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Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell
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stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are
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so shocking that many are left wondering how is this
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even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections,
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and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator,
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dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so
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evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended
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for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm
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not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's
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kJ here and I am back for another episode of Unspeakable.
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What are you doing? How the hell are things in
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your neck of the woods? I hope they're going fantastic.
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I've had a pretty good day to day. I'm gonna lie.
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I'm recording this in the afternoon, and I found out
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today that I was Teacher of the month. Thank you,
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Beta Club. I'm having a good old time over here,
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so let that be your inspiration. Guys, it only takes
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seventeen years. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, but I've
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had a good seventeen years. But I got to be
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Teacher of the month for the first time, and I'm
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pretty excited about it. Now let's do some shout outs.
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And before I can go anywhere, I have to have
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everybody in Bush, Louisiana stop what they are doing. You
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stop right now. You stop people, if you're in traffic,
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wave them down, tell them to stop, because I have
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to tell them about Jessica Taylor. Jessica Taylor deserved a
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shout out last episode, and I jumped right into my
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episode and I did not even give a shout out
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to her. What was I thinking? Jessica let me know
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about it too. She said she had her friends listening.
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And then I did not do shout outs. I owe
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everybody an apology last episode. I guess I was excited
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and I just jumped right into it. So, Jessica MF
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and Taylor, Jessica Taylor in Bush, Louisiana, this shout out
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is for you. I am so thankful to have you
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and I'm so glad that you joined my Patreon. I
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hope that things are going super well for you. Thank
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you for supporting my show and for your kind words.
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And please accept my apology, girl, because you're my friend.
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You are my friend, and I should have done this
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sooner So, anyway, how is everybody in Bush, Louisiana, Jessica?
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Tell everybody I said, Hey, pat yourself on the back
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because you're just awesome and thank you for messaging me.
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And I can't wait to keep talking to you because
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we're friends now and we're gonna be talking on Patreon. Now,
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let's follow up with Hillsboro, Missouri. That's where Trista Odd is. Hey, Trista,
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how are things over there in Missouri? I have a
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friend that lives there. Her name's Natasha. She likes it there.
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I've never been to Missouri. I need to add that
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again to my list. I haven't been to a lot
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of places. But thank you so much, Trista. And then
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in round Lake Beach, Illinois. That sounds pretty Round Lake Beach, Illinois.
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I've got Cherie Carter. How are you, Sarie? You might
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be my cousin because I have family that's Carter's are
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you my cousin? Thank you so so much for supporting
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my show. And then, last but not least, in Jonesville,
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North Carolina, is Leslie West Hi, Leslie. I hope that
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you are having a fantastic day, and I want to
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just again, thank you so much. For supporting the show
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and making my dreams come true, because I really could
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not do this without you. I'm going to be doing
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this full time soon and I can't wait. I'm so
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excited now. The case I'm doing today, I have been
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wanting to do this one for a long time and
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I use it in my classroom lectures, and so I
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finally sat down and I started putting pen to paper
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after I got a few requests for it as well.
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So if you're one of those people that reached out
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and said, hey, will you do this one, look here
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it is. I wasn'tlying to you. I've been wanting to
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do it, and I've got a good hold on this
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case and it's mind blowing. So the reason I'm telling
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you that is it will take me two episodes to
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do this one. And it's not because I'm trying to
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lead you on. It's because there is so much shit
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in this one that it's going to take me two episodes.
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So y'all come with me to Utah. It's two thousand
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and nine and Susan and Josh Powell are a happily
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married couple who met in college, started this romance and
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then it blossomed into a lifelong commitment of marriage. Susan
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was one of four daughters to Chuck and Judy Cox,
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and they grew up in a traditional Mormon family. She
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loved animals and horseback riding. She was a girl's girl.
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She liked to get her nails done and get her
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hair done, and on occasion, as a teen, she would
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try to be rebellious, and it never really worked out.
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If we're being honest about it, she wasn't very good
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at being rebellious. She just was too good hearted. So
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she might try to be bad, but she really wasn't
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good at it. And on occasion she would step out
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of her comfort zone and she would try new things,
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but for the most part, she stayed reined in and
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was a good girl. She loved going to church. She
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was fond of going to school and had lots of
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friends there. She was well liked, and she also sang
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into sang in the choir. She tried cosmetology school after graduation,
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but it just didn't really pan out and it wasn't
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something that she continued to chase. But that's when she
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met Josh. She was eighteen years old and their meeting
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was all because of the church So this church that
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they were a part of held these social events for
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young single Mormons to come and meet one another that
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were similar and obviously of the same faith. So they
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met there. She was eighteen, Josh was in his early twenties. Now,
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I obviously am not an expert in the Mormon Church,
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so I don't want anyone coming at me, But I
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did look this up to kind of verify where I
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was going with this, and I found that the Mormon
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Church encourages marriage to other Mormons. And I don't think
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that that's strange. I think Christians like to marry Christians,
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and so on and so forth. They put on a
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lot of these events for these young singles so that
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they could find people that were of similar faith or
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the same faith, and that they could raise children and
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get married and all those good things. Josh and Susan
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were smitten with one another, and their relationship seemed to
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move pretty fast. They newly met in October, but by
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December they were engaged. Not a little too quick for
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my speed, but hey, everyone's different, and maybe they just knew,
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and they knew that they wanted to marry one another,
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so it went by super super quick. Now, Susan was
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not a huge person. She was five foot four, she
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was one hundred and thirty pounds. I would describe her
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as having she has pretty full lips. Her lips were
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very pretty, and she had these big, bright, beautiful blue eyes.
