PUYALLUP, Wash., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- A Crime Stoppers group in Washington state bought cemetery plots near Josh Powell's grave to prevent his sons from being buried near him, officials said.
Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor, a member of the Crime Stoppers board, said he came up with the idea to buy the plots, The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., reported.
He said burying Powell near the children in Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup, Wash., "kind of struck me as not very acceptable."
"You murder your kids and then you get buried beside them," Pastor said. "That would just compound the evil of him murdering his two kids."
He said he and other Crime Stoppers board members had contributed the down payment.
The non-profit Crime Stoppers group posted a request for donations on its Web site.
Ed Troyer, the sheriff's spokesman, said he believed the purchase, with landscaping and memorial plaques, will total $4,000 to $5,000.
"This is a service to victims," Troyer said. "Our business is to fight crime, to make sure murder suspects are not honored."
Crime Stoppers said it would allow the family of Powell's missing wife, Susan Cox Powell, to use the plots however they choose, Troyer said.
Powell was a suspect in his wife, Susan's, disappearance from their home in West Valley City, Utah. He attacked his sons with a hatchet and exploded his house in a gas-fueled blaze, killing himself and the two boys on Feb. 5.
