i just dropped off the children and he wouldn't let me in the door. >> it was horrible. we're normal people, and the person you're dealing with is a psychopath. >> it's the story that's haunting the country, the case >> i was like this can't be real. and he professed to love them? >> could it have been prevented? >> as you listen to it now, what does it do to you? >> it's aes's excruciating. tonight, the 911 dispatcher shares his story about that day. >> i wish i had recognized the

urgency of the situation. also -- "dateline" uncovers new information of a plot unfolding. >> nobody knew what was going on. >> and a father's unraveling. >> he just saw there was no way out. >> new e-mails never shared before. susan powell's private fears in her own words. it's the genuine belief of a good many people that you killed her. >> her husband speaks a final eerie interview. >> i love my sons more than anything. i put them first. i put my family first. inside "a family's story". welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt. the details are heartbreaking, the disappearance of a mom and what befell her two little boys. tonight we have new information in the susan powell case never

revealed before, about her own fears for the safety of her family. did she see this coming? and could anyone else have stopped it? you'll hear from her loved ones tonight searching for answers and justice. you'll also hear from her husband josh powell in his last in-depth interview, words that are even more haunting now. here's keith morrison. >> reporter: it is so sad to look at them now, this apparently perfectly normal family. just a young father and his two young sons walking a postcard shore, skipping rocks across the surface. but under the surface, the man's own skin, well, what was beneath the surface? how in the name of heaven did this come to this? >> ma'am, are you calling about the fire on the 8200 block? >> yes. >> do you know if anyone's in the house? >> yes! there was a man and two children.

i just dropped off the children, and he wouldn't let me in the door. >> reporter: tonight you'll hear an exclusive interview with the man who took that call and who has been criticized for not getting help immediately. and you find yourself vilified really. what was that like? >> well, it's awful. part of the problem is that, like most people i think, i was aware of josh powell's story, but i didn't associate his name with the story. >> reporter: we will retrace josh powell's last steps, mysterious trips to a gas station, a storage locker where late today police found a quilt with blood on it, and the bank where in a is surveillance photo he has the look of a man unglued. >> nobody knew what was going on. he took more than substantial steps to get ready for his death. >> reporter: we'll hear investigators trying to fathom the unfathomable. >> what is the motive of killing his kids? is that they start annoying ray

little too much? >> reporter: and in his last interview, we'll hear from josh powell him sxself, who offered like a negative of a film, the bizarre reversal of the truth. >> i love my sons more than anything. i put them first. i put my family first. >> reporter: last sunday, february 5th, while the rest of the country was settling down to watch the super bowl, josh powell was setting a trap for his own young sons. what happened in there was really only the last chapter of a very long, sad story. a fathers, sons, murder, suicide and secrets. some of those secrets, no doubt, were burned up in the fire. but some things we do know, and they go to the darkest recesses of the human heart. our story begins years ago when a cheerful young woman named susan cox fell for josh. chuck and judy cox are susan's parents. as they spoke to us, they

confess they are still in a kind of shock after the disaster that claimed their two young grandsons. and they recalled so clearly their early fears about their daughter's beau. >> i had a very bad feeling every time i saw him. i even asked middle daughter, why are you marrying him? >> reporter: josh's sister jennifer graves told us just this week that as a child she was wary of him, too. when josh was a boy he was troubled in some ways, wasn't he? >> there were some issues, yeah. >> reporter: jennifer says much of the problem stemmed from her father, josh's father. she is estranged from him today. their mother divorced him hadyears ago and in court papers alleged he was abusive. >> i was about 14 when i kind of woke up and realized, my dad is wacko. he's just on a different trajectory and not a good one. >> reporter: she is talking about steven powell. you're going to learn much more about him later.

