Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Playboy model accused of bludgeoning psychiatrist to death and stuffing body into Mercedes Benz trunk

Episode Date: April 11, 2019

Former Playboy model, 25-year-old Kelsey Turner, is accused of killing an elderly psychiatrist, who reportedly paid her rent and gave her money.71-year-old Dr. Thomas Burchard’s body was found last month in Las Vegas, decomposing in the trunk of Turner’s blue Mercedes Benz. Nancy speaks with Dr. Burchard's long-time girlfriend, Judy Earp.An Expert Panel weighs in too:John Lemley: Crimeonline.com reporterDr. Brian Russell: Psychologist, lawyer, and Host of “Fatal Vows” on Investigation DiscoveryKathleen Murphy: Family attorneyMichelle Dupree: Medical Examiner, author of "Homicide Investigation Field Guide" Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Kelsey Turner, no stranger to posing for the camera, now posing for her criminal mugshot, accused of brutally beating a man who paid her rent and showered her with money about 300 000 that i know about and possibly more you're hearing our friends at ksbw action 8 news that was christopher salas guys a psychiatristpected, found bludgeoned dead in the trunk of a car, you know where, Las Vegas. Now I know why they call it Sin City. This guy, very, very well-respected.

I'm talking about Dr. Thomas Burchard. Joining me, John Limley, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Dr. Michelle Dupree, medical examiner, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, renowned divorce and family lawyer, Kathleen Murphy, and the psychologist and lawyer host of hit series on investigation discovery fatal vows. But with me first is a very special guest today because no one has heard the side of Dr. Thomas Burchard. And we hear that a psychiatrist is found dead in a trunk in Vegas. All right, that doesn't look good. But we hear also that a Playboy model is involved. But his longtime girlfriend, Judy Earp, says it's not what you think. Judy, I want to say, first of all, thank you for being with us.

And I know the whole thing has just been devastating to you to first learn about Thomas' death and then to have all the rumors and innuendo swirling around his death. Let's start at the beginning. How long have you been with Dr. I think I'm saying it correctly, Burchard or Burchard? Burchard. Some of his family on the East Coast pronounce it Burchard, but here he pronounced it Burchard. We've been together about 17 years. Wow. That is a success story in America to be with someone for 17 years. How would you describe the doctor's personality?

He was outgoing. He loved his practice. He loved his patients, doing everything for them. Magic was his hobby, and he learned that mainly to do magic tricks to kind of engage the children. He was a child psychiatrist. So were his clients, his patients, mostly children? Originally, they were children. Now, nowadays, it was a little bit more on the adult side. He had started seeing them as children

and through, you know, and continued following them and into their adulthood. That was rather one of, when he turned 65, he was 71. And when he had turned 65, he was concerned, you know, worried about his patients that if he retired, they would be left with no one or having to start over with a new doctor. And so he, his idea of retirement was to cut his work week down to four days and take Mondays off. Take a listen to our friends at KSBW. For those of you just joining us, a well-respected psychiatrist is found bludgeoned dead in the trunk of his car, Vegas. Suspect? A Playboy bunny. The actual incident occurred at a residence in the Las Vegas Valley, and then the body was found out by the lake.

That home we initially suspected was on Puritan Avenue in Las Vegas. That's based on this arrest record from earlier this year. Turner's then-boyfriend arrested for domestic violence. The victim? Turner, with her address listed. I went to that home Monday. Neighbors confirming with me. Police have been to the home several times in the last month, including a CSI unit as recent as this past weekend.

The home also matches the neighborhood in Turner's arrest warrant. According to that warrant, Las Vegas police say inside the home they found Burchard's keys, his vest and blue latex gloves like these I found in the garbage can outside of the home. Police also

found cleaning supplies, blood, a broken door with garbage can outside of the home. Police also found cleaning supplies, blood, a broken door with blood on it, and towels. The same towels that matched the ones in the car with Burchard, Turner's two-door BMW. There was blood on the passenger seat, the back seat, and in the trunk. That's where Burchard was found with wounds that left a unique pattern on him. You're hearing our friend Christopher Salas at KSBW. I want to go out now to John Lindley, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. How was Dr. Burchard's body discovered? Las Vegas Metropolitan Police investigated a vehicle that had been abandoned, left in the desert area off of State Route 147. This is in eastern Clark County, Nevada.