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It's probably her feature that I'm drawn to most when
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I look at her, brown, auburnish hair, just a pretty girl.
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Her weight would fluctuate back and forth like we all do,
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but it doesn't matter that this was just a beautiful,
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beautiful woman. Josh he was a little different from her.
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He was tall, and he was skinny, and if you
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look at his pictures, he's kind of got this boyish
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look to him. Even if he has facial hair, he
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still looks young. He looks boyish. Something about him doesn't
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doesn't seem to mature and very unassuming with that youthful
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face that you see. He's got chubby cheeks. His face
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is thin and and he's narrow, but those cheeks are
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just kind of chubby, and his lips powed out a
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little bit. Very confident and comfortable with with girls, although
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most people would probably describe him as dorky. So he's
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one of those people that maybe if you just saw
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a picture of him, you didn't get it. But then
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once he started talking people, you know, girls go oh,
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I get it. And if you're a woman right now,
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you probably understand what I'm saying. But the personality when
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he was young just really drew people. I guess to
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him he was ambitious but nerdy, and he reminds me
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of Ferris Bueller. You remember that Farris Bueller's day out,
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but without the swag or the charm. He just kind
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of looks like Ferris bueller Ish to me in a
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strange way. But Susan found him attractive either way. She
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thought he was cute and confidence goes a long way
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in terms of how you look. Josh definitely outkicked his
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coverage in my opinion, but kudos to him for snagging
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a pretty girl. But they got married in April of
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two thousand and one. So when they got married, it
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was a super traditional wedding. She wore a tasteful white gown,
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nothing over the top. Her hair was just in a neat,
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sweet little bob. The reception wasn't one of dancing and
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singing and all of that. It was just a room
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with tables and cake and kind of like just a reception,
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you know, sit and eat reception, very low key atmosphere,
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extremely traditional. But she looked lovely and he seemed happy,
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and they were excited to start their new life together. Now,
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Josh did go to school for business, but he seemed
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to kind of wave in an out of what he
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wanted to do with his life. Susan was the breadwinner
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in their young marriage while Josh continued to be in
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and out of work. He was trying to find his
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way professionally. Nothing out of the ordinary, just young and
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not necessarily sure which way he wanted to go in
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what direction he wanted to take to become a professional.
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So they decided to move to West Valley City, Utah,
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because they felt like there were more job opportunities in
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that area. So that's where they bought their home, and
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they really quickly started to build their family. They would
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have two baby boys who made their lives complete. Charles
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who they called Charlie. He was four at the time
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that I'm telling this story, and Brayden would be two.
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And look, not all dads are the same. And while
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Josh definitely loved his boys, he did not take to
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the role of father naturally. He seemed to be a
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little detached in his parenting style. He was proud of
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the kids. He certainly wanted to show the boys off
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to people whenever they were out and about, but it
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kind of felt like it if there wasn't a spotlight
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on it, and it wasn't him being lauded as this
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father that he just kind of fell off in involvement
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unless other people were there. He didn't change dirty diapers,
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he didn't jump to go feeding the boys. Susan was
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their main caregiver. But that was just the arrangement in
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the way things were in their household. And I'm not
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knocking it. I'm just saying that's how things came across
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to other people. So the boys, however, I'll tell you
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the boys were everything that a mom could want. These
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are the cutest little dudes. Charlie was the oldest of
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the boys. Like I told you, he had dark hair
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and dark brown eyes, and he looked just like his daddy.
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He was so precious, those big chubby cheeks and just
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a handsome dude. He loved nature and insects, and he
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was known to sneak a caterpillar or a worm into
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his pocket whenever he was going places, and when he
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was caught, he would say, okay, you got me. But
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his thing was he would bring that animal or that
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bug or whatever it was outside and he would make
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sure that that animal was safe and released into its
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natural environment before he would go about his business. He
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really cared about the animals. And he was looking forward
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to getting his first pair of glasses, which was awesome.
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He thought he was gonna look cool as just cool
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as I'll get out, because he wanted to wear those
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glasses while he wrote. Because he liked to write. He
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hoped that one day as he grew up, that he
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could write a book and someone would buy it. That
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was his jam. Now Braden, he looked a little bit different.
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He had blonde hair, but those same cute cheeks that
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I keep talking about. You want to pinch those little cheeks.
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And he was a perfect mix of his parents. The
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thing here is I want to impress upon you that
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Susan always wanted to be a mother and her little
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boys were her world. She adored them. Everything she did
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was for them, and they loved their mommy and they
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loved their daddy with everything that they had. Now, Susan's
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day started like a lot of hours. She got up
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early and she would arrive for work around seven am
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or so, and the boys would go to daycare. So
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Debbie called Well, that's her name. She was the caregiver
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of the two boys daily and she would talk about
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how Susan and the boys were always very prompt about
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making it on time to daycare. Susan was on time,
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she was punctual, and she was very structured person. So
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if the boys were sick or they weren't going to
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be a daycare for whatever reason that day. She also
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Susan was very good at calling in and saying, hey,
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we're not going to be there and just giving a
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heads up to Debbie so that she would know what
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to expect. So on Monday, this is going to be
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a Monday. In December of two thousand and nine, the
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boys were a no call, no show, and that just