According to msnbc.com, police and Crime Stoppers in Washington state used their own personal funds to purchase the burial plots on either side of the two sons of Josh Powell to prevent his family from burying him next to them.
“The bottom line is, Josh Powell will not be near those two boys,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Troyer said in an interview with a Seattle-area radio program called the Ron and Don Show.
“It’s disgusting that a murder suspect would be buried next to his victims,” Sheriff Paul Pastor said in a statement posted on Twitter.
On Feb. 5, Powell used a hatchet to hack his sons, Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, to death before setting his rental house on fire, killing himself. A social worker had arrived moments earlier with the children for a court-ordered visit. But the children ran ahead of her into the house, and Powell slammed the door shut behind them.
“He’s a narcissist and he has no love for anyone but himself,” said Kirk Graves, whose wife is Josh Powell’s sister.
Police later discovered Powell did not live at the home he destroyed. He had given authorities the rental house as his address to fool child protective services into believing he had a loving home for the boys.
Powell was a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of his wife, Susan Powell, in West Valley City, Utah. He later moved with his sons to near Tacoma, Wash., to be close to his parents, according to msnbc.com.
Powell’s father, Steve Powell, who many believe knows the location of Susan Powell’s body, is awaiting trial in Pierce County, Wash., on voyeurism and child pornography charges, according to msnbc.com.
Crime Stoppers is soliciting money on its website for the purchase of the two plots.