The vehicle, a nice vehicle, 2017 Mercedes-Benz C300 with California license plates. The windows were rolled down and the car started with no problem when police clicked the push start ignition. Inside the car's cab area, detectives found latex gloves and, very strangely, evidence of a small fire. There was also blood on the driver's seat headrest and in the back seat as well. Also present, small tears in the headliner just above where the driver's head would have been. As to what had happened inside that vehicle, that was answered fairly quickly. When police opened the trunk, they first find a pile of clothing and bedding, and underneath that is the body of a man,

and this is Dr. Burchard. He is partially clothed and had apparent head trauma. And as we heard in that audio just a moment ago, police realized that they had a murder case on their hands. And it was with an unusual weapon, one that left a very distinctive mark. I want to go back to Dr. Burchard's longtime love, Judy Earp. Judy, when did you learn? When did you first realize that Dr. Burchard was missing, that he was not where he was scheduled to return the 4th the following Monday and I first noticed that there was something wrong on Sunday morning. I spoke with him Friday and we texted on Saturday and I began

to feel that there was something wrong on Sunday that I had received a couple of texts in the afternoon that I just knew were not him. Okay, whoa, whoa, wait. Right there, Judy. I'm very, very interested in that. I'm interested in all of it, Judy. But that right

there, you received texts. First of all, I'm interested in your sense of foreboding that something was wrong because Judy, with me is Dr. Brashard's longtime love, Judy Earp. Judy, I've spoken to so many crime victims and their families and an overwhelming majority of them feel a sense of foreboding or dread or anxiety or unrest. Something is wrong. They don't know what it is.

And then they find out. Right. Tell me about those texts that you knew were not sent from him. They just, the vocabulary wasn't his vocabulary. It was more of an uneducated. It just wasn't him. I could just tell it wasn't him talking or texting me. And I said, so I said, you know, Tom, I don't believe this is you. You need to call me. And then after that, the phone went dead. And early Sunday morning, that same day, I woke up very early, about 5 or so in the morning, just 435, just feeling something was really wrong.

You know, just kind of scared, more scared than anything. And then those texts in the afternoon, you know, really, really raised some flags, and I was worried. I didn't hear from him at all, and I checked, and I kept checking, and he had not checked in for his flight, so I was very worried. And then Monday, I still hadn't heard from him, and his flight was due in, I think, around 1.40. I hadn't heard from him, and his flight was due in, I think, around 140. And so I decided to go to the airport to meet the plane. He had his car, you know, in the long-term parking lot there, but I still, I went with my son to meet the plane.

I just felt something was wrong, and I needed to, you know, check. And I watched every single person come off the plane and it wasn't him. And by this time, I'm very, very concerned. And I speak with the gate agent and they checked and he had never checked in for his flight and he wasn't on the flight. And then I knew something was, you know, just horrible. So I immediately, I went to his office because I thought, well, you know, if he lost his phone, at least he would, he'd worked in at Chomp Community Hospital for 40 years. So he had that number memorized, you know, now, you know, so many numbers we don't even really remember because they're on our contacts, but I knew he would call his office.

And so I went there and I asked, you know, has, you know, he called, I think he met, I just, you know, I told him, I think he might've missed his flight or lost his phone. Did he call here to, you know, reschedule his patients or cancel or anything? And they hadn't heard anything at all about it. And so I left a message for his office manager to call me. And by that time, I'm really scared because, I mean, he's very, he worked at the same place for 40 years. I mean, he's very conscientious of his patients and he wouldn't just leave them hanging for 40 years. I mean, he's very conscientious of his patients,

and he wouldn't just leave them hanging for no reason. And so I came home, and I called Las Vegas Police Department and filed a missing persons report and requested a welfare check. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. With me is the longtime love of murder victim Dr. Thomas Burchard. He was found bludgeoned dead in the trunk of his BMW in Vegas. That's got to be so surreal. At the police station filing a missing persons report. And when I look back, Judy Earp, when I think back on finding out about my fiance's murder and the funeral and everything that happened after, it's just a big blur to me,

