At funeral, families of Charlie and Braden set aside their differences for the day to honor the boys.

By Melinda Rogers, Nate Carlisle

and Brooke Adams

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Tacoma, Wash. • Snapshots into the lives of Charlie and Braden Powell were shared with thousands who packed a Tacoma auditorium Saturday as family members, friends and others who’d never met the 7- and 5-year-old boys gathered to pay tribute at a funeral that brought tears, memories and laughter.

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At a glance

Storify: The Powell funeral

http://bit.ly/yoOPp1

About the case

Around noon on Feb. 5, Josh Powell, locked out a social worker who brought his children, Charlie and Braden Powell, for a supervised visit to his rented home in Graham, Wash.

Moments later, he ignited a gasoline-fueled fire at his home. Firefighters later recovered the bodies of all three. An autopsy determined that the boys had died of carbon-monoxide poisoning, but the boys also suffered chop wounds to the head and neck from a hatchet.

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. He had recently lost custody of the children to his wife’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox.

Powell had resolutely refused to cooperate with police investigating the case, and in text and telephone messages he sent to family and acquaintances shortly before the fire, stated that he could not go on without his boys.

The circumstances of the case were discussed at the Powell boys’ funeral Saturday by some in attendance.

Washington state social workers Rosie Anderson and Marie Peterson neither knew nor worked with the Powell or Cox families but were at Life Center Church in Tacoma at the public memorial “to show support to the family and give voice to domestic violence,” Anderson said.

Peterson said she sent a letter to Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire expressing outrage over the fact that Josh Powell was allowed to have visitation with his sons at his home rather than another location. “Why do we allow this at home? This has to stop,” she said.

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Nearly a week after the boys were killed by their father in a crime that shook the nation, lines snaked outside the doors of the Life Center Church and into a parking lot, where people stood in drizzling rain for a chance to pay their respects.

When the center’s doors finally opened, mourners were greeted with photos of the boys, including a banner that showed them in the arms of their mother, Susan Powell, whose 2009 disappearance in Utah sparked a bizarre string of events that culminated in last week’s horrific murder-suicide.

Speakers at the public, non-denominational service in Tacoma, which drew about 2,400 people, emphasized that the families of Charlie and Braden Powell were setting aside their differences for the day to honor the boys.

"How we got here is a story well known," said Dean Curry, lead pastor of Life Center Church."But what we do here and the spirit we do have here, is up to us."

Curry recounted Charlie and Braden as "two beautiful boys; works of art" who exuded energy, warmth and a keen intellect to those around them.

Saturday’s memorial was a time to celebrate the boys’ innocence and express gratitude for the moments shared with each child, Curry said — a sentiment echoed by Tim Sloan, a family friend the boys’ maternal grandparents, Chuck and Judy Cox.

"This is not easy. But this is a celebration of life," Sloan said. "Charlie and Braden have not perished but live. Because of their innocence, they have returned to the eternal father."

The boys’ father, Josh Powell, was not mentioned by name at the service or in a second more private funeral Saturday afternoon at the Cox family’s LDS ward in Puyallup, about 12 miles southwest of Tacoma.

Police said Josh Powell, 36, who had been a person of interest since 2009 in the disappearance of his wife from their Utah home, killed himself and the two boys last Sunday, Feb. 5, by setting his rental home ablaze.

As Chuck Cox stood in front of his church congregation along with his wife Judy at the second service, he thanked public service workers who tried to keep his grandchildren safe. He said he doesn’t blame police, social workers or emergency personnel for his grandson’s deaths.

"Everyone did everything they could for these children. One sole person is responsible for this," Chuck Cox said. "We don’t understand why they had to be taken, but they were."

Terrica Powell, Josh Powell’s mother, attended both services for her grandchildren. As Chuck Cox alluded to her son’s actions at the second service, she closed her eyes and bowed her head, wiping away tears.

After pallbearers accompanied the boys’ casket out of the LDS church, Terrica Powell filed out with other mourners, pausing to admire a table set up with flowers, stuffed animals and photos of her grandsons.

She touched a photo of Charlie that showed the boy smiling mischievously, then commented about the boy’s sweet expression to family members surrounding her.