Josh Powell Update: Comforter In Powell's Storage Unit Tests Positive For Blood

SEATTLE -- Police in Washington state who searched a storage unit rented by Josh Powell found a stained comforter that tested positive for blood in initial exams, according to documents filed in court Friday.

Pierce County detectives reported finding a gray-blue-pink comforter with a stain. The search warrant documents say the comforter tested positive for blood. Investigators planned to perform further tests.

Powell killed himself and his two young sons in a gas-fueled inferno Sunday, and Pierce County authorities consider the murder-suicide an admission that he killed his wife.

Investigators had considered Josh Powell a person of interest since his wife, Susan Powell, disappeared in Utah in 2009. At the time, Powell said he took his two sons ice camping in subfreezing temperatures.

Also on Friday, the sheriff's department released a timeline that spans from Saturday, the day before the blast, to Monday, the day after. Among the details that police are trying to determine is if Powell bought the gas cans at a local Fred Meyer store the night before the house fire.

This past week, investigators have tried to piece together Powell's last days, serving search warrants for his sister's cell phone and a local Bank of America branch where security cameras captured him withdrawing money.

Police also received tips from the public, such as a woman who noticed donated books had Josh and Susan Powell written in them.

On blood found on the comforter, Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said presumptive tests are conducted with a field kit and that a determination of blood won't be confirmed until the item is examined in the lab.

"Field tests are not infallible," he said.

Lindquist said he expects the finding will be something law enforcement will share with colleagues in Utah who have been investigating Susan Powell's disappearance.

The comforter was the only item police kept from what they found in the storage facility, located in Sumner, a city about 12 miles from Graham, where Powell rented a home.

Investigators also found toys and kids' clothes in garbage bags, as well as framed pictures. Those items were given to Susan Powell's family.

In the warrant, the investigator wrote items were "returned to Cox family."

___

Baker reported from Olympia, Wash.

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Comments

[madgram]

07:43 PM on 02/15/2012

If this blood turns out to be his wife's and no one had investigated it earlier, then the loss of those two boys could have been prevented by this discovery early on in this case. My heart goes out to the granparents.

[FULLSRVLAW]

05:50 PM on 02/15/2012

They could have gotten a search warrant to this storage locker a long time ago because they had enough probable cause based on the phone camping story given by the husband. The only reason those two little boys are dead is because of the incompetence and timidity of the police and prosecutors in this case. I am a former prosecutor. Did they want someone to come in and hand them the case?

[sparkygirl91]

03:05 PM on 02/13/2012

It's pretty clear to all of us that this guy and/or his sexual deviant father killed his poor mother. And now with her children gone, this story has got to be one of the all-time tragedies. "Sins of the father" definitely apply here. May they all RIP.....with Josh Powell going to the netherworld where he will never be at peace or rest.

[Tolms]

02:41 PM on 02/13/2012

Yeah the headline made it sound much more interesting than it reallly is. A spot of blood on a blanket? Hardly daming. I'm pretty sure there are many spots of blood on various fabrics I own.

[Fenrir Lokison]

12:40 PM on 02/14/2012

Agreed. And they JUST found it? After how many years of investigating?

Innocent or not, the police and Cox family to me are just becoming more suspect. I mean first the make the claim that the boys told them their mother was in a trunk. And now they find a comforter with some blood on it.

Don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is to build a case, but all this circumstantial and hearsay statements does nothing to prove anything. Just make those who are open-minded more suspicious, and to give judgers even bigger to cover their minds with.

[Elisabeth Lake]

07:53 PM on 02/15/2012

Typical, casting blame on the victims.

[softvoice]

01:06 PM on 02/13/2012

I don't believe for one minute that this man killed those precious children because he could not live without them! I think he killed them because he had recently lost control of them and he feared they would begin to talk about things that they remembered and perhaps it would lead authorities to be able to charge him with murder in the disappearance of his wife.

[Brant Kelsey]

12:55 PM on 02/13/2012

CPS has once again proven, like most State "policy" driven entities that they are equal opportunity idiots. Personally my favorite kind. They do not discriminate to whom they will dispense their indolence: Yes, Supervised visitation should take place in Public, and at a nondescript Neutral Location. Public Park, Offices of CPS: Particularly in a matter such as this, with a husband as the ONLY person of interest in the Murder/disappearance of his Wife: Policy meet Reality, Reality meet Policy. CPS? Meet a failure to p[proceed with diligence THIS circumstance warranted. Result? Too painful and obvious. CPS is presumed to possess an intelligence and expertise beyond that of the Layman: They horribly failed to meet the test: To the detriment of everyone, family, the two boys, and the public. Certainly food for thought, when any State Agency presumes to know, "what is in the best interests of the child.?

