A former Playboy model, her roommate and her boyfriend were arrested in 2019 for the killing of a Salinas, California psychiatrist.
In January 2023, the model, Kelsey Turner, was sentenced to 10-25 years in prison for the murder of her “sugar daddy,” 71-year-old Thomas Kirk Burchard, M.D.
Dr. Burchard’s body was found in the trunk of Turner’s Mercedes in Las Vegas after he was bludgeoned with an unnamed object.
Police said the three killed the doctor and dumped him in the trunk. The vehicle was found abandoned on a dirt road between Las Vegas and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
The psychiatrist and Turner were involved in a relationship in which he was paying for her extravagant lifestyle for two years. At the time, he also had a fiancé, Judy Earp, who gave testimony about the doctor’s relationship with the model. Earp said that Turner lured Burchard to Las Vegas, where the murder occurred.
When Burchard tried to end his relationship with Turner, she got angry and tried to steal money from him, by forging his signature on documents. Afraid they would get caught, Turner, her boyfriend, Jon Logan Kennison, 29, murdered Burchard, with the help of their roommate, Diana Pena.
Police found prints at the crime scene that implicated the three culprits, and with the testimony of Earp and others, they were able to get her and her companions convicted. Blood and cleaning supplies were found at Turner’s home, implicating Diana Pena, 34, the roommate, who helped clean up the crime scene.
Pena testified against her two roommates. She said she saw her two roommates attack the doctor with a bat and that Turner asked Kennison to finish him off, which he later did. Pena accepted a plea deal and agreed to work with prosecutors to build the murder case. In the plea deal, she pleaded guilty to the charge of accessory to the murder.
Turner was arrested in 2019 and tried to accuse Burchard of domestic violence, and to profit from the trial with a GoFundMe campaign to get sympathy from the public, unsuccessfully.
In July, Turner’s boyfriend, Kennison, was sentenced to 18 to 45 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy.