A witness is speaking out on the death of Dr. Thomas Burchard, 71, a highly-respected child psychiatrist. Burchard made a surprise visit to the home of Instagram model Kelsey Turner, 25 and what happened during that visit would result in a shocking tragedy.
Turner was known online as “Badd Barbie” and had been in a relationship with Burchard, who had been financially supporting her and her son for months. But when Burchard decided to cut her off, she became enraged.
According to Turner’s housemate, Diana Peña, Burchard and Turner began to fight on the highway. When they arrived back at the house, the fight escalated, and Peña said she heard Turner threaten to contact Burchard’s employer with baseless claims of child pornography on his phone.
At some point, Peña said, Turner’s boyfriend Jon Logan Kennison ran upstairs, broke down the door to the room where Burchard had retreated, and started hitting him with a baseball bat. Peña said she told Turner and Kennison to take Burchard to the hospital, but they refused and instructed her to go upstairs and clean up the mess.
According to prosecutors, Kennison beat Burchard to death with a firearm as Turner encouraged him. Burchard’s body was later found in the trunk of Turner’s car in the Las Vegas desert.
In July 2022, Kennison pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 18 to 45 years in prison. Turner took an Alford Plea, which allowed her to plead guilty to second-degree murder while still maintaining her innocence. She was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison.
Throughout the course of their relationship, Burchard had given Turner more than $500,000 for things like prescription drugs, money, rent for houses, and access to cars. Judy Earp, Burchard’s longtime girlfriend, said he became obsessed with Turner, telling her that the relationship made him understand how heroin addicts must feel.
Peña’s charge was reduced from murder and she pleaded guilty to accessory to murder, in part because she provided important details to authorities. She said she went along with the couple as they fled to California because she feared for her life.
Earp filed a missing person report after Burchard didn’t show up for his flight back home to California. In her victim’s impact statement, Earp said, “My entire world was viciously ripped from me with the murder of Thomas K. Burchard. I frequently dream that Tom has come home and it was all a big mistake. Then I realize that the real nightmare is waking up and knowing that he will never come home.”
