UPDATE:
Authorities: Powell kids struck with hatchet before blaze
Puyallup, Washington (CNN) -- The tragic tale of two boys killed along with their father in an apparent murder-suicide took another gruesome turn after authorities said the children suffered hatchet wounds before dying of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Investigators found the hatchet they believe was used on the boys in the Washington home of Josh Powell, whom authorities believe set the explosive fire Sunday afternoon, said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.
Powell was a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of his wife, Susan Cox-Powell.
Autopsies showed his sons, 5-year-old Braden and 7-year-old Charlie, suffered "chop" injuries to their necks, but medical examiners concluded both boys and their father died from inhaling carbon monoxide, the county medical examiner's office reported.
Powell sent multiple e-mails before fire
Powell brother: 'This proves it' Powell's death was ruled a suicide, and his sons' deaths were ruled homicides.
But before dousing his Puyallup home with gasoline and setting it ablaze, Powell gave toys and books to charity and sent multiple goodbye e-mails, authorities said Monday.
That evidence suggests that Powell planned a murder-suicide for some time, Troyer said.
"(I) believe this was intentional -- it's two counts of murder and then suicide," he said.
It was a tragic development in a puzzling saga that began two years ago in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley City, Utah, when 28-year-old Cox-Powell disappeared.
Nancy Grace interviews Susan Cox-Powell's sister
The farewell e-mails Powell sent included one to his attorney, saying simply: "I'm sorry. Goodbye."
He also sent e-mails to his pastor and others just minutes before the fire, giving instructions on how to handle his end-of-life business, according to Troyer.
The spokesman added that authorities found two five-gallon cans of gas in the home, one of which appeared to have been lit right next to the bodies, which were found together in the same room.
The sheriff's department has copies of an e-mail Powell sent to his attorney as well as family and friends that said "he couldn't live with what was going on," Troyer said.
The deaths of Powell and his two sons could mean the disappearance of the children's mother might never be solved.
Still, the case remains open and investigators vowed to pursue it until the point of closure.
Follow a timeline of the case
"I promised the Coxes I wasn't giving up and I'm still not because we want to get some closure here," West Valley City, Utah, Police Chief Buzz Nielsen said Monday. Utah detectives went to Washington in the aftermath of the fatal fire.
"The case is still active; we're not closing the case. We still got things that have not been resolved," he said.
As late as last month, Utah authorities were still working to connect Powell to the disappearance of his wife, who authorities believe is dead.
Powell, who was never charged in his wife's disappearance, was embroiled in a bitter custody dispute with the Cox family.
When asked Monday whether she feared Powell would ever hurt his children, Cox-Powell's sister, Denise Cox, responded: "Absolutely."
In recent months, the children had started "opening up and talking to my parents about what happened that night" their mother disappeared, Cox said.
"The boys, really, once they started opening up to our family, they started closing down on their dad," Cox said.
Cox family attorney Steve Downing said the older boy recalled his mother being in the trunk.
"Charlie had been asked along with other members of (his) class to draw a picture of something they did in summer," Downing said. "At some point he drew a picture of the family van. The dad was driving the van, he and his brother were in the backseat and mom was in the trunk."
Authorities believe that by setting fire to the home, Powell not only killed his children -- he eliminated evidence in the case of his wife.
"Those boys were evidence. Those boys were going to be evidence against him," Troyer said. "You're looking at somebody who's willing to kill their own kids ... killing your wife isn't that much of a stretch from there."
According to investigators, Powell had said the last time he saw his wife was the night he and his sons -- then ages 2 and 4 -- left to go camping.
Cox-Powell's sister eventually reported her missing. A month later, Powell and his children moved from Utah to Washington.
The double homicide and suicide on Sunday came days after a judge refused Powell's petition to regain custody of his children. The judge instead ordered Powell undergo psychological evaluations -- an order that came after authorities turned up child pornography in the home Powell shared with his father.
As part of the investigation into Cox-Powell's disappearance, Utah authorities searched the Washington house where Powell, his two sons and his father, Steven Powell, were living last year.
During the search, investigators "discovered numerous images and recordings of adult and juvenile females," according to a statement released by the Pierce County sheriff's department.
Powell's father, Steven, was subsequently charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and one count of possessing images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to court documents.
After the arrest of Powell's father, custody of his sons went to the Coxes, according to Washington state court records. Powell maintained in court documents filed last week that he established his own home after his father's arrest and "have consistently proven my fitness as a stable and loving parent under close supervision by (child welfare caseworkers)."
On Sunday, shortly after noon, Powell was standing outside his home in a quiet, tree-lined cul-de-sac waiting for a social worker to bring the two boys for a supervised visit, authorities said.
As the children got to the door, Powell pushed the social worker back, quickly brought the two boys inside and locked the door.
The social worker, who later reported smelling something similar to gas at the time, tried "pounding the doors, trying to get in," said Gary Franz, a deputy chief with Graham, Washington, Fire and Rescue.
About two minutes later, as the social worker was calling her supervisor, the house exploded, Franz said.
The powerful explosion shook houses, with debris landing on lawns blocks away.
The deaths of Braden and Charlie dealt yet another blow to their maternal grandparents, Chuck and Judy Cox.
"We were doing everything we could to keep them safe and healthy," Chuck Cox told CNN affiliate KTVX. "And that was all taken away ... by a selfish and cowardly act, in my mind -- just a slaughter of two innocent children."
CNN's Ashley Hayes, Tina Burnside, Anderson Cooper, Sara Weisfeldt, John King, Leslie Tripp and Dave Alsup and HLN's Alexis Weed and Nancy Grace contributed
edition.cnn.com . . .
