A 25-year-old model has been arrested in connection with the slaying of a 71-year-old psychiatrist who was found bludgeoned to death earlier this month.
Kelsey Turner was arrested by the FBI earlier this month in Stockton, California. She faces charges of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in the death of Thomas Burchard, news station KSBW reports.
Turner’s social media accounts describe her as a professional model. According to BuzzFeed, she had modeled for publications including Maxim and Playboy Italia.
Burchard, a psychiatrist at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in California, was found dead on March 7 in the trunk of a parked car in a desert area near Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported. An autopsy determined he had died of blunt force injury to the head. Local officials ruled his death a homicide.
The nature of Turner and Burchard’s relationship is not totally clear. A landlord in Salinas, California, told The Californian that Burchard had paid the $3,200-a-month rent at the home where Turner lived with her mother and children for a year. The landlord evicted Turner and her family in the fall of 2018 after Burchard stopped paying rent.
Turner’s mother, Samantha, told KSBW that Burchard had indeed paid the family’s rent for a year. She also said her daughter and the psychiatrist had known each other for years.
KSBW also interviewed Judy Earp, who was Burchard’s girlfriend for 17 years. Earp said she was aware of his relationship with Turner and knew that he had given money not only to Turner but to several other women over the years.
Earp said that Burchard had bought a ticket to Las Vegas on March 1 and said he would be back that Monday but never returned.
Turner’s father, Christopher Ingram, says his daughter is innocent and told The Californian he’s raising money for her legal defense.
“She’s a wonderful, loving mom and a good kid,” he said.