Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
I want to tell you about a show that I think you are going to love. It's called Military Murder, and it's a true crime podcast that focuses on cases surrounding the military and the veteran community. The podcast is created and hosted by military attorney turned podcaster Mama Margo, who's a 14-year veteran herself. Margo dives into any and all cases with a military nexus to remind people to remain vigilant, trust
trust your instinct, and to never underestimate somebody's ability to murder. All the cases covered on military murder are connected by a thread that lead back to service to our country. Every episode has research that goes beyond the headline. And with Mama Margo's straightforward storytelling, it feels like you're talking to a friend.
I'm going to play a clip from an episode titled Fort Campbell, The Many Trials of Brent Burke, a story that showcases the differences between civilian trials and military courts martial. If you like what you heard, be sure to find and follow Military Murder wherever you get podcasts. Our story today begins on the morning of September 11th, 2007 in Rineyville, Kentucky, when 911 dispatchers received a call from nine-year-old Matthew Peete.
9-1-1. Somebody broke into our house last night, and I don't know who it was, but they killed everybody here except for my sister, my brother, and me. Okay, and what happened now? There was a guy with a pistol or some kind of gun, and he came in and shot my mother and my grandma. Those were the only ones here.
After the 911 call, the Kentucky State Police, that I will refer to as KSP, responded to the crime scene that only can be described as a house of horrors. Authorities determined that the intruder made entry into the home through the back door by shooting the back door glass window and unlocking the door from the inside. Inside, they found Matthew's 53-year-old grandmother, Karen Comer, dead in the kitchen. And in a back bedroom, they found Matthew's 31-year-old mother, Tracy Burke.
Heartbreakingly, inside the home and still hiding, authorities found Matthew and his two young siblings. Matthew told authorities that when the shooting took place, he could hear his grandmother screaming that she was dying.
In thinking about the investigation and death notifications, investigators learned that Tracy Burke had three children. Matthew P., the nine-year-old that made the 911 phone call, was Tracy's son with her first husband, Michael P. Michael P. was also in the Army. Tracy and Michael were divorced, and Tracy married another soldier by the name of Sergeant Brent Burke. Together, Tracy and Brent had two kids, but they were in the process of getting divorced. Tracy and Brent were divorced,
Tracy, during this process, Tracy asked her first husband's family for help and Tracy and her kids were temporarily staying with Michael's parents, Karen and Kurt Comer. Kurt was a long distance truck driver and he was not at home when the double homicide took place. So if you're tracking Tracy, the wife, the military spouse was staying with her former in-laws.
Tracy's estranged husband, Brent Burke, was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as a military policeman at the time of the murders. And that was approximately 140 miles from Rineyville, Kentucky. KSP notified Brent's battalion commander about the murders and they sent investigators to speak to Brent. The battalion commander told Burke's company commander to make the death notification. Burke was on patrol at the time, but he was called back to the office to perform some other duties.
But, you know, the other duties was just a guise to not arouse any suspicions. And they wanted to be able to disarm Brent before informing him about the murder. The company commander called the chaplain to accompany him to the battalion conference room where he planned to make the official death notification. After telling Burke about the death of his estranged wife and her former mother-in-law, Burke spent about an hour with the chaplain behind closed doors.
While Burke and the chaplain were talking, two plainclothes KSP detectives and a uniformed trooper arrived at Fort Campbell to interview him. The two detectives questioned Burke in a conference room at the battalion for about 25 minutes before they all went back to Burke's barracks to let him gather some clothes to be more comfortable and continue the conversation.
When they got back to the barracks, the detectives questioned Burke and his roommate separately. The roommate told KSP that Burke had returned to the barracks at approximately 11.30 p.m. the night before. Shortly after getting back there from work, Burke left again, and his roommate didn't see him until approximately 6.30 in the morning when the roommate returned from PT.
This seems like interesting information for the detectives, considering that this left Burke without any real alibi for seven hours from 11.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m.,
So it's 140 miles from Rineyville to Fort Campbell. So roughly a two and a half hour drive one way round trip. That's five hours. Detectives surmise that that was plenty of time for Burke to drive to the Comer's house, kill Tracy and Karen, then drive back to post and jump into bed before his roommate got back from PT. Brent answered questions for another three hours or so, and the entire thing was recorded.
After hearing from Brent, detectives were pretty sure that Brent committed the murders. It wasn't that there was a confession. It was more about the contradicting statements that Brent made and the odd things that he claimed were his alibi. But the state didn't have any real evidence against Brent. So they let him go. In fact, he had been free to go the entire time he was talking to police.
A few days after the murders, nine-year-old Matthew, who was the one who called 911, was interviewed by the KSP. He told them he didn't know who shot his mom and grandma, but he knew that they were wearing a camouflage jacket just like the one his stepdad owned. In fact, little Matthew had seen this exact jacket in his stepfather Brent's closet.
Matthew described it as the old woodland BDU pattern, not the current or at the time, the 2007 Army combat uniform. Matthew told detectives that he heard his stepdad's voice, but that it was kind of low like he was trying to disguise it. When the shooting took place, Matthew hid in a closet with his little brother and sister for hours. And he stayed there for that long because he was too scared to come out because he didn't know if the intruder was still at the house.
KSP investigators also interviewed four-year-old Ian, who asked investigators if they were there to talk about how his daddy shot his mommy. Ian told detectives that he actually saw his dad shoot his mom. Investigators at the crime scene determined that the intruder used a nine millimeter handgun to shoot out the glass in the back door and also used the same nine millimeter to shoot and kill both Tracy and Karen.
As investigators asked about any weapons in the home, they learned that Tracy's father, David Wilburn, had gifted Brent Burke a 9mm handgun five months before the murders. But Brent argued his father-in-law gifted him a .38 and he gave the gun to Tracy to keep for protection. Neither the 9mm murder weapon nor the alleged .38 gift were ever found.
It wasn't a lot to go on, but the statements from the kids, coupled with some statements made by Tracy before her death, and the now-missing gifted gun were enough to charge Brent Burke with two counts of murder. And the charges came on October 15, 2007, over a month after the double homicide.
Hi Murder, She Told fans. My name is Mama Margo and I am so grateful to Kristen for allowing me to share my show with you. You've been listening to a clip from my show, Military Murder. And if you like what you heard, there's over 200 episodes on my feed. If you want to hear the rest of the Brent Burke story, make sure you click the link in the show notes so that you can hear the rest of it. And if you think this is a pretty open and shut case, you're wrong because Brent Burke faced five separate trials. Yes.
Be sure to click the link in the show notes so that you can listen to the rest of the episode. And while you're over there, make sure you click follow so you never miss an episode. Thank you for listening. I'm sending my Aunt Tina money directly to her bank account in the Philippines with Western Union. She's the self-proclaimed bingo queen of Manila. And I know better to interrupt her on bingo night, even to pick up cash. Hey!
Sending money direct to her bank account is super fast, and Aunt Tina gets more time to be the bingo queen. Western Union. Send money in-store directly to their bank accounts in the Philippines. Services offered by Western Union Financial Services, Inc., NMLS number 906983, or Western Union International Services, LLC, NMLS number 906985. Licensed as money transmitters by the New York State Department of Financial Services. See terms for details.