The friend to whom Josh Powell once bragged that he knew "how to kill someone, dispose of a body and not get caught," according to recently revealed court documents, said it was "scary that I even had that conversation with him."

Powell boasted at a 2008 Christmas party he attended with now-missing wife Susan that he knew how to commit the perfect crime, thanks to his obsession with television crime shows, the friend told ABC-affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The TV report did not name the friend but ABC News has identified him as Scott Hardman.

"He was basically telling me about how the best way to dispose of a body would be down a mineshaft like a vertical one," Hardman said in the KTVX interview. "It would be the best way of disposing one because they're so unstable."

Susan Powell went missing in December 2009. Within hours of her disappearance, police in West Valley City, Utah, honed in on Powell as a lead suspect. When they failed to make an arrest, Powell eventually moved to Washington state, along with the couple's two children, to be with his family.

Powell Family Tragedy: A Timeline of Events

Powell killed the couple's two children and took his own life in February when he set off an explosion in his Graham, Wash., rental home.  The explosion came moments after a Child Protective Services worker had dropped off Powell's sons, Braden, 5, and Charles, 7, for a supervised visit.

When Susan Powell went missing, Hardman reported the conversation to police, who then embarked on an ultimately fruitless search of abandoned mines outside of Ely, Nev.

"It was like a year later," Hardman said of his tip to the police. "All of a sudden Susan was missing, it was like, 'Whoa, are you kidding me? Did we really have this conversation a year ago?' and I had no idea."

Details of Hardman's conversation with Powell were included in a batch of newly released court documents related to Susan Powell's disappearance that show police had "everything but a body" to build a case against her husband.

The documents, released March 30, pertained to a case against Josh Powell's father, Steven, whom he had moved back to Washington from Utah to live with after his wife's disappearance.  He moved out of his father's house after the older man was arrested and charged in September with voyeurism and child pornography.

A police search of Steven Powell's home discovered he had taken photos of Susan Powell in secret, some in which she was fully clothed, others in which she wore only her underwear, one in which her legs were "slightly open, exposing her underwear," according to the documents.

Steven Powell later admitted to having "an inappropriate infatuation" with his daughter-in-law.

ABC News' Marisa Taylor and Mark Greenblatt contributed to this report.