Corey Burke, a Seattle woman married to a transgender writer, admitted to killing her father with an ice axe in an Election Night meltdown.
A so-called “power lesbian” has been charged with first-degree murder after killing her 67-year-old father, Timothy Burke, with an ice axe on Election Night.
The term “power lesbian” refers to a wealthy, influential lesbian with extensive social connections, often involved with similarly connected individuals.
The accused, 33-year-old Corey Burke, is a training manager at Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, Blue Origin. According to court documents, the incident began as an argument on Nov 5 in which her father reportedly refused to turn off the lights in her Seattle home, which she purchased in 2023. Burke told police that this disagreement led her to “freak out.”
According to court documents, the murder happened in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Prosecutors said Burke premeditated the killing of her father during an argument about turning off the household lights.
After emerging from the house with blood ‘dripping’ down her face, she confessed to police that she ‘freaked out,’ claiming there was ‘something important about Election Day.’
Burke reportedly told detectives that ‘she knew that she could not convince her 67-year-old father to keep the lights off’, so went upstairs and retrieved the murder weapon.
She then tripped her father, strangled him and bit him before attacking him with the ice axe.
She also admitted to striking him several times on the head and side with both the blunt and sharp ends of the axe, police said. A critical blow pierced Timothy Burke’s ribcage and entered his lung.
“The defendant told Detectives that she knew that she could not convince him to keep the lights off, so she went upstairs retrieved an ice axe and tripped her father, strangled him with the axe and her hands and then bit him and hit him several times in the head and side with the blunt and sharp ends of the ice axe,” a case summary by the prosecutor’s office read.
As Timothy Burke struggled to breathe, his daughter sat by him and watched him die.
Following the homicide, Burke purportedly broke several windows of the residence in what she later called an “act of liberation,” leading neighbors to contact police.
Officers observed behavior by Burke consistent with a mental health crisis. She was transported to Harborview Medical Center.
Police officers, upon learning an elderly man lived in the residence, entered the home to perform a welfare check. Inside, they discovered the body of Timothy Burke in the basement bedroom with obvious signs of trauma. An ice axe with bloodstains was found in the living room.
Given the severity of the charges and potential risks, prosecutors have requested the court maintain a $2 million bail for Burke, citing concerns over public safety and the potential for her to fail to appear in court.
Burke’s wife, Samantha Leigh Allen, is an editor at Conde Nast’s LGBTQ+ news outlet Them.
