CNN has reached out to Burke’s legal professional for remark.
In an incident report, officers with Palm Springs Police mentioned they responded to Burke’s house on the night of February 11 after receiving a name from a person who recognized himself because the son of the suspect.
The caller mentioned he had arrived house from work and found the physique of his stepfather, Melvin Weller, 62, mendacity on the kitchen flooring in a pool of blood. When requested by the 911 dispatcher if anybody else was at house on the time, the caller “paused for a number of seconds after which mentioned his mom Joan Burke was there,” the report acknowledged.
When officers arrived, they discovered the sufferer in a big pool of blood that coated greater than half the kitchen flooring, in response to the report. Investigators additionally discovered a mop, a brush and different cleansing instruments subsequent to the physique.
Police mentioned the sufferer, who gave the impression to be deceased, had a number of stab wounds and lacerations on his physique. Officers seen blood splatters and smears on the partitions, cupboards, and counters of the kitchen. A few knives and a meat cleaver have been discovered within the kitchen sink, police mentioned.
Throughout a sweep of the house, officers found Burke mendacity in a mattress in the main bedroom, acutely aware and alert however remaining silent, in response to the report. She was transported to a close-by hospital for analysis.
An post-mortem revealed the sufferer suffered greater than 140 stab wounds and a cranium fracture brought on by a blow to the top with a meat cleaver, the report mentioned.
In a search warrant executed on the suspect’s house, police have been in a position to get well a rubbish bag containing a blood-stained nightgown belonging to the suspect and a cellphone which investigators assume belonged to the sufferer, in response to the report. Police mentioned Burke was additionally discovered to have lacerations on her fingers.
A motive for this incident remains to be unknown. The sufferer’s household mentioned he was bodily disabled on the time of his dying.
