Playboy Model Arrested After Doctor's Body Is Found In Abandoned Car Outside Of Vegas
STOCKTON (CBS13) — Kelsey Turner, a 25-year-old who posed for Playboy, was arrested in Stockton in connection to the murder of a California doctor whose body was found in the trunk of a car abandoned in the desert near Las Vegas.
Dr. Thomas Burchard, 71, was a psychiatrist who worked in the Monterey area. His body was found on March 7 in an abandoned car on Nevada State Route 147. Authorities said he had been bludgeoned to death.
"It's been really hard realizing he's never coming home," Thomas's girlfriend of 17 years, Judy Earp, said.
Turner was arrested near downtown Stockton, outside of a home, with her 4-year-old daughter.
"The FBI came running up. Stormed inside the apartment," one neighbor said.
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Earp says Turner told Burchard she was struggling and was worried she and her kids were going to be homeless. Burchard had wanted to help.
"I told Tom at the time this is a really bad idea," Earp said.
She says Burchard signed the paperwork to get Kelsey a place to live, but then started actually paying for it.
"She was supposed to pay the rent, which she never did, and Tom paid the rent because it was in his name," Earp said.
Burchard booked a trip for Las Vegas, for March 1 through the 4th, but he never made it home. Judy says she was worried he was getting mixed up with the wrong kind of people, but he just couldn't see it.
"Most of us when we see someone who's insane or obviously dangerous, our instincts are to run. He lost that instinct just being in his profession. He just didn't have that flight instinct," Judy said.
Turner is being held in the San Joaquin County Jail but she is going to be extradited to Las Vegas.