Susan Powell Update: Son Braden Powell Said Mom Was In Car's Trunk The Night She Vanished

Susan Powell's two sons -- who were killed by an explosion apparently set by their father on Sunday -- had allegedly begun talking about their mother's disappearance in 2009.

The older child, Charles, told his maternal grandparents that his mom was in the trunk of a car driven by his father Josh Powell in December 2009, according to a family lawyer who spoke with The Associated Press.

"They were beginning to verbalize more," attorney Steve Downing said to the AP after the deadly home blaze in Graham, Wash. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that Mommy was in the trunk. Mom and Dad got out of the car and Mom disappeared."

Josh Powell was a suspect in his wife's disappearance, but maintained that his 28-year-old bride was gone when he returned from an overnight camping trip with Braden and his other son, Charles, in Utah.

On Sunday, police say Powell killed himself and his children by blowing up his home moments after a Child Protective Services employee arrived to supervise a visit between the dad and his boys, aged 7 and 5.

The explosion, fueled by a combination of gas and an accelerant according to police, came days after a judge denied Powell's request to regain custody of his sons.

The boys had lived with Powell and his father Steven, but were handed over to Susan Powell's parents in the fall when Steven was arrested on charges of child pornography and voyeurism. There were no allegations that the grandfather had abused his grandsons.

Josh Powell "just took an opportunity to hurt everybody around him and used the boys as a tool to do that," said Kirk Graves, Susan Powell's brother, on NBC's "Today" show. "He really only cared about himself. That's why he was able to to do things he did to Susan and why he was able to do what he did yesterday. I don't think anybody that had any empathy or cared for anybody else -- especially a father -- could do that to their own children."

Minutes before he ignited the fire that engulfed his home, taking three lives, Powell sent an apparent suicide note to his attorney, who only discovered it hours later.

It said: "I'm sorry, goodbye."

PHOTOS FROM THE SUSAN POWELL FILE:

SEE KIRK GRAVES' APPEARANCE ON 'TODAY':

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Comments

[Elisabeth Lake]

03:57 PM on 02/11/2012

There should be no tolerance for the system that allowed these little boys to bear such unspeakable horror and suffering. First, to loose their mother to this guy and secondly to be handed over to her murderer, O.J style.

Apologists and bystanders can make excuses for the foot dragging on the part of the Family Law Court that ordered a "so called monitored visitation", by a lone female, hired by "Child Protective Services" to deliver these children into the hands of a suspected murderer. The decision maker i.e., the Judge was awaiting a psycho/sexual eval, on this man and still sent a lone woman with the boys to his house.

For DV Victims who can loose all contact with their children based on bogus unfounded, accusations and junk science called. "parental alienation." The excuses made below for the powers that put these children in the hands of their murderer, fall short, to say the least.

Too often Courts favor scary, suspected and known abusers, over the grave concerns of safe, fit parents. In this case the grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Cox.

[SFBPhD2000]

09:45 PM on 02/10/2012

Evolving information show that the social worker was not to blame other than to be taken in by evil. Those of us who work with people have too often been blinded by our rationalizing that the evil we 'feel' about someone is 'irrational'. Sometimes, that hair on the back of the neck standing on end sensation need to be listened to even when our rational minds ridicule it. For me, the body language, eye movements and muscle movements around his mouth, were clear indications of lying. When abusive husbands, ones who lie and support sexual perversions in their own parents, are 'clear and present danger' to children. The original court who placed the children with the maternal grandparents had the correct idea. The idea that biology is stronger than safety. There are all kinds of species who eat their offspring.

[Sherry Powell]

10:22 AM on 02/10/2012

So many questions.... But when you are dealing with someone like this man all common sense is off the table.

[firststatemate]

09:16 AM on 02/09/2012

Those 2 precious little boys had to endure the same horrible death as the piece of s*** who fathered them. If there wasn't so much BS and red tape in our social and justice systems those boys and their mother would be alive. But no, we we have to waste more time protecting the "rights" of the perpetrators to ensure that sure we don't say the wrong thing or step on their toes and generate more legal BS for the defense attorneys to help them get away with murder. When are we going to wise up?

