we were pretty much beside ourselves with panic. i could feel that something was wrong, even then. she was my sister, my friend. i just want to know the truth. >> where is she? >> it's a puzzle. >> foul play is a likely possibility here. >> she wouldn't have ever, ever willingly walked away from those boys. >> susan powell, the young mother missing for two years. tonight, "dateline" takes you inside the case that's captivated the country.

>> we've got the evidence. >> the latest on the search. >> they are smelling something. >> the mystery. >> he goes camping after midnight? that's just ludicrous. >> and the husband at the center. >> i've never hurt my wife. >> who breaks his long silence. >> they're just trying to rattle your cage? >> it would seem. >> are you rattled? >> i'm pretty pissed off. >> are we about to learn the truth? >> on that night when you went out to the desert, what happened to susan? "after midnight." good evening and welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt. it was two years ago this week that she vanished. a chilly night in early december of 2009. and ever since, the strange disappearance of susan powell has been making headlines. tonight you'll hear the most detailed account yet from those at the very heart of this case. a husband under suspicion, a

father-in-law under scrutiny, and investigators under pressure to solve this mystery at last. here's keith morrison. >> they were hidden in the quiet suburbs behind the locked and unassuming front doors in religious homes, secrets. this began, the story, as the search for a missing woman. a story that caught attention around the nation. >> search efforts are expected to resume today in rural utah for -- >> missing utah mother susan powell. her disappearance nearly two years ago. >> but there is so much you haven't heard. and as if a bolted door was wrenched open, secrets burst out, wild allegations of abuse, of religious conspiracies, of sexual deviance. where will it stop? can't say, not yet anyway. but tonight you'll hear the disturbing words of the father. the new testimony of the son. >> are you rattled?

>> i'm pretty pissed off. >> but in the beginning, it was freezing, dark and after midnight something happened. it was a cold december morning, salt lake city, utah. jennifer graves woke up to a fresh blanket of white spreading down the slopes and out across the frigid valley floor. she just finished taking a shower when the phone rang. it was a lady from a local chi care facility in west valley city. jennifer's little nephews hadn't shown up. did she happen to know where they were? >> it had been a couple of hours and they were expected. they had never cancelled or anything. >> strange, and completely unlike the boy's mother, jennifer's sister-in-law, susan powell. >> so we were immediately concerned. we left right away to go over to the house.

>> the day care woman, debbie was her name, said she had already been there, seemed like nobody was home. >> debbie said that she had knocked on the door and tried to rouse them and everything. seeing no tracks in the snow outside in the garage. >> had they overslept or gone away someplace without thinking to call day care? or was it something awful? that's where jennifer's mind went, her husband's too. >> we were pretty much beside ourselves with panic, thinking they must be in there dead. they must be in that house, laying in their beds dead. >> there had been a recent wave of carbon monoxide poisonings in the salt lake area, and here it was a cold morning, windows all shut up. were susan, josh and the boys poisoned in their sleep by the fumes? no timto lose. jennifer called the police. this is former police captain tom mcglockton, now retired from the police force. >> what did the officers find when they got there? >> the house was completely locked up from the outside. we could tell nobody was there.

>> so the police finally said they would be willing to break in if we would take liability for the window, so we were like, yeah, break the window, and they did. nobody there. >> did you go in the house? >> yeah. >> what was that like? >> there was just a sense of foreboding. i didn't understand what was going on. i could feel that something was wrong, even then. >> the thing is, these were not flaky people, not irresponsible, wouldn't take off without alerting someone. the powells were devout members of the mormon church, active in their ward, helpful neighbors, fun to be with. that's whaher friend said. >> a lot of times we all got together and watched movie its, we played games. once they had kids, we went to the park, we went on picnics, went on bike rides, went to see the fireworks. all kinds of family things. >> so this became a tight foursome with the kids? >> oh, yeah. we were together twice or three times a week. >> susan and josh seemed very

