Mourners attend funeral for 2 boys

Associated Press

TACOMA, Wash.

More than a thousand people mourned the deaths of Charlie and Braden Powell at a public funeral Saturday, nearly a week after the young boys’ father killed them and himself in a gas-fueled blaze.

“We want to celebrate their innocence today,” said the Rev. Dean Curry, lead pastor of Life Center Church in Tacoma. “We want to be grateful for the moments we had with these children.”

The boys’ grandfather Chuck Cox thanked police, social workers, teachers and everyone who cared for Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, as well as people who had prayed for the boys after they died.

At the front of the church’s sanctuary, the boys were in a single coffin topped with a large flower arrangement that included daisies, roses and sunflowers.

“We know that they’re with their mother,” Cox said, remembering his daughter, Susan Powell, who has been missing for two years and is presumed dead.

The boys’ father, Josh Powell, was in the middle of a custody battle with Cox when he torched his rental home in Graham last Sunday.

Josh Powell was a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance in Utah two years ago, and prosecutors consider the fire an admission that he killed her.

Cox gained custody of the children more than five months ago after police arrested Josh Powell’s father, Steve, on voyeurism and child-pornography charges.

The kids were arriving for a supervised visit when Josh Powell blocked a social worker from entering the home. He then attacked the boys with a hatchet and torched the house, authorities said.

Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said Saturday that Josh Powell’s body will be released to a cousin Monday.

About 1,200 people attended the boys’ funeral at Life Center Church in Tacoma. Many of them wore purple and blue ribbons in memory of Susan, Charlie and Braden.

A private interment will take place Monday at Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup.