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This podcast discusses domestic violence, criminal behavior,

murder, and adult themes.

While not explicit, listener discretion is advised.

Susan Powell's 27th birthday was, by most any estimation, a disaster.

She arrived home from a long date work at 10.30pm to find her house a mess.

Toys and clothes belonging to her two young sons were scattered about the living room.

Dirty dishes, measuring spoons and sippy cups, decked the kitchen counter.

The cake her husband had baked sat unfrosted next to them.

Badger splattered onto the vinyl floor was slowly drying into a crust.

Josh Powell sat at his computer watching Saturday Night Live clips on the internet.

The 2008 presidential election loomed in less than a month.

He loved the sketches that lampooned GOP running mates John McCain and Sarah Pala.

He took pride in being blue in the red state of Utah and often started political arguments with

his conservative neighbors. When his wife came through the door, exhausted from a 10.5 hour shift

on the phones at Wells Fargo investments, he suggested she go into the kitchen and finish frosting

her cake. Instead, Susan cleaned. She wiped up the spills. She put away the toys.

At least she reasonsed to herself as she plunged her hands into soapy dishwater.

Her good for nothing husband had managed to put the kids down to bed.

The next morning, Susan took three-year-old Charlie and one-year-old Braden to a small

neighborhood carnival put on by her church. She returned home to find the cake at last frosted.

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