00:00:04
[eerie music] PATROL OFFICER 1: You
want the passenger side? I got the driver's.
00:00:19
Watch crossfire, all right? Just in case. Don't see anybody around. Hey, right there.
00:00:31
PATROL OFFICER 2: What? PATROL OFFICER 1: I think
we got something else. PATROL OFFICER 2: OK.
00:00:35
PATROL OFFICER 1: Something
doesn't look right. BINU PALAL: Here in Las Vegas,
we get our own unique brand
00:00:40
of homicides. MITCHELL DOSCH: I've
never encountered somebody so cunning. KERRY DAYNES:
You've got a glamour
00:00:48
girl and a man in his 70s. PAMELA WECKERLY: I
think that things just got very, very out of hand.
00:00:55
- It was just disgusting. I mean, so evil. BINU PALAL: It
was a very hot and heavy relationship,
within a matter
00:01:02
of weeks turns into a murder. [theme music] [POLICE SIREN WAILING IN
DISTANCE] [phone rings]
00:01:44
BINU PALAL: On March 7,
2019, Metro gets a phone call from a person who was out,
a recreational vehicles
00:01:50
out in the desert. In this relatively
abandoned, deserted area, they find a blue Mercedes.
00:01:58
PATROL OFFICER 1:
But you saw the car? - Yeah. PATROL OFFICER 1:
And what did you guys do?
00:02:02
- We thought, we're like,
well, that's a pretty nice car. PATROL OFFICER 1: Nice car.
- Yeah.
00:02:04
PATROL OFFICER 1: Yeah. - And we looked
at it and it seemed like the windows were down.
I got out--
00:02:08
PATROL OFFICER 1:
Did you get out? - Yeah.
PATROL OFFICER 1: OK. - And I seen it.
I didn't touch it.
00:02:11
PATROL OFFICER 1: You
didn't touch the car? - I got a video of it. Do you want to see?
00:02:15
And I seen like
a rock, a big rock. And I was like, it has
to be like something--
00:02:18
PATROL OFFICER 1:
Something weird? - Yeah. - There's damage
to the vehicle, including one of the windows.
00:02:23
It was just
a conspicuously placed vehicle in a weird condition. PATROL OFFICER 1: But they
said 3 or 4 miles,
00:02:36
but it could be way back there. You know, I'll watch the road. You look for the area.
00:02:42
Oh, there it is. - And it took a little bit
of time for the patrol officers to locate the vehicle.
00:02:51
OFFICER ON RADIO:
That's affirmative. It's negative 1,
2017 Mercedes, blue. PATROL OFFICER 1: OK, we
don't know if it's occupied.
00:02:59
They got the front cleared. Really not a good
way to approach it, but let's try to approach
it from the back.
00:03:03
So we'll go down here and up
and around, all right? PATROL OFFICER 2: OK. - The vehicle was essentially
stuck on a dirt road.
00:03:09
PATROL OFFICER 1: You
want the passenger side? I got the driver's. Watch crossfire, all right?
00:03:16
Just in case. Don't see anybody around. Check the trunk. PATROL OFFICER 2: All good.
00:03:25
Good. PATROL OFFICER 1:
What you got in there? PATROL OFFICER 2: Clear. Nobody's in here.
00:03:30
PATROL OFFICER 1:
--23 it was clear. MITCHELL DOSCH: They were able
to reach through the window
00:03:36
and access the trunk. PATROL OFFICER 1: I don't
know where the button is. See if it's in the--
yeah, it's right there by.
00:03:42
You see that? Go ahead and pop it. MITCHELL DOSCH: It was filled
with bedding and towels.
00:03:50
PATROL OFFICER 2: Hey, I
think we got something else. Something doesn't look right.
00:03:56
PATROL OFFICER 1: All right.
PATROL OFFICER 2: Right there. PATROL OFFICER 1: What?
Yep.
00:03:58
Hang on, hang on,
hang on, hang on. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Calm down. Calm down, I smell something.
00:04:06
Hang on. I'm going to-- PATROL OFFICER 2: Yeah,
there's a body in here. PATROL OFFICER 1: That's
what I'm thinking.
00:04:13
PATROL OFFICER 2: Yeah, OK. MITCHELL DOSCH:
And then that's when the officers made the grisly
discovery of a human body.
00:04:20
PATROL OFFICER 1: Let's not
tromp around here anymore. It's a crime scene now. PATROL OFFICER 2:
All right, copy.
00:04:24
PATROL OFFICER 1: OK. We were just able
to access the trunk. It was a 10-54. PATROL OFFICER 2: I think they
might have wanted to take it
00:04:32
further in there to ditch it. And they got stuck,
and they're just like, this is where it's
going to get left at.
00:04:37
PAMELA WECKERLY: The fact
that the car was left abandoned in the desert
tells investigators
00:04:42
that whoever left the car
there is likely involved, or has some connection
to the homicide to begin with.
