This is me covering all my bases, making sure that if something happens to me or my family or all of us.

And the phone rang, and the voice on the other end said, when was the last time you saw Susan? And I instantly kind of felt like dread. What is happening? 28 year old Susan Powell was last seen Sunday. It has been three days, four days and counting.

Been missing for a week. Josh had taken the children on a middle of the night camping trip.

It was freezing cold. None of this makes any sense. He was like, yeah, the kids are here. No, Susan's not with me. And I was like, where is she?

You know? And he was like, I don't know. popular in February was disrupted because of Covid-19 please now give your attention to Mister Buck as he presents the plaintiff's final argument. It is out of the state's failure to live up to their own primary directive of assuring the safety of the children that this tragedy was born.What was the place that had the least protection? Josh Powell's home. What about the level of risk then the state learned of the. Of the boys statements. It learned of this incest images.It learned that he was going to have to undergo a psychosexual evaluation of polygraph. If the state had followed its policies, its guidelines, common sense investigated, had visitations where it was supposed to have them, none of this would have happened. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen of the jury. This will be the only and final time that you hear from the state in this matter. The state took this very serious.They did their job, they followed their policies. Yes, the fact that Susan Powell was missing was known. But after more than two years after her disappearance, still no arrest, no charges against Josh Powell. It actually takes facts and proof to remove a child from their parent to keep them out of the home. The guides on visitation shows the number one preferred location is at a parent's home.That's why transition to a home occurs. The goal in these type of cases is always family reunification. I'm going to submit to you that Mister Powell is the sole cause of the murder of his sons. It was not due to any negligence by the state of Washington. It was Mister Powell who did this.The truth of the fact of the matter is they're the only ones who could have protected the children at that point. They're the ones with responsibility. Has the jury reached the verdict, ma'am?All please rise. Please be seated. Has the jury reached a verdict, ma'am? It pleases the court we have. Was the state of Washington negligent?Answer yes.What do you find plaintiff? Charles Powell's total amount of damages? $57 million. $500,000. Braden Powell's total amount of damages $57,500,000.For eight years, the Cox family has been trying to find justice, and it took us a long time, and we took a long hiatus with the pandemic. Today, justice has been meted out. What I intend to do is use the award to try and help other people in that so that we can save more children. Jury members told ABC News they didn't believe any one individual at child Protective services was responsible for what happened. They blame a systematic failure for the tragedy.It just came down to this. You cannot have reunification, you know, as your goal at the expense of child safety. And, you know, a lot of change things. Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v.Wade. I mean, that's how things change. So 2020 reached out to several agencies in both states, and they declined to comment or refer to other departments. In the end, we were unable to get an answer to our questions. Could the actions of these agencies or their inactions have contributed to the murders of Braden and Charlie Powell?It should have never have gotten to the point where you had Josh getting his kids into that house and blowing it up.Josh's actions are definitely an admission of guilt. She's going to divorce him. If he can't have her, nobody will. So he kidnaps Susan and most likely murders her and disposes of her body where? Nobody knows.I know there are 10,000 abandoned mines in Utah. That's a lot of places where you can dump a body.We do begin tonight with the search happening hundreds of feet down, deep inside of a mine in Utah's west desert. The search for Susan Powell's body continues. Emily, what happened to Susan Powell is still unknown, and her family never got closure. But now a crew is searching a mineshaft in the west desert. Dave and I, since we were kids, we've been out exploring this sort of stuff since a long time ago.But every once in a while, we get a really cool opportunity to, you know, get involved in the missing person case, like this one with Susan Powell. I was very fascinated with the idea of maybe helping find Susan. I've kind of just been following along ever since. And then we got a tip that there's a chance she's out here. The majority of our search, rescue, and recovery operations are all pro bono.We are not part of law enforcement. As a private entity and a volunteer search group, we can kind of just move faster. Early on in the excavation, roughly at about the 75 foot level, did just find a bone. Looks like a rib. We were more motivated to keep getting down in there, removing more and more material the likelihood is pretty low that we're gonna find something.But on the other hand, she's still out there somewhere. And Chuck kind of came over to me quietly, and he's like, hey, I know how to operate a radio. Do you need help down there? I said, chuck, do you really want to go down in this hole? And he said, absolutely.He went from a father who was looking for the body of his daughter to part of the search team. We're still at the point where it's like, are the bones animal or they're human? So we're excited to get the DNA test back. It's a blessing, and I'm just so thankful that they're doing it, and I'm just grateful that people are still looking for Susan. The testing shows the recovered bones were animal and not human.Sadly, for all those who love Susan, the search continues. My heart absolutely breaks for Chuck and Judy Cox. Think about what this couple has gone through. They lost their daughter, both of their grandbabies were horrifically butchered, and the only three people that could shed any light on this are dead.Her story will continue to live on and inspire others to move in the right direction, to move towards good relationships and get out of bad situations, abusive situations.The Washington Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision and reinstated the Cox civil award of $98 million. And Chuck Cox actually tells us that that money won will now help domestic violence survivors. That is our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David Muir.And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.

