title town a stunning development not case of a utah woman who vanished more than two years ago. we covered this story at the time and a lot since husband josh powell claims his wife disappeared during a camping truck and took his two young sons in below freezing temperatures after midnight and police never found her body. police say he killed himself and their two sons yesterday, set the house on fire during what was supposed to be a supervised visit with social services. what's in there? >>shepard: there were people in there. josh powell and those precious children died in that massive fire at home in washington state. officials say a social worker was bringing the kids over for a visit which was allowed by law when the dad blocked the social work freeway getting into the house. >> she got locked out tried to get in and pounded on the car and called 9-1-1 and her boss but it was too late. when the flames died down, this is all that was left. his lawyers say he got a three-word e-mail saying "i'm sorry, goodbye." you will recall he was the primary "person of interest" in the wife's disappearance in 2009 but had repeatedly denied he had anything to do with it. and days ago he lost custody of his children to his wife's parents. and now there is word the children recently started remembering things about the night their mom went missing. a lawyer for the grandparents says the oldest boy talked about that when they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk, mom and dad got out the car and mom disappeared said one child. we may never know exactly what happened to susan pow women but police say there is little doubt her two sons died at the hands of their mother. the story for us from graham, washington. what is happening at scene? >>reporter: autopsies are underway in the medical examiner hopes to answer the question how the children died, and on the scene we have arson investigators combing through the ans and trying to answer questions how did josh powell blow up the house so fast. another news conference in a couple of hours. three minutes after the 9-1-1 call yesterday, it was fully engulfed in flames and firefighterred had no chance to get in. this happened four days after a judge told josh powell he would not regain today of his young boys until he passed an examination and a polygraph different. >> it came down 2002 things he knew the police were really close and i think he was afraid of the polygraph. i don't think he was going to be asked the questions he was afraid of and he saw an opportunity to hurt a whole lot of people at the time that he ended it for himself so he took the boys with him. >>reporter: this was supposed to be "supervised visit," and the case worker has been here before and been in that house and never reported any problems with josh powell not past. she did everything she could, police say. >>shepard: is it positive build that these left some indication of where his wife's body might be? what does it do for the investigation? >>reporter: that is what police are trying to learn now, what happened to susan powell. we know a team investigators from utah or on the ground and will meet with the local cops and having a news conference in a couple of hours but this is an open and ongoing investigation and the utah in us would not respond to a rumor that arrest was imminent. his father has also been the subject of this investigation. he was in jail right now, on child porn charges. we are told he is on suicide watch and we may be able to answer his fate only if he can talk because, agains he is a subject of investigation along with josh who cannot talk now. >>shepard: thank you from the scene. man alive, just awful. the attorney whoent ares her parents during the investigation trying to get this yesterday up and find out what happened to her. nice to see you. thank you for, here under horrible circumstances. the children were talking and i guess you knew about this, right? >>guest: i did. what i knew was, and i was not the lawyer in the family law case, who heard about the trunk and the other things from the kid but it was heard that the kids say mommy is in a mine. they said things like, if you find the mine, you find mommy. so they were opening up, now that they are away from their dad, and in the custody of the grandparents. >>shepard: the grandparents had custody and they were going to stop the supervised visits is my understanding, right? >>guest: exactly. and here is the thing. as we look at this. you talk about supervised visits you can have neutral place, a secure place, somebody that is a security person where this can't not happen. the fact is, they were being quiet and the judge said do not talk about anything with the kids, just keep a low profile so they were doing everything right to keep the kids safe and to keep them in their home. and you see the horrible tragedy and to see this inferno with the kids run dog their dad that they loved and being set on fire it is more than anybody could take. any of us in the family, it is just unthinkable. >>shepard: it is my understanding the social worker is walking into that house and the kids, two kids, are calling in front of her; that how this happened and they, the kids went there you the door and he slammed and locked the door, right? >>guest: that is right. i got a call about it from a reporter in salt lake city and i called the grandfather and he talked to people there and called me back and confirmed it. i could, it was too surreal i could not believe it. >>shepard: i mean, those grandparents ... i hope somebody is with them. >>guest: they are with family. they are in isolation and they need time. they need privacy. and they neat prayers. >>shepard: i hope they get them all. thank you,anne. sadly the neighbors were alonging on when it went up if flames but they didn't know what was going on and did not have a way do know that kids had run this there and dad set the house on fire and they are watching a house burn and they don't know there are three people in there. mary was there yesterday and she is joining us from