[merry st clair]

05:58 AM on 02/09/2012

When i was 11 a neighbor always took us for ice cream, one day as he was paying for our cones, abunch of pictures fell out of his wallet. They were naked childern. I thought all those were his kids! I told my parents and we never went with him again! We moved soon after good heavens!

[maybesomeday]

08:53 AM on 02/09/2012

Did your parents report him to the police? Or did they just make sure their own children were safe?

[firststatemate]

09:17 AM on 02/09/2012

You were lucky. Your Mom should have called the police!

[LaurenRuth]

05:23 PM on 02/08/2012

How devastating...

[bowlmeg]

12:44 PM on 02/08/2012

if this was a supervised visit then where was the CPS worker did she die too?

[Elisabeth Lake]

01:59 PM on 02/08/2012

No, she did not die, the Department of Child Protective (sic) Services, sent a woman alone with two vulnerable children to the house of a man, who was under suspicion of murder and under investigation for psycho/sexual disorders.

He slammed the door in her face and then brutally killed his boys. The CPS worker will go unnamed because this failed agency will protect its own, although they were willing to sacrifice her to this man, she can take that up with them later.

These kinds of decision kill kids every week in this Country. ...The Family Law Court and Child Protective Services favored a known nut case, over the boys fit, really safe and protective grandparents. Big story, happens every week in these contested Child Custody cases and the body count is out of control.

[fran glass]

04:54 PM on 02/08/2012

the 911 call explains a lot of it... that has also been posted on HuffPo

[shadonnie]

11:09 AM on 02/08/2012

If the judge denied custody, why were the boys taken to the father's residence? Obviously the judge found him unfit,

[mojldy]

07:51 PM on 02/08/2012

the social worker was there with the boys for a supervised visit with the father. He took the boys in and slammed the door in her face.

[zhuchka]

08:59 AM on 02/08/2012

Nobody really knows the dynamics of any family when nobody is watching. Clergyman abusing his wife for years... Mama dumping her disabled child on her elderly Mom, and collecting kid's disability check for herself... Nasty divorces, when parents use their kid[s] to get each other... Something has been going terribly wrong with this family, and we'll never know the ultimate truth. I do not judge him, it's his God's job, I just feel the greatest sorry for entire family.
People, before you start having kids - make sure you are compatable parents and life-partners

[Elisabeth Lake]

12:49 PM on 02/08/2012

The ultimate truth in this matter is that there are 3 innocents, two dead boys and one missing mother since 2009 and the lousy Family Law System and Child Protective? Services set up to protect citizens and children has failed once again. Children and DV Victims die each week in this Country because the Courts and so called "Experts" make horrendously wrong decisions in these cases. They favored an abusive, suspicious man, over loving safe grandparents and sent the boys into harms way. The individuals with power over the children and the grandparents acted senselessly.

[maybesomeday]

09:00 AM on 02/09/2012

What is your problem? I'm being serious? You need to write to your congressman instead of coming on a comments section and trying to blame "the system" instead of the true criminal Josh Powell in this case!

Your rhetoric is getting old, you act like your an expert, and if you are, take it up with those you know.

If the said system is so broken down how on earth do you explain all the murder's of children where "the system" wasn't even a part of the families lives? It's the people that are broken more than it's the system...

[pmancinon]

08:04 AM on 02/08/2012

Bad stuff. Class one lowlife, and my thoughts to the grandparents. But this reminds me, what ever happened to the Huffington Post unveiling of the "Good News" section? Everyone was excited about it, and I haven't seen anything yet. It's all been one thing....bad.

[Alisa Neely]

10:12 PM on 02/07/2012

those visits NEVER should have happened....and if they HAD to, should have taken place some where PUBLIC.

alisa

[geethatsgr8]

12:53 PM on 02/09/2012

I totally agree with you. Especially with the new "alleged" information regarding his wife being in the trunk of his car the night of their frigid camp-out. Until the feds finished with THAT new development, there is no way he should've been allowed to see his kids, particularly in his home, where ANYTHING could happen. I guess we should just be glad he didn't let the case worker in and kill her, too...just because he was mad at the system. I'm quite surprised he didn't.