popular in February was disrupted because of Covid-19 please now give your attention to Mister Buck as he presents the plaintiff's final argument. It is out of the state's failure to live up to their own primary directive of assuring the safety of the children that this tragedy was born.What was the place that had the least protection? Josh Powell's home. What about the level of risk then the state learned of the. Of the boys statements. It learned of this incest images.It learned that he was going to have to undergo a psychosexual evaluation of polygraph. If the state had followed its policies, its guidelines, common sense investigated, had visitations where it was supposed to have them, none of this would have happened. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen of the jury. This will be the only and final time that you hear from the state in this matter. The state took this very serious.They did their job, they followed their policies. Yes, the fact that Susan Powell was missing was known. But after more than two years after her disappearance, still no arrest, no charges against Josh Powell. It actually takes facts and proof to remove a child from their parent to keep them out of the home. The guides on visitation shows the number one preferred location is at a parent's home.That's why transition to a home occurs. The goal in these type of cases is always family reunification. I'm going to submit to you that Mister Powell is the sole cause of the murder of his sons. It was not due to any negligence by the state of Washington. It was Mister Powell who did this.The truth of the fact of the matter is they're the only ones who could have protected the children at that point. They're the ones with responsibility. Has the jury reached the verdict, ma'am?All please rise. Please be seated. Has the jury reached a verdict, ma'am? It pleases the court we have. Was the state of Washington negligent?Answer yes.What do you find plaintiff? Charles Powell's total amount of damages? $57 million. $500,000. Braden Powell's total amount of damages $57,500,000.For eight years, the Cox family has been trying to find justice, and it took us a long time, and we took a long hiatus with the pandemic. Today, justice has been meted out. What I intend to do is use the award to try and help other people in that so that we can save more children. Jury members told ABC News they didn't believe any one individual at child Protective services was responsible for what happened. They blame a systematic failure for the tragedy.It just came down to this. You cannot have reunification, you know, as your goal at the expense of child safety. And, you know, a lot of change things. Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v.Wade. I mean, that's how things change. So 2020 reached out to several agencies in both states, and they declined to comment or refer to other departments. In the end, we were unable to get an answer to our questions. Could the actions of these agencies or their inactions have contributed to the murders of Braden and Charlie Powell?It should have never have gotten to the point where you had Josh getting his kids into that house and blowing it up.Josh's actions are definitely an admission of guilt. She's going to divorce him. If he can't have her, nobody will. So he kidnaps Susan and most likely murders her and disposes of her body where? Nobody knows.I know there are 10,000 abandoned mines in Utah. That's a lot of places where you can dump a body.We do begin tonight with the search happening hundreds of feet down, deep inside of a mine in Utah's west desert. The search for Susan Powell's body continues. Emily, what happened to Susan Powell is still unknown, and her family never got closure. But now a crew is searching a mineshaft in the west desert. Dave and I, since we were kids, we've been out exploring this sort of stuff since a long time ago.But every once in a while, we get a really cool opportunity to, you know, get involved in the missing person case, like this one with Susan Powell. I was very fascinated with the idea of maybe helping find Susan. I've kind of just been following along ever since. And then we got a tip that there's a chance she's out here. The majority of our search, rescue, and recovery operations are all pro bono.We are not part of law enforcement. As a private entity and a volunteer search group, we can kind of just move faster. Early on in the excavation, roughly at about the 75 foot level, did just find a bone. Looks like a rib. We were more motivated to keep getting down in there, removing more and more material the likelihood is pretty low that we're gonna find something.But on the other hand, she's still out there somewhere. And Chuck kind of came over to me quietly, and he's like, hey, I know how to operate a radio. Do you need help down there? I said, chuck, do you really want to go down in this hole? And he said, absolutely.He went from a father who was looking for the body of his daughter to part of the search team. We're still at the point where it's like, are the bones animal or they're human? So we're excited to get the DNA test back. It's a blessing, and I'm just so thankful that they're doing it, and I'm just grateful that people are still looking for Susan. The testing shows the recovered bones were animal and not human.Sadly, for all those who love Susan, the search continues. My heart absolutely breaks for Chuck and Judy Cox. Think about what this couple has gone through. They lost their daughter, both of their grandbabies were horrifically butchered, and the only three people that could shed any light on this are dead.Her story will continue to live on and inspire others to move in the right direction, to move towards good relationships and get out of bad situations, abusive situations.The Washington Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision and reinstated the Cox civil award of $98 million. And Chuck Cox actually tells us that that money won will now help domestic violence survivors. That is our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David Muir.And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.

in February was disrupted because of Covid-19 please now give your attention to Mister Buck as he presents the plaintiff's final argument. It is out of the state's failure to live up to their own primary directive of assuring the safety of the children that this tragedy was born.

