Man accused of double murder in South Park ordered held without bail
SEATTLE -- A 45-year-old Seattle man who had been involuntarily committed to King County Mental Health several times in the past year and who is suspected of killing his mother and a man and disposing of their bodies in separate locations in the South Park area was ordered held with bail Monday.
The man was arrested Saturday.
Prosecutors asked that no bail be set because the suspect had been involuntarily committed to King County Mental Health "several times in the last year" and has made several documented threats to kill family, police and neighbors.
The crime was first uncovered when police were called early Saturday when a person walking near a small city park near the intersection of 8th Avenue South and South Portland Street along the Duwamish Waterway found the body of a man who had suffered severe blunt force trauma to his face and head. Police said they believed from the lack of blood at the scene that the man had been killed elsewhere and dropped there. They also found business cards of the victim, David Elmer Wells, 69, of Seattle, near the body and a blood trail leading a couple of blocks away.
Detectives later found the victim's business truck parked outside a home in the South Park neighborhood. While police were searching the home, another call came in of a female's body being found under the 1st Avenue South bridge. Detectives and officers familiar with the mother of the suspect identified her as the dead woman -- Linda Parenteau.
Inside the home, police said, officers found human blood, along with Wells' wallet, credit cards and checkbook.
Linda Parenteau's son, Richard Leo J. Parenteau, 45, was arrested Saturday night and booked into the King County Jail for investigation of two murders.