The wife of a prominent Seattle transgender author allegedly butchered her father with an ice axe on Election Night in response to Donald Trump’s victory, referring to it as an “act of liberation.”
The alleged gruesome murder occurred shortly after it became clear on Election Night that Donald Trump had decisively beaten Kamala Harris. Upset by the results, 33-year-old Corey Burke, who also served as a training program manager at Jeff Bezos’ spacecraft company Blue Origin, allegedly then proceeded to murder her father, Timothy Burke. The altercation began over a disagreement about lighting in the house, and Corey allegedly responded by grabbing an ice axe from upstairs.
“Burke had been upset about the election and knew Trump would handily beat Vice President Kamala Harris when she allegedly snapped — apparently when her father, Timothy Burke, refused to turn off the lights,” reported the New York Post.
“She then went upstairs, grabbed an ice ‘pickax,’ tripped her father, choked and bit him on the floor, and struck him repeatedly with the blunt and sharp ends of the tool, police said,” the outlet added.
Corey Burke then reportedly sat down beside her father to watch him die before proceeding to smash all the windows in the house, later describing the moment to police as “an act of liberation,” according to charging documents, per the Post. Police said that when they arrived, Burke was “clapping … because she was so happy.”
Public records show Burke is married to prominent transgender author Samantha Leigh Allen, who wrote the acclaimed book Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States and serves as an editor at Them, a transgender news publication owned by Conde Nast. Burke had been living with her father in the Seattle house at the time of the alleged murder.
According to police, Burke admitted to have a strained relationship with her father, leaving her feeling “hyperfocused and disorganized.” The election of Trump reportedly “overwhelmed” her, which then inflamed the already existing tensions she had with her father, police said.
“When officers arrived, she came out of the house with her hands up and blood smeared on her face, but she said she didn’t have any idea where the blood came from or who had smashed the windows,” noted the New York Post.
