Josh Powell family to publish teen diaries of missing wife Susan Cox-Powell

WEST VALLEY CITY — The father-in-law of a missing West Valley mother says her journals as a teenager show she was "sexually open" and he plans to publish those personal entries on a website.

Steve Powell said his opinion comes from reading more than 2,000 pages of journal entries written by Susan Cox-Powell, who has been missing since Dec. 6, 2009.

The diary entries were primarily written in the girl's adolescence through the age of 20.

Steve Powell told the Deseret News the journals show that Susan Cox-Powell had an "extremely troubled" adolescence and support the theory both he and his son, Josh Powell, have that the the mother of two left home with another man, specifically another missing Utahn, who disappeared around the same time as she did.

"The journal shows that Susan would have definitely done what we suspect she's done," Steve Powell said. "I don't think she was abducted. I obviously don't think she was murdered. I don't think she committed suicide."

"People don't know there are two distinct sides to Susan," Steve Powell told the "Today" show. "She was … an open person in a sexual way with the opposite sex."

"I want to make it clear that she would not leave her family," Susan Cox-Powell's father, Chuck Cox, said on the show. "She was not sexually active or promiscuous or anything. Those allegations are completely baseless."

Cox said he "cannot believe" Steve Powell would read the journals, much less make them available to the public.

"It's unconscionable he would do it," he said. "I cannot believe he would do that type of thing and then to try and publish it and use it to attack my daughter."

Cox told the Deseret News he is certain his daughter only ever imagined the volumes would be used for her own reflections or to connect with future children.

"We’ve asked to get (the journals) back," Cox said. "They should be with her parents. There's no reason her father-in-law should have them, that's for sure."

Jennifer Graves, Josh Powell's sister, called her father's appearance on "Today" another attempt to slander the missing woman.

"Why take this approach?" Graves asked. "His daughter-in-law is missing, the mother of his grandchildren. Why does he continually try and slander her and turn her into something she's not? I don't understand."

Graves she doesn't believe making the journals public will serve any purpose other than to tarnish the missing woman's name. If there were any real value in the journals, they would be turned over to police, she said.