>> what was it about his trajectory that bothered you for disturbed you? >> he just had a really negative outlook on life. he was down on, you know, just everything. >> reporter: an outlook he seemed to have passed on to josh, which paradox ickally seemed to attract susan. >> i think she felt sorry for him. he didn't have many friends, and i think she felt she could make him happy and that he would change. >> reporter: they're married in the mormon church, and certainly looked happy in those early photos. but later the couple moved to utah, moved in temporarily with jennifer and her husband kirk. what was the relationship like then, as far as you could tell? >> it was a little rough. she would kind of order him around a little bit, and he wanted to control her and not let her go to some activities with me. >> reporter: josh worked sometimes in real estate and as a web designer. when susan went into labor with

their first child, say susan's parents, josh, working right there at home, said he was too busy to drive her to the hospital. they did. and when he finally arrived? >> he sits in the back of the room working on his computer. >> while she's in labor. >> yeah. it was a really odd experience. >> reporter: they named the baby charlie. braden followed two years later. but having kids zs only seemed to increase the friction between susan and josh. >> she would want to put them to bed, go as far as putting them in bed. then he would get mad and tell them to get out of bed and not do what mom said to do. >> where did josh get these parents ideas? >> from my dad. >> reporter: more and more influence from dad, said jennifer. >> josh started talking on the phone with my dad a lot. he would spend multiple hours, multiple times a wiek, on the phone with him. and susan would complain to me

about how josh would just become unbearable to live with. it was really obvious to had her that my dad was trying to drive a wedge between them. >> reporter: it seemed to be working. jennifer shared something with us she has never made public before, excerpts of e-mails from susan. did they contain hints of what was coming? in one of them, she describes her attempts to rekindle romance with josh. i've tried the dates thing with him, and it goes to negative or no conversation or it's an obligation to him that he seems to hate. >> i think it's easy to say that josh learned from his dad how to treat women. >> reporter: and then there's another e-mail that suggests susan was actually afraid of him. every moment i step back and take stock of what i'm dealing with it feels like a never ending cycle, but i'm too afraid of the consequences, losing my kids, him kidnapping, divorce, or actions worse on his part.

why wouldn't he just get a divorce? leave? >> because she had an income. she was the mom. there was a very strong argument that the boys would have gone with her. >> reporter: and so, they believe, josh found another solution to his problem. >> when we come back, new insights to the day susan vanished. >> i sat on this feeling, this gut sinking, terrible feeling that he has done something to her. sarah will you marry me? i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. ♪ ♪ i would have appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide you with proactive updates on the status of your home loan. and our innovative online tools ensure that you're always in the loop. one more way quicken loans

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december 7, 2009, gray and cold in salt lake city, a monday. josh and susan were both expected at work. >> and neither one of them had shown up and neither wn ofone of them had called. they were supposed to have dropped off their kids. >> reporter: dropped them often at day care, she means. so the day care center called their emergency contact, jennifer. she went to josh and susan's house. it was empty. >> the feeling hit me really strongly that josh had done something to her. >> reporter: hindsight perhaps? or the insight of someone who had grown up with josh powell. >> i said, hon, don't worry about this. this is just a couple and their kids. they're off. they're adults. they'll be fine. >> reporter: then in the late afternoon josh suddenly showed up with the boys, without susan. >> and i remember the feeling i had at that time. >> which was what?

>> which was, josh has done something. >> reporter: josh told a story no one could believe, that the previous night, sunday, he decided to take the boys camping, left around midnight, he said, blew off work, drove almost 100 miles, slept in the family van in temperatures well below freezing. then drove back home to find susan gone. he said he had no idea what happened to her. >> when he came up with that story about going camping, i says, no, i got a really sick feeling that this is not good ♪ . ♪ >> reporter: and yet they did what they felt they should do, they rallied around josh, pleaded for susan's safe return. >> we want to find her, return her to her husband and children. >> reporter: josh is standing off to the side and sort of looking down. what did that feel like? >> at that point i was willing to give josh the benefit of the doubt, especially publicly. i wasn't going to stay anything to really disparage him.