washington state. anyone has a fire on their secret everyone is going to come and look at it, right? >>guest: yes. it was, everybody was out there. >>shepard: all the neighbors? >>guest: yes. >>shepard: tell me what you saw and what you guys knew, and when? >>guest: well, we were getting ready for our super bowl party and we had, we were running, you know, we heard the "boom," and we --. it >>shepard: it was an explosion? >>guest: yes. we ran outside. and we ran outside. and you see this big black smoke coming up in the air and i run inside and grab my camera and my video camera, ran down there and it is only like a minute walk, and it was just surreal and my first reaction is, i hope nobody was in there. and then my second reaction, my son's school is right here, you know, the neighborhood kids and i was hoping nobody's kids were in there and we her it was something else, maybe it was drug related or whatever, and we decided maybe it was just because of that. then we found out an hour later what it was. >>shepard: did you know of the story of this family and the missing mom? did you know about the family or not? >>guest: yes. steven powell lives a mile and a half from here, the ribbons that were lining the streets were right down the road from us, and, so, it was close to our community and ... >>shepard: i cannot imagine whatever happened to this mom, we don't know yet, maybe we will find out, we will talk to the lawyers in a minute but to think that everybody talks how the kids just worshiped that man. and that he would not only kill himself but bring his children in the house, it's just ... you cannot imagine how anyone could do that. >>guest: unthinkable. >>shepard: unbelievable. >>guest: very unthinkable. >>shepard: so many questions left to answer for this family. and think of the grandparents. taking it to our legal panel, you know, we report on awful stuff, but when you think what this man did, it is just ... one thing ... how do you find out what happened to the wife, now? this is this other guy who is under investigation and i guess they got to get him to talk. can the prosecution offer a deal or something to try to put this thing together? >>randy: now they is access, maybe, to some of his computers and the personal possessions that maybe will lend clues to what happened to his missing wife. it could literally render you speechless as a defense lawyer but i will tell you one thing that pops into my mine think about something to say that would make sense in the face of all of this. what does it speak to a "person of interest" to we simply had looked up josh powell two years ago the trial would have been over now, the chip would have fallen where they fell. he would be convicted or acquitted but you leave him out because you are afraid, i don't know of what? maybe this whole notion of "person of interest", imagine if he killed himself because he didn't do anything wrong and he could not stand the thought of what was happen increasing remember, he lost his kids not because of something he did but because of his dad. the man's world is crumbling. >> if he is deemed a "person of interest" and do not want to arrest or prosecute him there is not enough evidence. >>shepard: if they have children saying mommy is in the from orange they have not enough keep him away from the children, don't snow >>randy: now, though, we don't know when it developed. >>shepard: it developed prior to him blowing his children up. whenever it developed why isn't there is an agency that can go, children say mommy was in the trunk children must be taken away from daddy. that's it until we dealer up the mommy in the trunk stuff, they --. >>randy: unfortunately, if you prosecute and i have prosecuted and defended kids cases involving kids, kids are very impressionable and people speak, did mommy go into the trunk, yes, and this is a reason kids are presumed not to understand until they are 12. >>shepard: but it seems like you should check on it and do some checking and try to protect those children. we called associate services and i am sure there is a social services worker out there, i imagine being that poor woman at the door. the door closes and the house employees up and the children you have been protected --. >>randy: you will see a change those rules because you know she should not have let the kids go first but she did. >>shepard: and ... poor "her." i mean, whatever ... not always a very fund job. nice to see you both. more later. syria is slipping closer to civil war with enormous developments pertaining to our government. we closed our embassy. more ahead. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. the amazing alternative to raisins and cranberries with more fiber, less sugar, and a way better glycemic index. he's clearly enjoying one of the planet's most amazing superfruits. hey, keep it down mate, you'll wake the kids. plum amazins. new, from sunsweet. when the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first wee.. i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. >>shepard: the united states closed its embassy in syria today, pulled all the diplomats out of the country and there is government sponsored slaughter going on there. activists say syrian government forces killed at least 50 people today alone. after it rocked the city's homes with rockets and artillery. the shutdown of the embassy is the most dramatic incident of the syrian military problems there after russia and china vetoed a resolution against this. and the defense secretary hillary clinton called the veto as "travesty," people keep dying. the u.n. estimates well more than 5,400 people have been killed since many. most of them peaceful protesters rising up against four decades of assad's family dictatorship and syria shares borders with iraq, lebanon, and israel today, and it is also a major ally of iran. and our chief fox correspondent jonathan hunt is on it. how scientific is the, how scientific is the study of how bad the crackdown is and how significant, at the same time, is the closing of the u.s. embassy? >>jonathan: the closing