00:04:49
PATROL OFFICER 1: Obviously,
they didn't walk out of here, so there was another vehicle.
00:04:52
PATROL OFFICER 2: There was. PATROL OFFICER 1: Good thing
we checked the trunk, man.
00:04:56
PAMELA WECKERLY:
But if you're also willing to leave a car
in a desert area, that shows you're pretty
desperate to get out of town.
00:05:06
MITCHELL DOSCH:
The primary focus that night was to get
the body out of the vehicle
00:05:11
and do what we could
to identify it. The vehicle was towed
to the Las Vegas Metropolitan
00:05:18
Police Department crime lab. The body was extracted
from the trunk. And in one of the pockets,
with a credit
00:05:27
card or debit card that had
his name, Thomas Burchard. BINU PALAL: What was
most unique about this
00:05:37
was that the person
in the trunk was not the typical
victim that we run across, those associated with gambling,
gambling debts, or those
00:05:46
associated with the casinos. Instead, it was
a psychiatrist from California and a pretty well-renowned
psychiatrist,
00:05:54
Dr. Thomas Burchard. [eerie music] PAMELA WECKERLY: Thomas
Burchard lived in Monterey.
00:06:08
It's one of the most expensive
places to live in California. And by all accounts,
he was very successful.
00:06:16
MITCHELL DOSCH:
And very quickly, we found out that he had been
reported missing by a woman
00:06:22
by the name of Judy Earp. [ominous music] JUDY EARP: One
of the reasons that I knew something was
seriously wrong
00:06:30
when Tom did not
come home is I knew he had patients scheduled the
next day and the whole week.
00:06:38
And all of the nearly 20
years that I knew him, he only missed work twice. I was extremely worried
for his well-being.
00:07:00
Tom and I met
in the early 2000s. I was in the middle
of a divorce and Tom had just
finalized his divorce.
00:07:12
And we got together. He was primarily
a children's psychiatrist, and he had been practicing
there for over 40 years.
00:07:23
He just had a very
friendly personality that people could relate to. And he was very
well-known and well-liked
00:07:31
in the Monterey community. [eerie music] BINU PALAL: Dr. Burchard
didn't have any known enemies.
00:07:46
He wasn't associated
with any mobs or gangs. He didn't have any of those
things you typically
00:07:51
find in somebody that
ends up in the trunk of a vehicle in the desert
here in Las Vegas.
00:07:57
- The vehicle contained
a tremendous amount of evidence in addition to Thomas
Burchard's body.
00:08:04
There was bedding. There were bath towels. There were nitrile gloves. Some of those nitrile gloves
had apparent blood on them.
00:08:14
And there was a baseball
bat that was also recovered from the trunk area. There was also
apparent blood stains
00:08:22
inside the cab of the vehicle. That was indicative
that there was violence or violence had
occurred to Mr. Burchard there.
00:08:31
BINU PALAL: So I've
seen a lot of autopsies, and this one was
particularly brutal.
00:08:35
The amount of lacerations
on Dr. Burchard was something you don't
typically see in a murder.
00:08:43
- Mr. Burchard
primarily had injuries which were blunt force
trauma and sharp force trauma
00:08:49
to his head and neck area. BINU PALAL: So obviously,
the next steps are finding out how
did he end up killed,
00:08:58
dead in the back of the trunk. And two, whose vehicle is this? MITCHELL DOSCH: My partner and
I asked our fellow detectives
00:09:07
to reach out to Ms. Earp. [phone rings] JUDY EARP: I see that
it's a Las Vegas number
00:09:13
that was calling me. MITCHELL DOSCH:
The detectives purported themselves intentionally to be
missing persons detectives, as
00:09:23
opposed to homicide
detectives, because Ms. Earp, at this particular time,
is a potential suspect
00:09:30
in Mr. Burchard's death. She told us he left to come
to Las Vegas on March 1, with the expectation
that Mr. Burchard
00:09:39
was supposed to return
to California on March 4, and did not. She also indicated in her
missing person report
00:09:47
that he was
in the company of a woman by the name of Kelsey Turner. [upbeat music]
00:09:53
BINU PALAL: Kelsey
Turner was somebody that had a huge social
media presence, a number
00:09:58
of followers on Instagram. - Oh my god, why did
you document this night? This terrible, terrible--
00:10:07
- She was somebody
that modeled as well and was making money off
of her looks, frankly.
00:10:13
MITCHELL DOSCH:
You have a woman who has a bad
Barbie persona, who is an influencer and a model.
