Richard and Teresa Kim were accomplished people and ideal parents, friends say, but they apparently had reached the end of their rope with their 18-year-old son, Bryan.

Investigators allege in court documents that shortly after his parents told him he had to move out, Bryan killed them, dumped their bodies in the bucket of a small tractor, then picked up his girlfriend on Wednesday morning and headed to school.

Bryan Kim was arrested later that day for investigation of two counts of second-degree murder. On Thursday, he appeared in Spokane County District Court, where his bail was set at $1 million.

Bryan, who sang in the school choir and was described by teachers as intelligent, had been diagnosed as bipolar and had become increasingly violent toward his parents, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported.

Autopsies determined his father died of multiple stab wounds and his mother had been strangled. Their bodies were found Wednesday in the bucket of a small tractor on the family property near Mount Spokane, north of the city. Inside the home, pools of blood remained in the foyer, court documents said.

Investigators allege Bryan left his home Wednesday morning, picked up his girlfriend to take her to school, withdrew $1,000 from his father's bank account and then went to class at Mount Spokane High School, where he was arrested.

"His parents were probably the nicest people I've ever met," said Jared Munson, who stayed with the family earlier this year while in Spokane for a high-school leadership camp. The Auburn High School student also described them as "warm."

Spokane County sheriff's investigators said Kim told a girlfriend Wednesday that he and his parents had argued over his use of the Internet the night before and that they had left the house for a walk and never returned.

The boy's sister told detectives that their parents had just told him he would have to move out of the house by the first of the year, according to court documents.

Richard Kim was a respiratory specialist at Apria Health Services. Teresa Kim was a math teacher at Rogers High School. When she failed to show up for work Wednesday, sheriff's deputies were asked to make a welfare check.




Detectives told District Court Judge Richard White that Bryan Kim had arrests for assault, kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment dating back to August 2002. His parents were listed as the victims in each of the cases.

The teen was described in favorable terms at his high school.

"He's very intelligent," said Assistant Principal Brenda Goehring. "He was always very polite and a nice kid. No disciplinary problems that I'm aware of."

Friends and colleagues of the Kims were in disbelief .

"Both Richard and Terri were great; everybody here knew them. You couldn't ask for better people," said Kahl Buhl, the branch manager of Apria Healthcare.

At Rogers, Principal Carole Meyer issued a statement calling Teresa Kim an "essential part of the Rogers community" and a passionate teacher.