Prosecutors in Pierce County say they would listen to any information that Steven Powell has about the disappearance of his daughter-in-law Susan Powell, but have not offered him any kind of plea deal. 
 
 Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told 97.3 KIRO FM in an email Tuesday that his office would "listen" if Steven Powell, his attorney or Utah law enforcement "proposes something" in exchange for information about her whereabouts. 
 
 "No deal has been proposed," Lindquist said. "We are not offering any deal but if information is brought forward we would listen." 
 
 "You have to weigh what's best for everybody involved in the case and if that works out, that would be great," said Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. "But I would not have everybody put their hopes on it because I've had enough dealings with Steve to know that he's playing a game and he might jerk everybody around for a couple years and enjoy doing it. Not that we wouldn't try, but not that he'd be cooperative." 
 
 Powell was arrested in September 2011 after a search of his Puyallup home turned up "thousands of images of females being photographed without their knowledge, including Susan Powell and many minors." He has been held at the Pierce County Jail in lieu of bail since his arrest. His trial date is scheduled for March 20. 
 
 West Valley City Utah Police Chief Buzz Nielson told reporters in Graham, Wash., Monday that he considers Steven Powell a "person of interest" in Susan's disappearance, but said he "didn't want to get involved with Pierce County's criminal case." 
 
 "There should be things that he [Steven Powell] would probably like to talk to us about we hope," Nielson told Utah TV station KSL Tuesday. He said they plan to question Powell when authorities here think he's ready to talk. "Sure we can't prosecute Josh, but did somebody know anything? Did somebody help him ... those are all the question that we need to resolve." 
 
 Brandi Kruse, 97.3 KIRO FM Reporter ||||| Originally published February 6, 2012 at 1:56 PM | Page modified February 7, 2012 at 8:56 PM 
 
 Charlie and Braden Powell's grandparents said Monday the boys hadn't wanted to go visit their father, and described an ominous drawing the younger boy had made. 
 
 Powell's voicemail: 'I am not able to go on' 
 
 Commenting has been disabled because of the sensitive nature of this story. 
 
 Josh Powell's final, horrific act — killing his sons and himself in a fiery inferno — was tantamount to a confession to his wife's disappearance and presumed death, according to the Pierce County prosecuting attorney. 
 
 "If there was any doubt about who murdered Susan Powell, it's gone now," Mark Lindquist said. 
 
 On Sunday, when Powell attacked his two sons with a hatchet and then set fire to his Graham rental home, he had long been considered by Utah police to be a person of interest in his wife's December 2009 disappearance. But charges had never been brought against him despite questions over his claims that his wife went missing after he took his two sons camping in the middle of the night in freezing temperatures. 
 
 Despite Powell's death, police in West Valley City, Utah, say the investigation into Susan Powell's disappearance will continue. 
 
 Lindquist's reference to Susan Powell's presumed slaying isn't the first time authorities indicated they believe the missing mother of two was the victim of homicide. A search warrant obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request Tuesday shows that police in Utah were investigating three felonies in connection with the case: first-degree murder, kidnapping and obstructing a public servant. 
 
 Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill acknowledged for the first time that they believe Powell is likely dead, but said the case remains a missing persons probe for now. 
 
 Gill wouldn't discuss the evidence, but said authorities don't have enough information to file charges in the case. 
 
 "I think when I talk about it as a missing persons case, that's because we haven't located the body of Susan Powell," Gill said in an interview with the AP. "Do we think that she may have met harm? Sure." 
 
 Investigators are now reassessing the case after her husband, Josh Powell, killed their sons Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, during a court-ordered visit Sunday at his Graham home. The boys' grandparents, Chuck and Judy Cox, say the boys were reluctant to go on the visit. 
 
 But the visits were court-ordered after Josh Powell lost custody of the boys in the fall, and the Coxes insisted they go. 
 
 "They liked seeing their dad," Chuck Cox said. "But the last time they didn't want to go." 
 
 It was during Sunday's visit that the sheriff's office says Josh Powell set fire to the rental home in Graham, killing both boys and himself moments after a state-contracted caseworker brought them for the supervised visitation. 
 
 Sheriff's officials said Monday they believed Josh Powell had planned the deadly fire for some time. They said he dropped off toys and books at Goodwill over the weekend and sent final emails to friends and acquaintances shortly before the blaze. 
 
 Detectives found evidence of 10 gallons of gasoline inside the home, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ed Troyer. Gasoline from a 5-gallon can was spread throughout the house and used as an accelerant for the huge blaze. Another 5-gallon can was found near the bodies, he said 
 
 Troyer called the deadly fire "a deliberate, planned-out event." 
 