a dark, kind of a hot feeling, hot lava blur. And it's a position you never think you're going to be in. So you kind of like sleepwalk through it. To Dr. Brian Russell, psychologist and host of Fatal Vows on ID, Dr. Brian, what is that? Do you think she would have been in shock at that point, going to report him missing, having no idea what's happening? Well, yeah. And I think that you made an excellent point when you said that many of the people that we've talked to over the years have said that there has been something the way they use words, the order of words, the kind of words, she said, the vocabulary, little things that we don't even notice that we know about people until it gets different somehow. I guess one way to put it, doctor, is you don't know,

you don't know what you know you're picking up all of these clues and all of these signals but you don't you're not putting them together because really it just seems unreal judy erp did he explain to you why he was going to vegas for three days yes he did yes yes why well some of it i don't really want to say, you know, until the trial and everything. But some of it was business, basically. And he also had told me that Kelsey was such a compulsive liar that he needed to check things out for himself. So let me understand. You knew about Kelsey Turner, now a suspect in your longtime love's murder. What was she to him? with, you know, they were down on their luck or, you know, he would help them to pay their rent or their car payments or get the medicine that they needed, you know, rather than going through.

And I told him, you know, lots of times he probably would be better off, you know, going through a charity, but no, he would directly help them make sure that, you know, they got what they needed. And she's a master manipulator. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something, Judy? You're absolutely right. And I'm speaking anecdotally. The suspect in this case, Kelsey Turner, I think she may have been a stripper.

I know that she's a playboy quote model. But let me just tell you an anecdote. We had a friend, just the nicest guy in a wonderful marriage. And he was always a little chubby. And I certainly understand that. But he had some something actually he he had some incident happened and he lost a lot of weight. And then it was like the first time in his life he was svelte. He got the attention of a stripper. By the by the time she finished with him, he was divorced from his wife, bankrupt, lost his job and his house. Okay. So yeah, I'm not stereotyping because some of the best witnesses I've ever had and some of the most truthful ones were strippers. Okay. I've been in

every strip club in Atlanta and I'm not proud of it. Let me tell you that looking for witnesses, but I do know that anecdote and many more like it. Now, when you're saying this woman is a master manipulator, people don't get it. It's all about the money for them. It's just about trying to get the money. Oh, definitely. It was. And her mother, I personally believe her and her mother worked as a team. Okay. You know, I try every day, Judy, to try and it is really hard for me. I'm sure other mothers are much better, but to set the very best example I can for the twins every single day. And what you're telling me is this possibly part of a family scheme is scary. So you tried to talk him out of being so generous to various people who were down on their luck but he didn't listen correct it was

i it was just him you know it was he'd always been that way and and there was just nothing i could do to to change him i i realized early on that these two were different that they were way different and not just it wasn't just you know help help for like a short time a month or something um it they manipulated her hooks in him she did she definitely did when did you learn that his body had been found? 10 days after I had reported him missing. It was, that was such a scary time in those 10 days of not knowing, not knowing should I, you know, how to, how to do anything, you know, just that, that was scary. the scariest time really I think just the fear you know is he coming home and probably about by the day before about the eighth or the ninth day I began to to realize to myself that he probably wasn't ever coming home you know even though I kept hoping and hoping. And then when they called me,

you know, and told me, which was right before it broke on the news, it was, it was just, it was devastating, even though I thought I had prepared myself to hear the worst news. You know, that's funny you say that, Judy, because I can compare when my fiance was murdered out of the blue to just recently losing my dad, who was in his 80s. I now know you're never prepared. You think you're prepared. You're not. With me is the longtime love of Dr. Thomas Burchard. The suspect is 25-year-old Kelsey Turner, who's listed as a public figure on Instagram, a model and actress with more than 100,000 followers. What is her relationship with the victim? There is a relationship. At this point, the investigation is extremely active

and ongoing, so I'm not going to get into any specifics regarding them. A man who knew the doctor tells the NBC station in Monterey Burchard was paying the rent on this home in California where Turner, her kids and her mom once lived and was giving them cash. Anywhere from two to four thousand a week easily. He told me he met Kelsey on the website and met up with her and and they talked and they went and had dinner a few times. He says eventually Turner and her family were evicted when Burchard stopped paying rent. She moved to Las Vegas and Burchard went to check on her.

