Josh Powell killed himself and his two sons by blowing up his home in Washington on Sunday.
ELAINE THOMPSON/AP
Josh Powell was battling his missing wife's parents for custody of his two young sons.
AP
Susan Powell
The two boys killed with their father after he blew up his Washington home on Sunday said they remembered their mom being "in the trunk" of their dad's car on the night she went missing two years ago, a family lawyer said.
Steve Downing, a lawyer for the parents of Susan Powell, who went missing in 2009 and whose husband, Josh, was under suspicion, said the boys had been speaking up recently about the camping trip that served as their dad's alibi.
"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing told The Associated Press.
"The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."
Authorities say Powell intentionally set off the explosion at his house in Graham, Wash. on Sunday, just moments after a social worker brought his sons, Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, over for a supervised visit.
He had been under investigation in connection with his wife's disappearance from their West Valley City, Utah, home on December 27, 2009.
Powell insisted he and his boys had left for a late-night camping trip in a desert area in western Utah hours before his wife vanished.
Utah cops haven’t commented on Downing’s remarks.
The boys had been living with their mom’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, before Sunday's tragedy. Powell was reportedly upset about being denied custody.
At a court hearing last Wednesday, a judge ruled Powell couldn't get his children back without undergoing a psycho-sexual evaluation.
Psycho-sexual evaluations are usually used in sex crimes cases.
The judge ordered the evaluation because police searching for Susan had found child porn at a home Powell shared with his father last year.
Steven Powell, 61, was later arrested on child porn and voyeurism charges and is currently being held in a jail in Tacoma.
Josh Powell's lawyer and some family members said they received a heartbreaking farewell email from him just minutes before Sunday's murder-suicide.
"I'm sorry, goodbye," the email read.
Arson investigators and detectives were returning to the blast scene on Monday to try to determine what caused the explosion.
The social worker, who was not hurt, said she smelled gas moments before the house blew up, and Pierce County, Wash., Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Ed Troyer said an accelerant was used.
"It burned fast and hot," Troyer said.
With News Wire Services
Stromee Ryan and Shayanna Smith with Powell family and friends at a candlelight vigil in Salt Lake County, Utah, on Sunday night. (Jeffrey D. Allred/AP
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