 Chillingly, Powell may have first incapacitated his sons by attacking them with a hatchet. 
 
 The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office on Monday said all three died from smoke inhalation. But both boys also suffered "chop injuries," Braden to his head and neck, and Charlie to his neck. 
 
 Troyer said a hatchet was recovered near the bodies. 
 
 "Just when you thought it couldn't get any grimmer, you learn he had assaulted his kids with an ax," Lindquist said. 
 
 In the emails sent before the fire, Powell wrote his lawyer, pastor, friends and relatives, telling some, "I'm sorry. I can't live without my boys." He also left instructions on how to take care of his "final business," according to Troyer. 
 
 He said none of the emails mentioned Powell's wife and the mother of the boys, Susan Powell, 28, who has been missing since December 2009. Powell had long been considered a person of interest in her disappearance from their home in West Valley City, Utah. 
 
 On Monday, a tearful Chuck and Judy Cox spoke of their family's pain over the boys' deaths, compounded by the disappearance of their daughter. 
 
 Powell, 36, told police he last saw Susan around midnight Dec. 7, 2009, when he put their sons in a minivan and took them on a late-night camping trip in Utah's west desert in freezing temperatures. 
 
 But police, almost from the start, questioned Powell's story. Powell later moved back to the Puyallup area, where both his father and Susan Powell's parents live. 
 
 The Coxes on Monday also spoke about a drawing Braden had made showing the family of three riding in their minivan. Braden said the drawing was of the two boys and their father. 
 
 When asked why their mother wasn't in the drawing, Braden said she was in the trunk, Chuck Cox said. 
 
 Cox recalled that the boy said, "Mommy and Daddy got out but Mommy didn't come back." 
 
 At the time of their mother's disappearance, Braden was 2 and Charles was 4. 
 
 Anne Bremner, an attorney for the Coxes, said as recently as Christmas the boys told their grandparents "mommy's in the mine." Police in Utah had searched abandoned mine shafts in Nevada last summer, but found no sign of Susan Powell. 
 
 The Coxes said the drawing of the minivan was given to police in West Valley City, who are investigating the disappearance of Susan Powell. 
 
 Buzz Nielsen, chief of the West Valley Police Department, declined to comment Monday on the drawing or any other specific evidence in the Susan Powell case. 
 
 Nielsen, who flew to Washington on Monday, said that investigators have been working on building a case against Powell with "strong circumstantial evidence." He said he had hoped to see charges filed later this year. 
 
 Nielsen said Powell was not aware of the progress of the investigation. He speculated that Powell's decision to take his life and kill his children was not sparked by fear of arrest. 
 
 He said Powell's death will not stop investigators from trying to piece together what happened to Susan Powell. 
 
 Nielsen said his detectives will try to speak with Josh's father, Steven Powell, whose arrest last September on child-pornography and voyeurism charges prompted the state to take custody of Charlie and Braden. The boys and their father had lived with Steven Powell, who remains in custody in Pierce County Jail. 
 
 He described Steve Powell as another "person of interest," but noted the elder Powell is "not in our sights" in terms of any potentially imminent arrest. 
 
 About noon Sunday, a state contract worker from Foster Care Resource Network brought the boys for a scheduled visit to Powell's Graham house. The caseworker was assigned to the children and had previously brought them to their father without incident, Troyer said. 
 
 Powell answered the door, pulled the boys inside, slammed the door and locked it, Troyer said. Denied entry, the caseworker immediately began banging on the home's doors and windows and called 911. She told police she thought she smelled gasoline. 
 
 The caseworker reported the fire started within seconds, Troyer said. 
 
 On Monday, the Coxes took reporters into an addition they had built on their Puyallup home to make room for their grandchildren. The room had two small beds with handmade quilts, one decorated with characters from the movie "Cars" and the other with Spider-Man. Toys were stacked in a nearby room. 
 
 They talked about how the boys had been emotionally distant when they arrived in September. 
 
 They'd been shunned by other children, Chuck Cox said, because people disliked or mistrusted their father. 
 
 "They said that in their old school, the other kids walked 10 feet in front of them or 10 behind them," he said. 
 
 When they talked about their mother initially, they called her "Susan," Cox said. 
 
 But Cox said he knew they were making progress when Charlie pointed to a smiling picture of his mother in the living room and asked his grandpa to take a picture of him next to the photo. 
 