of the embassy is a symbolic move by the united states, not a breaking of diplomatic relations. and that is important distinction. it is a suspension of the u.s. diplomatic presence in damascus, what the u.s. administration hopes is it sends another signal to the syrian people that the international community is on their side and as president obama said in an interview with nbc, before the announcement of the closing of the embassy, he hopes it sends a signal that president assad's days are numbered. listen. >> my sense is you are seeing more and more people inside of syria recognizing that they need to turn a chapter and the assad regime is feeling the noose tightening. this is not going to an matter if, but a matter of when. >>jonathan: the question of "when," is the big question here, obviously, because when is completely immeasurable and every day dozens if not hundreds are being murdered by the syrian security forts. >>shepard: and you wonder if the veto by the russians and chinese if that veto does not give assad a lift? than i read a headline over the weekend that says russia gives a green light to assad and many experts believe it does exactly that. listen. >> this emboldens him to continue the crackdown or deepen it; for the opposition it tells them, look, there is no diplomatic or military help that is coming here, so, really, the only path ahead is one of civil war. >>jonathan: that is the bottom line. there appears to be no stomach whatever under western nations for military intervention. so for now the syrian people remain on their own to they want get rid of assad they have to do it themselves. >>shepard: jonathan, thank you. judith miller is here, pulitzer prize winning journalist. we talk about diplomacy and we pulled out our dip makes and pulled the personnel. >>guest: when the president of the united states says that we are virtually ruling out outside mellary intervention, 48 hours after the u.n. security council has just -- vetoed a resolution denouncing assad for the vicious crackdown there are no openings and that is what the president is saying to assad, and if i were sitting in damascus, today, i would say i am home free, nothing bad is going to happen to me because i am killing between 5,000 syrian opposition people and up to 7,000 people. nothing will happen to me. this is the worst possible signal we could send right new. >>shepard: are there defectors from the military? are they really able to put up a fight? >>guest: they are seeking shelter in turkey and putting up a fight. but we have not had senior military people defect. we have had lower ranking people who don't know how to organize a counterinsurgency or an insubject answer like this, so, this is a very very difficult moment for syria. it should be a moment of intense shame. foreign secretary of britain called the u.n. a house of shame for its veto. it is understandable why the russians would want to, they sell $4 billion worth of weapons a year to the syrians and they have about $20 billion. >>shepard: the russians are selling the weapons that the president is murdering the people? >>guest: exactly. well done russia and iran because iran is sending in people to help them organize the repression, to help them monitor people through cyber skills. these are two very bad actors and nothing bad is happening to them, eithers because of their positions. >>shepard: got do move. judith, jonathan, thank you. the g.o.p. race for the presidential nomination is picking up speed four more states voting this week and we will have a preview. and a little bit later, you know we have to talk football. we got to do that. 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[ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. >>shepard: mitt romney walked away with a decisive victory in nevada and g.o.p. officials today released the final results from the nevada caucus and they say handwritten ballots helped add to the delay but mitt romney won 50 percent and newt gingrich barely holding on to second place and former massachusetts governor enjoying back-to-back wins after the strong first place finish in florida but it is not all rosy, really. according to a new poll from washington post/abc news poll not election were held today, and i know this, well, whatever, president obama would have a solid lead over mitt romney, 52 percent to 43 percent and the republican candidates have in time to rest. colorado among the handful of states holding g.o.p. contests this week. and now from denver in the mile high newsroom. all but one candidates are in colorado today. >> that is right. and that would be ron paul will she in minnesota but he did spend a fair amount of time in colorado last week, and begannered big crowds. today, newt gingrich is in golden, colorado, where he toned down his attack on romney saying he has rethought the whole campaign but, still, he attempted to narrow the frontrunner's lead. >> she not a bad person, per se, but he also is not a person who goes in this with force and will and fundamentally changes things. we are in a situation where we need to have fundamental change. >>reporter: meantime, governor romney is in grand junction talking to republican voters there and romney has the benefit of his established organization here, from the g.o.p. caucus win in 2008, additionally a number of endorsements from high from file republicans in the state, and, tonight, santorum and gingrich will participate in an energy summit here in colorado, the topic of discussion, domestic energy discussion. >>shepard: the results of the caucus are not binding? no but they usually don't change. the expectation is that there could be some low turn outs which is not a big problem but with fewer people to deal with, the campaigns do have additional challenges which become motivation getting the core to the site, political watchers point out state republicans, hour, are polarized. >> we have a lot of moderate whose have dominated the party but we also have a strong contingent of conservatives who especially can assert themselves in caucuses. >> now