in crime, Ricky.

The purpose of this podcast is to honor the victims through ethical storytelling in the

hopes of preventing future tragedies. We want our stories to resonate and educate

others in hopes that some of these similar cases with identifiable patterns can be prevented.

Now, before we jump in, please let us warn you that this is a true crime podcast.

The details of this episode may be triggering to some listeners.

Listener discretion advised.

Every parent strives for their children to have meaningful fulfilling lives.

To some, this could entail teaching their children a family trade,

funding their college studies, or showing them how to prepare the perfect thanksgiving turkey

for the whole family to enjoy. Now, sometimes, a parent's ideal outcome for their child

doesn't quite match up with the life their child leads. When these ideas depart from each other,

relationships can become strained, leading to the age old rebellious teenager versus

disapproving parent trope. On this episode of Crime Salad, we examine the unbelievable outcome

of a very close mother and daughter relationship, a murder that had family and friends in pure disbelief,

the murder of Brenda Powell.

Let's begin in Akron, Ohio. On a quaint suburban street of Akron, in a small, white,

ranch-style house, Steven and Brenda Powell lived with their two teenage children, Sydney and Andrew.

You might consider them your typical upper-middle-class American family, as both parents worked,

both children attended a private Catholic high school, and the family vacationed regularly,

whether it was to Disney World or the beach. Steven and Brenda even had a 529 plan set up to cover

...