The Sugar Daddy Trap: Kelsey Turner | Murder in Mind | Forensic Files

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

A status‑hungry model runs a sugar daddy con. When money stops, she and her lover beat the doctor bankrolling her, staging a cover‑up that exposes narcissism, greed and vicious self‑preservation.

Murder in Mind explores the psychological forces that drive people to murder.

Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of psychiatrist Thomas Burchard by Kelsey Turner and her boyfriend, revealing a toxic relationship and subsequent investigation.

Key points

The Grisly Discovery. Officers discover a human body in the trunk of a blue Mercedes.
The Victim's Identity. The victim is revealed to be Dr. Thomas Burchard, a well-known psychiatrist.
Kelsey Turner's Background. Kelsey Turner, a social media influencer, is introduced as a key figure in the case.
Financial Manipulation. Dr. Burchard's financial support for Kelsey Turner raises questions about their relationship.
Threatening Messages. Kelsey Turner's messages reveal a shift towards volatility and threats.
Kelsey Turner's Arrest. Kelsey Turner is arrested in connection with the murder of Dr. Thomas Burchard.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The fact that the car was left abandoned in the desert tells investigators...

PAMELA WECKERLY explains the implications of the abandoned vehicle.

4:39WatchOct 5, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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