What was the place that had the least protection? Josh Powell's home. What about the level of risk then the state learned of the. Of the boys statements. It learned of this incest images.

It learned that he was going to have to undergo a psychosexual evaluation of polygraph. If the state had followed its policies, its guidelines, common sense investigated, had visitations where it was supposed to have them, none of this would have happened. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen of the jury. This will be the only and final time that you hear from the state in this matter. The state took this very serious.

They did their job, they followed their policies. Yes, the fact that Susan Powell was missing was known. But after more than two years after her disappearance, still no arrest, no charges against Josh Powell. It actually takes facts and proof to remove a child from their parent to keep them out of the home. The guides on visitation shows the number one preferred location is at a parent's home.

That's why transition to a home occurs. The goal in these type of cases is always family reunification. I'm going to submit to you that Mister Powell is the sole cause of the murder of his sons. It was not due to any negligence by the state of Washington. It was Mister Powell who did this.

The truth of the fact of the matter is they're the only ones who could have protected the children at that point. They're the ones with responsibility. Has the jury reached the verdict, ma'am?

All please rise. Please be seated. Has the jury reached a verdict, ma'am? It pleases the court we have. Was the state of Washington negligent?

Answer yes.

What do you find plaintiff? Charles Powell's total amount of damages? $57 million. $500,000. Braden Powell's total amount of damages $57,500,000.

For eight years, the Cox family has been trying to find justice, and it took us a long time, and we took a long hiatus with the pandemic. Today, justice has been meted out. What I intend to do is use the award to try and help other people in that so that we can save more children. Jury members told ABC News they didn't believe any one individual at child Protective services was responsible for what happened. They blame a systematic failure for the tragedy.

It just came down to this. You cannot have reunification, you know, as your goal at the expense of child safety. And, you know, a lot of change things. Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v.

Wade. I mean, that's how things change. So 2020 reached out to several agencies in both states, and they declined to comment or refer to other departments. In the end, we were unable to get an answer to our questions. Could the actions of these agencies or their inactions have contributed to the murders of Braden and Charlie Powell?

It should have never have gotten to the point where you had Josh getting his kids into that house and blowing it up.

Josh's actions are definitely an admission of guilt. She's going to divorce him. If he can't have her, nobody will. So he kidnaps Susan and most likely murders her and disposes of her body where? Nobody knows.

I know there are 10,000 abandoned mines in Utah. That's a lot of places where you can dump a body.

We do begin tonight with the search happening hundreds of feet down, deep inside of a mine in Utah's west desert. The search for Susan Powell's body continues. Emily, what happened to Susan Powell is still unknown, and her family never got closure. But now a crew is searching a mineshaft in the west desert. Dave and I, since we were kids, we've been out exploring this sort of stuff since a long time ago.

But every once in a while, we get a really cool opportunity to, you know, get involved in the missing person case, like this one with Susan Powell. I was very fascinated with the idea of maybe helping find Susan. I've kind of just been following along ever since. And then we got a tip that there's a chance she's out here. The majority of our search, rescue, and recovery operations are all pro bono.

We are not part of law enforcement. As a private entity and a volunteer search group, we can kind of just move faster. Early on in the excavation, roughly at about the 75 foot level, did just find a bone. Looks like a rib. We were more motivated to keep getting down in there, removing more and more material the likelihood is pretty low that we're gonna find something.

But on the other hand, she's still out there somewhere. And Chuck kind of came over to me quietly, and he's like, hey, I know how to operate a radio. Do you need help down there? I said, chuck, do you really want to go down in this hole? And he said, absolutely.

He went from a father who was looking for the body of his daughter to part of the search team. We're still at the point where it's like, are the bones animal or they're human? So we're excited to get the DNA test back. It's a blessing, and I'm just so thankful that they're doing it, and I'm just grateful that people are still looking for Susan. The testing shows the recovered bones were animal and not human.

Sadly, for all those who love Susan, the search continues. My heart absolutely breaks for Chuck and Judy Cox. Think about what this couple has gone through. They lost their daughter, both of their grandbabies were horrifically butchered, and the only three people that could shed any light on this are dead.

Her story will continue to live on and inspire others to move in the right direction, to move towards good relationships and get out of bad situations, abusive situations.

The Washington Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision and reinstated the Cox civil award of $98 million. And Chuck Cox actually tells us that that money won will now help domestic violence survivors. That is our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David Muir.

And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.