 "He said, 'I'm sitting with my mommy.' " 
 
 Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com 
 
 Seattle Times staff reporters Jennifer Sullivan, Katherine Long and Steve Miletich contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press. ||||| Originally published February 5, 2012 at 2:39 PM | Page modified February 6, 2012 at 3:39 PM 
 
 Josh Powell, who has been implicated in the disappearance of his wife, was killed along with his two sons in a fire Sunday at Powell's home in Graham, Pierce County, authorities said. 
 
 Commenting has been disabled because of the sensitive nature of this story. 
 
 GRAHAM, Pierce County — Fire investigators on Monday morning were sifting through the rubble of Josh Powell's rental house, trying to determine what sparked Sunday's fire that authorities believe killed Powell and his two young sons moments after a caseworker brought them for a supervised visitation. 
 
 "The fire burned hot and it burned fast," said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ed Troyer, who described the fire as an intentional act that came shortly after Powell sent an email to his attorney apologizing and saying goodbye. The caseworker told police she smelled gasoline moments before the house burst into flames. 
 
 Steve Richards, assistant chief of Graham Fire and Rescue, said crews were assessing the remnants of the home to determine what types of accelerants might have been used. Fire investigators were slowly moving around the home Monday morning, measuring areas both inside and out. 
 
 Three bodies, believed to be those of Powell and his sons, Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, were found in the same room in the house, authorities said. 
 
 The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office, which is to perform autopsies Monday, still needs to make positive identifications. 
 
 Troyer called the deaths "a double murder-suicide." 
 
 "What happened here was an act of evil. Do not call it a tragedy because that sanitizes it. This was a terrible act of murder involving two young children," Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said near the house. 
 
 The sheriff's office plans to brief the media on the case at 2 p.m. Monday. 
 
 Powell, 36, was long considered a person of interest in the December 2009 disappearance of his wife, Susan Powell, when the couple lived in West Valley City, Utah. He had lost custody of the boys after his father was arrested last year for allegedly possessing child pornography in another house they previously shared. The boys were in the custody of the state, but living with Susan Powell's parents. However, Josh Powell was allowed supervised visitation. 
 
 Charlie and Braden Powell had begun talking to their grandparents about things they remembered from the night their mother vanished, a lawyer for the grandparents said Sunday. 
 
 "They were beginning to verbalize more," attorney Steve 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," Downing said. 
 
 About noon Sunday, Troyer said, the caseworker, a state contract worker from Foster Care Resource Network, brought the boys for a scheduled visit to Powell's house. The caseworker was assigned to the children and had previously brought them to their father without incident, Troyer said. 
 
 Powell answered the door, pulled the boys inside, slammed the door and locked it, Troyer said. 
 
 Denied entry, the caseworker immediately began banging on the doors and windows and called 911. She told police she thought she smelled gasoline. 
 
 The caseworker reported the fire started within seconds, Troyer said. 
 
 The first 911 call was at 12:13 p.m., followed by other calls. 
 
 Graham Fire and Rescue responded within three minutes, finding the house in flames with no chance to save those inside, Troyer said. 
 
 Troyer said Utah authorities might have been preparing criminal charges against Powell in connection with his wife's disappearance from their Utah home in December 2009, but he did not give details. 
 
 Buzz Nielsen, the police chief in West Valley City, Utah, whose department is investigating the disappearance of Susan Powell, said Sunday night that detectives were pursuing promising new avenues in the case and that he had hoped to seek charges by the end of the year. 
 
 "It's a circumstantial one," he said of the case, adding that his investigators had not shared their progress with Josh Powell. 
 
 Nielsen said he believes Powell was more concerned with civil-court matters, an apparent reference to the child-custody case. 
 
 Investigators from West Valley City police will be sent to Washington, said spokesman Sgt. Mike Powell, who is no relation to Josh Powell. 
 
 Asked if Josh Powell's death would forever preclude answers to his wife's disappearance, Sgt. Powell said it was important to "emphasize that Josh hasn't been cooperative with our investigation from the very beginning." 
 
 The Associated Press reported that Josh Powell's lawyer received an email from him shortly before Sunday's fire, saying: "I'm sorry, goodbye." 
 
 Attorney Jeffrey Bassett said the email arrived at 12:05 p.m. Sunday, but he didn't see it until two hours later, when others informed him of the fire. He says he knew Powell was upset after a judge last week ordered him to undergo a psychosexual evaluation, but he didn't see this coming. 
 
 Troyer said email and text messages from Powell's account were sent to a number of people, whom he didn't identify. He said investigators had no reason to doubt that Powell wrote them. 
 
 Firefighters were still mopping up the largely gutted house at 8119 189th St. Court E. late into the afternoon Sunday. Authorities began removing the bodies about 5:30 p.m. 
 
