Metro Police
Kelsey Turner
Thursday, April 4, 2019 | 8 p.m.
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Before his body was stuffed into the trunk of a car that was ditched atop a desert berm on the side of a highway, the elderly man apparently had tried to defend himself as he was being bludgeoned.
When Metro Police first identified a suspect, it wasn’t clear what instrument was used to kill Thomas Burchard, 71, which day he was slain, where or why.
What was certain was that on March 7 the Salinas, Calif., victim was found underneath a pile of clothes and bedding inside the trunk of a Mercedes-Benz. The strikes to his head left a “unique” pattern, and other wounds he suffered suggested he tried to block the onslaught.
Splattered blood on the blue 2017 coupe indicated that Burchard was attacked inside the car, although it wasn’t clear if the assault began outside of it, police said. His body was removed through the passenger’s side and placed in the trunk.
It wasn’t long before detectives identified a suspect, a 25-year-old Las Vegas model whose work has appeared in Playboy and whose rent Burchard paid.
Burchard had traveled to Southern Nevada to “take care of a few things” and to visit the suspect, Kelsey Turner, according to her warrant.
His longtime girlfriend in California told detectives he said was eager to return to home, according to the report.
But he stopped responding to messages on March 2 — a day after he arrived — and the woman knew something was wrong, police said. She started to get messages that didn’t sound like him.
So she summoned Metro officers for welfare checks at Turner’s house the following three days, according to the report. The efforts to find him proved fruitless.
On the third day, they found an empty house with its windows open, lights on and blinds up, police said. When they entered through the back, they found evidence that suggested someone was moving out.
Two days later, Burchard’s body turned up when someone reported an abandoned C300 near East Lake Mead Boulevard in a desert area leading to Lake Mead National Recreation Area, shortly before 11 a.m., police said.
At the crime scene, investigators found possible DNA, latex gloves, clothing, cleaning supplies and evidence of a small fire, police said.
Meanwhile, detectives obtained a warrant to reexamine Turner’s home, where they spotted a damaged bedroom door, as well as blood and cleaning supplies in the garage, police said.
Turner was nowhere to be found, and an examination of her phone records determined that the device had been at the house from March 1 through March 5, leaving the area on March 5, and then again the following day, not returning.
The phone was shut down around the time it became public in the media that the body had been found, police said.
The fact that Turner suddenly moved out despite Burchard just having paid her rent through June, that she didn't report her car stolen, and that she disappeared, among other evidence, made her a suspect.
Local detectives coordinated with the FBI to arrest her in Stockton, Calif., on March 21. She’s awaiting extradition to Clark County on a count of murder, records indicate.
Police believe Burchard was killed between March 3 and March 6, according to the report.
