By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-22 06:21:29 | Updated at 2024-11-24 06:13:21
2 days ago
Alleged killer Corey Burke was supported by her wife during her first court appearance for the murder of her ailing father on Election Night.
Burke, 33, appeared calm as she entered a not guilty plea during her arraignment on Thursday in King County Superior Court. She is accused of killing her 67-year-old father Timothy Burke with an ice axe after he refused to turn the lights off on November 6 in Seattle.
Her wife, prominent trans writer Samantha Leigh Allen, attended the hearing and was pictured laughing with friends.
Allen tried to hide her face with a notebook during the court proceedings.
The couple did not seem to acknowledge each other, as the court was divided by glass, with the public gallery listening via speakers.
Burke, an employee at Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space company, was arrested for murder on Election Night after her neighbor called police and reported she had been smashing all of the windows of the home she shared with her father.
It's unclear if Burke and Allen lived together, but neighbors told DailyMail.com on Thursday that they had never seen Allen at the home.
A blood-soaked Burke came outside with her hands raised and a frantic demeanor, per charging documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
Burke, 33, appeared calm as she entered a not guilty plea during her arraignment on Thursday in King County Superior Court in Seattle
Her wife, prominent trans writer Samantha Leigh Allen, attended the hearing and was pictured laughing with friends
Conde Nast editor Samantha Leigh Allen is seen in Seattle court on Wednesday before her wife, accused killer Burke, pleaded not guilty to her father's killing
She reportedly told detectives that 'she knew that she could not convince her father to keep the lights off', so went upstairs and retrieved the murder weapon, a climbing ice axe.
She then tripped her father and strangled him before attacking him with the ice axe.
Burke then bit him and hit him several times in the head and side with the blunt and sharp ends of the ice axe, cops say. His body was found in the basement.
Burke claimed she knew the killing 'needed to happen today,' according to a police report.
She allegedly told police she had to bite her father while choking him because 'he was too strong.' Burke added that she felt better once her father 'went limp.'
Burke also told police that as her father labored to breathe after the attack, 'the defendant sat next to him until he stopped breathing.'
Investigators say Burke came out of the Rainier Valley home with a bloody face and appeared to be having a mental health crisis.
Burke had apparently smashed several windows and later told police she did so in an 'act of liberation' after she killed her father. She had reportedly been 'clapping inside her home' when cops arrived.
The day after the murder she reportedly whispered to one police officer, 'I killed him.'
Burke added that she had a strained relationship with her father and said she had been 'overwhelmed' on election day.
Allen tried to hide her face with a notebook during the court proceedings
The couple did not seem to acknowledge each other, as the court was divided by glass, with the public gallery listening via speakers
Burke's $800,000 home is pictured. Police say she shattered the windows in an 'act of liberation' after killing her father
She added that she wanted to help people 'change their attachment to their parents.'
According to police documents, Burke allegedly described how she killed her father, saying 'it was really hard, really fu****g hard' and claimed there were points where 'she felt she wasn't going to be able to'.
Burke was charged with first-degree murder on Friday and is being held on $2million bail.
She is due in court on November 21.
Neighbors told police the father and daughter lived in the home together, and that Timothy was mostly home-bound because of health issues.
She purchased the home she shared with her father in 2023.
Burke had a high-flying job with Jeff Bezos' space exploration company Blue Origin. The company is yet to comment on the allegations against her. Her wife, Samantha Leigh Allen, has enjoyed a glittering career as a Conde Nast editor.
The Blue Origin employee allegedly killed her father during a mental health crisis
The alleged killer and her wife, trans author Samantha Leigh Allen
The couple is seen above in a promotional image for the 2014 documentary Inside her Sex
In her best-selling book, Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States, Allen writes about how the couple struggled to deal with the 2016 presidential election.
The couple was also featured in the 2014 documentary Inside her Sex, which explores 'female sexuality and shame through the eyes and experiences of three women from different walks of life.'
The two shared Allen's gender-transition journey, which saw them raise thousands of dollars in donations for her sex-reassignment surgery and drive from Atlanta to San Francisco for the procedure.