together. >> they were always holding hands, they were always kissing each other. >> josh's sister, jennifer graves, t susan when she and josh got married. >> what did you think? >> i liked her. you know, she was an outgoing bright person, just a happy, positive individual. he's less social but she's very social so i think that probably was a draw to him too, just because she was so outgoing, so positive. >> and then once they moved to utah and she had those two boys -- >> she thought it was the greatest thing she had ever done, better than anything else, and her boys meant more to her than anything else in her life. she did everything for them. her every thought was for them. she protected them and took care of them very well. >> as tough as nails when it came to them. >> yes, very confident. she is fearless. she's got it altogether. >> so now this sudden silence

was very strange, and that was the situation that lasted basically for that full day, is that right? >> yeah. we just were kind of staring at the ceiling, staring at the walls, you know, wondering where they were. the police put an apb out on their vehicle and then we just had to wait. >> a then that afternoon, her phone rang. her caller i.d. showing a familiar number on the other end. >> caller i.d. said that's josh. and i was like trying to get ahold of him all day. is that really what i'm saying? >> maybe everything is okay. >> is that josh really on the phone? so i picked up, you know, thinking well maybe -- yeah, maybe it's going to be okay, you know. >> but then she heard his voice and knew -- >> no, it's not okay. susan is not with them. the boys are with him but susan is not there. >> and josh sounded puzzled. >> he said he went to pick her

up at work and she wasn't there. >> so now the dread that had been with her all day shifted shape. thank the lord, jennifer thought, her brother and the boys were okay. but what about susan? where could she be? and up in washington state for susan's parents, everything stopped on a dime. >> all of a sudden the brakes are on. one morning i'm sitting in my office with life going on and it's all changed. >> when we come back, the search for susan begins, and a question for josh. where had he and the boys been? >> that has to make somebody's eyebrows going up a little bit. >> makes you ask why. >> when "after midnight" continues.

♪ silent night ♪ >> salt lake city, december, 2009. the impending christmas holiday was the last thing on the minds of susan powell's friends and family. gifts, carols, normal things fell away. all they could think of was finding her. they did what they could to spread the word. put her picture everywhere. they held candlelight vigils and press conferences. susan's husband, josh, was there but apparently too broken up to

speak. his brother-in-law stepped in for him, jennifer's husband, kirk graves. >> we want to find her, return her to her husband and children, find her for the sake of her parents and honestly just to have her home. >> susan's parents flew into town to help and be helped by the neighbors and by the church. >> it's been a great help, we know people care. >> it's like a community around here? >> it's been like a family group. >> support. >> a massive search ramped up. >> we've got about 4500 flyers. it wasn't even the family, we were so grateful to friends and neighbors, donations made. >> but despite everyone's best intentions, no one seemed to know where to start looking. >> the residence they lived in is a neighborhood that's densely populated. there are no streams, wooded areas, open fields that would

tend to be conducive to a search. >> so you wouldn't know where to go. >> certainly they tried to narrow it down. police interviewed everyone close to susan, husband josh, family members, in-laws, neighbors. >> it's a puzzle. until you can fit the pieces of that puzzle into what the picture is, you cannot make improper assumptions. >> people began invoking the name elizabeth smart a lot. she's the young woman who vanished not 20 miles from here and showed up again nine months later. she had been kidnapped. was susan kiddnapped too? or did she have a secret life, one that nobody in this community knew about? if she did, said her best friend, she certainly hid it well. she and josh seemed to have a fine marriage as far as anyone could tell. >> they were kind of still in the newlywed stage even though they had been married for three years already. they were always cuddling and

hugging each other. we'd sometimes say go get a room, guys, you're at our house. >> in fact on that sunday, the last day anyone saw susan, everyone was more or less normal. a church friend named jovanna owings spent time at the house helping susan crochet a blanket for the kids. going on 4:00 or so, susan complained of feeling tired. >> josh said you should go in and lay down because if you're going to have a nap, you should do it right now, otherwise it will be too late to have one. so she looked at me and said do you have a problem with me going to have a nap, and i said no. >> so susan went to bed and jovanna kept working on the project by herself until josh decided to go out. >> he told me he was going to take the boys sledding and he drove off in the van. i got in my car and i drove away. >> that last bit happened around

