A 33-year-old program manager for Blue Origin, the private aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly killing her father on Election Night in Seattle.
Corey Burke, who worked in the training department for the space company, is accused of butchering her 67-year-old father, Timothy Burke, with an ice pickaxe in what police have described as a violent and disturbing rampage. The incident, which occurred in the home they shared, reportedly involved Burke strangling, biting, and striking her father multiple times with the tool, leaving him to die in a pool of blood.
According to charging documents, Burke was found by responding officers covered in her father’s blood, clapping and smiling in what she described as an “act of liberation.” She reportedly told police that the killing was intended to help people change their attachment to their parents, adding that it “had to happen today.”
Burke was allegedly upset by the outcome of the presidential election and a dispute with her father over the lights in their home, which she said contributed to her emotional breakdown. She claimed that Trump’s victory, which she predicted would cause Vice President Kamala Harris to lose, overwhelmed her and led to the fatal confrontation.
After the killing, Burke allegedly smashed all the windows in the house, calling it a further act of liberation. When police arrived, Burke came out of the house with her hands raised, blood smeared on her face, but claimed she did not know where the blood came from.
Burke, who is married to prominent transgender writer Samantha Leigh Allen, has been held on a $2 million bail after being charged with first-degree murder. She reportedly told officers, “I killed him,” after being questioned about the incident.
The case has shaken both the public and law enforcement, and police are continuing their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crime.
