Posted on 02/05/2012 8:02:31 PM PST by Lady Lucky
The husband of a missing Utah mom blew up his home Sunday —apparently intentionally — killing himself and the couple’s two young sons, authorities said.
Josh Powell’s house in Graham, Wash., exploded and burst into flames moments after a social worker brought the two boys Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, for a visit with their dad.
Powell was under investigation in the disappearance of his wife, Susan, from their West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
“He couldn’t just kill himself?”
Probably for the same reason women kill a new-born instead of leaving them outside a police station or firehouse; no closure.
This is just an ugly effect of the unraveling of families.
That scenario is a good probability, but instead of calling the police, she called her supervisor to report a gas smell.
Since she wasn’t injured by the explosion, it just seems she had either left, or at least had moved far enough away to avoid it.
It seems there was still some time between the door being locked and the explosion.
If you read the article, the guy even e-mailed his attorney before setting off the explosion.
As with most of these articles, the ‘facts’ are a little sketchy but I don’t think it happened as fast as it is being portrayed.
...”I’m no fan of social workers and it’s easy to second-guess this woman. But, I suspect, even in light of the psych eval order and the disappearance of his wife, that she was completely caught off guard by the sort of agressive, malicious crazy with which she was immediately confronted at the door of the house. He blocked her entry, took the boys inside, locked the door and the house exploded”...
Yes..Americans always look for someplace to put blame where it does not belong..I am not a fan of our armies of social workers either, but most of them do their work according to the guidelines they are given and their work is frequently not safe for them personally. In this case, she might have been the 4th victim, had she gone against him..Who could have foreseen this bizarre outcome? When someone is willing to commit suicide, there is little anyone can do.
The media is reporting that the 7 year-old (who was 5 when she ‘disappeared’) had claimed that when their father took them camping at midnight in freezing temps. the mother was in the trunk of the car.
That is believable. Children probably saw and heard a lot of disturbing activity on that night and with professional counseling might have remembered more details.
-—Just last week Powell was denied custody back because the judge ordered him to have a psych eval done by court order. That must have sent him over the edge.-—
This is why the government must regulate marriage. The State has the natural duty to arbitrate child custody disputes.
“...she was supposed to supervise...”
I always thought “supervised” visitation took place in some office or something. I never realized visits like that would happen in a person’s home.
I’d think if they thought the father was a danger to his kids (which sadly he most definitely was) they would not have let them go to his house.
What is also sad is the woman’s parents will never know where their daughter was buried.
The answers to all of your questions are inherent in the term “social worker” and the programming involved in being one.
You or I — THINKING people — would have done differently, but that norm doesn’t apply to individuals operating under the influence of a system that attempts to apply a programmatic “if - then - else” analysis to utterly illogical situations. To call that “psychopathy” is too kind.
Those poor babies. :-( This is just beyond evil.
Does anyone know what Josh did for a living? I know Susan worked for Wells Fargo financial services, but couldn’t find any information on him.
Tell your daughters to be careful whom they marry.
I feel not one ounce of pity for pervert grandpa who sits in jail.
He created this beast.
In the article I read about this earlier this morning they said that the kids had JUST started to verbalize things about their Dad and their Mom. According to the article the children had indicated their Mom was camping WITH them. One child apparently had said “we went camping and mom was in the trunk”, and “mom and dad got out of the car and then mom wasn’t there anymore” - or something to that effect. My question was why in the HE** was this man even allowed SUPERVISED visits at his home (HIS domain) ESPECIALLY given that the kids had apparently been on the verge of telling the story? I know the law is different regarding people who have been charged with a crime vs. people under suspicion, but the suspected crime was so incredibly serious that I think the higher level precautions in dealing with visits and the like should have been taken (they should have been forced to meet AT the Social Services building, IMO).
I’m going to go find that article and find out who supposedly heard the kids say these things - I’m guessing it was Susan’s parents and that they couldn’t prove they said it because it hadn’t been said to a therapist or something... If it was ANYONE else in the “system” that heard what these children said extreme caution should have been taken in regards to the safety of the children.
I CAN imagine how horrible it would be to be kept from your kids if you were innocent, but in cases that are extreme like this there should be a way to prevent the probable witnesses from being anywhere near the likely suspect - repeated contact will keep them from being able to talk about it out of just fear. [I have personal experience with being on several “sides” of some cases involving social services, unfortunately - although I have never personally been faced with a threat regarding my custody of my children so I admit I don’t know things from an accused’s POV.]
So many abuses by different agencies in dealing with BOTH sides of these issues it’s hard to know what to push for in preventing these kinds of cases in the future.
As for the grandparents of these young children - I can’t possibly imagine their pain and suffering, anger, you name it... I’m sure they’re feeling it ALL in waves and will for a long time. They will be in my prayers - as will the Social Workers who no matter what we all think about their job MOST of them are GOOD people who care and are mired in bureaucracy and deal with PSYCHO people all the time which makes their interactions with GOOD people sometimes look very flawed from the “outside”.
What a disturbing and incredibly horrible tragic event... May the boys who have most likely been reunited with their mother rest in peace - at least they are all in Heaven with God now and suffer no more... As for where their father is, well, I’m glad God is the judge because I could never muster mercy for this man I don’t believe...
I’m honestly surprised the first reaction was to phone the boss... Many of the “bad” social workers try to escalate the situation by bringing IN the cops it seems - not avoid escalation by seeking advice from their “boss” back in the office. If the programming you spoke of actually WAS working in these workers they would have called 911 immediately, IMHO.
I’m no fan of “Social Services”, but unfortunately there ARE some cases in which they are needed. The bureaucracy, craziness, and incompetence are duly noted, but not ALL people in the field are completely avowed Marxists/Socialists/Communists. SOME (the good ones) are actually people who CARE about children and do good by the ones who truly need the system.
Those on the borderline where extreme intervention is NOT necessarily needed aren’t helped by the “No Tolerance” laws in this area. However, when cases like this develop I can understand how it is hard to know where to draw the line between the rights of an accused or suspected individual and the unalienable rights of a child to NOT live in a dangerous or abusive situation.
The unintended consequences of such a system are unfortunate, but at the state and local level these ARE matters of criminality and I think the majority of unintended consequences are the result of overworked, understaffed workers and harried investigations and court cases. My experience with the courtroom part of this system was in Chicago - a more screwed up place I think you’d be hard-pressed to find. Most of the kids in the Cook County system are screwed whether left with an abuser or abused by those in the system itself - however, at least in the foster system some have a CHANCE of not being abused again if they truly are in a bad situation in their family.
I absolutely agree with you.
Occam’s wood shredder:
Useless narcissist waste of oxygen killed his wife, killed his sons, killed himself.
Sadly, he performed his absolute evil in the wrong order - ass backwards.
Doubtful he’ll get his planet.
Mommy rode in the trunk. The flames of hell are insufficient, IMO.
Heck, forgot to ping, above ^
No kidding. As usual you are right on the money!
F***ing B***turd
Awkward to say the leaset.
The WORKER enters first and then the kids let in?
Maybe a change in protocal coming up.
Sin is a reproach to any Nation.
3 more names for the dead dunking ceremony...
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