Crime Stoppers Buys Plots So Josh Powell Can’t Be Buried Next to Sons
A Washington Crime Stoppers organization announced Wednesday it purchased burial plots on either side of Charlie and Braden Powell’s grave, ensuring their father won’t be buried next to the sons he murdered.
Josh Powell’s family visited the city-owned Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup, Wash., on Tuesday and picked a plot about 25 feet from where the boys are buried, setting off a new barrage of criticism and threatened legal action. Attorneys for Chuck and Judy Cox, parents of the boys’ missing mother, Susan, on Wednesday were preparing to file a temporary restraining order to prevent Powell’s family from burying him in the cemetery.
“We’re certainly going to try,” said Steve Downing, one of the Coxes’ attorneys. “This is an outrage, a total outrage that you would even think about burying the murderer next to the victim. We just find it so sick and twisted that the Powell family would be trying to do this knowing full well how my clients feel.”
Enter Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor and spokesman Ed Troyer, who also is executive director of Crime Stoppers Tacoma/Pierce County. The two men each wrote $100 checks and began collecting other donations to buy the plots next to the single grave that holds Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5. They completed the purchase, using some funds from Crime Stoppers, Wednesday afternoon.
Troyer said it may not be possible to keep Josh Powell from being buried in the cemetery, but “we can keep him away from the boys.”
“We’re not in the grave-owning business so we’re going to do whatever the Cox family wants to do with them,” he said. He hopes to raise enough to install plaques at the site and make it a “nice place for people to go and not have to see Josh Powell’s name.”
Downing said his office was inundated with outraged calls from the public after news broke about the burial plans for Josh Powell. Puyallup City Manager Ralph Dannenberg said in statement that Josh Powell’s relatives selected a plot but hadn’t paid for it yet. Dannenberg said the sale will be put on hold because of the threatened legal action.
“The city will refrain from authorizing the proposed burial to allow legal proceedings to occur,” Dannenberg said. “Once the Pierce County Superior Court issues its ruling, the city will abide by the court’s decision.”