SEATTLE — A woman is charged with murder after allegedly killing her father with an ice ax at their home in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood, according to King County prosecutors.
Corey Burke, 33, got into an argument with her father on the evening of Nov. 5 over turning out the lights, charging documents state. Burke told detectives that she would not be able to convince him to keep the lights off, so she went and grabbed an ice ax.
Burke tripped her father, strangled him and then "bit him and hit him several times in the head and side with the blunt and sharp ends of the ice ax," according to prosecutors. Burke allegedly sat next to the victim until he stopped breathing.
Police were called to the scene after neighbors reported that Burke was smashing out multiple windows of their home on Spear Place South. When officers arrived, they said Burke was not responsive to officers' questions and was taken to the hospital after she was deemed to potentially be having a mental health crisis. Burke told police no one else was in the house and that police did not have permission to enter her home.
Officers at the scene spoke with neighbors, who informed police that Burke's father was also living in the home. The officers then conducted a welfare check and found the victim and the bloody ice ax inside the home.
Burke is charged with first-degree murder and prosecutors requested she be held on $2 million bail. The judge set bail at that amount after hearing from both sides, according to a King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office (KCPAO) spokesperson.
Burke will be arraigned and have her first chance to enter a plea on Nov. 21.