Days after a judge ruled against him in a child custody hearing, a father and his two young sons were killed on Sunday when police said he appeared to intentionally blow up a house with all three inside – a tragic ending to a bizarre case that began more than two years ago when his wife Susan went mysteriously missing in Utah.

A social worker brought the two boys to Josh Powell’s home in Graham, Washington for what was to be a supervised visit, and Powell let his sons inside – but then blocked the social worker from entering, the Graham fire and rescue chief, Gary Franz, said.

The social worker called her supervisors to report that she could smell gas, and moments later the home exploded.

On Sunday, the lawyer for Susan Powell’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, said the children had started talking to their grandparents about things they remembered from the night their mother vanished.

via >US father Josh Powell blows himself up with two young children | World news | guardian.co.uk.