Puyallup, Wash.• A search warrant report released Friday reveals West Valley City Police are testing a small bloodstain on a comforter found last week at Josh Powell’s storage unit.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ed Troyer said West Valley City is testing the comforter as part of its investigation into the 2009 disappearance of Powell’s wife, Susan Powell. Troyer said the stain "was not a large amount" of blood.
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The report and search warrant itself, released by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, indicates six items were removed Tuesday from the storage unit at Western Self Storage in Sumner, Wash.
They include garbage bags, one full of toys and another containing children’s clothes and linens; a box with blocks in it; a blue-top plastic bin containing miscellaneous items; framed photos; and a gray, blue and pink comforter, according to the report.
Utah officials are now testing the blood to determine whose it is.
The report says the comforter is the only item retained by authorities; the other items were given to Susan Powell’s family.
According to the search warrant, Pierce County deputies were looking for a wide array of items at the storage unit. including computers, photographs, recordings, paperwork, weapons, accelerant and anything that might have DNA trace evidence.
Powell started a gasoline-fueled fire at his Graham-area home shortly after noon Sunday, killing himself and his two sons, Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5. Powell and the boys died of carbon-monoxide poisoning, but the boys also suffered chop wounds from a hatchet, authorities said.
Powell, 36, was the only person of interest publicly named by police in the disappearance of his 28-year-old wife from their West Valley City home on Dec. 7, 2009.
The search report indicated a man believed to be Powell purchased a gas canister at a Fred Meyer store near his home within 24 hours of Sunday’s tragedy. Authorities found two gas containers in the wreckage at the home after the fire.
— Tribune reporter Nate Carlisle contributed to this report.
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