5:30, said jovanna. then later that evening according to the police someone saw josh's van back at the house and that's when things started to get a little strange. this is what josh told police, the only story he'd ever tell them. >> he indicated that he left to go camping at about 11:30, midnight, and he took the two boys camping. >> camping, in december? the boys, remember, were just 2 and 4 years old. >> what were conditions like? >> at that time, december, it's very cold. >> in fact the temperature was in single digits. and the place josh named as their camping spot was about 100 miles away. >> that has to make somebody's eyebrow go up a little bit. >> that's a little unusual, yes. makes you ask why. >> why drive hours to go camping in the family van in the middle of the night in subfreezing cold? why leave your wife behind?

why do all that on a sunday night with work and school the next day? the disappearance of susan powell was suddenly cast in a whole new light. >> technically it is a missing persons case, but it is a very suspicious missing persons case. >> coming up, the suspicions begin to grow with an unusual discovery. and some unusual behavior. >> she called up one night and said can i borrow two hot dogs so i can feed my house. >> what was going on at the powell house, when "dateline" continues.

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faith is a powerful thing. susan powell's parents have been faithful to their church, to their god for a lifetime. so they tried to hold on to faith, to hope that susan would return. but -- >> if she was alive, she would find a way to contact us. that's our hope, that some reason she can't right now but she will. but that's our only hope. >> and just in case she was out there somewhere lost or confused or in case someone saw her, chuck and judy cox gave dozens of media interviews. >> what kind of father would i be to give up? >> at the beginning susan's family and friends in salt lake all rallied to josh, despite his odd tale of the midnight camping trip. but as days passed with no sign of susan, stories began to circulate. for instance, though susan was a

faithful church goer, friends said they had been noticing that josh seemed to have been pulling away. josh and jennifer's father steven, did, when he became estranged from the church and from jennifer. so she wondered had josh been heading the same way? were he and susan really as okay as they seemed? >> there wasn't a lot of overt stuff, but he would ignore her. >> and friends john and tiercy found themselves rethinking josh's behavior, like how he seemed to them almost pathologically tight with money. >> she called up one tight and said can i borrow two hot dogs so i can feed my kids. >> that must have seemed insane to you. >> it was. >> come to think of it, had something happened to the affection they seemed to display?

>> he used to kiss her but then he didn't want to do that. he didn't want germs. hugging was off limits too. i felt sad for her. >> the weird thing jennifer saw when she and the cops broke into the powell house the morning the whole family seem to have vanished. >> when we first walked into the house, there were two box fans pointed at the carpet right in front of the love seat. >> it looked to her like the carpet had been washed and was still wet. >> that was just another layer to the oddness of the whole situation. >> odder still, what she saw next. >> her purse sitting on the table beside the bed. her wallet was in there with credit cards and all those things that normal people keep with them. >> but now, of course, it was a police matter and detectives were looking carefully at josh, his attitudes and behaviors too. lots of questions. that midnight camping trip he

said he took with the boys, why would he go and do that? and why would he leave his wife behind? >> the normal individual would ask, dear, we're going camping, what are you going to do? he was not able to provide us an answer. >> when police went to check out the area where josh said he and the boys spent the night, it just raised more questions. >> the simpson springs area is next to the dugway proving ground. it's an area where the military has tested many of its chemical and biological agents. >> it doesn't sound like a place you'd want to go camping. >> this is not a friendly place. >> another interesting thing, nobody saw them, not a single witness. police searched the area very carefully. following tried and true police procedure, they also seized and searched the family van, the one josh took on his camping trip. they didn't say if they found any evidence in it, but while they had the van, something quite curious happened.

