So this is a bizarre case that I stumbled across the other day. It may sound like a pretty open and shut case to a lot of people but what I found bizarre were the circumstances around the story and the people who were involved. This case was due to go to trial this summer (2020) but with the Covid-19 pandemic going on, I'm not sure whether the trial will be put off to a later date. It most probably will be postponed but I will briefly share the story with you and update later once the trial has taken place.
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So, let's get into the story....
Dr Thomas Burchard was a 71 year old retired Psychiatrist from California in the US, who was very popular with his patients as well as his colleagues. When he retired they were sad to see him go but he still kept in contact with them. Thomas cared about his job so much that when he did retire, he worried about how that would affect his patients, he was a very caring man by what people who knew him later reported and would often give money to charity and homeless people. He had a partner of 17 years called Judy and as far as she knew, they had an honest relationship. During his successful career there was never any trouble, he was always professional and never over stepped the mark or ever behaved inappropriately with any of his patients or colleagues.
However, there was a side to Thomas that very few knew and that was his taste for younger, attractive women. Women who were old enough to be his daughter, his granddaughter. He also had a taste for women who were older, in their 30s and 40s. He was in contact with quite a few women and in particular, one who was called Kelsey Turner who was a 25 year old blonde model who had done photoshoots for Playboy and Maxim.
Judy knew about these women (esp Kelsey) but was led to believe by Thomas that all he was doing was simply helping these women who had fallen on hard times and there was nothing sexual or romantic in it. What was actually happening was that Thomas was a ''Sugardaddy'' and these women were ''Sugarbabies''.
If you are unfamiliar with the terms, Sugardaddy is a guy who may have a successful job, usually aged 40 upwards (but I've read that some men in their 30s can be Sugardaddies too) who financially supports (usually) younger attractive women in exchange for company and sex. Sugarbabies are usually under 30 years old but again, I've read that some Sugarbabies can be older. Some Sugarbabies meet these men, have dinner with them and just spend time with them without sex and for some of these men that's all they are looking for, the company of an attractive female. Some Sugarbabies meet these men and engage in sex with them. The Sugardaddies reward the Sugarbabies with gifts, money, cars, houses etc.
A lot of the time these men are married but quite a lot are lonely and single too. In some cases both parties know that they are using eachother for sex or money but some women can take advantage of lonely men and pretend to have relationships with them in order to manipulate the men to give them money. There are Sugardaddies out there who take advantage of women too so there's no innocent side to any of this.
Kelsey Turner was one of Thomas's favourite Sugarbabies and he also had designs on her mother too. He had only known Kelsey, who was single mother of two children, for two years but over the course of those two years, he spent over $300,000 on her and her mother. He gave them money every month, bought them clothes, rented a house for them as well as cars. When Judy questioned this, Thomas told her that Kelsey was a single mother who was struggling financially and he was only helping her out because he didn't want to see her and her children homeless.
Thomas had been married before and had a history of meeting women online. I think it's quite obvious to anyone reading the details that he was a womaniser and Judy was either in denial about it or just turned a blind eye to it because either she loved him too much or she was with him for his financial security. I don't mean to sound harsh about Judy but what would you do if your partner of 17 years kept buying gifts for other women who were younger than you and going off to meet these women?
Thomas rented a fancy house for Kelsey as well as a BMW car. Thomas lived far away from this house so he was unaware that Kelsey actually had a boyfriend as well as friends who were staying with her. Her friends stayed rent-free at the house. Kelsey was quite happy about this arrangement and lived off of Thomas's payments every month, she later claimed that the ''relationship'' they had was not sexual and that he was just helping her out because he had a crush on her.
This arrangement went on for months but Kelsey was very possessive over Thomas and it was no secret that she didn't like Judy. Kelsey was always frightened that Thomas would find another Sugarbaby to replace her and that the money would stop rolling in. Kelsey would often contact him and ask him who he was with, where he was going. If he ever did plan to visit the house, she would tell her friends to leave the house so he wouldn't find out they had been staying there.
Suddenly, out of the blue, Thomas stopped paying the rent payments on the house and Kelsey and her friends were evicted. Kelsey was furious (it's unclear what happened next, we'll probably find out more at the trial about this part) but somehow she ended up living at another house in Las Vegas which Thomas ended up paying the rent for.
She may have made him feel guilty for having her evicted or she may have promised him sex to keep him sweet so that he would keep giving her money? Both he and Kelsey made plans for him to visit for the weekend. Thomas lied to Judy and told her he was going to see a show. Thomas arrived at the house and at some point Kelsey found out that Thomas has been sharing sexually explicit messages with her mother. When Thomas went to the grocery store with her friend (another young pretty blonde girl) Kelsey flew into a rage and accused the friend of trying to steal Thomas away from her.
