It's a horror no one should have to live through. Chuck and Judy Cox have wondered for two years what happened to their daughter, missing Utah mom Susan Cox Powell. And now that son-in-law Josh Powell has killed himself and the couple's two young sons in what cops are calling a murder-suicide at his home in Washington State, they have become tragedy personified.
First and foremost, of course, is the loss of their grandchildren, Charlie and Braden Powell. It was just last week when a court ruled once again that the boys belonged with the Coxes rather than their unstable dad. And it seemed right. No one could understand how those two kids have suffered since their mom went missing two years ago quite like her parents. After all, they themselves were suffering her loss. And now they may never have closure.
The best clues to what happened on a freezing cold December evening in 2009, the night Susan went missing, are gone. Josh told police at the time that he had taken the kids camping -- in the dead of winter in a blizzard, mind you -- and his wife up and disappeared while they were gone. The kids, considered vital witnesses, allegedly told a rather different story about Mommy being in the trunk of their car and Mommy and Daddy walking off into the desert where Mommy "got lost."
It's no wonder Josh was one of the "persons of interest" police had in his wife's case. But now he's gone, dead from an explosion police aren't afraid to say he set. With him went the stories from the kids. And with him went his own stories. After all, he was still out there claiming he had nothing to do with Susan's disappearance, but not saying much else of substance:
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The investigation is continuing, but it will have to be without the chance to question the last three people known to have seen Susan alive. Those kids won't get to expand on their memories of "mommy in the trunk" of the car. At the very least, this is something Josh intentionally did: or so say the cops, who are using words like "murder" to describe what Josh did to his children.
So where does this leave Chuck and Judy Cox? They have lost the grandchildren they loved dearly. They have lost the daughter they loved dearly. And they have lost perhaps the best chance they had of even getting Susan's body back. Whether or not Josh actually did something to Susan, his last act punished these people immeasurably.
Does your heart ache for this poor family today?
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