00:10:21
Then you have a well-known,
well-regarded child psychiatrist. Ms. Earp was quite candid
about the relationship,
00:10:30
obviously relationship
that she did not like. JULIA SHAW: When police put
in the name Kelsey Turner,
00:10:38
they find an Instagram
handle called "Badd Barbie." And if you look at it,
you see this wall
00:10:44
of photos of a beautiful
woman in sexy poses. And they're self-generated,
so it looks like most of them
00:10:49
she either took herself or she
instructed somebody to take. She's trying to appeal
to male followers
00:10:53
on Instagram who are
most likely to engage with this kind of content. The problem with
social media always
00:10:59
is that it doesn't
mean you can directly translate that into earnings. And so there's still
a question here of how
00:11:03
is she making her money? BINU PALAL: Kelsey,
like a lot of people, was putting on a lifestyle
on social media
00:11:10
that didn't exactly
match her real life. She was a single mother. She had a child that
she was living with.
00:11:18
She had another child that
she wasn't living with, but she was very
important to her
00:11:23
that she projected
an image of this partying lifestyle, luxurious lifestyle
out here in Las Vegas.
00:11:30
[tense music] - We met a really nice older
lady with some starbursts in her car.
00:11:41
- She was a sweetheart. [laughs] - All of her money
was frozen in the bank for something she didn't do.
00:11:50
That seems to be
her catchphrase. She contacted him, saying
that she needed someone
00:11:56
to co-sign a lease for her. Her husband was abusing her,
and she had two small children.
00:12:04
She wanted to leave him, but
she would be homeless if she left her abusive husband.
00:12:13
She said that she was
a successful model and she could pay rent,
but she just didn't have
00:12:19
a credit history to qualify. I said, Tom, this is
like a $3,500 house. And he said, well, she's going
to pay the rent and everything,
00:12:34
and I'm just
co-signing the lease. I was suspicious - Tell me when. - When? - Now?
- Yeah.
00:12:43
- Hi. JULIA SHAW: Oh, this feels
a bit like a romance scam. You've got this younger
woman who is engaging online
00:12:49
with this much older man. They're sending
messages back and forth, and she quite quickly
asks for money,
00:12:54
which is not
something you normally do with someone you're
interested in romantically online.
00:12:58
And then it's
also the sob story background, which is really
common to romance scams.
00:13:04
Anybody can fall
for romance scams. It's not people who are low IQ. We know. I mean, in his case, Thomas
Burchard is an intelligent man.
00:13:12
That's that people craft
a narrative that they know the other
person wants to hear,
00:13:16
and then they take
advantage of it. MITCHELL DOSCH:
The relationship is peculiar,
00:13:23
to say the least,
and you struggle to find a reasonable
explanation as to why these two are
involved with each other
00:13:33
so very quickly. - Tom always felt
the financial difficulties was one of the main
problems for most people,
00:13:44
so he would generously
give money to whomever he thought needed it. BINU PALAL: Dr.
Burchard clearly
00:13:52
felt like he was doing
something to help Kelsey, and who knows what he
was getting in return.
00:13:59
KERRY DAYNES:
Thomas Burchard is described as a man who is
incredibly generous, somebody
00:14:05
who likes charitable giving. But I think that we
have to be real here. There are many ways to give
to charity, and in actual fact,
00:14:17
Dr. Burchard reaches out
to young, attractive women, and he pays them. So I think that
it's a case of well,
00:14:28
who's exploiting who, as this
story starts to progress. PAMELA WECKERLY:
In the investigation,
00:14:37
the detectives figure
out Kelsey Turner's connected to the car. She acquired the car,
the Mercedes, when
00:14:45
she was living in California. The payments were made
by Thomas Burchard on Kelsey's behalf.
00:14:54
The fact that his body is
in the trunk of her car put her front and center
in terms of an investigation.
00:15:01
[dramatic music] JULIA SHAW: Kelsey
Turner was born in 1993. She grew up in this
small community
00:15:19
in Jonesboro, Arkansas. From a young age, she took
part in beauty pageants. And I think what this means in
terms of her own development,
00:15:29
her own psychology,
is there's often this critique that
beauty pageants can sexualize young girls.
00:15:35
And the knock-on
effects of that I think are poorly understood. Her whole life has
particularly been
00:15:41
praised for putting herself
in revealing outfits on stage s the attention of others
and to win money or prizes.
00:15:47
And so I think that that will
fundamentally shift and shape how you think you
should be in the world,
00:15:54
who you think is
respected, and also what you think are
the possibilities in terms of making
money from your looks.
00:16:02
KERRY DAYNES: Kelsey
is in a small town and she has got bigger ideas
and bigger aspirations,
00:16:09
and her looks are
what she feels is her ticket out of there. Unfortunately, Kelsey is one
of many, many pretty girls
00:16:21
who want to have careers
as glamour models or become actresses. So she's 10 a penny,
unfortunately, particularly
00:16:30
when she gets to California. [dramatic music] - While we were collecting
background information
00:16:45
on Mr. Burchard, we were
also communicating with some of his associates and friends.
00:16:53
BINU PALAL: Dr. Burchard was
sending thousands of dollars to Kelsey. He paid for her
whole life, really,
00:16:58
because there was no other
income being generated by Kelsey at this time. PAMELA WECKERLY: At various
stages in the investigation,
00:17:06
people that knew Mr.
