Steven Powell dies of heart attack in Tacoma hospital



TACOMA, Wash. -- Steven Powell, the father of Josh Powell, who killed his two young boys and himself in Graham while he was being investigated for possibly killing his wife, Susan Cox Powell, in Utah, died Monday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said.

Powell, believed to be 68, died of heart attack, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Steve Powell was released last year from the Monroe Correctional Complex after serving time for possession of child pornography. He was to be under community supervision until June 2019, according to the Washington Department of Corrections.

Powell was convicted for possessing explicit images of two neighbor girls, ages 8 and 10, that prosecutors say were taken from a bedroom window of his Graham home in 2006 and 2007. Jurors returned a unanimous verdict back in 2015.

In 2012, Powell was convicted on 14 counts of voyeurism for shooting video and still pictures of the girls as they used a family bathroom next door. The child porn charges were thrown out by a superior court judge before the voyeurism trial but were reinstated by an appeals court.

Steven Powell's son, Josh Powell,  killed his two young boys and himself in Graham while he was being investigated for possibly killing his wife, Susan Cox Powell, in Utah. Susan Cox Powell disappeared in 2009 and her body was never found.

The Steven Powell case went back to 2011 when police first searched his home in Graham to look for evidence in the Susan Cox Powell investigation. She had vanished, and detectives believed her husband Josh, who was living with his dad at the time, was involved in her disappearance.

Instead, they found several pictures and videos of two young neighbor girls in their bathroom.

Prosecutors say there were hundreds of photos showing the girls naked in the bath, but the family next door apparently never knew they were being victimized.