josh rented a car and racked up a lot of miles. how many miles? >> i'm constrained from discussing. suffice it to say it would be several hundred miles. raises ones suspicions. >> suspicions and questions. why was the carpet wet? did josh really take his little boys camping in the middle of a snowy winter's night? where did he go in that rental car? what did he do? and above all, where was susan powell? the police began to focus on josh. had he done something to susan? >> it is the suspicion that perhaps she was in the car as well and that her body will be found out in that vicinity somewhere? >> well, we have to investigate each and every possible direction, and that is one possible direction. >> but any more questions police had would have to remain unanswered, at least by josh powell. he quit talking, said the police. stopped showing up to planned

meetings with cops. so investigators locked themselves in a squad room, kicked around ideas. >> it was a closed door room. as a matter of fact, it's a small room, it's a little uncomfortable to be in it. >> there you can offer theories. >> there you can offer theories. there's no theory that is out and out dismissed. >> but there's one theory they kept coming back to, inescapable. >> we have never ruled out the fact of foul play is a likely possibility here. >> ten days after susan powell's disappearance, west valley city police named her husband, josh, a person of interest in the case. by then friends too, however reluctantly, had come to the same conclusion. >> i just found it so hard to believe for so long that he could have done something like this. but i don't know what else to possibly think at this point. >> everyone it seemed had turned on josh, everyone but his father, steven, who said he sat his son down and asked tough questions.

>> josh, you know, the most abusive thing that a father could ever do is murder his wife. you know, things like that. >> testing him? >> i was testing him. i wanted to see his reaction to this kind of stuff. >> and? >> it was good. i was totally satisfied with it. he passed with flying colors. >> so now father and son joined forces, went on the offensive and offered a whole different theory of the case and a wildly different picture of susan powell. >> she would say feel my legs, they're pretty smooth. so yeah, i know. >> up next, was there another side to susan powell? a war of words begins. >> susan was very open, and i would say very aggressive. >> it's just an out and out attack on my daughter. >> when "after midnight" co ntinues. - the craving for chocolate... - oooh. - is all grown up. - oooh. - jared presents beautiful natural levian chocolate diamonds and chocolate south sea pearls.

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when josh powell was declared to be the person of interest in the disappearance of his wife, susan, he took action. no, he did not lead searches for his missing wife. instead he abandoned the utah winter, the cold shoulder his former friends had turned on him, and moved in with his father, steven, in puyallup washington, a few miles outside of seattle. strange, at least that's what his friends thought, since josh used to tell them he felt a bit uncomfortable around his dad. that is, until susan disappeared said his friend. >> and suddenly all he did was sing his dad's praises and talk about how his dad was misunderstood and how his dad was always there to help everybody. >> hello. >> hello. >> so now in the face of suspicion about what josh may have done, steven offered the world his own theory. susan ran off with another man. >> witness accounts of where he was at that time made that evident.

>> the man he's talking about is a person named steven keoecher who disappeared six days after susan went missing. maybe they went somewhere together. he was young, handsome, single and mormon. police rolled their eyes at this idea, gave no credence at all. there was not a lick of evidence that koecher had even met susan, and he lived in a different city, a four-hour drive away. when officers asked him about his daughter-in-law -- >> the entire gist of those questions had to do with do i think susan would have run off with another man. >> and then, said steven, the police asked him a very interesting question, asked it straight out. what was his relationship with susan? >> you know, we've heard from some pretty reliable sources that susan was in love with you.

and i was slightly taken aback, but i knew what they were talking about. >> and now, out came, what would you call it, a creepy story? or in fact a whole series of strange stories, which i'll play a couple of them. you be the judge. do these stories say something about susan, which seems to be what steven intended, or do they say something about him? >> susan was very open. i would say very aggressive in male-female relationships. and she called the shots. >> oh, yes, and the signals she gave were intended specifically for him, said steven. happened all the time. >> susan would come in to my office after she waxed her legs, and she would sit there and she would say feel my legs, they're pretty smooth. yeah, i know. >> josh wasn't concerned about this? >> i don't know if he even knew about stuff like that. i didn't talk to josh about it. i mean i just enjoyed the moment.