Burchard indicated that there was a sexual
component to the relationship.
00:17:11
[dings] BINU PALAL: Certainly,
Dr. Burchard was portraying it
as a sexual relationship
00:17:25
in the text messages. JULIA SHAW: Kelsey
moved to California and realized that this
dream of being a model
00:17:31
probably wasn't
going to work out. So now she's scrambling to find
alternative sources of funding.
00:17:38
And one way in which pretty
girls on the internet can make money is
to sell explicit content.
00:17:43
And so she moved
into this realm of more hazy relationships
with older men, specifically with
Thomas Burchard.
00:17:50
PAMELA WECKERLY: I think,
colloquially, you'd say he was her sugar daddy. JUDY EARP: I knew what
Kelsey Turner was doing.
00:17:57
I believe that Tom
thought that it was maybe flattering that this
supposed Playboy model
00:18:08
was paying attention to him. - The bumpy ride
at first, I didn't know if we were going to get
through it, but we made it.
00:18:17
[laughs] KERRY DAYNES: Between
2017 and 2019, Tom sends at least $300,000 to Kelsey.
00:18:29
So, wow, that's
an awful lot of money. If she was being
paid by the hour, that is a good hourly rate.
00:18:37
[dings] JULIA SHAW: The text
messages between Kelsey and Thomas Burchard reveal
that there is this push and
00:18:52
pull between them,
where he expresses that he's no longer happy with
the financial arrangement.
00:18:59
JUDY EARP: Kelsey Turner
was extremely manipulative, and it got worse
and worse and worse.
00:19:06
She said she needed
a car because her husband took the car in the divorce,
and it was a BMW.
00:19:12
And I told Tom this
time, I said, do not even put her name on it. Keep it in your name,
which thankfully he did.
00:19:21
And when she didn't
make the payments on it, he told her that she
needed to return it.
00:19:26
Well, she wouldn't
and she ditched it. And then she managed to take
over the lease of a Mercedes.
00:19:37
And she sent me a picture
of this Mercedes, and with an obscene gesture
of her middle finger,
00:19:44
saying that the Mercedes
was better than the BMW. KERRY DAYNES: Tom
Burchard definitely
00:19:53
got more than he
bargained for when he contacted Kelsey Turner. She's even messaging
his girlfriend.
00:20:02
So be careful what
you wish for, I guess. What could have just been
a short-term transactional
00:20:08
relationship has turned
into something that is intense and incredibly toxic. [ominous music]
00:20:17
JUDY EARP: I was beginning
to suspect that she was a little dangerous. One time when he
had gone over there,
00:20:26
she was taking canned goods
out of the kitchen cabinet and throwing them at him.
00:20:33
She definitely showed
violent tendencies. And in the end, he
told her he was not
00:20:39
going to go sign a renewal. She needed to either move
or make other arrangements
00:20:46
with the landlord. And then she texted him back
saying that I was on her list. [dings]
00:20:57
And that if I caused
her to be evicted, she was going to kill me. [ominous music]
00:21:04
JULIA SHAW: In the next
batch of messages, what we see is a real shift
in the tone of the messages.
00:21:10
[dings] And she's now made
an explicit threat, and she might have this
volatility in her that is
00:21:23
also physically threatening. And that within the
relationship of Judy and Thomas
00:21:28
introduces this additional fear
of, what is she capable of? And what's in some
ways surprising
00:21:34
is that despite saying to her,
oh, I'm not so sure about this anymore, he's unable
to completely withdraw
00:21:42
from this relationship
arrangement that they have, and he continues
to give her money.
00:21:48
- I think this is the most
politically incorrect I've ever been in an Uber. [laughs]
00:21:54
[eerie music] - Kelsey had moved to Las Vegas
around November of 2018, so not long before this
incident occurred, and
00:22:06
was able to get a residence
because again, Mr. Burchard was paying for the property.
00:22:10
[pop music] JUDY EARP: Several times,
Tom would receive a text from the landlord
of the house with complaints
00:22:18
from the neighbors
of the loud parties. So I think the police
were over there a lot.
00:22:25
[tense music] And at that time is when
it was really ramping up. She went from borrowing and
never paying back to stealing.
00:22:37
She would be out somewhere
and say, oh, my credit card got declined for the Uber.
00:22:43
Can you loan me
a credit card number? Well, she would keep that
and then a few weeks later,
00:22:48
it would have massive charges. And then it went from
stealing to bank fraud. She manufactured checks.
00:23:00
The bank caught it. It was so poorly done
that even his name, Burchard, was not capitalized.
00:23:08
But it had her address
in Las Vegas on the checks. [ominous music] [glitching noise]
00:23:20
PAMELA WECKERLY: The detectives
worked towards figuring out where the house was.
00:23:24
Once they did that, and then
from the connection to the car, there was enough evidence
to issue a warrant.
00:23:32
- We were able to prepare
a search warrant, and we arrived at the residence
on Puritan Avenue.
