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Subscribe to RSSIn a “Dateline” report airing tonight at 10pm/9c, one of the 9-1-1 dispatchers who took the call from the social worker, breaks his silence in an exclusive interview with Keith Morrison. Viewers will also hear from Josh Powell in his last in-depth TV interview, emails from Susan Powell that were sent to her sister-in-law Jennifer Graves will be revealed, and there is new information about Josh’s final hours before blowing up his house, killing himself and two sons. The report also features interviews with Josh’s father Steve Powell, the children’s grandparents Charles and Judy Cox, Josh's sister and brother-in-law Jennifer and Kirk Graves, and Detective Ed Troyer.
In an exclusive interview with Dateline NBC, the 911 dispatcher who took the first call from the social worker outside of Josh Powell's home tells Keith Morrison, "it was horrible" to learn about the murder of Powell's two sons. The interview is part of a Dateline special airing Friday, Feb. 10, at 10pm/9c.
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Josh powell is a was a sick twisted bastard.He will burn in hell forever and god bless those babies at least we know they are at peace with their mother now and knowone can hurt them ever again. And damn the system that allowed him visitation at his home, I hope who ever the judge that made that choice realizes what he has done. And now they have found child porn on his laptop that they pulled from the burnt house, why was that not found sooner. This whole thing makes me sick, once again the courts have failed two precious angels.
i feel bad for the 911 operator. the only person responsible for the death of those two beautiful boys is josh powell. period.
No way you moron. thats what we always do push it off on someone else. That man and them two boys were tied up in "our" <----our that means you and me witch!! Our Justice system. Our Justice system drove them boys to his house and delivered them to their death, even tho he was prime suspect in the death of their mother!! No way woman we are as guilty as Powell for allowing our justice system to work to protect the guilty and condemn the victim!! In this case it/we aided and abetted the guilty!!! But dont you accept responsibility, lets pretend there was nothing that could be done to save those boys so you dont have to get off your ass!!
vince...you're the moron.
Sorry, but I read the transcript of the 911 call. The dispatcher was so arrogant and rude to the woman from Social Services. This was not a mistake, it didn't matter if he made a "connection" to the Josh Powell missing wife case or not, you just don't treat people this way.
To those that are blaming the dispatcher...unless you have done this job, you have no idea what you are talking about. He was not rude, he was not arrogant...he was asking questions to try to get a clear picture of what was happening. How in the world is a dispatcher supposed to send help if they don't know what kind of help is needed? Dispatchers have to know what they are sending officers into for the safety of the officers and for the safety of the citizens. Yes, it took him a while to figure it out....but we don't normally get calls from a third party supervising a visitation. It is usually two parents squabbling over a visitation. All of the follow up questions sound routine and he probably has a protocol he has to follow by asking those questions to do his job right. And just because he was on the phone for 7 or 8 minutes doesn't mean he didn't send the call to the dispatcher to be dispatched while he was still on the phone. My prayers go out to the dispatcher that he finds peace knowing that he did everything he could do. Josh Powell is the villian.
Yes, Josh Powell is the villain, but the dispatcher did not do a very good job. As for his questions, he was not asking all the appropriate questions. I kept just wanting to pull my hair out, listening to his so called relevant questions. This man was not aware of Josh Powell? Is he living under a rock? As a dispatcher it should not be a concern if it is a third party or two parents squabbling, she is reporting an incident, she is witnessing a situation and calling for assistance. Not sure where you manage a communications office, but your excuses for him don't hold water. It must be a very small town you dispatch for. I actually at one time had a supervisor over dispatch who dropped out of school in the 9th grade and some how became a supervisor, it wasn't because she was great at her job, but the cousin of a captain. Like she use to say- I need an officer out to the Liberry-- not library. Wow... scary
Hey Dispatch911,
No I do not manage a very small town. In fact I am forward thinking enough to know what Call Handling Protocols are. And his questions sound like they were based on call handling protocols. If you are a dispatcher, maybe you should look into it. I am not saying that the dispatcher in this case did a "wonderful" job on this call. Yes, he was slow in the beginning....yes he could have been asking more questions while she was trying to find the address, but I genuinely think he did not understand what her role was in the situation and that is why he asked so many questions in the beginning. I have been a supervisor long enough to know that dispatchers are human and what is evident to other people when they listen to the call "after the fact" is not always evident to the dispatcher taking taking the call trying to put the pieces together. It sounds like you have never done less than a stellar job on any call you have ever taken. I feel sorry for your dispatchers if you ever get a chance to supervise....oh and no, I don't have any relatives that are captains....I have 20 years of experience!
I live in canada and am going threw a divorce,hes a porn addict,he had been cheating with woman for 17 yrs,he was terribly mentally abusive to me and the kids,physically to the oldest and once to me.alcoholic ,suicidal 3 times that i know of,he smashed a pet bird on the concrete floor and has had guns out.I finally left after i found out he also likes to be with men.The courts do nothing,social services do nothing i was told its his personal business.I worry when ever they vist.He stopped all payments on everything to cause a forclosure and when i left he took a sledge hammer to the house hold items in front of the oldest (13 at the time ) he then burnt everything.Yet he plays the victim.I have no faith in any system !
It's not just his condecending tone that gets me. It's those eight minutes. I've got family members that'r EMT's and minutes DO matter! That's still a LOT of time. If you're gonna' eer, then error on the side of caution! It may sound harsh, but I think needs to be fired, at the very minimum; and shouldn't be working as a 9-1-1 operator again, anywhere......
this dispatcher is an idiot. first get the priority of the call. second get just the facts you need to send the right personnel to the the site. He should be fired for such a lame performance on his job. how can he sleep at night?