Now Turner's in jail, accused of killing him. A playboy model age 25 is now the prime suspect in the murder of a 71-year-old psychiatrist found bludgeoned to death in the trunk of a BMW in, where else, Las Vegas. The 25-year-old model, as you know, has not been tried. She has not been found guilty yet, and there is the presumption of innocence. But I'm looking at her Facebook photos and let me tell you something this woman is I mean I don't have really any doubt in my mind that she's in the stripping business I know she's a playboy model not casting aspersions but why would a nice guy like Dr. Thomas Burchard have anything to do and get all tangled up with a stripper giving her two to four thousand dollars a week straight out to john limley crime online.com investigative reporter john limley what more can

you tell me about the facts well i can tell you a little bit more about uh one of the suspects in this case one we've been discussing already, and that's Kelsey Turner. She was a model who had posed for Playboy in May of 2017. She also, in April 2017, appeared on the cover of 110 Magazine and then also on the cover of— Wait a minute, wait a minute. What is 110 Magazine? I don't know, and there's another magazine I've never heard of, Conceited, that she appeared on the cover for. Are you saying Conceit as I concede the election? No, Conceited like you think a little too much of yourself. Vanity.

Okay, go ahead. And on her profile for the magazine, Turner listed herself as being from Jonesboro, Arkansas. So in the beginning, this is all investigators knew about her, except thanks to Judy Earp, they realized there was a connection between the doctor and Kelsey Turner. Well, I mean, at first I thought that she may have been one of his patients, but now I realize that he met her online. To Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family law and divorce attorney, you know, Kathleen Murphy, I don't understand. Maybe his interest in her was benevolent the way that his longtime love tells me, okay, Judy Earp.

But what I don't understand is if it was not just benevolent trying to help her why do guys in perfectly wonderful relationships i mean judy erp is beautiful she's loving she's loyal she's there for him in other relationships why do men leave a good thing and run out with a stripper i would say that okay let me just say a playboy model i would say and it's clear from hearing judy that this was a wonderful man and may have been experiencing some dementia he was 71 years old. He had a stellar career. He was a giver. He was a good man. And it could be related to some decline in his mental health.

Kathleen, please. He's a man. Yes. Okay? True that. Yeah. So, Dr. Brian Russell, no offense, because you are, in fact, a man, but what is it with men?

If a male stripper came up to me on the street and kissed me right on the mouth, I'd probably slap him in the face and keep going because I don't have time to report him. Why do men fall for, I mean, and then sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into the money pit? Why? 300 grand that we know of, he sunk into this woman? Why? 300 grand that we know of? He sunk into this woman? Why? Well, first of all, I don't think there's any reason to think in this case that there was some kind of dementia going on. In fact, it sounds like this is actually part of a pattern with this guy of getting involved in women's lives.

And it probably has to do with the way in which it made him feel to do that important needed what do you mean he had a pattern well his girlfriend said that he had gotten involved in helping multiple people over the years in this similar kind of yeah he she said people people not playboy bunnies okay people and playboy bunnies are two different things well especially one that i strongly suspect is a stripper but i can't prove that so it was interesting because first she said he had he had helped you know quite a few women and then she she went back and said no but people men and women together but my suspicion is helping women did something for him that was different from just helping people in general in terms of how it made him feel. Wow. Guys, I want to find out more about the crime and about the

discovery of his body. I just don't get it. Ladies, I don't get it. Why does a man leave straight from a wonderful home to go be with a woman that's just going to suck him dry like a personal ATM. Now, by all accounts, this doctor, Dr. Thomas Burchard, was a great guy. They're a brilliant psychiatrist. I mean, to be a psychiatrist, you got to go to medical school like every other doctor. Then you have to get an advanced degree in psychiatry. So, John Lindley, before I can even go to Dr. Michelle Dupree, medical examiner and author, I need to know some more of the facts. Hit me. Sure. This investigation underway finds that the car that the doctor's body was found in had actually been purchased by Kelsey Turner from a man in San Francisco. The car is believed to have been in her possession,

