Nothing Left to Lose

This traumatic saga began on Dec. 7, 2009 when a 28-year old mother of two from West Valley City, Utah was reported missing after she failed to arrive at work. The mother, Susan Powell, has never been found. An investigation revealed that her husband, Josh Powell, said that he took his two boys camping in Utah in the middle of the night, in the midst of a blizzard. At the very least, this was very odd and suspicious. At the most, this could be a story of Josh Powell murdering his wife and hiding her body.


Soon after Susan disappeared, Josh moved his remaining family to Washington state, to live with his father, Steve Powell. 


Fast forward to September, 2011, when Steve Powell, was arrested for voyeurism and having child pornography on his computer. Josh, who was residing in the house, lost his sons to Child Protective Services, who placed them in the home of his in-laws.


Last Wednesday, all involved parties attended a hearing for custody, where a judge ruled that the children, then ages seven and five, would remain with their maternal grandparents. Susan still had not surfaced.


Then, on Sunday, Feb. 5, a representative from CPS in Washington took the boy’s to visit with Josh in what was to be a supervised visitation session. The boy’s ran ahead of the representative into the arms of their father, who immediately took them inside, locked the door, locking out the representative. He then attacked both sons with a hatchet before igniting a fire that exploded and killed all three of them.

Whether or not he murdered his wife, I do not know. His ability to carry out the brutal murder of his children tends to illustrate his ability to murder his wife. This is a tragic story.


According to reports, his oldest son had drawn a picture of the final family trip camping in which the child had said that his mother was in the trunk on that trip.


Had CPS not removed the children, would they still be alive? I can remotely understand the hurt and isolation that he felt that might have led to him taking his own life. But for the life of me, I will never be able to understand his desire to brutally murder his children, who had done nothing wrong. 


I don’t think that anything short of serious mental illness could have led to this case of domestic violence at its absolute worst. I think that once the Judge ordered a psychosexual evaluation along with a polygraph test, he knew that he would not pass both, and would never have custody of his sons again. Maybe he knew that an arrest for his wife’s disappearance would be imminent.

The forensic analysis will continue on this case for years.

Obviously, he was in a position in which he felt that he had nothing left to lose. Loss of hope can be an eerie thing. Did the public opinion contribute to this?

Do we need a better way of getting treatment for the mentally ill?

I don’t blame anyone in this tragic story but Josh. But, had he been able to retain his dignity, I am not sure that we would be looking at the tragic ending that we are seeing.

But those are just some of my thoughts on this heinous crime. What are yours? 

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Thankfulness Challenge and Joy Dare


Today I am thankful for :


38. The gathering of the Saints.
39. Active, healthy, happy boys.
40. The cool weather of February.
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Vaccine for Heroine Addiction?


According to information from the Latin American Herald Tribune, a vaccine has been patented in Mexico to prevent Heroine addiction. This vaccine has successfully be tested on rats and now will need about five years of Human Testing.
Linking up with Laura Boggess today at:

copyright 2012 by Kathy Robbins