Chuck Cox: ‘Too many warning signs’ regarding Josh Powell

Chuck Cox told KIRO 7 on Monday his late son-in-law, Josh Powell, is the only one to blame for an explosion at Powell’s home Sunday that killed Powell and his two sons, but that the law failed everyone.

Police said Powell let his two kids – 7-year-old Charles and 5-year-old Braden -- into his home in Graham for a supervised visit on Sunday, locked out a Child Protective Services worker and blew up the home moments later.

“It’s just senseless – (the) slaughter of two innocent children,” Cox said.

Cox said that while he thought everyone did what they were supposed to do under the law, he wished the supervised visit had been at a neutral location, instead of Powell’s home. He said the boys were playing before it came time for them to visit their father.

“They were having a good time and didn’t want to stop and see daddy,” Cox said. “They seemed to be losing interest in going to see him. They liked it here.”

The kids were living with Cox and his wife, Judy Cox, after a court order last year.

He said the boys were becoming more affectionate with their grandparents every day. He said they didn’t want to see their father when a Child Protective Services worker came to pick them up Sunday.

“I couldn’t sit down without them being on my lap, and they were very affectionate and loving, and were just having a great time,” Cox said. “There were having a good time and they didn’t want to stop and see daddy today. They seemed to be losing interest in going to see him.”

Judy Cox said she talked the boys into going to Powell’s home Sunday, a fateful decision she said she regrets.

“Yeah, because look what happened,” she said. “But I knew that they’re supposed to be able to see their dad.”

Chuck Cox said it’s clearer than ever, in his mind, that Powell was responsible for the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell – the Coxes' daughter and Powell’s wife – in Utah two years ago. He said he thought Powell was feeling pressure from the investigation into his wife’s disappearance, in which police had called Powell a person of interest.

“He was going to lose in his way,” Chuck Cox said. “It was cowardly.”

Cox said he warned police, social workers, lawyers and anyone else who would listen that he felt Powell might try something desperate.

“We felt that if he – Josh – felt that there was no hope -- that he was losing, or was gonna end up in jail or something – that he would do something very desperate and could possibly harm the children or take them with him in a murder-suicide thing,” Cox said. “Well, there you go.”

Powell, despite being the only person of interest in the case, had refused to cooperate with detectives. For that reason and many others, Chuck Cox said he thinks the deaths of his grandsons could have, and should have, been avoided.

“There were too many warning signs that were known, but due to legal limitations, were unable to be acted upon,” he said. “So we ended up where we ended up.”