• Hundreds gather to mourn Powell brothers

    Ted S. Warren / Pool via Getty Images

    Chuck Cox, right, reaches out to touch the casket bearing his grandsons, Charlie Powell and Braden Powell, as he walks with his wife Judy Cox during a funeral service the two boys on Feb. 11, in Tacoma, Wash. The boys died Feb. 5, when their father, Josh Powell, set fire to the home he was living in while they were visiting. Powell had been a person of interest in the 2009 disappearance of his wife Susan.

    Dean J. Koepfler / The News Tribune via AP

    A casket with the bodies of Charlie and Braden Powell, ages 7 and 5, is wheeled into Life Center Church in Tacoma, Wash., Feb. 11.

    Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church Saturday to remember two young boys killed when their father burned their house to the ground with himself and his sons inside.

    Sunday's murder-suicide arson, which claimed the lives of Josh Powell and his sons, Charles, 7, and Braden, 5, capped a grim family saga that began more than two years ago with the disappearance of the boys' mother, Susan Powell, under suspicious circumstances in Utah. -- By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Read the full story.

    Related content from PhotoBlog: Fire at Washington home kills husband, sons of missing woman

    Dean J. Koepfler / The News Tribune via AP

    Mourners hug before a memorial service for Charlie Powell, 7, and Braden Powell, 5, at the Life Center Church in Tacoma, Wash., Feb. 11. The family of missing Utah woman Susan Powell is holding a public funeral for her two sons, nearly a week after their father killed them in a gas-fueled blaze. Hundreds of people are attending the Saturday service. Many are wearing purple and blue ribbons in memory of 7-year-old Charlie and 5-year-old Braden. Family members and the boys' teachers are scheduled to speak. The boys' remains are in one coffin adorned with flowers. They were killed in a fire set by their father, Josh Powell, when they went to visit him Sunday at his home in Graham, Wash.

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  • Fire at Washington home kills husband, sons of missing woman

    Ted S. Warren / AP

    The smoldering remains of a house, left, where an explosion killed Josh Powell and his two sons, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, is shown from the air in Graham, Wash. The explosion occurred moments after a Child Protective Services worker brought the two boys to the home for a supervised visit. Powell's wife Susan went reportedly missing from their West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009.

    John Froschauer / AP

    Eliana and her mother Jennifer Bakley hug while Melissa Phillips look over the smoldering remains of a house near Fredrickson, Wash., Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, where, according to a sheriff's spokesman, three bodies were were found. The bodies are believed to be Josh Powell and his two sons. The explosion occurred moments after a Child Protective Services worker brought the two boys to the home for a supervised visit.

    John Froschauer / AP

    Pierce County Sheriff's deputies and Graham Firefighters work around the smoldering remains of a house near Fredrickson, Wash., Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, where, according to a sheriff's spokesman, three bodies were were found. The bodies are believed to be Josh Powell and his two sons. The explosion occurred moments after a Child Protective Services worker brought the two boys to the home for a supervised visit.

    msnbc.com staff and news services:

    Authorities say the husband of a missing Utah woman intentionally set his Washington home on fire Sunday, killing him and his two young sons shortly after the boys were brought to the home by a social worker for a supervised visit.

    Neighbors had reported hearing an explosion, but Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said Josh Powell's home was destroyed by a fast-moving fire that blew out several windows and was aided by some sort of accelerant. Read the full story.