A space rocket program manager attacked her father with an ice ax and hacked him to death on election night after a breakdown triggered by President-elect Donald Trump's landslide win, according to police, who found her smiling and clapping, all covered in blood.
Corey Burke reportedly saw the violent incident — in which she allegedly strangled, bit, and struck her 67-year-old father in the $800,000 Seattle home they shared — as an "act of liberation," according to charging documents. Burke, 33, works as a training program manager at Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' aerospace company, as per her LinkedIn profile, and is married to well-known transgender author Samantha Leigh Allen, public records reveal.
Butchered to Death
Allen, is known for her book Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States and is an editor for Them, a Condé Nast publication covering transgender news. Burke allegedly told police the killing was intended to "help people change their attachment to their parents" and "had to happen today," as mentioned in court documents.
Burke had reportedly been upset over the election results and was convinced that Trump would win against Vice President Kamala Harris, allegedly reached a breaking point when her father, Timothy Burke, declined to turn off the lights.
Police said that Burke then went upstairs to retrieve an ice ax, tripped her father, choked and bit him while he lay on the floor, and struck him multiple times with both the sharp and blunt ends of the ax.
She then reportedly sat by her father as he died and shattered every window in the house, describing it as "an act of liberation."
When officers reached the scene, they found Burke "clapping ... because she was so happy," according to police statements.
Dangerous Mindset
According to her LinkedIn profile, Burke has been with Blue Origin for around five years and shared a home with her father in south Seattle.
Burke reportedly told police she had a difficult relationship with her father, lacking clear "boundaries," which left her feeling "hyperfocused and disorganized." She said that Trump's election win "overwhelmed" her, pushing their strained relationship to a breaking point.
When police arrived, Burke left the home with her hands raised, her face smeared with blood, claiming she didn't know where the blood came from or who had broken the windows.
Later, she recalled the disagreement with her father over the lights and quietly admitted, "I killed him," to one of the officers, as per the charging documents.
Burke faces a first-degree murder charge and is being held on $2 million bail.
