Police, Family Try to Halt Josh Powell’s Burial Beside Sons
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KOMO/ABC News(GRAHAM, Wash.) — Police in Pierce County, Wash. have purchased burial plots adjacent to those of Charlie and Braden Powell to ensure their father, Josh Powell, won’t be buried anywhere near them, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday.
Charlie and Braden Powell were 7 and 5 years old respectively when Josh Powell intentionally ignited a fire that blew up his rented house and killed all three of them on Feb. 5. The family of Josh Powell was looking into nearby plots for his remains, so Pierce County Crimestoppers stepped in and purchased the nearby plots.
“Just to make sure that no plaques or no mention of Josh or anybody are around those boys that doesn’t deserve to be or need to be,” police department spokesman Ed Troyer told ABC News’ affiliate KOMO News in Seattle. “We think that is a place people are going to … be hurting for years and years and years around here, and we didn’t want any chance of Josh being there.”
Thousands of dollars in donations poured into Pierce County Crimestoppers to buy the two burial plots on either side of the brothers’ shared casket in an effort to prevent Powell from being buried so close to the boys. Even the sheriff in town donated $100 of his own money to the cause.
“I can’t see this happening. I just hope it goes away quickly,” said Chuck Cox, the grandfather of the boys and father of their mother Susan Powell, who went missing under suspicious circumstances in 2009.
The Cox family attorney plans to file a temporary restraining order to stop the sale of the plot until a judge is able to intervene in the situation.
Powell, who reportedly became upset when he was denied custody of his two sons, slammed the door on social worker Elizabeth Griffin-Hall on Feb. 5 when she brought Charlie and Braden for a bi-weekly supervised visit with their father. Within a few minutes the entire house burst into flames, which is believed to have been caused by Josh Powell leaking gas into the house and igniting it.
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