of course now looking back it bugs me at times. >> reporter: but he wasn't there throng. within ten days police declared josh a person of interest in susan's disappearance. he stopped talking to police and then left town, packed up his possessions and his precious sons, left utah to go live in washington with his father, steven steven. when we spoke to him last year, he told us he interrogated his son. >> josh, you know, the most abusive thing that a father could ever do is murder his wife. you know, things like that. i wanted to -- >> you were testing him. >> i was testing him. "wanted to see his reaction to this kind of stuff. >> and? >> it was good. i was totally satisfied with it. i mean, to me, he passed with flying colors. >> reporter: as for susan, he said, she had just run off with another man, most likely. >> susan was very open and i would say very aggressive in

male/female relationships, and she called the shots. >> reporter: how did he know that? steven claimed susan had developed a longstanding crush on him. >> susan would come into my office after she waxed her legs and she would sit there and she would say, you know, feel my legs, they're pretty smooth. soshgs yeah so, yeah, i know. >> josh wasn't concerned about this? >> i didn't talk to josh about it. you know, i just enjoyed the moment. >> reporter: steven enjoyed quite a few moments with susan, in fact. like when he would hand her the baby. >> she would press herself against my hands and then i'd have to pull my hands out from between her and braden just slipped away. that kind of thing. >> reporter: he said his only regret was not going a little further with her. >> i mean, it's not like i didn't enjoy that kind of little thing. >> reporter: it was so easy for

him to tell stories susan could not defend herself. >> what he said is not based in reality. >> reporter: josh's sister jennifer graves was a confidant of susan and of course as his daughter she already knew all about steven. >> he might have felt these things for her. he might have been sexually attracted to her. but she did not reciprocate. >> reporter: for a very few uncomfortable months, she said, early in their marriage susan and josh lived with steven. >> they were set up in the dining room so they 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. there was one incident where they were in a car. he said, would you be willing to share? josh and i can just share you. >> reporter: and now susan was missing. josh was still a person of interest. steven was telling lewd stories.

and these men had susan's children, the coxs' grandchildren. >> they were being raised by the same person who raised josh, and my daughter was just 100% against them ever having anything to do with steve. >> and there they were in his house. >> here they were in his house because josh went there, you know, brings them there. >> reporter: but josh's actions brought other people to his father's house as well, namely the police. last august they arrived with a search warrant. >> we've got probable cause to believe that there are some items of evidentiary value inside the home of the powells. >> reporter: they found plenty, evidence that might eventually help turn the mystery into an incomprehensible tragedy. but back then there was no way to know that, even as we sat down for an extraordinary conversation with the person of interest, josh powell, himself. no way to know then that this

conversation would be the last one. coming up -- >> they're just trying to rattle your cage. >> it would seem. >> are you rattled? >> i'm pretty pissed off. >> josh powell in his final television interview. were there hints of what was to come? anncr: no matter who you are. no matter where you're from... every family... ... everywhere should have the financial security they need. not just the ones who can figure it out. not just the most fortunate. everyone. metlife i can do this. they say that with great power comes great responsibility. well, when you own a durango, you'll have tons of power, enough to tow up to 7,400 pounds. so owning a durango means you now have the responsibility to go dirt biking,

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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. >> they know everything. >> an extraordinary conversation at the time, even more so in hindsight. as we spoke, the police were searching for evidence at his father's house in pewial up, washington. josh seemed quite confident they wouldn't find anything. >> 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 is they're just trying to rattle your cage. >> it would seem. >> are you rattled? >> i'm pretty pissed off. >> josh claimed he knew thirngs about susan's childhood that her parents were hiding. susan's adult behavior, or at least steven's lewd suggestions of her behavior, claimed josh, were the result of childhood abuse, an allegation the coxes dismiss as patently ridiculous. >> i've known about things that she's told me about while she was growing up. >> and you think that's the reason why, according to your father at least, she would come on to him? >> i don't think people are character iegzizeing that right. she's a flirtatious person. >> i hate to tell you, josh, others who have seen that interview with your father have sort of gone, ew, that's totally inappropriate, a, to behave that way and, b, to even talk about it.

do you ever get that sense from hearing him describe these things? >> well, i haven't had any real deep conversations with him about any of that stuff. >> he hadn't told you those things, those stories? >> i mean, i was there to see that susan was always proud of her legs being cleanly waxed, how smooth they were. she would have people feel them. i told her i thought it was pretty inappropriate. >> reporter: josh was siding with his father against just about everyone else, a fateful choice it turned out. and what you're telling me is that that story or those stories, rather, as told by your dad are accurate and the stories told by jennifer graves and susan's friends that susan was horrified by this and wanted to get the heck away from it, as much as she could, are lies. >> that's right.