Turner's possession, since the prior November. Oh, please don't tell me Burchard paid for her BMW. If David Lynch rolled up in a new BMW, I am telling you I would serve him with divorce papers that instant. He better keep driving that beat-up GMC. The detective said that after a records check, they then spoke to Judy Earp, Burchard's longtime girlfriend. And Earp is the one that pointed police in the direction of Kelsey Turner and her boyfriend, Greg Hagio, saying that

she firmly believed that the pair had murdered Burchard. Let me ask you this. Dr. Burchard reportedly gave the suspect, and the suspect is Kelsey Turner, $300,000, maybe more. But do you think he was the victim of a money scam? It does sound like there was something afoot when it came to getting as much money out of the man as possible, because there was quite some time, a timeline where you can see communication between Kelsey Turner and the doctor. And it all always comes down to money and trying to get a little bit more and a little bit more, not only things like cars and apartments and what have you, but also just cold, hard cash. So did I hear you say she had a boyfriend yes greg hajio greg hajio who is he he is a fellow that we don't know

a lot about we do know that they had been a long time uh they had had a long term relationship and that they lived together spit it out lemley hold on so you're telling me while she's getting about a half a million dollars from 71 year old-old Dr. Thomas Burchard, the psychiatrist, she's living with this other guy, Craig Hagio. Listen to this. Our friend Christopher Salas at KSBW. Kelsey wasn't the first person he'd helped. Unfortunately, the last. Longtime girlfriend Judy Earp described Burchard's habit of financially supporting women. Give him an ultimatum to say, hey, listen, this cannot continue, either them or me.

That's kind of personal. I had told him that you can't, you know, this is, this isn't, you know, this is not going to end well. Judy said Bouchard paid money to about a half a dozen women during their 17 17 year relationship, but none to the magnitude of Kelsey Turner and her mother. How much money altogether did she scam out of Dr. Burchard, her and her mother? About 300,000 that I know about and possibly more. Judy said aside from the money, he also loaned them cars and paid the rent for a year on this Selena's home. But then, Burchard suddenly stopped making payments and they were evicted. Why did he break the relationship off with her? I think he finally saw, you know, what was going on. Turner moved to Vegas where she reportedly worked as a model. I don't know why. I believe he was lured there. Judy said Burchard bought the ticket to Vegas the same day he flew out, not telling her why he left until after he already arrived. He said he went to see a magic show and to see Kelsey and that he'll be home Monday.

I warned him on Saturday when he was there that, you know, maybe you ought not wait till Monday to come home. Maybe I'll just come home on the next flight, take a Southwest and I'll pick you up in San Jose, you know, and I wish he had taken that advice. Nearly a week after Burchard bought that plane ticket, he was found bludgeoned to death in the trunk of a car on a Nevada highway. Judy said this was the second time Burchard went to Vegas in the last month. In February, Judy and a friend went with Burchard for a medical conference. Judy says Turner reached out to him then. She had wanted to know who was with him and, you know, all of this was he staying in a hotel and who was with him and all that. And his friend thinks that perhaps she had been planning it then.

But there was just too many people with him that, you know, would notice. Bouchard met with Turner despite Judy's warnings. I wasn't happy about it. You know, I told him repeatedly that these are not, you know, the people, the kind of people you want to be associating with. And Judy says while she believes Turner has something to do with Bouchard's death, she also says she couldn't do it alone. One person could not have put a body in the trunk of a car and also driving that car out into the desert. They had to have a way to get out of there. Prime Stories with Nancy Grace. A playboy model age 25 is now the prime suspect in the murder of a 71-year-old psychiatrist found bludgeoned to death in the trunk of a BMW in, where else, Las Vegas. What can you tell me about the fact that we know

