Chuck and Judy Cox, the parents of Susan Cox Powell and grandparents of Charlie and Braden Powell, appeared on NBC's Today show Tuesday morning, talking about murder of their grandsons and the disappearance of their daughter. The following are excerpts from their interview.
Chuck: “They were becoming more and more happy and more like loving children. We’re missing them,” said Chuck.
Judy: “They basically kept saying how they went on a vacation in the desert and camping and mommy and daddy, they stopped someplace, and mommy and daddy left and only daddy came back.”
Chuck: “We felt that they were safe as long as they were with us but we were concerned about the visitation and I was concerned how this first visitation would go, especially after he had lost custody for six months.
Chuck: “We knew that if he was cornered and felt like there was no way out that he was capable of this and we had made that known to the police, all law enforcement involved and social and health services.”
Chuck: “He had several visitations before with no problem, so I can understand why they would think they were OK, but we knew what he was capable of.”
Judy: “(Josh) didn’t like us and he just wanted to get the kids away from us so much and it really bothered him that the boys were showing so much affection to Chuck.”
Chuck: “I don’t think the visitations should take place in their home, but I understand they have a lot of people and they deal with a lot of people that exaggerate the threat, or cry wolf if you will, and when we get lumped into the mass of people they have to deal with. But this was such an extraordinary circumstance that we felt they should have taken more care.”
Judy (on the boys’ reaction to the visit that day): “No, they didn’t want to go. They were having fun playing with their cousin, Patrick, who is 2-years-old and they didn’t want to go see their dad and I was kind of surprised ‘cause sometimes they really look forward to it, keep asking what day it is, but it was definitely ‘I don’t want to go.’ And I know, because of the laws, they had to go.”
Chuck: “It just makes you wonder, should you have told them ‘OK. You don’t have to go’ and it would have been different, obviously.”
Judy (on what is keeping them strong): “Our faith.”
Chuck: “We know where our daughter is and we know that she’s not here on this Earth and not with and … that she’s safe and we know that the boys are now back with their mother and that gives us a lot of strength, our faith does.”
To add a comment, please register or login.