'Extreme danger to the community:' Seattle man accused of violently beating mother and stepfather to death

WARNING: Some of the details of this story are graphic

SEATTLE -- Prosecutors say a 45-year-old man bludgeoned his mother and stepfather to death last week at a home in South Park.

Richard Parenteau is being held on $5 million bail because prosecutors believe he "poses an extreme danger to the community."

Police have civilly committed Parenteau twice in the last two years.

Prosecutors say Parenteau has a history of mental health problems and is a flight risk.

According to charging documents, someone called 9-1-1 to report a body in the Duwamish Waterway near 8th Avenue South and Portland Street. Seattle police officers found a man's body lying face down in a gravel embankment. Detectives said they found business cards nearby with the man's name, David Wells, on them.

Investigators then went to the man's home about five blocks away from the crime scene on S. Southern Street. According to court papers, the body of Richard's mother Linda Parenteau was found under the 1st Avenue Bridge -- less than half a mile from her husband's body.

The medical examiner determined Linda Parenteau suffocated to death -- she had also been hit multiple times in the head and neck.

The examiner said Wells died from a fractured skull and blunt force trauma to the head.