[kentmale27]

07:36 PM on 02/13/2012

The Judge, i feel is to blame. She's the one who could have changed the order.... location, who accompanied the children,allowing him to have visitation at all without the results of the exams first... etc... but she allowed this whole horrific murder to take place, because of not doing anything.

[madgram]

08:04 PM on 02/15/2012

It's the judge who makes the decision, not always CPS. My specific judge could not remember that we hadn't had a trial yet and thought that the decision was made 6 months earlier. So did I want to continue the trial? Yes, that was my right. Mom gets visitation,gets to keep child every other 2 nights, during her stay, as long as she is visiting. He has slept on a bug infested floor, couch, anywhere, while he is with her and the judge does not want to hear about it. He has been locked in a garage with other kids playing, not being tall enough to open the door to use the bathroom. All of this is heresay, the judge will not speak to the child, look at a picture (to depict how small he is). She just has the right to choose "what is in the best interest of the child". Heresay from a 4 year old, who at the last visit was told that he kicked his mom in the face while sleeping and caused her to be bruised on one whole side of her face, including a black eye. His guilt was overwhelming, we saw an attorney who stated we could not use this in court, as it has happened once. CPS had also stated there was nothing we could do. DV group had also made a report (she has recently remarried) but did nothing. . Not understanding, I ask the question "where are this child's rights"?

[ninjacb]

12:14 PM on 02/13/2012

hp should be ashamed for their "soaked in blood" headline before the click. the comforter was NOT soaked in blood. the comforter had a spot. A SPOT. of blood. hp's graphic, sensationalism of the details of this horrific crime are just more nancy gracing of what this man did to his children. and very likely his wife. stupid, shameful and inaccurate reporting, hp. more and more everyday hp is sliding down the path of mediocrity straight into an enquirer-type newsource.

[Brant Kelsey]

12:59 PM on 02/13/2012

Shame presupposes conscience: There is none of that to be found here. Not in this poorly constructed tome of fiction: It's so ironic that one can find more accurate, more prescient and more thoroughly researched stories in the National Inquirer: HufPo? AOL? Pretty much sums up when one combines and consolidate the ingredients of the lowest common denominator.

[smoochie]

02:03 AM on 02/15/2012

"Nancy Gracing".... how accurate.

[Catherine in Tulsa]

12:13 PM on 02/13/2012

Can someone clear up the timeline on finding the comforter? Did they find it after he died? And I don't understand they would have found it after he died, because it seems that everything in the house was destroyed.

[softvoice]

01:14 PM on 02/13/2012

The comforter was found in a storage unit that had been rented by Powell. It appears that the search warrant for the storage unit came after Powell committed the unspeakable crime of murdering his innocent children, however you are right to suggest it is confusing.

[lindayb]

07:25 AM on 02/13/2012

this whole thing is such a travesty of justice...this guy should have been arrested when he turned up w/his kids and no wife after a trip in the middle of a freezing night -and at the VERY LEAST he should not have had contact w/his kids unless they were taken to him at a secure location, NOT his house, along w/a couple a cops there every moment, and frisked before he saw them. the police and prosecutors and the grandparents have much to answer for. they delivered helpless children to their deaths.

[GraceNotes]

12:09 PM on 02/13/2012

The grandparents had no choice but to surrender the boys to the court for Josh's supposedly supervised visits. The visits should not have taken place in his home, but rather in a secure location.

[GoGrammie]

06:41 AM on 02/13/2012

This is a precautionary story. The person that you marry MAY not be the person that you think they are. Psycopaths like him act normally when around normal people because they know enough to understand that if they behaved the way they wished they would be locked up. I really wish that those cops in Utah has aressted him before he went to Washington. At least then there would have been a chance that Josh would already have been in jail and couldn't have killed his beautiful little boys. Thank God they are in heaven with their mommy now and Dad's in Hell where he belongs.

[zLala]

03:19 AM on 02/13/2012

I'd hate to be that neighboring house and not be able to avoid thinking about this tragedy all the time.

[opieluv]

01:30 AM on 02/13/2012

How does the story go from "soaked in blood" to "a stain" found on the comforter? I HATE the way these news outlets make such outrageous claims to get you to read the articles!

[VintageCollector]

10:07 AM on 02/16/2012

omg i agree! i HATE that too. i guess they think we're stupid

[ogates]

11:03 PM on 02/12/2012

Hurts to look at the picture of the two little boy's sweet faces it is so heartbreaking...R.I.P.

[pscottparker1]

08:35 PM on 02/12/2012

And the blood DNA matches??????????????? His wife??? duhhhhhhhh. I would suspect that this is the "sleeping" bag that his wife used while asleep in the trunk during their late night camping trip...

[b0nni3]

06:26 PM on 02/12/2012

A "soaked in blood" comforter becomes a "stained comforter that tested positive for blood" before "comforter with a stain" is finally used.
It looks like all those creative writing classes are really starting to pay off.