Son charged with murder after parents found dead

NAMPA, Idaho – A former Idaho police officer has been charged with two counts of first degree murder in connection to the death of his parents, law enforcement authorities said in court documents.

William Paul Taylor, 48, was also charged Thursday with two counts of failure to notify of a death, the documents said.

Nampa police discovered the decomposing bodies of Paul Taylor, 78, and his wife Mary Jane Taylor, 77, hidden in a shed at the couple’s home in September.

Jane Taylor’s remains had been wrapped up in a tarp secured with duct tape after being stabbed 10 times in the beck and beaten with a blunt object. Meanwhile, autopsies showed that Paul Taylor had been beaten and strangled.

Police were tipped off after a family member found what appeared to be a human body on the property.

According to court documents, William Taylor was arrested in eastern Oregon shortly after the bodies were discovered. He was driving his parent’s truck and had switched the license plates with plates stolen off a vehicle in Portland, police said. Taylor allegedly told officers while in custody that he had found his parents dead at their house, panicked, so he decided to leave with his parent’s truck.

He also reportedly told officers he was heavily intoxicated and tried to move his parents’ bodies.

“I don’t think I should say anything else without a lawyer, or until I sober up,” he responded, according to court documents.

Police say Taylor served in the Nampa police reserve in 1990 and 1991, and then as a Pocatello police officer from 1991 to 1996.

Taylor appeared in 3rd District Court Thursday after being transferred to the Canyon County jail Wednesday night from Deschutes County jail in Oregon. His next hearing date is scheduled for Oct. 19.