00:23:42
- Kelsey's not at her house. The house is abandoned. MITCHELL DOSCH: Immediately
upon making entry
00:23:49
through the garage door,
we were able to identify another crime scene. [camera shutter clicks]
00:23:55
There was evidence
of a cleanup. There appeared to have
been biological material
00:23:59
on the ground,
and somebody or people had made an effort to clean it up. There was a very
strong chemical
00:24:06
smell coming from the garage. [camera shutter clicks] One of the two trash
bins was filled with what
00:24:14
appeared to be ammonia. [camera shutter clicks] One of the towels that
was folded on the couch
00:24:19
was the same pattern
as a towel that had been recovered from
the trunk of the Mercedes-Benz.
00:24:27
In one of the bedrooms,
there was a door completely missing from the frame. And we had found that
door literally broken
00:24:34
into two pieces, with one
half on the first floor and another half in the garage.
00:24:40
Also in that bedroom, we
found Mr. Burchard's blood and evidence of a struggle. [ominous music]
00:24:52
- That was the worst time
in my entire life, you know? I receive a call from
a detective in Las Vegas,
00:25:04
and they told me
that he's deceased. And I just-- I just-- I couldn't accept it.
00:25:12
I just, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no. Well, I knew immediately
who was responsible.
00:25:20
I mean, there was
no doubt in my mind. And there still is no doubt in
my mind 100% Kelsey Turner is
00:25:26
responsible for Tom's murder. MITCHELL DOSCH: As far as the
location of Miss Turner and
00:25:33
anyone else that was
associated with the murder, it was unclear where they
were at that particular time.
00:25:39
So ultimately, we issued an
arrest warrant for Miss Turner. - Shortly before
March 1, Kelsey
00:25:48
had reached out to Dr.
Burchard and asked Dr. Burchard to pay the rent. JUDY EARP: Because she
had contacted him
00:25:55
and told him that
her son was sick, she couldn't afford medicine,
she was going to get evicted.
00:26:02
And he bought a plane
ticket immediately. [tense music] - Dr. Burchard decides
he's gonna come and pay
00:26:13
a surprise visit out
to Kelsey at the house that he's paying for. JUDY EARP: He calls
me from the airport,
00:26:20
and he said that she was
such a pervasive liar that he needed to see it for himself.
00:26:27
- This is about him going
and trying to figure out in his own mind how
he feels about Kelsey,
00:26:36
and maybe trying to-- to orchestrate a way of saying
goodbye to her because he's--
00:26:43
he's emotionally
involved with her. JULIA SHAW: When Thomas
Burchard gets on the plane
00:26:48
to go and fly to Vegas
to see Kelsey, he doesn't know that there is
another man in Kelsey's life.
00:26:55
[pensive music] PAMELA WECKERLY: Jon
Logan Kennison was Kelsey Turner's new boyfriend.
00:27:01
They had only been
together a couple weeks. Kelsey Turner did
not want Burchard to know that Logan
was her boyfriend,
00:27:09
so they were trying to keep
that hidden from him. [suspenseful music] - But Barbie may well have
met bad Ken because Logan is--
00:27:20
well, he's got everything that
you would imagine on the CV. He's been involved
in criminal activity.
00:27:28
He's involved with drugs. He's involved with
gang violence. And yet this is somebody
that Kelsey appears
00:27:37
to be really, really keen on. [ominous music] BINU PALAL: Within a very
short time of Kelsey and Logan
00:27:46
meeting each other, they
get matching tattoos. They were at the clubs
a lot, a lot of drinking,
00:27:52
a lot of partying. And then he's moving
into her house. PAMELA WECKERLY: The
combination of Kelsey and Logan
00:28:01
was really volatile. And either one of them on
their own is probably volatile, but if you put
them together, it
00:28:08
was definitely far, far worse. They're just a bad
match and things just got very, very out of hand.
00:28:16
BINU PALAL: It
was a very hot and heavy relationship,
within a matter of weeks, turns into a murder.
00:28:22
[pensive music] PAMELA WECKERLY: When Thomas
Burchard arrived at the house, he was expecting Kelsey
and maybe one other person
00:28:37
besides the four-year-old son. Instead, he also
found another couple and Kelsey's friend, Diana.
00:28:46
Diana cleans the house
and then acts as a sort of nanny
for Kelsey's four-year-old son.
00:28:55
BINU PALAL: I think Dr.
Burchard just thought he was paying for Kelsey's lifestyle.
00:28:59
I don't think he
realized he was paying for multiple
people's lifestyles. MITCHELL DOSCH: Mr. Burchard
had been assisting Miss Turner
00:29:06
financially over
a couple of years to the tune of about $300,000. [unsettling music]
00:29:14
PAMELA WECKERLY:
There was a lot of partying going on in the
house, drinking, some drug use.