>> steven enjoyed quite a few moments with susan, he said. like when he'd hand her the baby. >> she'd come up and press herself against my hands and then i'd have to, you know, pull my hands out from between her and braden, just slip away, that kind of a thing. >> he kid of wishes now, said stephen, steven, that he went farther with susan. >> it's not like i didn't enjoy that kind of thing. >> so did susan play those games? was she a tease? >> what he says is not based in reality. >> hold on, says josh's sister, steven's daughter. >> he might have held these things for her, he might have been sexually attracted to her, but she did not reciprocate and she expressed that to me and to quite a few other people. >> for a few very uncomfortable months, she said, susan and josh lived with steven. >> they were set up in the

dining room and they didn't have walls around the dining room so they would put up sheets for the privacy. and she had caught my dad spying on her. >> did she say how it made her feel? >> oh, she definitely was creeped out by it. he definitely made her uncomfortable. >> so uncomfortable, said jennifer, that susan insisted they move far away from her father-in-law to salt lake city. >> what kind of things did she tell you? >> that he made advances at her. that there was one incident where they were in a car and he said would you be willing to share, josh and i can just share you. >> you know what steven said his only regret was? >> my dad said? >> that he hadn't gone farther with susan. >> that's interesting. i'm sure he's gone plenty far in his own mind. >> just how far, as you'll see. jennifer had no idea. steven told us he is fully aware that neither his daughter nor susan's family likes him one

bit, but he said they had it in for him for years since he left the mormon church. >> two weeks after susan disappeared, they started talking about me and saying, well, josh's father is anti-mormon and he was feeding josh anti-mormon literature. >> grab a graham cracker and some chocolate then. >> that's what much of this is about, said steven, now that his son and he have left the church. some mormons hate them and would say anything to make josh look guilty. >> a lot of it has to do with my estranged daughter, jennifer graves. when you look at her involvement in this case, she's led the charge. >> that's an interesting conspiracy theory. that has no grounds. >> was he rejected by the people of the church? >> he wasn't rejected, he walked away. >> and then steven, and increasingly josh, who now lives with him, remember, claim the church was at the root of some early problems in susan's life,

and they said they had evidence of that with susan's childhood diaries. steven and josh said those diaries involved secrets, an early sexual relationship and what was eemotionalmotional abuse at the hands of susan's mother and father. they made plans to release those on a website and finally for susan's grieving parents, it was just too much. josh and steven were spewing poisonous fantasies which were not only untrue, but only served to hurt susan. >> she's not there to defend herself. >> yeah. >> it's just an out-and-out attack on my daughter. it's an attack on her. >> furious chuck cox voiced what he believed should be obvious to everyone. his son-in-law must have done something very bad to susan because -- >> she wouldn't leave the children, i know that. for her to leave the house without her purse or her cell

phone or anything is just -- she would not do that. >> and then this past august, a delegation of policemen showed up at the powell's door in puyallup with a warrant. >> we've got probable cause to believe that there are some items of evidentiary value inside the home of the powells. >> they combed through the powell house, seized those childhood diaries, and a lot more, as we'll find out soon enough. coming up -- >> are you rattled? >> i'm pretty pissed off. >> josh powell steps out of the shadows to tell his story and break his silence. >> on that night when you went out to the desert, what happened to?usan to susan?or >> when "dateline" continues. ifelong passion. for others, it's something di we all have things that speak to us. they drive us to get up early, and stay up late.