>> so, on that night in december 2009, when you went out to the des erltert with the kids to go camping, what happened to susan? >> i think that susan simply left. >> simply left. i mean, just at midnight, 1:00 in the morning, just, i've had enough, i'm out of here? was she angry those days? >> no. >> was she distressed? >> nope. >> 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, 2:00 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 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'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. >> reporter: and still he claimed susan's parents were out to get him, to take his children away. >> they started to try to say that my sons are in an emotional

ly -- some kind of emotional danger from being in my custody, and that's completely unfair statement. >> reporter: and that's why he did what he did, he said, when he and the boys encountered chuck cox at a hardware store a few months after susan disappeared. >> he said that he wanted to hug my children. i said, no, you may not. >> those are his grandchildren, just as they're your children. i mean, shouldn't a grandfather be able to hug his grandchildren? >> he should not be using them as pawns in the media. i love my sons more than anything. i put them first. i put my family first. >> reporter: words that now ring horribly false, of course, as do these about his missing wife and their two young sons. what do you tell them about her? >> i just tell them that we don't know where she's at. >> do they understand?

how much of that do they understand? >> i think they understand quite a bit. >> reporter: indeed, it now seems they did. and that, too, would play a role in what was coming. do you worry that somebody will charge you with a crime that will prevent you from being with them? >> nope. >> don't think that's going to happen? >> nope. >> what makes you so sure? >> because i never did anything that someone would be able to charge me with. i never hurt susan. and i have nothing to do with her disappearance. >> reporter: did he know how few believed him? in the end it hardly mattered because, when police entered the secret places in his father's house, they found evidence of crimes, all right. not the crimes they were looking for but enough to push josh

powell to the brink. when we come back, a turn in the case. >> there are some videos and pictures of susan, someone was hiding through curtains and doors. >> family secrets emerge. and later the 911 dispatcher on the line. what happened? >> it was horrible. i mean, this has been a nightmare. >> a "date line "exclusive. what's the best way to santa cruz, california? [siri] here are directions to santa cruz. where's the best bbq in kansas city? is there a rodeo in amarillo today? where are we? [siri] here's your current location. how big is the grand canyon? any gas stations we can walk to? [siri] i found 2 gas stations fairly close to you. what does orion look like? [siri] i found this for you. remind me to do this again. [siri] okay, i'll remind you. [ female announcer ] today is the day you make a change with hellmann's. make parmesan crusted chicken surprisingly

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. charlie, there's a cave over there. >> reporter: when we met josh powell last summer in washington, he and his dad steven invited us to join them and charlie and braden on a family outing. >> all right, come on! >> reporter: and a casual observer may never have guessed the circumstances that brought these two strange men and boy two boys ss together. but for more than a year and a half, the boys had been missing somebody very dear to them,

their mother susan powell. and susan's parents were sure josh knew exactly what happened to her. when did you first think that josh killed susan? >> probably when he came up with this i went camping routine. >> reporter: but there was not yet enough evidence to charge him. and then, as josh and i talked that evening at the end of august, the police raided his father's house looking for more. and they did find evidence, but not at all what they expected. >> we discovered a lot of computers and a lot of material. >> reporter: ed troyer of the pierce county sheriff's department describing what was seized from steven powell's home. >> there was some child pornography in there, some voyeuristic pictures and videos. >> reporter: and not just filth dug up from the internet but, rather, material someone had filmed himself in secret. that someone, said troyer, was steven powell. >> pictures and videos that were taken from his house into the

neighbor's house of little girls using the bathroom, showers, shot right from his own window. >> reporter: steven was arrested, hauled off to jail and charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and one count of possessing child pornography, a felony. this was the same steven powell, remember, who claimed his daughter-in-law susan had a serious crush on him before she disappeared. when he said it, it sounded like an old fool's fantasy. now it turned out there was evidence the fantasy had a very dark undercurrent because there was another face, a familiar one, in steven powell's homemade porn stash. tell me about the discovery of videos involving susan powell. >> there are some videos and pictures of susan that were obviously taken without her consent or her knowledge. somebody hiding and taking and shooting through curtains and doors and taking pictures of her. >> reporter: it had to have happened early in the marriage

