A woman in Seattle is accused of murdering her father with an 'ice axe' and then eerily clapping about her actions as police drove up
A Seattle woman who worked for Jeff Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin is accused of 'clapping with happiness' after hacking her father to death with an 'ice axe on election night.'
Corey Burke, the 33-year-old wife of prominent trans writer Samantha Leigh Allen, was arrested for killing her father with an ice axe over an argument about shutting off the lights on election night. Descending the stairs in their shared $800,000 home, Burke reportedly tripped her father, bit and strangled him, and then slammed him with the ice axe.
A report from the Seattle Police Department reported by The U.S. Sun also alleges officers "heard loud clapping from inside the house" when they came to perform a wellness check after neighbors called, hearing Burke breaking windows from inside the house.
When police searched the home they found her father’s body in the basement with extensive injuries, including wounds to his head and torso, 2-inch lacerations to his rib cage and a puncture near the base of his skull, according to the King County medical examiner’s report.
A bloody silver-and-blue ice climbing axe was also recovered. As police arrived, they reported that "Burke then came out of the home with blood on her face and told police she was clapping because she 'was happy.'"
Burke told police she was in a highly emotional state due to the presidential election, and felt that there was "something important" about Election Day, according to the Seattle Times. "Corey stated (when) her father started arguing with her, about the lights being shut off, that she 'just freaked out,'" Seattle Detective Azrielle Brikey wrote in a report.
"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.
When police first arrived, Burke apparently told them that no one else was home and refused them entry. At that point, Burke was acting erratically, claiming "she was sick, that she had not eaten, and that her mouth was dry," according to the documents. She also tried to walk off at one point and say she needed to 'go to the hospital.'
As police transported her away from the scene in an ambulance, they learned from neighbors that the father, Timothy, was living in the Rainier Valley home and had a number of health issues. They insisted on entering for a health check. They found Timothy face down, dead, having bled out from his wounds.
Burke was formally charged last Friday in King County Superior Court. Prosecutors have asked that the court set a $2 million bail for Burke, citing public safety concerns and flight risk concerns.