00:29:19
I think it would have been
obvious to Thomas Burchard that this four-year-old
shouldn't be in the situation
00:29:25
that he was in. - When he arrives, Kelsey
is taken off guard, but she quickly adapts.
00:29:33
He meets all the roommates,
including Logan, who is described as just a friend. Kelsey makes sure
everybody knows not
00:29:41
to call Logan her boyfriend. She's very concerned
that her money train will end if Dr. Burchard finds out.
00:29:50
[ominous music] JUDY EARP: The last message
that I received from Tom was Saturday.
00:30:03
It was March 2, I
believe, at 3:33 PM. Says, all is well here and I
look forward to coming home.
00:30:11
In retrospect, I believe
he had made the decision to report that Kelsey
Turner's son was not
00:30:19
in the best living situation. PAMELA WECKERLY:
The environment was just not a place anyone
would want a four-year-old.
00:30:26
[ominous music] JUDY EARP: The texts that
I received the next day, supposedly from him, I
immediately suspected
00:30:37
wasn't from him. I had texted, why don't
you answer your phone? And the response was,
I'm out to lunch.
00:30:46
I will send it to you in a bit. Because I just knew it
wasn't his way of talking,
00:30:52
sent at 3:34. And I said, call me now
or I'm reporting you missing. [suspenseful music]
00:30:59
MITCHELL DOSCH: After
our thorough search of the residence,
all we knew was there was a vehicle
that was several miles
00:31:05
away from the residence that
contained Mr. Burchard's body. And we were beginning
to conclude that maybe he
00:31:14
was killed in the residence,
then loaded into the vehicle, and then taken
out to the desert
00:31:20
to be destroyed along with
all of the other evidence. Living in the house was
Kelsey, Logan, and Diana Peña.
00:31:27
And we were able
to then follow up on those names,
trying to determine if they have any involvement
in this particular murder.
00:31:37
[CLOCK TICKING, UNSETTLING
MUSIC] We began to try to find
these individuals through electronic
surveillance utilizing
00:31:50
the individual's cell phones. The day the--
the media reported a body had been
recovered from a vehicle,
00:31:58
Kelsey's phone was shut down,
and along with the phone that Mr. Kennison was using.
00:32:05
The fact that both
of their phones were deactivated on March 7
was more than just coincidence.
00:32:12
[tense music] The first person that
we were able to arrest was Miss Turner on March 21.
00:32:23
She was arrested
in Stockton, California. And when she was
taken into custody, she was quite resigned
to the situation.
00:32:31
She'd been caught,
and undoubtedly she was tired from going
from place to place and trying to keep
a low profile.
00:32:40
[pensive music] After Miss Turner was
arrested in late March, Miss Peña reached out to us
and arranged for her surrender.
00:32:52
[chime, ticking] Miss Peña was able to provide
candid details about what transpired from the moment
that Mr. Burchard
00:33:02
arrived in Las Vegas
on March 1 up to the murder. BINU PALAL: By March
3, there's already
00:33:09
been tension in the house. Later that evening, Dr.
Burchard, along with Kelsey, go to pick up Diana from her
job at the Caesars Palace.
00:33:18
[whoosh] On the way back,
they get lost, and so they refer to their phones
to get the GPS up.
00:33:25
But Kelsey gets Dr.
Burchard's phone. She starts looking throughout
the rest of his phone
00:33:30
and in particular,
the text messages. And what Kelsey discovers
is a text conversation
00:33:37
between Kelsey's mother and Dr.
Burchard about Kelsey and the way she's living
and some of their concerns
00:33:43
about Kelsey's young son. Kelsey sees these text messages
and then starts freaking out.
00:33:49
She starts punching and even
kicking Dr. Burchard while he's driving. [shocking music]
00:33:54
[pensive music] JULIA SHAW: Attacking
somebody while they're driving and you're also in the car just
means that you-- you've really
00:34:01
lost control over your anger. She's acting out
both the stress of the financial dependency,
but also the stress of,
00:34:09
What if I lose my kids? and,
he is going to be responsible. And now I need to do
anything that I can
00:34:16
to stop that from happening. [somber music] BINU PALAL: I'm sure when
Dr. Burchard arrives home
00:34:23
after that car confrontation,
he's wondering what he's doing with this relationship at all.
00:34:29
He's funding a house,
he's funding a lifestyle, and he's starting
to realize that he's not
00:34:34
really getting much out of it. Kelsey, I think at this time,
has to realize that the money
00:34:42
train's gonna stop. This situation only brings
out the worst in every part of Kelsey's personality.
00:34:48
[shocking music] PAMELA WECKERLY:
At the house, Kelsey Turner announces to people
that she has
00:34:55
found child pornographic
images on Burchard's phone. And of course, something
that is so offensive
00:35:03
tends to rile people
up and makes everybody instantly more angry. [tense music] So I think introducing that
label on Burchard to the group
00:35:16
put him more in danger
than he otherwise was. MITCHELL DOSCH:
The release of that
00:35:23
information could be damaging
to his reputation as a very well-known child psychiatrist.