[Alisa Neely]

02:55 PM on 02/09/2012

and get this: he took out $7,000.00 just days before he did this....now, where IS that money?...and it's possible he was upset with the system.....however, he put himself in the system.

alisa

[paul4v44]

09:57 PM on 02/07/2012

Josh Powell will reside in hell with his pornographer father who will come along in the not too distant future. Susan and the boys will reside in heaven

[Fattonecat]

05:32 PM on 02/07/2012

As a grandparent, I can't imagine what Susan's parents are going through right now. Too sad.....

[Alisa Neely]

10:13 PM on 02/07/2012

i agree.....my thoughts and prayers are with them and her friends.

alisa

[lodkia]

05:31 PM on 02/07/2012

There are some ironies in this story as in fact this is the same agency that took a newborn baby directly out of the hospital room over twenty years ago; "in the best interest" from a poor couple (by the way grew up in the same area where this story happened) and now over twenty years later this same agency hand delivers two innocent children to their "person of interest" in a murder; unbelievable! Now, can anybody in their right mind see why there is so much anger towards this agency!

[Dale McLerran]

12:54 PM on 02/08/2012

I am not a huge fan of Child Protective Services. However, your anger in this case is misdirected. CPS was carrying out what the court ordered - supervised visitation. You cannot blame CPS here.

BTW, just days before this tragedy occurred, the courts ordered a psychosexual evaluation of Josh Powell. This was a step by the State of Washington to further restrict Powell's parental rights. The recent order of the courts may have been what triggered the final tragedy. Please note that up to this point in time, Utah authorities have never charged Josh Powell with any crime. Nor was Josh Powell charged with any crime when his father was busted on voyeurism and child pornography charges. But the courts here in Washington were moving to terminate parental rights.

In this case, I believe that the courts and CPS were doing what they needed to do to protect the two boys. The Cox family (parents, sister, brother of Susan Powell) have stated their belief that the actions of the courts and CPS were appropriate. I don't know what more you could ask of the state agencies. The state cannot protect everyone from every deranged person. And I would be loath to live in a state that was not ordered by law and due process. No one is safe when the state can intrude on a whim (witness Nazi Germany).

[Elisabeth Lake]

04:19 PM on 02/08/2012

To equate the legal efforts of the grandparents to terminate all the father's custody of those children, with whims or Nazis like acts, is beyond the pale.

Their daughter went missing 3 years ago and police had evidence from mandated reporters, (the children's teachers) that for some time the boys had been saying, "mommy was in the trunk"with regard to the night she disappeared and drawing pictures, of same.

There were enough red flags in this case to terminate custody long ago, it's done all the time by Judges in conjunction with Evaluators, and CPS that put child safety above, the rights of chattel of unsafe parents.

[lodkia]

04:56 PM on 02/08/2012

CPS giving more rights to persons of interest in a murder is by far more dangerous than calling probably more than half of the parent's who have actually had their kid's taken away "imminent danger"!

[lodkia]

05:20 PM on 02/07/2012

For those of you defending CPS; please remember they routinely have used emergency court orders against poor people to take away their baby or child and "in the best interest" is used as an excuse; what is their excuse this time!!! A "person of interest" has more rights than a poor person; isn't that cute!

[Dale McLerran]

01:12 PM on 02/08/2012

I am not a fan of CPS. They have too often mucked things up. Sometimes they are too intrusive and remove children from stable households without adequate investigation. Sometimes they leave children in situations that are hazardous. I must say, though, that it is a difficult job to assess each situation. I would also note that state budgets probably don't provide sufficient funding for proper evaluation of every situation. I am critical of CPS, but recognize that theirs is a difficult job.

In this particular case, I cannot find fault with CPS. CPS was executing court ordered supervised visitation. The courts declared that Josh Powell did still have some parental rights, but his interactions with his children had to be monitored. Note that just days before Powell committed this heinous act, the courts had ordered Powell to undergo a psychosexual (sexual deviancy) evaluation. This was an effort by the courts to further restrict parental rights. Unfortunately, it may have been this action which triggered Josh Powell's final act.

[Elisabeth Lake]

03:48 PM on 02/08/2012

Monitored by a woman alone in the house of a suspected murderer? Monitored by a lone woman in a house with a guy that is undergoing psychosexual evaluations? Come on.

[lodkia]

04:26 PM on 02/08/2012

Sorry, a person of interest should have less rights than a poor couple which in many instances they have had NONE! I know!