The Polk County Sheriff’s office says Russel Overlin’s now charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his 81-year-old father and 71-year-old stepmother. Their bodies were found last week in a well on their rural Polk County homestead, and the 51-year-old Overlin’s been missing since then.

Authorities caught up with Overlin last night in a town called Miami, where Polk County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Neil Schultz says deputies went down to bring Overlin back to Iowa. They were down there shortly after he was taken into custody. Authorities were alerted Thursday afternoon that he’d been found and was under surveillance, and Overlin was arrested there about 7 Thursday night.

Up till now Overlin had been sought for questioning, wanted only as a material witness. But after he was found in Oklahoma, that changed to murder. "We arrived at the decision based on conversations with the (Polk) County Attorney’s Office," Neil says. "Everyone felt confident that we had enough evidence to substantiate the charges and we did file two two counts of first-degree murder."

Bail was set at $500,000 and Overlin will appear before a judge Friday evening or Saturday morning. They’ll advise him of the charges during his first court appearance, and a judge will decide if his bail will be lowered, raised or remain at the amount set. Schultz says law enforcement agencies put in many hours of work to solve this case.

"A lot of good investigative work, and we got a tip." He’s not saying what the tip was exactly and says the informant who helped wants to remain anonymous. Overlin was arrested at a motel in the town of about 13,000 people in northern Oklahoma, on Route-66 near the corners of Missouri and Kansas.