Susan Powell Mystery: Police Search the Home of Missing Utah Mom's Husband and Father-in-Law

Aug. 25, 2011— -- Dozens of investigators and members of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department are searching the Washington state home of the husband and father-in-law of missing Utah mom Susan Powell, ABC News affiliate KOMO in Seattle reported today.

Investigators and forensic specialists were combing the Puyallup, Wash., home, which Powell's 35-year-old husband, Josh Powell, shares with his father, Steven Powell, and has been living with the couple's two young sons, Charlie and Braden.

Josh Powell and his father were being detained while investigators executed a search warrant, the Associated Press reported.

Susan Powell was last seen in her home in 2009, but hasn't been seen or heard from since. While her husband has not been arrested or charged in her disappearance, police said he continues to be considered a person of interest.

Josh Powell maintains that he had nothing to do with the 2009 disappearance of his "unstable" and "very sexual" wife.

"Everyone who knows me knows that I would never hurt her and I would never hurt my boys," Powell said in said in an interview with ABC News. "I would never hurt anyone."

Steven Powell, Susan Powell's father-in-law, told ABC News that he and his son's wife had a highly flirtatious relationship that Josh didn't know about. He alleged that his missing daughter-in-law would frequently make passes at him and that he had a relationship with her that was "a little beyond the pale."

"There was really a disconnect between the Susan who was a faithful, loving wife, and the Susan who was a very flirtatious, sexual being," Steven Powell told ABC News' "Good Morning America." "Father-in-law - daughter-in-law flirting with each other, maybe some sexual touching or whatever. And-- I enjoyed it, frankly. Susan was a joy to be around in so many ways, not just those ways."

Susan Powell, then 28, was last seen on Dec. 6, 2009, at the West Valley City, Utah, home she shared with her husband and their two young sons, Charlie, then 4, and Braden, then 2.

Josh Powell told authorities that he had been camping with the boys -- in the midst of a blizzard -- the night his wife vanished.

Powell described his missing wife as an erratic and depressive person who contemplated suicide at several points in her life and would leave the house barely dressed.

"She has walked out the front door in her underwear, starting walking down the street," Powell said. "And at the time when all this stuff was happening, it was mortifying to me. And I was trying to stop it. ... I've tried to protect her from doing things that I thought might embarrass her or our family, in that respect."