When Thomas got back to the house there was an argument over money and Thomas reportedly said that he was going to stop giving Kelsey money. Kelsey threatened Thomas that if he stopped giving her money, she would tell the police that he molested children. He went upstairs to a room to get away from the fighting whilst Kelsey was continually screaming and shouting. Her boyfriend then took a baseball bat and barged into the room where Thomas was and assaulted him.
Kelsey's friend (Diana) ran into the room to to find Thomas with injuries to his head asking to go to the hospital. Diana grabbed the baseball bat from Kelsey's boyfriend (Jon) and both Jon and Kelsey went downstairs whilst she got some water for Thomas.
Thomas was disorientated and asked to go to the hospital, he promised that he wouldn't tell anyone what had happened, he would just tell the Doctors he had been mugged. Thomas went to the garage and got into the back of Kelsey's car (the one he had been paying for) with Diana and waited for Kelsey and Jon to come and drive to the hospital but both kelsey and Jon stayed inside the house.
Finally, Kelsey came to the garage and told Diana that she wanted the room that Thomas had been in cleaned as soon as possible and then they would take Thomas to the hospital. Diana later reported that the room was a mess and there was quite a bit of blood. Thomas refused to go back inside the house and wanted to go to the hospital.
Whilst Diana was upstairs trying to clean the room, she heard commotion coming from the garage, she heard Kelsey shouting ''KNOCK THOMAS OUT''
Diana ran downstairs as fast as she could, when she got to the garage, Kelsey looked at her and said ''It's too late''.
Diana says that she went into a panic and started crying as soon as she saw Jon holding a gun with Thomas's blood all over him. She says she didn't know what else to do so she continued cleaning everywhere.
Thomas's body was later found in the back of Kelsey's car on a dirt road. His autopsy revealed that he had suffered a blow to the head, there were bruises and cuts all over the 71 year old man's body and part of his ear had either been severed or ripped off. The pictures of his injuries are said to be very horrific.
Kelsey, her boyfriend Jon and friend Diana, all tried to hide out in various places but eventually they were all caught and all pleaded not guilty at first but Diana ended up pleading guilty to the role she played in Thomas's death.
It also turned out that Kelsey was pregnant, she claimed that the baby was her boyfriend Jon's child. She later gave birth to a baby girl.
Kelsey's laywer says that she did not kill Thomas, he said ''How could she have lifted his body into the car, let alone beaten him to death?''.
Kelsey's lawyer also branded Diana a ''Snitch'' and said that Diana was only telling the cops what they wanted to hear.
So, that's where we are with the case right now until it goes to trial and we will no doubt find out more of the facts of the case. What do you think really happened to Thomas? let me know in the comments below.
RIP Thomas Burchard
Further reading & sources:
UPDATE (July 2021): Kelsey Turner is reported to be starting her trial this month. Kelsey, along with her partner are currently in prison claiming to be innocent of the murder of Thomas Burchard. They are both pointing the finger at Diana. Kelsey currently has an ad on a prison dating
website. On her bio she claims to be in prison for a crime that she hasn't committed and hopes to find penpals who will help support her through her upcoming trial and whatever happens afterwards.
UPDATE (Nov 2022): Kelsey's former boyfriend changed his 'not guilty' plea to 'guilty' and was told that he would have to serve at least 18 years in prison. He was handed an 18 - 24 year sentence. Kelsey, is to supposed to stand trial in November 2022.
UPDATE (Dec 2022): As we've seen, this case is all over the place with things moving pretty slow in regards to what's happening with Kelsey. Right now, Kelsey's trial didn't take place in November but what we do know is that she was hoping to strike up a deal and had decided to plead guilty. Obviously her former boyfriend's decision to change his plea of 'not guilty' to 'guilty' has affected her plans so she and her lawyers have had to go back to the drawing board and work out the next step.
UPDATE (Jan 2023): Kelsey Turner agreed to an Alford deal meaning that she was not prepared to plead guilty but accepted the fact that the evidence presented at court would indicate that she was guilty (I know, it's a bit of a head spinner to understand). This enabled her to be sentenced to 10 years in prison with the possibility of parole in 10 years. Thomas's fiancee gave a statement before the sentence was read out and spoke of how she had suffered ill health and that her life had been turned upside down. She also spoke of how she was in fear for her life if Kelsey was ever released on parole as Kelsey had threatened her in the past. Kelsey displayed no emotion as she was quickly taken out of the courtroom. So it seems, the possibility that Kelsey Turner could be free in 10 years time could be a reality.
Was justice served in this case? Let me know your thoughts here, by email: jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com or on my other
platforms
Many thanks for checking out my post x
(Michael & Paula. Picture credit: chinchillanews.com)
