Blue Origin rocket engineer Corey Burke 'hacked dad to death with ice pick after Trump won'

Corey Burke, 33, allegedly killed her 67-year-old father Timothy on election night following an argument over switching the lights off in the home they shared in Seattle

A Blue Origin rocket engineer allegedly killed her dad with an ice pick after Donald Trump won the election last week.

Corey Burke, 33, is accused of strangling, biting and hacking her 67-year-old father Timothy to death in the $800,000 (£630,400) Seattle home they shared. Charging documents allege the woman, who cops said was found smiling and clapping while covered in her father's blood, saw the rampage as an "act of liberation" amid the results of the election.

It is alleged that the pair got into an argument over switching the lights off, which turned fatal. Burke allegedly told detectives she had also been in a highly emotional state due to the election as she felt there was "something important" about it.

Police rushed to the scene in Rainier Valley, Washington state, at around 8pm on November 5 to reports of someone breaking out the windows of a home. An officer said Burke was seen exiting the home with blood on her face and was taken to Harborview Medical Center for a mental health evaluation.

The Seattle Times reported that after police searched the house, they found the victim's body in the basement, and a silver-and-blue ice climbing axe was discovered on the floor. According to the King County medical examiner's report, Timothy had suffered wounds to his head and torso.

Charging documents say the following day, Burke told police she had used the axe to kill her father. Seattle Detective Azrielle Brikey wrote: "Corey stated (when) her father started arguing with her, about the lights being shut off, that she 'just freaked out'."

Police said that Burke sat down next to her father and watched him die before smashing all the windows in the house as "an act of liberation." The woman told police she had a strained relationship with her father which had left her feeling "hyperfocused and disorganised" - and she added that Trump's election victory had left her "overwhelmed" and pushed the tension she was feeling to the breaking point.

According to charging documents, she admitted the crime to an officer, saying: "I killed him." Burke has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held on a $2million (£1.60million) bail. Public records show that Burke is a training programme manager at Jeff Bezos' spacecraft company, Blue Origin. She is married to prominent transgender writer Samantha Leigh Allen.