when susan and josh strapped for cash moved in with steven for a whiem. did she have any idea he was actually taking pictures of her had? >> she mentioned that while she didn't have solid proof she always suspected that he was spying on her. >> and, you know, even though he said that she was interested in him, we believe that's all one big fantasy and she absolutely despised him. >> reporter: the charges brought against steven powell late last summer were ugly enough. but, before long, they set in motion something much bigger, a full-on battle for control of charlie and braden. >> we were able to take the kids out of the residence until an investigation is done and the kids were placed with susan's parents. >> reporter: susan's parents, chuck and judy cox, in josh and steven's world, the enemy. >> i have braden in the back for preschool. we're driving and he said, grandpa, you need to change your name. why? my name is charles cox. he says, yeah, charles cox is a bad person so you need to change your name.

who says charles cox is a bad person? oh, my daddy. >> reporter: josh had done everything he could to keep chuck and judy away from his sons. now they had the upper hand. >> my clients believe it is very harmful for these children to have been in the home of steven powell, who is deeply involved with pornography. >> reporter: at this hearing last september, josh powell represented himself in family court, denied any knowledge of his father's alleged crimes, promised to keep the boys away from steven, should the elder powell somehow make bail. but here you could almost see josh unraveling. >> 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. >> reporter: but then a prosecutor told the judge that so far only a small portion of the evidence had been examined and, while josh powell hadn't been charged yet, he still might be. >> mr. powell is the subject of that investigation, and that's the concern that the department has. >> reporter: though josh lost that round and lost the ones that followed, including the very last one. the final defeat just last week when the judge ordered that the boys would stay with the coxes at least six more months. >> so you got that favorable ruling. >> favorable ruling. a very good day except josh is still not arrested. our daughter is still missing. >> reporter: but those facts might have changed, too, with a second ruling from the judge that day, she ordered josh powell to undergo a psychosexual evaluation. why? because according to utah investigators, some images had

been found on a computer in his home back in 2009, the year susan disappeared. >> it was cartoons, a cartoon and animation are of adults and kids having sex. >> reporter: and josh's evaluation was to include a polygraph test, a lie detector. >> he had lost the custody of the kids. he had to undergo a lie detector. what's he going to tell them? if they ask about susan, with a lie detector -- >> which they would have. >> which they would have. he's not going to be able to lie. i just saw that as, this is going to be -- no way he's going to get through this. >> the trap is really closing in on him. >> he's feeling really closed in. >> reporter: and if that wasn't pressure enough, there was this, too. rumors that charlie and braden were getting pretty comfortable with their grandparents, that they'd started talking about that midnight camping trip. coming up --

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last september steven powell was arrested for child pornography. josh powell was under suspicion. and as autumn deepened into winter, chuck and judy cox heard again and again, the arrest of josh powell was next, could happen any day. so they waited, held their breath, and took in the boys charlie and braden. how was it living with those boys? for the months you had them. >> how about exhausting? >> yeah. we went to bed exhausted every night. but it felt good to have the kits there. >> reporter: the coxes were much

stricter disciplinarians than josh, they enforced early bedtimes and regular meals and according to josh's sister and brother-in-law, the kids thrived. >> right after the custody hearing where they were finally in the coxes' home, we saw them that day, and they were withdrawn and angry and quiet. and then two months later they were sitting on laps and hugging and playing and listening while people read stories to them, and they were acting more like little boys. >> we're also very concerned for the welfare of our grandchildren. >> reporter: chuck and judy were determined to keep them. and as they battled josh in family court, they began to turn up new and disturbing information about the man who married their daughter. they found it in the divorce papers of his father steven. >> right after steve was arrested we went over to spokane and pulled up the record. >> reporter: there were disturbing allegations in there that josh had attempted suicide by hanging as a teenager, that he had threatened his mother

with a knife, and there was this story about josh and steven. >> i heardthere was an incident where josh killed his younger sister lena's hamster by smashing it against the side of the cage. and josh's mother was outraged, and steve's response, according to the papers there, was, she just does not understand teenage humor. >> teenage humor. >> i'm going, huh? what on earth are you talking about? and one of the first things i heard regarding killers is they abuse or kill animals. there was a warning sign way early. >> reporter: of course they believe he was a killer, had killed their daughter, even though he hadn't been charged. and then, they say, the kids began to open up. >> one of them told me one time -- i think it was charlie -- that he hoped mommy knew how to camp or something because she was out where she needed to know how to camp.

