Charles Joshua Powell: The Murder of Charlie and Braden

Charlie Powell’s murder occurred on February 5, 2012, when his father, Josh Powell, attacked him and his five-year-old brother Braden with a hatchet and then detonated a gasoline-fueled explosion inside his rental home in Graham, Washington, during a court-supervised visit. Charlie was seven years old. A social worker stood on the porch when the door was slammed and locked in her face; eight minutes after her 911 call, the house exploded.¹ The deaths later produced a $98.5 million wrongful death verdict against the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.²

Who Charlie Was

Charles Joshua Powell was born on January 19, 2005. He was in kindergarten at the time of his death. His teacher, Tammy Oughton, delivered a eulogy describing him as a child with a “keen intellect and compassionate heart” and a passion for science, nature, writing, and building. “Charlie parted this life on February 5, 2012,” the eulogy concluded, “but his funny, bright, compassionate personality lives on with all who knew him.”³

How Charlie Ended Up on Supervised Visits With His Father

Charlie’s mother, Susan Cox Powell, vanished from the family’s West Valley City, Utah home on December 6, 2009, when he was four. Josh Powell told police he had taken Charlie and Braden on a late-night camping trip in freezing weather and was named a person of interest within weeks. He never fully cooperated with investigators.⁴ In January 2010, Josh moved with the boys to Puyallup, Washington, to live with his father, Steven Powell.

That living arrangement collapsed in August 2011, when a search of Steven Powell’s home turned up photographs he had secretly taken of two young neighbor girls through a bathroom window, along with child pornography. Steven was arrested, and because Charlie and Braden lived in the house, a judge ruled that they “cannot safely be returned home.”⁵ The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) took custody. Susan’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, were awarded temporary custody as foster parents, and Josh was granted weekly supervised visitation.

What Charlie Told Investigators

In the two years between his mother’s disappearance and his own death, Charlie made statements that investigators and family members would come to view as evidence. On December 8, 2009, during a police interview, four-year-old Charlie said Susan had gone “camping” with the family and had stayed behind at a place “where the crystals are,” a phrase detectives connected to Utah’s West Desert.⁶

Three months later, Charlie was evasive. Asked who told him to keep secrets, he said, “My brain told me. My brain won’t tell me to say that.”⁶ At school he produced a drawing of the family van, with his father driving, himself and Braden in the backseat, and his mother in the trunk. Asked why she was there, Charlie said he didn’t know, only that his parents had gotten out of the van and his mother “got lost.”⁷ Braden told daycare workers, while drawing a van of his own, “Mommy’s in the trunk,” adding, “we stopped somewhere and mommy and daddy got out and mommy didn’t come back.”⁸ Both boys told their grandparents repeatedly that their mother was “in a mine.”

The Attack on February 5, 2012

By early February 2012, Josh Powell was losing custody ground. A judge had ordered him to undergo a psychosexual evaluation and a polygraph after investigators found cartoon pornography on a laptop associated with him.⁹ In the days before the February 5 visit, he donated his children’s toys to Goodwill.¹⁰

At noon that Sunday, Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, a supervisor with Foster Care Resources Network contracted by DSHS, brought Charlie and Braden to Josh’s rental home in Graham. The boys ran ahead. Josh picked them up, looked at Griffin-Hall, and slammed the door in her face. She heard him triple-lock it. Then she heard him say, “Lay facedown. I have a surprise for you.” She heard one of the boys cry out as if in pain. She smelled gasoline.¹¹

Griffin-Hall ran to her car and called 911 at 12:08 p.m., saying she was “afraid for their lives.” At 12:16 p.m., the house exploded. She told the dispatcher, “He exploded the house.”¹ Sheriff’s deputies arrived at 12:30 p.m. and found Josh, Charlie, and Braden dead near two ten-gallon cans of gasoline.¹⁰

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that all three died of smoke inhalation. The autopsies also found that both boys had “chop injuries” inflicted before the fire: Braden to his head and neck, Charlie to his neck. A hatchet was recovered beside the bodies. Investigators concluded that Josh had attacked the boys with the hatchet but was overcome by smoke before he could finish.¹²¹³ Minutes before the explosion, Josh had emailed his pastor, cousins, and friends about his finances and utilities, writing that he could not live without his children.¹⁰

Warnings DSHS Received Before the Visit

Two days before the murders, on February 3, Chuck Cox called DSHS social worker Forest Jacobson to warn that Josh was “backed into a corner” and that he feared for the boys’ safety. Jacobson told him the visitations were fine because “nothing had happened in the past.”¹¹