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it was dark, still warm at the end of august the night josh powell came to see us, to break his long silence. the search was still going on at his father's house in puyallup, washington. as the hour approached midnight, josh was thinking about the police. >> well, according to my attorney, the less they have on a person, the more they basically harass the person. >> so what you're suggesting is they're just trying to rattle your cage? >> it would seem. >> are you rattled? >> i'm pretty pissed off. >> the apparent objects of the search, said josh, were the childhood diaries of his missing wife. the ones he and his father had been planning to put online to support their claim that she was

unstable, abused as a child. a pack of lies, said susan's parents. >> someone doesn't want the public to see what susan's childhood was really like living with a mormon. >> but you're suggesting by that answer that susan's parents persuaded the police to raid your house and take her journals away. is that what you're saying? >> susan's parents are mormons, fairly high-ranking leader in his local area. >> then josh, like his father he said, has turned his back on the church in which he met susan. >> she was in a mormon institute class, and we saw each other. i guess she didn't -- didn't think much of me at first. >> but she came around. they were married within six months. >> were you joined in the mormon church? >> we were. >> and they were happy, he said. or should i say are happy.

josh, you'll notice, used the present tense when he talked about susan. >> she loves me and i love her. we love each other. and frankly, i've said it before. the fact that people have worked so hard to try to alienate us from each other has been probably one of the most hurtful things that i've had to go through. >> and by people, he seemed to mean again his ex-friends in the mormon church who were, said josh, coming to the wrong conclusions. that mysterious wet spot on the living room carpet, for example, just the results of normal cleaning, said josh. and the midnight camping trip on a freezing december sunday, the night susan vanished, odd for others, quite normal for them, said josh. >> when people heard that story and they hear about you being a good father, they say what kind of good father takes his little toddler kids camping in the

middle of the winter at midnight? what were you thinking? >> those are just the kind of things that we do. we go out and have fun. >> why didn't she go with you? >> she didn't want to. >> why not? >> she was tired. >> so, on that night in december, 2009, when you went out to the desert with the kids to go camping, what happened to susan? >> i think that susan simply left. >> middle of the night. >> her intentions, where she went to, how long she intended to be gone, i don't know. >> simply left? i mean just -- midnight, 1:00 in the morning, just i've had enough, i'm out of here? was she angry those days? was she distressed?

was she upset about anything? >> no. >> did she express any, you know, desire to have things changed? >> no. >> did she continue to assert that she loved you? >> yeah. >> and god knows she must have loved your children? >> yeah. >> and yet she at midnight or 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning that night in december, got up out of her bed and went downstairs and got on a bicycle or something or walked and simply left? and has never, you know -- hasn't even sent you a note to suggest she's still alive. is that what's happened? >> i don't know what's happened to her. i don't know where she is. >> it's the genuine belief, obviously, of a good many people

who have been following this strange saga that you killed her. that december night where you took your children out to the desert, people say, oh, he took his kids to the desert in the middle of the winter? who does that? he must have killed his wife that night. that's the allegation that a lot of people believe. what can you say to them to make them change their minds? >> i've never hurt my wife. i've never -- never hurt her. i've tried to defend her. she's been suffering. she has a very low self-esteem because of severe emotional abuse as a child. she's had to live with that and i've had to try to help her get through that. >> but despite his best efforts, he said, she ran off that night. she left him. >> i know that i've never harmed my wife.

i had nothing to do with her disappearance. and i'm convinced that there's no evidence that would say otherwise. >> or is there? as josh got up to leave us to join his boys and his father down the hall, something was afoot. out in the utah desert. and in the deeply disturbing secret places of this house, in puyallup, washington, and an arrest is announced, just not the arrest anyone expected. coming up -- >> police spring into action. >> we have pictures of susan. >> is there a break in the case? [ male announcer ] where exactly is your road to happiness? ♪ ♪ on a beach?

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it's been two years since susan powell vanished from her home in a suburb of salt lake city, utah, and still they search. >> searchers looking for evidence in the case of west valley city mother, susan powell, are nothing if not persistent. >> from simpson springs, utah,

where josh says he went camping that cold december night to ely, nevada, where cops comb through dozens of empty mine shafts, each lead followed up, each a dead end. until, perhaps, this one. in early september, police cadaver dogs got a hit in a remote area of the desert near topaz mountain, utah. this is a popular spot for rock hunters and gem collectors, including josh powell. in fact it's only about 30 miles or so from where josh says he went camping that cold december midnight. >> they are smelling something, and it's human decomposition. it could be coming from blood, it could be coming from tissue, it could be coming from bones or a variety of different sources, but it is human decomposition, human remains. >> except there were no bones, no pieces of clothing, nothing that looked human. only some bits of charred wood. police had them analyzed but