00:35:33
And a forensic examination
of Mr. Burchard's iPhone was conducted, and there was no
evidence of child pornography.
00:35:43
[pensive music] JULIA SHAW: Why would
Kelsey lie about the fact that he had child
pornography on his phone?
00:35:50
And I think the answer
is really simple, and it is literally
the worst thing anyone can
00:35:54
think of anyone else doing. And she throws it into the room
like this catalyst to say,
00:36:00
go get him. [tense music] BINU PALAL: Logan's
at the house at this point. Diana's at the house.
00:36:07
Dr. Burchard retreats to the
bedroom that he was staying in at the house, hoping things
will calm down, hoping
00:36:13
things will settle down.
They don't. They only get worse. Kelsey keeps on yelling at him,
asking him for his phone.
00:36:21
So Dr. Burchard
gives over his phone. She sees him talking
to other women, and so she's getting angrier
and angrier and angrier.
00:36:29
And of course, this
triggers Logan. PAMELA WECKERLY:
For Jon Logan Kennison, I think there are two
things at play for him.
00:36:37
[music intensifies] First, he's hearing that
Burchard may have child pornography on his phone.
00:36:45
And then I think
on top of that, because he has strong
feelings for Kelsey, he is more enraged
at the situation.
00:36:55
BINU PALAL: Logan
takes it upon himself to break through the door. And then Logan goes
right into the room
00:37:02
and attacks the 70-year-old
man with a baseball bat. Kelsey is encouraging
Logan to continue
00:37:09
beating up on Dr. Burchard. [music intensifies] And Logan was willing to do
anything to make Kelsey happy,
00:37:16
including violence. And in fact, it's Diana who
helps break up the fight. [shocking music]
00:37:23
[pensive music] Dr. Burchard tells
Diana that he's really hurt, that he thinks
he needs to go to a
00:37:30
hospital immediately. So what he does is he goes
downstairs, goes into the car, and asks for a ride
to the hospital.
00:37:37
He even tells Logan
and Kelsey that, I'll tell the police I was mugged. I'm not gonna get
you guys in trouble.
00:37:44
Diana then goes into the car
with Dr. Burchard and talks to him for a little while.
00:37:50
And Dr. Burchard slowly
starts to realize that there's no intention
to take him to the hospital.
00:37:55
And in fact, Dr. Burchard tells
Diana, they're gonna kill me. [shocking music] [pensive music]
00:38:04
According to Miss Peña, she is
then directed by Miss Turner to go and clean up where
the result of the physical
00:38:11
altercation in the bedroom. There were blood
stains on the walls, but then there
was a fairly large
00:38:18
bloodstain that
was just outside of the door to that bedroom. - Logan and Kelsey at this
point are spiraling.
00:38:26
They've put themselves
in a situation they don't know how to get out of. First, their financial
lifestyle is gone.
00:38:32
There's probably no
question about that. But second, they've
brutally injured somebody
00:38:37
and they don't know what's
gonna happen to them. So they're trying
to figure out a way out.
00:38:42
The next thing that
they hear from the car is Dr. Burchard screaming,
saying, I need help.
00:38:49
Kelsey gets even angrier
and she instructs Logan to knock him out. And Logan complies.
00:38:56
MITCHELL DOSCH: This
attack was brutal. Mr. Kennison is
pistol-whipping Mr. Burchard
00:39:03
as he sat in the back
of that Mercedes-Benz, beating the life out of him. - The next thing that
Diana and Kelsey know
00:39:13
is they see Logan coming
out with blood on him, saying, Dr. Burchard is dead. [somber piano music]
00:39:24
- I had an old phone that
we kept just as a backup. The cloud would back up all
of his photographs to that.
00:39:35
And the last photograph
that was on his phone was early that Sunday morning
of someone kicking him.
00:39:48
I don't know if he
had tried to call 911 or he was just grabbing
his phone or something,
00:39:55
but I'm pretty sure
that's a photograph of when they were killing him. [unsettling music]
00:40:09
BINU PALAL: After
Dr. Burchard is dead, Kelsey, Logan, and even
Diana have a big problem,
00:40:16
what to do next. They move Dr. Burchard's
body from the back of the car into the trunk.
00:40:23
They haphazardly wrap
him in some blankets. And then Logan takes
off in the vehicle,
00:40:27
not even knowing
where to go or what to do with the vehicle next. Logan contacts a friend
who has to follow
00:40:34
him in another car and dumps
the body out in the desert. [CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS, OMINOUS
MUSIC]
00:40:51
MITCHELL DOSCH: So how
can we help you? - Can we switch him
cuffs and I'll find out
00:40:57
where we're going with him? MITCHELL DOSCH: The day that
Mr. Kennison was arrested,
00:41:03
Mr. Kennison declined
an interview with us. And because it was
so sloppy in the way
00:41:08
that they attempted to clean
up and dispose of the body and dispose of the evidence
that the best course of action
00:41:15
was probably not to say
anything to further avoid being implicated in this matter.
