According to Clark County, Nevada documents and local news, former Playboy model Kelsey Turner has accepted a guilty plea offer for her part in the murder of California psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Burchard, although continuing to maintain her innocence.
After Burchard’s body was discovered in a trunk of an abandoned automobile on State Route 147 near Lake Mead outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 7, 2019, Turner, 28, and her boyfriend, Jon Logan Kennison, 30, were detained.
According to police, Burchard, 71, came from California to Las Vegas, where Turner was living, to end their two-year romance. During that time, he reportedly handed Turner an allowance worth an estimated $300,000 to support her lifestyle, according to FOX 13 Las Vegas.
She and Kennison are charged with killing Burchard and concealing his body in the Mercedes trunk after hitting him with a baseball bat.
She agreed to the plea agreement in Clark County District Court as part of a plan to admit to second-degree murder while retaining her innocence. She will appear in court again on November 15, according to FOX 13.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Kennison received a sentence of 18 to 45 years in prison after entering a guilty plea to second-degree murder in June.
The couple’s roommate Diana Pena, who admitted guilt to being an accomplice to murder in 2019, claimed that she saw Kennison strike Burchard with a baseball bat in their 7474 Puritan Avenue house.
According to the Review-Journal, Pena also testified that Turner encouraged Kennison to “knock Thomas out” and that she saw Kennison covered in blood afterward.
Burchard suffered a blunt head injury, according to the authorities. It was determined that he was murdered.
According to the Review-Journal, Burchard spent nearly four decades working for Montage Health’s behavioral health program before deciding not to retire at age 65 because he couldn’t bear to part with his patients.
At the time, Montage Health spokesperson Mary Barker noted, “Dr. Burchard was a psychiatrist in our behavioral health department for about 40 years and was very helpful to many patients. We are informing his patients and offering staff grief counseling. It’s a tragic circumstance, and our hearts go out to his family, friends, patients, and coworkers.
A profile claiming to be Kelsey Turner on the website PrisonBelles.com for female prisoners looking for correspondence while behind bars indicates that she is “now jailed in Las Vegas for a murder [she] did not commit.”
The profile description states, “I am searching for pen pals and support while I make my way through my trial and whatever time I may receive.” “Before this happened, I was a model, and after I’m out, I want to get back into the business.”
