Even multiple red flags (RFs) didn't protect Powell children from murder - USA

The first day
Josh Powell had been investigated since his wife, Susan Cox Pow­ell, di­s­appeared in Dec 2009. Su­s­an was reported missing when the family was living in West Valley City Utah. That night, Josh claimed he had gone on a mid­night camping trip with their sons. Susan stayed home because she was tired to take the boys out to the freezing midnight desert. 

West Valley Police investigated, saying that when they ar­rived at the Utah house there were no disturbances. But they found Susan’s blood inside the home and a hand­written note saying she feared for her life at her husband’s hands. At the bank in wh­ich she'd worked, inside her safe dep­os­it box, investigators discov­er­ed Susan’s hand­writ­ten will and testa­ment. She’d written about how bad her marriage was and that Josh Powell had taken out a $1 million life insuran­ce policy on her. “If I die, it may not be an accident." RF

Josh’s sister said he acted strangely, cleaning his mini­van and gar­age, running around grabbing piles of to­wels to put in the washer. And close rel­at­ives said he never participated in search efforts. Wor­se still, Josh had filed paperwork to with­draw money from his wife’s ret­irement account 10 days after she’d dis­app­eared!  RF But without a body, pol­ice couldn’t charge anyone. In Jan 2010, a month after Susan disap­peared, Josh avoided the me­dia by moving with his sons into his father Steven Powell's Wash house.

Beautiful Braden and Char­les 

safely living with their Cox grandparents

ABC News

 

In 2010, investigators spoke again to little Char­lie about his moth­er’s disappearance. “We can’t talk about Susan or camp­ing. I al­ways keep things as secrets” he said. RF Ch­arlie reluctantly told Pierce County Sheriff’s Dept that mum went camp­ing but she did­n't come home with them. Then clammed up. Only when the children st­ar­t­ed tal­k­ing to their grandparents about what they remembered from that night did they say Susan was at the camp, before dis­ap­pearing. 

In June 2011 Utah police searched grandpa Steve Powell’s family home in Puyallup Wash, where Josh Powell, Braden 5 and Char­les 7 were liv­ing. Investigators found videos taken by Steven Powell that show­ed se­c­ret recordings of his daughter-in-law's body parts and of him expr­es­sing his sexual feel­ings toward her. To ABC News, Steven noted his flirt­atious daughter-in-law had made enjoyable sexual advances toward him! RF

Grandpa St­eve was ar­r­ested in Nov 2011 and charged with voy­eur­ism and pos­s­e­ssion of child porno­graphy. “Bec­ause of all the things that the police encountered in the search of the Stev­en Powell home, it became apparent these boys were at imm­in­ent risk of harm. So af­ter Steven's trial for pornog­r­aphy, Josh lost cus­tody of his sons. Ma­ternal grand­parents Chuck and Judy Cox won custody of the ch­ildren as foster pa­rents; Josh got week­ly sup­ervised visitation.

In Feb 2012, new evidence emerged that Josh Powell’s laptop in Utah contained pornographic images. A judge then ord­ered Josh Powell to un­d­ergo a psychosexual evaluation and take a poly­graph test. Powell told ABC News that he knew nothing about porn, and wondered why pol­ice were mentioning it now, ages after it was supposedly found. RF

Josh was happy that his child­ren were with the maternal grand­parents, a reversal from earlier statements saying the Coxes were poi­s­­on­ing the boys with hatred for him. But at the hearing, Josh’s affid­avit attested to his love of the boys and his caregiving skills, insisting the boys come home.

Josh didn’t want to undergo psychosexual testing before he could re­gain custody of his sons but alas for him, the judge wouldn’t con­sider returning the boys until Josh had a psycho-sexual evaluat­ion.

Pierce County Wash Sheriff's Department read the emails saying that just days before the deaths, Powell gave away the child­ren's ­toys to Goodwill. In fact Josh sent long emails detail­ing what to do with his money and house utilities, to give to his cousins, his pastor and friends. And the lawyer in the custody case said he received a brief email from his client, saying I'm sorry, goodbye. Finally the county sheriff showed the emails that Powell sent auth­or­ities, confirming that Powell planned an intentional deadly blast. Did the sheriff tell Children’s Protective Services? RF x 4

Memorial to Susan Cox Powell and her sons Braden and Charlie,

at a candle vigil in Tacoma Wash.

Feb 2012, ABC News

 

The last day
Washington's Dept of Social and Health Services social worker had taken the children to visit their dad’s home, a protective worker who was legally re­qu­ired to sit near the children throughout the visit. She pulled up in the car, and the kids ran out ahead of her when Powell slammed the front door and locked it. The distraught social worker wasn't able to get in, even when she smelled gas. RF

Listen to the urgent call from the social worker, and the repetitive questions from the 911 dispatcher on youtube. 

The social worker imm­ediately called the police, but too late. Josh hacked the boys with a hatchet, pour­ed petrol on and around them, and then exploded the house. Authorities found 3 bodies in the centre of the home as fire crews and police searched the rub­ble, next to a 10-gallon petrol tin inside. There was no evidence of gun wounds.

Subsequently
2 years earlier his wife Susan had gone missing in Utah. A Washington 911 telephone-dispat­ch­er was reprimanded for allowing 22 minutes to pass, after taking a social worker's 911 call. The dispatcher not on­ly violated depart­ment pol­icies; he failed to recognise many red flags that required fast responses. Apparently he was con­fused about the role of the social worker.

I worked in Protective Services for many years and I understand that even had the police and fire brigade arriv­ed quick­ly, the boys would definitely still have died. In advance Josh Powell bought the fuel, wrote emails to the fam­ily, divided up his assets, gave away his chil­dren’s toys to charity, and knew when the social worker was bring his sons to his home. But were there any repercus­s­ions against profess­ion­als (pol­ice, lawyers, children’s prot­ective workers, dispatchers etc) when th­ey ignored these red flags? Were they all required to attend learning sessions?