00:41:21
- Logan or Jon?
- Logan. - Logan?
OK. You go to these officers.
I'll be right back.
00:41:25
MITCHELL DOSCH:
All right, Logan. We're gonna go to my car
right here, all right?
00:41:27
[tense music] My partner and I concluded that
we had the right person that was involved in this murder.
00:41:34
[radio chatter] All right, man, we're not
going to jail right now. You're going
to our headquarters.
00:41:38
Some detectives
need to talk to you. [ominous music] PAMELA WECKERLY: When Kelsey
Turner appeared in court,
00:41:49
she seemed to be
very aware that there were always cameras present. I think she knew they
were there for her.
00:41:56
And I think to some extent,
she liked the attention. KERRY DAYNES: When you look at
the footage of Kelsey in court,
00:42:06
she's aware of the attention
that she's receiving. And this is her big moment. I think this is
the fame that she's
00:42:14
always felt that
she was destined for or maybe entitled to. You can take the girl
out of the pageant,
00:42:22
but you can't take
the pageant out of the girl. [shocking music, whoosh] [tense music]
00:42:29
- I'm sorry
for everything that I-- all the pain I caused
and everything that they've had
00:42:34
to go through the entire time. And I hope after
today that they'll get the closure they deserve or--
00:42:41
between all parties
and everybody has a better understanding. I just want everybody
to be able to somewhat
00:42:47
move on and get past this. - Logan pled guilty
to second-degree murder. And his sentence will be 45
years with parole eligibility
00:42:59
after 18 years has been served. BINU PALAL: Logan was
a tool of Kelsey's. And Kelsey, I'm
sure, will maintain
00:43:06
that she had nothing
to do with it, had no idea what
Logan was gonna do. But that, to me, is all
part of her manipulation.
00:43:12
INTERROGATOR: So you were
influenced by Kelsey? - Um-- no. I went overboard. I lost-- I lost control of--
00:43:19
I blacked out. I was really foul-- I was really
messed up on drugs. - Are you gonna feel like
you took the fall for her?
00:43:25
- No, I won't. I hope she goes home so she
can go be with the kids. You know what I'm saying?
00:43:31
She's got two other
kids, too, so she deserves to be around them. They deserve to have
her in their lives.
00:43:38
- I don't really believe him. I think that he wants
Kelsey's approval. This is testimony, I think,
to just how under the skin
00:43:47
of these men Kelsey can get. [shocking music, whoosh] [ominous music] [upbeat music]
00:44:03
TED ROWLANDS: A little bit
of breaking news out of Nevada. The trial for former
"Playboy" model Kelsey
00:44:08
Turner now off the books. She has pled guilty. [somber music] BINU PALAL: What Kelsey
does-- engages in is
00:44:15
what's called an Alford plea. And in an Alford
plea, what happens is the defendant acknowledges
that the state could prove
00:44:22
their case beyond
a reasonable doubt, but they still maintain
their innocence. PAMELA WECKERLY:
Kelsey Turner was
00:44:28
culpable as what we call
legally as an aider and abettor, meaning that
she encouraged someone
00:44:34
else to commit the crime. [camera shutter clicking] From the evidence,
her DNA is on a bat
00:44:39
that suggests that she's
involved in striking Thomas Burchard as well. [camera shutter clicks]
00:44:45
Her sentence is 25 years
with parole eligibility after 10 years has been served.
00:44:51
[camera shutter clicks] Diana, she got a sentence
where she got probation as an accessory to murder.
00:45:01
BINU PALAL: Diana, she's not
involved in the murder at all. I think she's genuinely
concerned about her safety,
00:45:07
given the lengths
that she saw Jon and Kelsey go through during
the murder of Dr. Burchard.
00:45:13
PAMELA WECKERLY: I think
the sentences were fair. I don't think Kelsey
Turner is likely to change
00:45:19
too much in her fundamental
nature on how she interacts with people, so I
think there will always
00:45:24
be an aspect of her
probably manipulating who she comes in contact with. [somber piano melody]
00:45:36
BINU PALAL: Kelsey
is a cautionary tale of somebody who thirsts
for fame and money
00:45:40
over anything else. For her, she was so protective
of the illusion of success, the illusion of wealth,
the illusion of having made it,
00:45:49
that she was willing
to do anything to protect that
illusion, to include murdering Dr. Thomas Burchard.
00:45:56
JULIA SHAW: To me,
Kelsey Turner is a hustler who
will do whatever she needs to get the things she
thinks she deserves in life.
00:46:05
She seems like someone who
really likes to be in control, and she really likes to be
in control of other people's
00:46:09
realities in particular. And she's unusually
able to tell people what she knows they
want to hear and to get money
00:46:17
or favors in exchange. And that is what's special or
different about Kelsey Turner.
00:46:25
[eerie melody]