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 in King County Superior Court on Thursday. She is accused of killing her 67-year-old father Timothy Burke with an ice ax after he refused to turn off the lights in Seattle on November 6.
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 appear to acknowledge each other as the court was divided by glass and the public gallery listened through loudspeakers.
Burke, an employee of Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, was arrested on election night for murder after her neighbor called police and reported that she had smashed all the windows of the home she shared with her father.
It is unclear whether Burke and Allen lived together, but neighbors told DailyMail.com on Thursday that they had never seen Allen in the house.
A blood-soaked Burke emerged with her hands up and a panicked demeanor, according to charging documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
Burke, 33, appeared calm as she entered a not guilty plea during her arraignment 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 court in Seattle on Wednesday before her wife, accused killer Burke, pleaded not guilty to her father’s murder
She reportedly told detectives that “she knew she couldn’t convince her father to keep the lights off,” so she went upstairs and grabbed 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 on the head and side with the blunt and sharp ends of the ice axe, police say. His body was found in the basement.
Burke claimed she knew the murder “had to happen today,” according to a police report.
She allegedly told police she had to bite her father as she strangled him because “he was too strong.” Burke added that she felt better when her father “went soft.”
Burke also told police that while her father struggled to breathe after the attack, “the defendant sat next to him until he stopped breathing.”
Investigators say Burke emerged from the Rainier Valley home with a bloodied face and appeared to be having a mental health crisis.
Burke apparently smashed several windows and later told police she did so in an “act of liberation” after killing her father. She was reportedly ‘clapping in her house’ when police arrived.
The day after the murder, she allegedly whispered to a police officer: “I killed him.”
Burke added that she had a strained relationship with her father and said she was “overwhelmed” on Election Day.
Allen tried to hide her face with a notebook during the court proceedings
The couple did not appear to acknowledge each other as the court was divided by glass and the public gallery listened through loudspeakers
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 fucking hard” and claiming there were points where “she felt like she couldn’t do that.”
Burke was charged Friday with first-degree murder and is being held on $2 million bond.
She is scheduled to appear in court on November 21.
Neighbors told police that father and daughter lived in the house together and that Timothy was largely homebound due to health problems.
In 2023, she bought the house she shared with her father.
Burke had a job at Jeff Bezos’ space exploration company Blue Origin. The company has not yet responded to the allegations against her. Her wife, Samantha Leigh Allen, has had a stellar career as editor of Conde Nast.
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 bestselling book Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States, Allen writes about how the couple struggled 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, raising thousands of dollars in donations for her gender reassignment surgery and driving from Atlanta to San Francisco for the procedure.