Idaho — William Paul Taylor, a former Pocatello police officer, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder Thursday in relation to the death of his parents last month.
Mary Jane Taylor, 77, and Paul Robert Taylor, 76, both of Nampa, were found dead on Sept. 14 at their house on the 1900 block of West Flamingo Avenue.
The next day, William Taylor was taken into custody as a person of interest and initially charged with failure to report a death.
According to an affidavit, Nampa police located the bodies of Mary Jane and Paul Robert Taylor after receiving a call on Sept. 14 from a family member who found what appeared to be a human body on the property on the 1900 block of West Flamingo Avenue.
The responding officer found “a human body in advanced stages of decomposing” in a shed on the property as well as “what appeared to be another body wrapped in a blue tarp.”
William Taylor was arrested in Oregon shortly after the bodies were discovered. According to court documents, William Taylor was arrested in Deschutes County for driving his parents’ truck with license plates stolen from another vehicle.
After officers took him into custody, William Taylor is alleged to have told officers that he had found his parents dead at their house and did not know what to do, so he took his parents’ truck.
Oregon law enforcement also said Taylor told them he tried to move his parents when he found them and that he was an alcoholic and had been on a bender.
According to text messages given to law enforcement by William Taylor’s daughter, William Taylor told her on Sept. 11, three days before the bodies were found, that he “injured his back today.” He later explained in a subsequent message that he had “lifted something too heavy the wrong way.”
On Sept. 15 detectives searched the property where the bodies were found and, according to the affidavit, found pools of blood in the master bedroom and in a room identified as William Taylor’s bedroom.
Inside the residence police also located a receipt from Fred Meyer dated for Sept. 11 that recorded the purchase of tape and wipes. Another receipt was found recording the purchase of cleaning products at another store in Nampa. At the store, detectives found surveillance video showing a man fitting William Taylor’s description purchasing the supplies.
William Taylor made his first appearance 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.