two more warrants have been issued, John Limley? Well, the first warrant was to search a home where Kelsey Turner lived in Nevada. They learned that Burchard had paid for Turner's March rent. And in this home, police find a towel with the same design as a towel found in the car with the doctor's body and a door that appeared to have been ripped away from the hinges and broken in two. There was also blood on both halves of the door. Inside the garage of that house, police reported finding more blood, footwear impressions, cleaning supplies, and evidence of a major cleanup. So this warrant is for her home that she had. Did you say it was in Vegas? Yes. And it was in her name, but I imagine he's paying the, is it a house note or

rent? It is rent. So she was renting a house. Right. And he had already paid for her March rent. There were two search warrants. What was the second warrant that just went down? There was a warrant of Turner's phone and found that she was usually in that Las Vegas home, but had left after the time that Burchard died. Police noted that they think Burchard died between March 3rd and 6th. Turner's phone mostly pinged in the area of her home between March 1st and 5th, And then on the 5th, Kelsey Turner appears to be away from the home. Then around 5.20 p.m. March 7th, the phone shuts down and was never turned on again. Well, so those are the two most recent warrants. Now, let me ask you one more thing. Do you believe Kelsey acted alone. From what detectives and investigators have allowed us to know in this case, it appears that the boyfriend played at least some role in all of this. Has he been

arrested? No, he has not. Well, then we better walk very, very lightly on this. He has not been arrested. He has not been charged. But there is a theory, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina divorce lawyer, that she did not act alone. What's that theory? The theory is that she could not lift that body by herself into the trunk of the car and then drive it all the way to the desert and then leave by herself in any other vehicle the desert where the body was found. And then what, walk back? To Dr. Michelle Dupree, medical examiner and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, how long could a person survive walking through the desert? Well Nancy, that's a good question.

Of course it depends on the weather and the state of health that person was in initially. But a person really cannot do without water for more than three days. Food, much longer, but not water. What do you make of the fact, Dr. Michelle Dupree, that there were cleaning solutions in the home, the home belonging to the suspect, Kelsey Turner, cleaning solutions. I mean, what do you have to do to break down DNA and clean up a scene? Well, Nancy, as you know, people can try to clean up scenes all they want, but there's always some evidence left.

Yes, bleach can cover up DNA. We can even paint a wall that has had bloodstains on it. And with luminol or Blue Star, we can still see the blood spatter on that wall. So there's no way to completely clean up a crime scene with any, no matter what cleaning solutions you may have. You can see blood through paint? You can, with Special Light and with Luminol. What if it's, does it matter what kind of paint you use?

Not really. Again, what we see is the splatter pattern, you know, the spatter pattern. We take the DNA, but we can still see the paint. Brilliant. Brilliant. You just taught me something I didn't know about blood spatter. So you can't get in there and get the DNA out, but you can still see the spatter underneath the paint. Brilliant. Dr. Michelle Dupree joining me. So Dr. O'Brien, in a nutshell, does this appear to be premeditated? Yes, I think it is. Yes, it sounds to me like something that was thought out, not necessarily thought out well, but thought out. And as we often say, we remind everybody all the time, premeditation can happen in seconds. Let me ask you this to John Limley. What would indicate premeditation?

Premeditation would show that they would somehow, first of all, plan this out in a reasonable amount of time, that there were plans afoot, that things were in place to make sure that he was no longer on the scene. And, of course, there's also the incentive that they would gain possibly, and I say they, I should say Kelsey Turner, because she's the only one arrested at this point, that they would benefit for his death. Well, doesn't the mother live in the home with her? That's what Judy Earp said. Yes, she does. Well, she did at one point. So how can the home be covered in blood and the mom not know about it would be my question. The mom lived with her at some point, but at some point moved out and the boyfriend moved in.

Well, let me understand this. To you, Kathleen Murphy, trial lawyer out of North Carolina, what says premeditation to you. Premeditation is any act or thought that can be shown that there was a plan or an instant where the person knew what they were doing and intended to do it. And just to make matters more complicated, listen to this. Our friend Christopher Salas at KSBW. We're learning the 25-year-old accused of murdering Dr. Thomas Burchard is pregnant. The San Joaquin County Jail says because of that pregnancy, they have to make different travel arrangements other than bus or van to get her out of Clark County. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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