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Police cordon off the front of a house that was destroyed by a gas explosion in Graham, Wash., Feb. 5. The house explosion killed Josh Powell and his sons.
The house Josh Powell blew up earlier this month – a cozy residential house near Puyallup, Wash. – was a front, the Tacoma News-Tribune reported.
"He set it up like a rental place, with pictures of the family," Sgt. Denny Wood of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said, according to the News-Tribune. "I think it was staged so when CPS (Child Protective Services) came, it would look like a loving family."
Police say that Powell rented it in 2011 but neighbors said they never saw anyone there. When Powell learned he could not keep his children, he rigged the house, turning it into a bomb, authorities have said. On Feb. 5, when his sons, Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, came to visit, he slammed the door in a social worker’s face, slashed the boys with a hatchet and lit a match to a can of gasoline.
The house exploded within moments, killing all three. The social worker was uninjured.
Powell had been in the media spotlight because he was the only person of interest in his wife’s disappearance. In December 2009, Susan Powell, 28, went missing in Utah, where the family lived. At the time, Powell told police that she had run away from their family during a midnight camping trip.
On Monday, Wood detailed what police believe occurred on that fateful Sunday: "The little boys come in. He takes them to the back and hits them with the hatchet. Josh Powell scatters gas. He walks around the house, tossing it on the walls and floor. He puts the five-gallon gas can by the front door. He sits with the other can between his knees."
Josh Powell took the lives of his two sons in a house fire. Powell was a 'person of interest' in his wife's 2009 disappearance. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
Since the house explosion, police have found new evidence relating to Susan Powell’s disappearance. According to The Associated Press, authorities found a blood-stained comforter in a storage unit Josh Powell had rented. The West Valley City police in Utah have also been fielding new tips.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
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He killed the wrong people. He should have booby trapped the house and waited for the police to come, hopefully with one of the jack-booted SWAT teams, then left the house after the nazi goons entered, and then blown the place to kingdom come. To bad he didn't think of that.
Oh so the swat team here were the bad guys. Not the man that murdered his wife, molested his children and hacked them with a hatchet, then blew them up?
d over,
look at his name...it explains it all.... kid does your mother know you are on her computer?
PS.. kid if you are over 19 yrs old....go get help....your head is broken
Just another PRIM Example!, of YET another Failed Government KNOWS BEST POLICY!...
It is not the CPS agents that are at fault here. It is the Judge. He mandated the supervised visits. They had to follow through. I think that is what happened. I see the judge at fault here. They had the computer results of the child sexual images. The judge should have never granted visitation period.
As a person of interest, Josh Powell enjoyed all the perks that went along with that i.e. his freedom and the ability to move from state to state. The problem came the day a judge doubted his mental status to the point a 'psycho-sexual' evaluation was ordered. That's when visitation should've stopped until the evaulation was completed. The social worker was only doing her job; the judge had the authority to stop this until it was proven this guy was mentally capable. The justice system failed those little boys.
may his soul for ever burn in hell with him roasting like chestnuts on an open fire!!
Sorry this happened
This is a sad tragic situation and the state with the help of the police are just trying to use slander like this to deflect criticism away from their incompetence. Shame on you mr. police!
i am not a religious man per say but these are the times i hope there are consciences in an afterlife
It seems crazy to me that a judge would allow a person to have visitation rights when they are a POI in a murder investigation. I don't think they should be afforded visitation rights until they are cleared...that's just to protect the children. I know...I know...some of you will disagree...but it's just my thoughts. God Bless these 2 children and all the children that have had to endure living a life with an evil parent.
forever,
the problem is if the POI is found not guilty....the courts have just kept an Innocent person from there children and im sure a law suit would follow... not that im agreeing with the decision...just cause and effect
They would disagree...unless it was their children.
He was never there because he and his dad were busy else where doing kiddie porn.
This could have been easily prevented with common sense and without risking any of our precious freedoms. Before I adopted my son, he was in foster care with the natural parents granted supervised visitation. The visitation was not held in the parent's home; it was held in a room at child protective services with a mirror and mic set-up so social workers could monitor the visitation. In addition, to enter the social services building, one had to pass through metal detectors and submit to searches if asked. This was in 1991.
We can complain about the system all we want but the old system would be that the the Natural Father of the boys would take them and do whatever he wanted. The system just can't fix everything. Evil is evil.
Looks like he has his family fooled too. When all the evidence comes out they will look like idiots.
Those poor kids! Considering how sick their father and grandfather were (and I wonder what grandma is like?), they didn't stand much of a chance without their mother, anyway.
All the blame spreading! Fact is POWELL is responsible for the murder of his children.
It seems quite evident to me that whoever sent the poor child services worker to the residence by herself with the two boys should be held responsible for this tragedy. Given all of the circumstances and history of this case, no one felt any possible concern for the safety and welfare of the children and the worker???? Bet the upstairs boys in charge of children's services are bitin' their nails over their own liability in this cluster f***.....
Doesn't sound to me like the cop's version follows the time line. If the house exploded moments after the door closed how would he have had time to take the boys to the back and splash the gas around before it exploded. The social worker said she smelled gas when he opened the door. They need to get their story straight before speaking about it publicly. Now it's time to let those little boys rest in peace and, if and when they know something definitive, police/investigators can make a statement.