>> reporter: and they heard about an earlier episode where one of the boys drew a picture at his preschool. he drew a car, two boys, and a dad. no mom. the teacher asked where she was. >> well, mother's in the trunk. and they knew who he was. >> reporter: all the while, even though the boys now lived with the coxes, they made court-ordered visits to josh at the house he was rentaling, a house now police say he didn't really live in. >> we believe that the house is staged just for the purpose of the visitation and to make himself look like a good dad with the photos on the wall, the kids' stuff, minivan in the driveway, in the garage. unfortunately it was everything but that. >> reporter: where did josh actually live? steven's house. and now that josh seemed in danger of losing custody of the kids permanently, chuck said he worried not about the boys so much but about the social worker who took them to see josh.

>> i was concerned that if she confronted josh in any way that he might hurt her. >> reporter: which brings us to last sunday, the first time the kids would visit josh after he was ordered to take a polygraph. >> i got a bad feeling about this. and i didn't really get a bad feeling until like saturday. i was thinking, you know, maybe i should ask somebody to have a little more security this time or maybe we should skip this visit. >> reporter: the kids were having fun playing, didn't want to go. but, of course, there wasn't a choice. they had to go. >> i thought, i have to get them to go or i'm breaking a law and we'll get in trouble for it. >> reporter: so she jollied them into it. >> i said, you'll do something fun, you know. daddy will have a project. you'll get to eat with daddy. you'll have fun. >> reporter: no idea, of course, about the careful plans josh had been making for that visit.

coming up -- >> you listen to that tape, and it's almost painful. >> it's excruciating. >> for the first time, the 911 dispatcher shares his story about that day. >> i wish i had recognized the urgency of the situation. >> a "dateline" exclusive. and coming up sunday on "dateline," "conviction." >> i didn't do this. >> he spent half his life in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit. could he be innocent? >> my son is not a murderer. >> what eyewitnesss told detectives changed his life. what they told us years later could change it again. >> he's living everyone's worst nightmare. >> one man's story of "conviction."

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>> reporter: he was a person of interest in susan powell's disappearance, the target of a relentless police investigation. his contacts with his two sons had been reduced by court order to a few hours twice a week. rumors had an imminent arrest

swirled around him. and, before the end of last week, josh powell prepared to strike back. hear for the first time what police have pieced together of his final days. on saturday morning, josh deposited his children's toys and clothing in a charity drop box near his house. at 11:32 a.m., he walked into a bank where he withdrew $7,000 in cash and transferred thousands more, police believe, to his sister who was still close to him. at 1:30 p.m. he arrived at this storage unit. here police say he spent an hour and a half going through susan's belongings. then back in his minivan he drove ten miles out of town to this landfill where he dumped a bundle of material from the storage unit. saturday evening he walked into this department store, purchased two five-gallon gas cans and a pack of sterno, the stuff he used to keep food hot. then he went to a gas station to fill those cans. the next morning, sunday, josh

composed e-mails to family members, most just said, i'm sorry, good-bye. at 10:30 he called his sister alena's cell phone. >> hello, this is josh. i'm -- i'm calling to say good-bye. i am not going to live without my sons and i'm not able to go on anymore. i'm sorry to everyone i've hurt. good-bye. >> reporter: his alarmed sister called 911. >> i think my brother might be in trouble or something. >> what's going on with your brother? >> he is -- i don't know. he's sending weird e-mails. he's saying good-bye and stuff. >> reporter: and then josh doused the house with gasoline, prepared the ax he would use on the boys before he lit the match. around noon, the social worker brought charlie and braden for their court-ordered visitation. josh grabbed the boys, locked her out.