Chuck and Judy Cox had been raising similar alarms for months. Chuck later said he had warned caseworkers, police, psychologists, and attorneys that Josh was “capable of killing the children” if he felt cornered.¹⁴ DSHS was aware that investigators had found incestuous images on Josh Powell’s computer, that he had a history of suicide attempts and abuse, and that the boys had made disturbing statements about violence and their mother. A therapist, Lori Narigi, had recommended that visits be supervised by a trained DSHS staff member rather than a contracted third party. That recommendation was not followed.¹¹ A state review panel later concluded that DSHS failed to consult with law enforcement before allowing the visits at Josh’s home, and that agency policy at the time prohibited supervised visits in a noncustodial parent’s home in the first place.¹⁵

The $98.5 Million Verdict

In 2014, Judith and Charles Cox filed an amended wrongful death complaint in Pierce County Superior Court against DSHS and individual social workers. The case was removed to federal court, where DSHS won summary judgment, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that dismissal in 2019, finding genuine disputes about whether DSHS used reasonable care in choosing visit locations, facilitating the final visit, and training staff.¹¹

After remand, a Pierce County jury found DSHS negligent in July 2020 and awarded $98.5 million, including $57.5 million in noneconomic damages for each boy’s estate before segregation of damages tied to Josh Powell’s intentional conduct.² The trial judge, Stanley Rumbaugh, cut the award by two-thirds to about $32.8 million, calling the jury’s figure one that “shocks the conscience of the court.”¹⁶

The Coxes appealed. On April 18, 2023, a unanimous three-judge panel of Division II of the Washington State Court of Appeals reinstated the full verdict. Judge Bernard Veljacic wrote that the trial court “erred in concluding that the jury’s damage award was obviously the result of passion or prejudice,” and that “substantial evidence” supported the award in light of the “horrific and brutal deaths” the boys endured.¹⁶¹⁷

Charlie and Braden’s Law

The murders prompted legislative efforts to keep children away from a parent suspected of killing the other parent. In early 2013, Washington State Senator Pam Roach introduced Senate Bill 5162, nicknamed “Charlie and Braden’s Law,” which would have barred parents under investigation for murder from access to their children until the case was resolved. The bill passed the state Senate 48 to 1 but stalled in the House and never became law.¹⁸

Utah picked up a narrower version. In 2014, the Utah Legislature passed Senate Bill 173, which allowed courts and child welfare workers to place children in protective custody when a parent has been identified by law enforcement as the primary suspect in the killing of the other parent.¹⁹

Funeral and Burial

A public funeral for Charlie and Braden was held on February 11, 2012, at the Life Center church in Tacoma, Washington, with hundreds of mourners wearing purple and blue ribbons.²⁰ The brothers were placed in a single coffin and interred during a private ceremony on February 13 at Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup. A memorial fund was established at Wells Fargo Bank under the name “Charles and Braden Powell Memorial Fund.”²¹ Susan Cox Powell has never been found.

1
The Cold Podcast. Killing Susan’s Sons: Murder-Suicide Full Transcript
2
Seattle Times. WA Court Reinstates Nearly $100M Verdict Against State in Death of 2 Boys
3
ABC News. Eulogies for Charles and Braden Powell
4
KUTV. Timeline: What We Know in the 10 Years Since Susan Cox Powell Went Missing
5
The News Tribune. Steven Powell Voyeurism and Child Pornography Investigation
6
KSL. Searching for Clues About Susan Powell’s Death in Her Son Charlie’s Police Interviews
7
KOMO News. Attorney: Powell Boys Said ‘Mommy’s in the Mine’
8
Mercury News. Mommy’s in the Trunk: Evidence in Susan Powell Case
9
ABC News. Susan Powell Disappearance: Young Sons’ Horrific Death Haunts
10
ABC News. Josh Powell Killed Sons With Hatchet Before Fatal Explosion
11
Washington State Courts. Cox v. DSHS, No. 55438-1-II
12
KOMO News. Autopsies: Powell Children Suffered Chop Injuries
13
NPR. Before Dying in Inferno, Little Boys Were Struck
14
Children’s Rights. “We Told Them He Would Be Capable of Killing the Children”
15
NBC News. State Social Workers Faulted on Young Sons’ Visits in Josh Powell Case
16
The News Tribune. Court Reinstates $98.5M Verdict in Powell Case
17
KOMO News. Court Reinstates $98.5 Million Verdict in Powell Children’s Deaths
18
The Cold Podcast. Cold Case Full Transcript
19
Deseret News. House Panel Approves Bill to Protect Children Whose Parent Is Murder Suspect
20
ABC News. Funeral for Josh Powell’s Sons Held in Washington
21
Deseret News. Services for Charlie, Braden Powell