 Some people reported hearing popping sounds that sounded like gunshots at the time of the fire, while others described the noise as coming from the fire, Troyer said. 
 
 While Powell had not been arrested or charged in his wife's disappearance, he had been a person of interest in the case from the start. 
 
 Susan Powell, a Puyallup native, was 28 when she was reported missing Dec. 7, 2009. Josh Powell told police he last saw his wife around midnight, when he put their sons in a minivan and took them on a late-night camping trip in Utah's west desert in freezing temperatures. 
 
 Powell then moved back to the Puyallup area, where both his father and Susan Powell's parents live. 
 
 The boys were removed from Josh Powell's custody Sept. 22, the same day Josh Powell's father, Steven Powell, with whom the three were living, was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography. Temporary custody of the children was awarded by a judge to Susan Powell's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox of Puyallup. 
 
 Last week, a judge ordered that the boys remain in the custody of the grandparents. 
 
 Josh Powell has denied any role in his wife's disappearance and recently asked the judge to move his sons to a neutral caretaker, claiming his wife's parents — who have publicly implicated Josh Powell in their daughter's disappearance — were turning their two sons against him. 
 
 Chuck and Judy Cox declined to comment Sunday. Attorney Anne Bremner, who is representing the Cox family, said they have asked for time to grieve before speaking to the media. 
 
 Bremner learned about the deaths from a reporter in Salt Lake City. She then called Chuck Cox, who drove to Powell's house. 
 
 "It's unspeakable what he learned. It's horrific," Bremner said. "They've lost everything. They've lost their daughter. They've lost their grandkids." 
 
 Troyer said that Pierce County sheriff's investigators were coordinating with West Valley City police and that his office was seeking a search warrant for the house. 
 
 Steven Powell, who remains in jail in Pierce County, was notified of what happened Sunday and placed on suicide watch, Troyer said. 
 
 Steven Powell claimed last year that he and Susan Powell had a flirtatious relationship, and that he believed they were in love — allegations Chuck Cox dismissed as false, saying it was Powell who initiated unwanted sexual advances to her. 
 
 Troyer said the caseworker who went to the house Sunday was traumatized, and his detectives who had previously worked on the case were devastated. 
 
 "I feel bad for everybody ... so many people put so much work into this," Troyer said. Of Josh Powell, he said, "I wish he would have taken himself out and left the boys alone." 
 
 Troyer said police in Utah strongly believe Powell is responsible for the disappearance of his wife. 
 
 Denise Revels Robinson, assistant secretary of Children's Administration for DSHS, issued a statement saying, "All of us at the Department of Social and Health Services were shocked and deeply saddened by reports that Josh Powell had taken his own life and that of his two young children." 
 
 Robinson said the children were taken to the house as part of an ongoing court-ordered visitation schedule. 
 
 Robinson said the department will conduct a standard formal child-fatality review. 
 
 On her Facebook page, Susan Powell's best friend in West Valley City, Kiirsi Hellewell, expressed her grief, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. 
 
 "It's true. Feels like life is over," Hellewell said. 
 
 Denise Cox, the boys' aunt, told The Tribune she is in shock and was headed to her parents' house Sunday. 
 
 Cox had just seen her nephews at her parents' Saturday and joked about leaving the house because Charlie commanded her to come back to see him Sunday. She said it was funny that he didn't ask her to come back, he told her to — which the family thought was cute. 
 
 On Thursday, Braden Powell spent time with Cox and was affectionate, she said. 
 
 "He gave me a hug and a kiss and said 'I love you' before he left," she said. "It was the best feeling ever and almost brought tears to my eyes." 
 
 Seattle Times staff reporters Christine Clarridge, Michael J. Berens, Jennifer Sullivan and Amy Martinez and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report, which also contains information from The Associated Press. 
 
 Sara Jean Green: 206-464-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com 
 
 Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com
– Police in Utah trying to find the body of Susan Powell after more than two years have labeled her father-in-law a person of interest in the case, reports Utah's KSL.com. Police are specifying that Steven Powell isn't a suspect in her disappearance but that he may have information about it. "They lived together in the house," said the police chief in West Valley City, Utah. "There are things he should want to talk to us (about), we hope." The development comes after Powell's husband, Josh, killed himself and his two sons on Sunday, apparently after the boys began remembering things about their mom's disappearance. "We sure can't prosecute Josh," said the police chief, "but did somebody know something? Did somebody help him? Those are the questions we need to resolve." Steven Powell remains in custody after a search of his house last year found "thousands of images of females being photographed without their knowledge, including Susan Powell and many minors," notes KIRO-FM.