at 12:08, she made her first call to 911. >> hey, i'm on a supervised visitation for a court-ordered visit, and something really weird has happened. the kids went into the house and the parent, biological parent, whose name is josh powell, will not let me in the door. what should i do? >> reporter: and the operator kept her on the line answering questions for nearly seven minutes. >> date of birth? >> i don't know. he's about 39. >> how tall? >> 5'10", 150 pounds. >> hair color? >> brown. >> did you notice what he was wearing? >> no, i didn't notice what he was wearing. >> reporter: and finally -- >> all right, we'll have somebody look for you there. >> how long will it be? >> i don't know, ma'am. they have to respond to emergency, life threatening emergencies first. >> well, this could be life threatening. he went to court on wednesday, and he didn't get his kids back. and this is really -- i'm afraid

for their lives. >> reporter: deputies were alerted by dispatch at 12:16 p.m. it was flagged as a routine call. and at that moment 911 lit up with multiple reports of an explosion and fire. >> 911, what are you reporting? >> i just had a house explode. >> the house just blew up and it's on fire. >> what are you reporting? >> i believe fire. >> where? >> the social worker who delivered the boys to josh was back on the phone. >> he exploded the house. >> do you know if anyone's in the house? >> yes. there was a man and two children. i just dropped off the children and he wouldn't let me in the door. >> reporter: chuck cox heard the news from a friend who had seen it on facebook. >> and when i got there, there were police cars, fire trucks and a line and the house is smoldering. i still didn't believe it. >> reporter: and with the horror and disbelief came questions. could this have been foreseen? could josh's evil plan somehow have been derailed?

>> i feel strongly that the judge did everything possible to protect the boys. josh did it, and i truly believe that when someone's committed to doing something this horrific, there is nothing anybody can do to stop them. he was going to do it. >> reporter: but could the children have been rescued in those final minutes? is someone to blame? >> oh, it's horrible. this has been a nightmare. >> fingers have been pointed at this man, dave loverack. he's the 911 dispatcher who caught the initial call that day. >> what's the address? >> reporter: just one of thousands in his 18 years on the job. >> to hear how clumsy and faltering i sounded. >> the visit is with josh powell. he is the husband of -- >> who supervisors? >> i supervise. >> you supervise and you're doing the visit? you supervise yourself? >> i supervise myself. i'm the supervisor here. >> wait a minute. if it's a supervised visit, you can't supervise yourself. >> it's almost painful because you know what's going to happen when you're listening to it.

but at the time you didn't know what was going to happen. but as you listen to it now, what does it do to you? >> oh, it's excruciating. it's painful to listen to. and the dad's last name? >> powell. >> i was aware of josh powell's story, but i didn't associate his name. and so his name was not resonating with me. 2 "l"s at the end of powell? >> yes. >> realizing what we know now, i wish i had recognized the urgency of the situation. >> you're in a position nobody could have imagined. >> right. because i don't automatically default to the notion that the person you're dealing with is a psychopath. it's difficult when one goes south on you like this one did. >> the coxes don't blame dave loverack. not at all. and they worked hard to stay calm, even after the loss of their grandsons. along with josh and whatever he may have known about susan. >> i think he was very selfish, and that's why he took the kids.

if he couldn't have them, no one could have them. >> we'd appreciate it if he had left a note telling us where susan was or something, you know. >> maybe the point was not to tell anyone. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> oh, i'm sure. he wants for us to never find her. >> he's still mad at us, you know. mad at us because we won't give up on our daughter, finding our daughter. >> reporter: investigators have not given up either. they searched that storage unit of josh's and recovered a comforter among susan's belongings. preliminary tests indicated blood stains on it. and chuck cox believes there is still one person who can answer his questions. >> his dad knows something. his dad had some part in this. >> reporter: steven powell is still in jail on suicide watch now. police named him as a person of interest. did he goad josh into something? did he devise or assist a coverup?

did his words help cause this? a police source says they grilled steven relentlessly this week. his response was silence. and the parents of a sunny girl will never stop searching for her, will never stop hurting. and, yet -- >> we could be mad at josh and mad at steve. it's not anger. it's sadness. but there's hope. we believe that they're safe in another life with heavenly father who knows what happened. and it will all be better. so we have that hope. >> that's all for this edition of "date line" friday. we'll see you again for "dateline" sunday at 7:00/6:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live, local, latebreaking.