Social workers saw no hints that Josh Powell would kill kids

State social workers say there were no obvious signs of trouble before Josh Powell killed his two children and then himself inside his home in Graham.

They report that Powell gave no indication, during previous visits, that he would harm his children.

“We’re still looking into all of this but as far as I know, the visits have gone well,” said Sharon Gilbert, deputy director for field operations in the Children’s Administration. “There haven’t been any concerns around the visits.”

Had there been any indication that Powell might harm his children, Gilbert says they would have taken precautions.

“There are times when we have had law enforcement standing by in our visits, we sometimes have our visits taking place in the office,” said Gilbert.

Sherry Hill, a spokeswoman for Children’s Administration at the Department of Social and Health Services, says the contracted visitation worker apparently did everything right as she escorted Powell’s children to the court-ordered visitation.

Listen to Sherri Hill’s interview

“(She) knew the children, did exactly as she should have done and I think that in hindsight, it’s difficult to speculate what could have been done differently,” said Gildbert.

Investigators say the social worker walked the children to the front door. Powell pulled the children inside and then locked the front door in the social worker’s face before the house erupted in flames.

Gilbert says a child fatality review will examine what led up to the fatal events Sunday in Graham.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports at least a few of the supervised visits did happen in the social worker’s offices, up until Nov. 2.