CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. (BCN) - A 33-year-old man was charged Friday with two counts of murder and the special circumstance of committing multiple murders for allegedly using a pipe wrench to beat his mother and stepfather to death inside a Castro Valley mobile home earlier this week.
Stephen Tyler Thompson of Castro Valley is charged in the deaths of his mother, 57-year-old Lori Thompson, and his stepfather, 46-year-old James Hamilton, at their residence at the Chetwood Crest Mobile Home Park at 3913 Castro Valley Blvd.
Alameda County sheriff's investigators said the murders occurred late Sunday night or early Monday morning.
Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said deputies found the victims' bodies at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday after a relative went to the mobile home to check on the couple and discovered what he described as "a gruesome crime scene."
Kelly said the relative called 911 because, "There was blood and gore and it appeared that something heinous had occurred inside."
Deputies found Hamilton's body in a bedroom and Lori Thompson's body in another room in the back of the small trailer, he said.
Deputies also found Stephen Thompson lying on a bed, possibly suffering from an overdose of drugs, according to Kelly.
Investigators don't know what the motive for the double-slaying is, he said.
Stephen Thompson, who has no criminal history, was treated at a hospital after the incident, was released on Thursday and is now being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail, Kelly said. He's expected to be arraigned Monday in Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward.
Sheriff's Deputy Anthony Moschetti wrote in a probable cause statement that investigators "located evidence and developed probable cause to believe Thompson was responsible for the deaths of the two victims."
Moschetti said when investigators interviewed Thompson he waived his right to an attorney and "admitted that he was responsible for the victims' deaths."
Lori Thompson and Hamilton were in a domestic partnership for 20 years and it appears that Stephen Thompson lived with them most of the time, although he went back and forth to another place, Kelly said.
Stephen Thompson had a job working for a relative in the restaurant business, Kelly said.