LINCOLN -- The only son of James and Marian Soares of Warren was charged Sunday with bludgeoning his parents to death and throwing their bodies in a cesspool in the family’s back yard in what law enforcement officials called a callous and horrific crime.

State and local police recovered the bodies Saturday morning after the town’s public works department dug out the rear yard of a small ranch house at 14 Baltimore Avenue, a short, quiet street of modest homes off Child Street, in the Kickemuit neighborhood of Warren.

James Soares Jr., 24, who had lived with his parents appeared before a bail commissioner at the State Police barracks in Lincoln on two counts of homicide Sunday and was remanded without bail to the Adult Correctional Institutions pending a formal court appearance today.

In a press conference outside the barracks, Maj. Stephen O’Donnell alleged that James Jr. killed his his 60 year-old father and 53-old mother three weeks ago at the family home with a foot-long grub hoe, a heavy-duty hoe.

One end of the garden tool looks like sledge hammer, O’Donnell said, and police believe that part of the hoe was used in the slayings.

At the press conference, neither O’Donnell nor Warren police chief Thomas D. Gordon would discuss a motive for the killings.

A former neighbor of the Soares family, David Rasmussen, has said that there had said there had been tensions between parents and son.

“There was a certain amount of distrust Marian had with the kid and the kid’s friends,” said Rasmussen, who now lives in Glocester. Other neighbors said several young people, in addition to the son, lived with the James and Marian Soares.

A bearded Soares, appearing gaunt and drawn, cast his head down as he shuffled into a small office at the state police barracks and stood before bail commissioner Bernard Lemos.

Soares wore a navy blue tee shirt and baggy denim shorts that hung to his knees. He was shackled at the ankles by a pair of handcuffs and flanked by state police detectives during the brief proceedings.

Police said the murders occurred July 9, about a week before Marian Soares was missed at a family reunion and relatives called police.

Gordon, the Warren police chief, said inconsistencies in the information police received made them suspicious.

James A. Soares, Jr. was taken into custody at his home on Friday, according to O’Donnell. State Police Capt. Stephen Lynch, chief of detectives, said Soares has cooperated with the investigation.

But neither State nor local police would say what prompted them to look in the cesspool behind the small yellow house on Saturday morning.

On Saturday, O’Donnell said the State Police had taken a family member into custody, but would not elaborate.

Asked specifically about the whereabouts couple’s son, O’Donnell said on Saturday, “I’m not sure where the son is at this point.”