Police in Washington state released a 911 call placed by the social worker who dropped Josh Powell's two young sons off before he murdered them and took his own life in a house fire. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
By Lindsay Chamberlain, KING5 news, msnbc.com staff and news services
PUYALLUP, Wash. --?Emergency calls placed?in the minutes after Josh Powell killed his two young sons and then set his home on fire were released Tuesday, including one from the "traumatized" social worker who was outside the house and saw the flames.
The social worker had brought Charlie, 5, and Braden, 7, to the house for their court-ordered supervised visit on Sunday. She frantically called for help as soon as she said Powell took the children and shut her out of the house.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before, I'm really shocked, I can hear one of the kids crying," the woman said. "This is the craziest thing, he looked right at me and closed the door."
?
Concerned that the children might be in a life-threatening situation, the woman also told dispatchers she smelled gas coming from the house. After the house exploded in flames, she called again.
"He blew up the house and the kids!" she cried. "He slammed the door in my face!"
Excerpts from the call were obtained and broadcast Tuesday night by Washington NBC affiliate, KING5.
It also spoke to the husband of the unnamed social worker, who said she was "not doing very well" despite being offered counseling.
He told the station she was "devastated and traumatized" by the episode and had worked with the boys for a long time, forming a bond with them.
The husband, who was also not named, told KING-5 she made a distraught call to him after the fire, repeatedly saying about the boys: "They trusted me, they trusted me."
The double murder-suicide took place days after Powell, whose wife Susan went missing in 2009, was ordered to undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation as part of a bid to regain custody of his children from his in-laws.
Report: Powell left apologetic voicemail minutes before death
Authorities in Washington and Utah, from where the family moved, are now effectively treating the disappearance of Susan Powell as murder, even though her body has yet to be found.
MSNBC's Thomas Roberts talks to Chuck and Judy Cox, parents of Susan Powell, about their grandsons' deaths and their daughter's disappearance.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill acknowledged for the first time that investigators believe Powell is likely dead, but he said in an interview with the AP that the case remains a missing persons probe for now.
"I think when I talk about it as a missing persons case, that's because we haven't located the body of Susan Powell," Gill said. "Do we think that she may have met harm? Sure. I think that's been an ongoing assumption with law enforcement."
Investigators said Josh Powell withdrew $7,000 in cash from a bank the day before he killed himself and his two young sons in the house fire.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said detectives obtained Powell's bank records Monday, and on Tuesday they searched a storage unit he rented. It isn't clear what happened to the money.
Josh Powell claimed that on the night Susan Powell vanished, he took Charlie and Braden from their then home in West Valley City, Utah, on a late-night camping trip. Authorities eventually searched the central Utah desert but found nothing.
Susan Powell's father said that when police went to the family home after she was reported missing, they found a wet spot in the house being dried by two fans. Police have not commented further on what they found.
Last September, authorities got a warrant to search the home of Josh Powell's father, Steve. Josh Powell and his sons were living there at the time. The documents obtained by the AP did not specify a suspect.
In addition to the charges, the warrant listed Steve Powell's work laptop computer as well as cars that he used.
Authorities found explicit images on his computers during the search, and he was jailed on voyeurism and child porn charges. The boys were later sent to live with Susan Powell's parents.
Keith Morrison reports from the burned down home of Josh Powell, who recently committed suicide while also taking the lives of his two young children. The full Dateline report airs on Friday, February 10th, at 10pm/9c.
Speaking to reporters Monday after the boys' deaths, their grandfather Charles Cox said the boys were emotionally distant when they first arrived at their home but recently had begun to open up.
That gave Cox hope that someday they would be able say what happened to their mom.
John Powell driven by revenge in killing sons, himself?
The boys had not recently made more comments about what may have happened to their mother, Cox said, though he related what Braden said nearly two years ago.
"The four ladies that were supervising that activity said, 'Well, what's this?' 'That's us going camping.' 'Who's in the car?' And Braden said, 'That's Daddy, that's Charlie, that's me.' Then he said, 'Well, mommy's in the trunk,'" Cox said.
"Well if Mommy's in the trunk, why is she in the trunk?' He didn't know, he didn't say, I guess. Then, he said,l we stopped somewhere and mommy and daddy got out and mommy didn't come back," he said.
West Valley, Utah, police chief Buzz?Nielsen said despite the death of the young boys and Josh Powell, the probe would continue.
"Our case is not closed," he said.
Lindquist, who is overseeing the voyeurism prosecution of Steve Powell but is not directly involved in the Susan Powell case, said it's clear to him that it's a homicide case.
Ted S. Warren / Ted S. Warren / AP
Theresa Vanderhoff lights a candle next to photographs of Susan Cox Powell and her sons Braden and Charlie, during a candlelight vigil at McKinley Park in Tacoma, Wash., Monday.
"I don't think at this point I'm going to call this a missing person case," he said. "It's reasonable to call Josh Powell's decision to kill himself and his kids a confession to the murder of Susan Powell."
A memorial service for the boys will take place on Saturday in Tacoma, Wash. at 1:00 p.m. ET., NBC News reported.?
KING5 News' Lindsay Chamberlain, msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
arizona diamondbacks arizona diamondbacks alex rodriguez alicia witt alicia witt nobel peace prize verizon wireless
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন