DSHS documents detail disturbing pornographic images found on Josh Powell's computer

Washington state authorities released nearly 1,000 pages of documents detailing the child custody case surrounding Josh Powell's children.

The documents obtained by FOX 13 on Friday through a public records request, include disturbing details about Powell and his children, Charlie and Braden, whom he killed in an explosion at his Puyallup, Wash., home on Feb. 5.

In a court-ordered psychological evaluation, it was revealed that West Valley City police found roughly 400 images of cartoon characters having sex, as well as "virtual" child porn involving incest and other sex acts.

"The cartoon images illustrated sexual themes involving well-known cartoon characters including: The Simpsons, The Flintstones, Jungle Book, Superman, Captain America, Cat Woman, Dennis the Menace, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rugrats, the Family Guy and Spongebob," the report said.

Others were "computer generated in a 3-D style," the psychologist wrote. They depicted incest between parents and children, as well as other sexual acts.

"While drawings may not be illegal, per se, they were very suggestive of a global approval of sex between an adult and a minor. The fact that such a collection of images from different sites were collected suggests a high degree of interest," the report said.

The computer images were found a computer seized in 2009 from Powell's West Valley City home, as police investigated the disappearance of his wife, Susan. Police shared the images late last year with Washington state child welfare authorities, expressing concern about the welfare of Charlie and Braden.

According to the documents, when the psychologist questioned Josh Powell about the images, he became defensive.

"There seems to be important aspects of Mr. Powell's life he is unwilling to discuss," the psychologist wrote.

Hours after Josh Powell killed his sons and himself on Feb. 5, West Valley Police Chief "Buzz" Nielsen spoke to FOX 13 about certain aspects of their still sealed case. Nielsen said the images were not enough to arrest Josh without ruining the criminal investigation into Susan's disappearance. But Nielsen gave Washington state law enforcement when he described as a "small portion" of their case against Powell to underscore the danger the boys were in.

"All that was initiated out of this case and as we came across that and we see those two boys and what was kind of happening there, we thought, 'Geez, we need to shift,' " he said.

In other documents, Josh Powell's children had begun making troubling comments. Charlie Powell's principal told child welfare workers he had threatened to kill a classmate. The boy had begun making anti-Mormon comments, claiming he did not have a brother because "the Mormons killed my brother and mom." Charlie allegedly had talked about killing a bear and burying it.

Child protective services caseworkers wrote that when school officials tried to talk to Josh about all of this, he never called back.

Powell initially lost custody of the two boys in September after an investigation of the Puyallup, Wash., home Josh and the two boys shared with Josh's father Steven Powell found inappropriate images and video of women and children. Steven was arrested on voyeurism and child pornography-related charges.

However, child welfare workers wrote that they did not believe Charlie and Braden had been exposed to any pornography in the house. The judge in the case had also signed off on an eventual "reunification" plan for Josh to regain custody of his children after he completed psychological evaluations and got a home for his children and himself.

A judge had ordered Josh Powell to undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation on Feb. 1, just days before he set fire to his Graham, Wash., house with the boys inside, killing all three.