won't say what the tests revealed. but ask josh powell where to look and he offers not a location, but a state of mind. >> i think they should be searching for a woman who is struggling, someone who wants to come back, who's having a difficult time understanding how to come back in the face of all this media, in the face of all the lies that her parents are telling about her. building her up to be something that she's not. susan is a good person. she's not a perfect person, she's a good person. >> and that has been their position, both of them, josh and steven powell, that she is alive with another man or in hiding. that was the stalemate, police looking, powells holding out. until this. it was that end of august midnight as josh powell prepared to leave us, the police had been combing through the powell home in puyallup carried off not just

susan's childhood diaries, other evidence too. very disturbing. >> we took seven computers, a lot of files, a lot of equipment out of the residence. >> this is ed troyer of the pierce county sheriff's department. >> we started looking at it and a pattern started emerging. a lot of pictures of kids and parks and places where kids congregate. the strange part was they weren't normal pictures of kids. they were closeups. >> in other words, child porn, said detective troyer. and not just dug up from the internet but film that he did himself in secret. that someone was steven powell. >> we have files dated clear back to 2007 and 2008, so at least that far. the evidence tells us he's taken pictures, tons of them, inappropriate pictures of kids. neighbor kids, kids in parks. he has possession of them, he's labeled them, kept them on his computer and he's been charged

with it. >> steven powell was arrested, hauled off to jail and charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and one count of possessing child pornography, a felony. among powell's alleged victims were two neighbor girls, age 7 and 9, secretly filmed through a window as they were bathing. but there was another face, a familiar one in, steven powell's porn stash. his daughter-in-law, susan. >> we also have pictures of susan, and it was obvious that these pictures were taken without her permission. they're the same type of pictures as the other ones. >> that mutual attraction steven powell claimed? an ugly fantasy, said the police. >> i know that he's saying certain things are out there and they're not right. we've got the evidence. we've got the information. we have the documentation and the photographs of what he's doing. >> and now dominos fell. after steven powell's arrest,

the state of washington took custody of josh powell's two little boys. susan's parents went to court to make sure he didn't get them back. >> it's very upsetting to find out what steve was charged with and knowing that our grandchildren were there. >> chuck cox and his lawyer faced off against josh in family court. >> my clients believe it is very harmful for these children to have been in the home of steven powell, who was obviously engaged in not only procuring, but deeply involved with pornography. >> josh powell represented himself in court, denied any knowledge of his father's alleged crimes, promised to keep the boys away from him should steven somehow make bail and he went openly in court. >> i am a fit and qualified father. i am the natural father. i love my sons.

and the manner in which they -- the manner in which they were behaving leads me to believe that the irreparable harm that is occurring to my sons is having taken them out of the stable and happy home. >> but then, more news. prosecutors told the judge that so far only a small portion of the evidence had been examine edd and that though josh powell hasn't been charged, he is also a subject of their child porn investigation. >> and that's the concern that the department has. >> and so for now, at least, the boys will stay with their maternal grandparents, chuck and judy cox, and josh will have visiting rights. >> a lot is happening. the searches, everything. >> and i feel like the more things that come out, the more things that are established as fact, that we're getting closer to where the police can complete their investigation. >> will that mean the arrest of

josh powell for the murder of their daughter, the murder of his wife, for the death of susan powell? josh even this moment claims he, of all people, is an innocent man. >> it really hurts that people would try to say that i don't love susan. >> i'm not sure that anybody said you didn't love susan, but they were saying that you killed susan. sometimes you kill the one you love. >> well, i never hurt susan. people who know me know that i would not hurt susan. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll be back again next friday and 10:00/9:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good night. -- captions by vitac -- gone in 60 seconds. literally.fáw3 jf oakland sportsok