Woman 'hacks dad to death with ice pick on election night' after Donald Trump win

Corey Burke, 33, a rocket engineer who worked for a firm owned by Jeff Bezos, is accused of biting, strangling and hacking her father to death at their home in Seattle, USA

A woman is accused of using an ice pick to hack her father to death after Donald Trump claimed victory in last week's election.

Corey Burke, 33, a rocket engineer at Blue Origin, is alleged to have murdered her 67-year-old dad Timothy by strangling, biting and hacking at his body at the upmarket home they shared in Seattle.

When cops found Burke at the property in Rainer Valley, Washington, she was covered in the blood of her dad and was said to be smiling and clapping. She claimed to have committed an "act of liberation", according to charging documents.

Burke is said to have told arresting officers that the murder was the result of a row over switching the lights off, but added the election had left her in a highly emotional state.

At around 8pm on November 5, cops received reports of someone breaking out of a window with blood splattered on her face. They found Burke and took her to Harborview Medical Center where she was assessed by psychiatrists.

After searching the home, the victim's body was found close to a silver-and-blue ice climbing axe that is believed to be the murder weapon.

Citing King County's medical examiner's report, the Seattle Times reported that he had sustained wounds to the head and torso.

The day after the murder, Burke allegedly confessed to murdering her dad. Seattle Detective Azrielle Brikey wrote in the charging documents: "Corey stated (when) her father started arguing with her, about the lights being shut off, that she 'just freaked out'."

It is said that after hacking at her father, she sat beside him to watch his life ebb away, then smashed all the windows in the property in what she described as an "act of liberation".

Speaking about her prior relationship with her dad, which she said was "strained", adding that it left her feeling "hyperfocused and disorganised". She also said to have admitted that the election victory pushed her to breaking point.

Burke has been held on $2million bail (£1.6mn) for first-degree murder. According to public records, she works as a training manager at Blue Origin, a spacecraft company owned by Jeff Bezos'. She is also said to be married to a leading transgender writer called Samantha Leigh Allen.