Minutes do matter....that is why the caller needs to know where they are! It took her over 2 minutes to give the dispatcher the address. It is a common misconception that dispatchers know where you are when you call on a cell phone...they don't!!! Oh they can find out....but it takes a call to the cell phone provider, and then a fax to the cell phone provider telling them what you need and then they have to get back to you...that can take 5 minutes or more!
I agree with Lou-1065988...this emergency dispatcher sould be fired....IMMEDIATELY!!! All she needed to do was get the address so that she could send the correct personnel (police and/or ambulance). She didn't need to get all the non-important information...she could have gotten that later. Yes the police need to know what kind of emergency it is and if there are any people with weapons and such....but come on.... the place was on fire!! I hope they can sleep at night knowing that they could have gotten emergency personnel there so much faster!! This is what causes people to say that these emergency dispatchers (some of them anyways) are a bunch of slackers. But this is just my humble opinion!!
jpenner, maybe you should read the entire article or watch the video before you comment. The dispatcher is a HE, not a she. And the house wasn't on fire when the social worker called in.
This story is full of so many hapless, hopelessly gullible and incompetent people it’s hard to know where to start.
For one thing, what caring mother and father would stand idly by while the prime suspect in the disappearance of their daughter takes their grandchildren into his home? They were afraid of getting in trouble, they say??? What fear did they have for their own grandchildren’s lives?
If the judge ordered supervised visits, could they not have been at the grandparent’s house?
This was a visit “supervised” by a social worker who couldn’t muster up enough emotion to even sound concerned when their father took in the boys and slammed the door, let alone defend them in any meaningful way. She starts by describing it to the 911 operator as, “weird”, then somehow neglects to tell him she smelled gasoline. Come on man!
Finally, the incompetent 911 operator badgers her for 7 minutes while doing absolutely nothing. (She stays very calm throughout of course). This 911 operator should be fired immediately for failing to even try to understand the situation, let alone recognize the danger involved. Why was he trying to get a description of this man???
It appears our society has raised up a generation of very apathetic, gullible, compliant and hapless people. Though they may be caring and well-meaning, they are ultimately incompetent people when it comes to dealing with the abnormalities of life. We should not entrust our safety to such individuals.
And please, don't make excuses for them! There are plenty of conscientious, proactive, trained and competent people out there to take over when abnormal people become suspicious or deadly. When this doesn’t happen, innocent people die - case in point, Virginia Tech in 2007.
Excuse me, please stop discussing this publicly, stop posting all the disturbing information, he was obviously a sick man and this only torments the families involved....EVERYONE stop it!!! Stop trying to boost your ratings by revealing and publicizing the dramatic and grueling details!!!
Its a complete break down from the very start. From the investigation, Courts, Judges, Children Services, Dispatcher , so on and so on. The people that paid the price were two small boys who walked into hell with the devil inside waiting for them.
I can't believe how backwards our system is, we should protect the criminal's rights first, then deliver the innocent to the slaughter!! Watch it burn, I think I smell gas?? I'm too stupid to live, I'll be a social worker, this is so wierd, he locked me out? what should I do? Why don't you have a "controlled envirement" for these supervised visits? Nah, they will be OK we trust Josh, not enough evidence to convict yet, but we're almost ready to arrest him. Roll the dice, the kids will be OK.
I blame the Lawyers who set up these visits with this guy, would they bring thier own kids to Josh's house for a "controlled birthday party"? I think NOT, but hey it's not thier kids so F-them.
the 911 operator was or should i say IS an arrogant dumbass!He should be terminated.Now he just wants FACETIME on Dateline.Powell,"1L or 2 l's,REALLY??
As a 911 operator, I was ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED with this dispatcher. He was not asking relevant questions based on the situation at hand, and the condescending manner of his responses to the social worker made me sick of my stomach. He wants to argue on how a person can supervise themselves is irrelevant. GET OFFICERS RESPONDING!!!! It is NOT his place to determine if this situation is life threatening or not. Being 18 years as a dispatcher does not help him. He does not have the appropriate training to address 911 calls, it seems to me. To the ignorant dispatcher -Try POWERPHONE training and anything else you can find to help you be better at your job, if not, quit your job and leave in shame, you worthless excuse for a dispatcher!!!! 8 minutes? you kidding me? It took you that long to dispatch this call? Are you that jaded or that comfortable in you job, every call should be considered a priority, PEOPLE are calling you for HELP!!!!Quit your job, better yet I hope your department fires you!!!
This case is truly heart wrenching! I feel that the blame lies with the Department of Children's Services! Once this monster had been relieved of custody pending investigation into his wife's disappearance and had been a person of interest...ALL his visits with his children should have been heavily supervised at a Children's Services Facility.
Also to blame is the forceful attack that has been launched aagainst government/public workers by the GOP that has managed to deeply slash most social and public services and even eliminated others.
These so-called "law makers" should be held accountable for allowing our communities to be lacking of vital services while they bend over backwards to cater to big oil and the rich lobbyists.
Whether the dispatcher did his job correctly or not needs to be looked at further. Yes, he could have done things differently and had done a much better job. Nothing would have changed the outcome though. Those poor children were doomed as soon as they walked through the door! No matter what anyone did...or how fast anyone could have gotten there, would have changed a thing. Josh Powell is the only person to put blame on here. Although the judge who ordered Josh to be able to have visitations in his own home needs to be fired! The dispatcher nor the woman that brought the children to see this monster knew at that moment what Josh was doing inside that home. Rest in peace little ones along with your mom.