"Mommy was in the trunk" - what the boys said and when

[Jules71]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/josh-powel...unk-car-lawyer/story?id=15520394#.TzAACcjCaSo

Attorney Steve Downing told the Associated Press that Braden and Charles Powell, who were 2 and 4 at the time of Susan Powell's disappearance, were beginning to tell their grandparents details about the night that their father took them on a late-night camping trip during a blizzard, including the fact that their mother disappeared after leaving in the car with their father.

"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."
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If the van didn't have a trunk, did the child mean the back part of the van - or could another car be involved?

 

[katydid23]

How could the judge not realize what a dangerous situation this was?

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

I hope more information will be revealed from the LE/family now that this tragic event occured.

 

[DLT88]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/josh-powel...unk-car-lawyer/story?id=15520394#.TzAACcjCaSo

Attorney Steve Downing told the Associated Press that Braden and Charles Powell, who were 2 and 4 at the time of Susan Powell's disappearance, were beginning to tell their grandparents details about the night that their father took them on a late-night camping trip during a blizzard, including the fact that their mother disappeared after leaving in the car with their father.

"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."
*************************************

If the van didn't have a trunk, did the child mean the back part of the van - or could another car be involved?

That's what I'd like to know, too!! Was there another car? Didn't the police confiscate the van and go through it looking for evidence? Cadaver dogs can hit on a body having been somewhere -- didn't they bring cadaver dogs to the van? And if they took the van and there was another car, why did Josh have to rent a car? Or did it do that thinking the poice wouldn't know -- which the donkeys didn't because they didn't tail his sorry butt the next day and had to rely on the car rental place to realize he had rented a car there.

 

[matou]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...as-in-the-trunk-boys-said-before-their-deaths

"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."

OMG those poor boys.

 

[grayjay]

Then it says they both got out of the car. It sounds to me like she was alive. Josh said he didn't kill her. This wording also implies he left her somewhere to die.

 

[Jules71]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...as-in-the-trunk-boys-said-before-their-deaths

"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."

OMG those poor boys.

I wondered about the part that said Mom AND Dad got out of the car. That part wasn't quoted, so I am not sure about it. Maybe she was alive in the back of the car and they both got out and that is why no cadaver dogs hit on the vehicle (speculation - I don't remember if they actually brought cadaver dogs to the van).

ETA: Plus add this to the comment we heard earlier about Mommy being in the mine looking for crystals.

 

[jjenny]

I think its very hard to make a legal case on just what small children have told, especially if they haven't been saying that from the beginning. So I doubt this alone would have led to arrest.
I don't know what other evidence police have and if they had to move so slow. Sounds like they were working toward arrest but totally unclear when and if it would have happened.

 

[Jacie Estes]

"Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."

This bolsters the theory that the <modsnip> drugged her and left her out in the elements to die on the cold night.

 

[passionflower]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...as-in-the-trunk-boys-said-before-their-deaths

"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."

OMG those poor boys.

did Steve Powell have car???
Did he plan and help Josh?
Follow behind Josh in his car?

 

[Blue_Dolphin308]

Josh used a rental car not to long after the disappearance and put on a thousand plus miles..

 

[passionflower]

I wondered about the part that said Mom AND Dad got out of the car. That part wasn't quoted, so I am not sure about it. Maybe she was alive in the back of the car and they both got out and that is why no cadaver dogs hit on the vehicle (speculation - I don't remember if they actually brought cadaver dogs to the van).

ETA: Plus add this to the comment we heard earlier about Mommy being in the mine looking for crystals.

BBM, yes, the oldest son said that from the beginning IIRC

 

[motappin]

Then it says they both got out of the car. It sounds to me like she was alive. Josh said he didn't kill her. This wording also implies he left her somewhere to die.

I have wondered about that too. In Josh's sick mind it might justify saying he didn't hurt her, if he just left her somewhere in a drugged (maybe the carpet spot was vomit), bound state of some kind. Then he could have gone back a few days later with the rental car to 1. make sure she was actually dead and 2. dispose of the body.

The thing that bugs me about this theory is that JP strikes me as the type who wants things tidy. Would he have left her out there alive? I don't think so. Seems he would've been too worried she'd survive somehow, however unlikely that might have been. He would have needed to be sure she was very near death, then perhaps he took her out and then waited for her to die or did something else to her once he got her out of the car.

What a sick, twisted, emotionless human being, if you can call him human.

 

[DLT88]

Then it says they both got out of the car. It sounds to me like she was alive. Josh said he didn't kill her. This wording also implies he left her somewhere to die.

I think kids get words mixed up sometimes, I don't know. The eldest said she was in the trunk and Josh probably told them Mommy wanted to ride in the trunk to lay down or something. So he had to make them think nothing was wrong so he had them think she was alive and that he would open the trunk so mommy could get out and go for a walk with him. Just guessing, though.

 

[BD1]

Yeah cause the theory that she was alive in the car doesn't take into account the wet floor in the home and the fan blowing on it, right?

 

[MaryAnn]

If he's saying she was in the trunk then maybe Josh picked her up out of the trunk and the boys saw him doing that, I don't think at that age they would assume she was dead. Since they are innocenting talking about her being in the trunk. I don't know what that creep, coward, child killer did to her, but I just can't stop thinking about those poor little boys and what they have gone through in their short little lives. I hope they hang Josh's Father. I think he is key to all of this.

 

[Cortne]

I dont see Susan agreeing to take the boys out there that night. Unless perhaps she was drugged. jmo

 

[Dr.Fessel]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/josh-powel...unk-car-lawyer/story?id=15520394#.TzAACcjCaSo

Attorney Steve Downing told the Associated Press that Braden and Charles Powell, who were 2 and 4 at the time of Susan Powell's disappearance, were beginning to tell their grandparents details about the night that their father took them on a late-night camping trip during a blizzard, including the fact that their mother disappeared after leaving in the car with their father.

"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."
*************************************

If the van didn't have a trunk, did the child mean the back part of the van - or could another car be involved?

Or an actual trunk like a moving trunk?

 

[Dr.Fessel]

I wonder if the family told LE and the Court about the boys saying this?

 

[Jules71]

The stain could have been vomit from being drugged. She could have been bound, gagged, and alive in the back (trunk) of the van. He could have taken her out and put her in a mine and left to die. I don't think Susan walked herself out of the car - she would have fought - so she had to have been unconscious or dead.