Burn in hell, Josh
It's real easy to make accusations about a dead person..... Suicide doesn't' mean Guilt.
All of you that are equating the two, are just like the group of kids who beat up on one person they know won't try and defend themselves. Mob mentality.
It's disgusting
All of you need to do is look at yourselves in the mirror to know how and why bullying is so common place. The vile things you type here you say out loud at home or maybe church. Your children hear you and then take your cue and find the weakest among them to taunt and destroy.
Isn't that nice. The older I get the more I take to heart what my Gram always said, "Now you don't know what they might be going thru". Those of you that believe in a god are commanded to forgive and not to judge, correct?
If your going to believe in a god, be a follower, not just a fan.
Peace to All
Suicide doesn't mean guilt...if it ONLY were just a suicide.
This derranged individual 'who might be going thru something' took a hatchet to his own sons.
He was desperate innocent people don't go baserk. Plus blood stained evidence in a rental locker? Glad your not a cop.
Hope you never serve on a Jury.
Christian Nation, my ass.
Where's Jerkoff Powell's stupid dad? he knew what happened to the wife probably was the coach behind this.
...and could be the reason they found the comforter. Powell may have kept it as 'insurance'.
Josh Powell is not rotting in hell, waiting for his slimebag father to join him. RIP Susan, Charlie & Braden.
Let me be the devil's advocate. People are stupid and see only what they want to see, reality not included. This tragedy, as with all tragedies, had a cause and that cause was that John Powell thought he was going to lose custody of his children and if you could see him before the judge that was to decide, he cried and it was an spontaneous cry, not one of those phony as a three dollar that criminals use trying to get away with muder. He had said many times that w/o his children he couldn't live and he said it to the judge's face. And that my friends was the cause of this tragedy.
In Texas, where else, a state trooper stopped a senior citizen for speeding. The senior got out of his car, walked toward the trooper and shot him to death. That, taken at face value, sounded like a crazy deed done by a crazy guy, senior, but what we didn't know then was that the government had taken every thing he owned and his only way to get revenge was the incident that unbeknownst to the trooper was the fuse that took another innocent life. And for those tea partiers that always love to kill the messenger because they can't stand the message, let me tell you that I don't mean to condone what he did in any way, shape or form, but this "Christian and democratic" nation has a funny way of seeing things where there is nothing evil, and dismisses evil when there is plenty to see, but fail to act. Let me be a little Amish here: Lord, forgive him for he know not what he was doing and for all: R.I.P.
Who's John Powell?
If he couldn't live without his children...why did he take a hatchet to those innocent boys?
Seriously, custody issues play out every day in this nation. Stable and loving parents do whatever is necessary FOR their children. Josh Powell was obviously mentally unstable and really didn't care about anyone but himself.
For CMS. I see that you and brains parted ways, when? I don't know, but your comment is as stupid sees as stupid does. Remember Waco? You mean to tell me that you don't know why the parents inside the compound shot their children to death? Will you rather die by raging fire or a guillotine? Do you remember 9/11? Yeah the tragedy that the retard pervert from Texas refused to stop? Did you see people jumping to their deaths? I'm not a rocket scientist, but I can tell you they jumped because fire is a more painful and it takes longer to die than one bullet to the head or killed with an axe or one jump. Remember what parents advise their children before crossing a street? Look both ways and make sure there are no cars coming and when you see that it's safe to cross, do so, but not before. Well, you should heed that warning, before you say something stupid, engage that brain of yours, if you have one, and then comment. Until you do that, refrain from commenting.
Rationalizing the execrable performance of Josh Powell? Thanks so much for your grandiloquent hypothesis.
Took a long time for you to conjure up that canned statement in reply...Big words lotsa meaning..But not instant thoughts from your brain, so no credit due..Comment and reply from the heart..
I would have taken his visitation away and put him in a psych ward until he got that "evaluation" for psycho-sexual behavior that the judge ordered. My theory is, when Susan Powell got ready to go the police to report on Josh Powell's father's sexual advances, he killed her. Then, he lied making her a "missing person". Since his dad has been in jail, Josh has only gotten worse as more and more evidence was coming against him. When the missing wife's family complained, they should have listened. Susan's parents said the day they died, the boy's were hesitant to go over to visit. Where was the "CASA" worker to represent the best interest of the kids and give them a chance to NOT go visit if they didn't want to go. I feel sorry for the social worker who witnessed all this. She had no way of knowing. But Josh's father knows..I am certain that josh went to visit his dad before he took his life. It is sadly, too late to do anything now. What guy who claims in an interview that he would never hurt Susan, chops his kids to death and kills them??!!! The guy knew the police were closing in on him..he should have been under police watch that day! Our court visitation rules need changed! And that judge should have ordered him to a hospital immediately, not made it Josh's choice! The guy was a very sick man...now he has eternal punishment which is much worse than jail. And I know the boys are with their mother..
Why is the Pacific Northwest so full of sick lunatics like this??
Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, the Fraser River Shoes, The BC Pig Farmer Bros., and many lesser known arsonist, mutilators, child killers, weird sex offenders, etc, etc.
another caucasion that slipped through the cracks...what else is new?