Josh Powell’s Brother-In-Law: ‘There Is Absolutely Nothing Anybody Could Have Done To Stop Him’

Josh Powell, the man who was long considered a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of his wife, Susan, allegedly set off a massive explosion in his home Sunday, killing himself and his two sons as a social worker dropped them off for a supervised visit.

On Monday, Powell’s brother-in-law, Kirk Graves, appeared on TODAY for a somber interview with Ann Curry. Graves has made no secret in the past about his disdain for Powell, referring to him as, among other things, a narcissist. When Curry asked Graves why Powell would do something like this, he said he still wasn’t sure.

“The only thing I have come up with so far,” Graves said, “is he took an opportunity to hurt everybody around him, and used the boys as a tool to do that.”

Sgt. Ed Troyer, from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, was also part of the interview, and he added that this was pre-planned, stressing that there was little that could have been done to prevent it. The social worker who dropped the kids off had smelled gas before the house exploded. “He was lying in wait,” Troyer said. “He had this preplanned. He had everything ready to go. This was going to happen no matter who dropped the boys off.”

Graves later added that, “there is absolutely nothing anybody could have done,” to stop Powell from doing this. “There are a lot of people out there today looking back over the last few months and wondering if they could have done something more. You know, the only person at fault — the only person who is to blame — is Josh.”

Watch the interview below, courtesy of NBC: