SEATTLE (AP) — State authorities can expect tough questions about whether more might have been done to protect the two children of a missing Utah woman who were killed along with their father in what appears to have been a deliberate house explosion Sunday.
Josh Powell was a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance — why was he allowed to meet with his sons at all? Why weren’t more precautions taken?
The answers rest in part in that no concrete evidence has emerged publicly linking Josh Powell to Susan Powell’s disappearance. Josh Powell had custody of the boys for nearly two years afterward. And it was only because his father — with whom he and the boys lived — was arrested in a voyeurism case last fall that the children were taken out of the home and placed with Susan’s parents.
A Department of Social and Health Services spokeswoman says officials would have acted if they thought there was any chance Josh Powell might have harmed the children.
