Man who killed Thurston County couple sentenced to life in prison without parole
A man convicted of murdering a Thurston County couple in 2023 has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Judge John Skinder sentenced Timothy Burke, 47, in Thurston County Superior Court Thursday morning. He delivered the sentence just over three weeks after a jury convicted Burke of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder.
During a six-week-long trial, prosecutors alleged Burke shot and killed Karen A. Koep, 62, and her husband, Davido, 68, at their Lake Forest home between Long Lane and Marvin Road on or between Nov. 10-13, 2024. Deputies visited the home for a welfare check on Nov. 13, 2023, and found significant amounts of blood and other evidence but no bodies, The Olympian previously reported. Deputies arrested Burke four days later.
Burke rented a property from the couple and may have been in the process of being evicted, prosecutors alleged in court records.
Investigators found the bodies of the missing couple on Dec. 2, 2023, in a creek on JBLM land not far from the property where Burke had been living. Both died due to multiple gunshot wounds, Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock later confirmed.
Burke’s defense argued, unsuccessfully, that he was not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges. In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Jenna Norden wrote that Burke “experienced several personal catastrophes” in the months leading up to the shooting deaths.
First, the shed he resided at burned down in an arson, Norden wrote. Second, his minor daughter died of a fentanyl overdose weeks before the shooting, she wrote. Burke has had mental health issues since his late adolescence, and these events made it worse, she added.
“Evidence at trial illustrated that Mr. Burke’s paranoia and other mental health symptoms became even more acute after the death of his daughter, and that Mr. Burke held numerous non-reality-based beliefs about Davido at the time of the shootings, including the belief that Davido was a threat to his living daughter,” Norden wrote in the memo.
non-reality-based beliefs about Davido at the time of the shootings, including the belief that Davido was a threat to his living daughter,” Norden wrote in the memo.
State law requires someone convicted of aggravated first-degree murder to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In her memo, Norden acknowledged the sentencing requirement outlined by state law but nonetheless asked the court to make an exception, given his severe mental health issues.
“People like Mr. Burke, with severe mental illness, should not be punished with no hope of release regardless of what treatment or rehabilitation they receive,” Norden wrote.
Norden objected to the state law in her memo. She argued the mandatory sentence is “cruel and unusual punishment” that is unconstitutional under both the Washington State and United States constitutions.
In a separate memo, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth McMullen asked the court to sentence Burke to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That sentence, she wrote, “recognizes the deeply traumatizing impact” of Burke’s actions on the victims, surviving family and the community at large.
“Based on the testimony presented at trial, both Davido and Karen were active members in the community who helped other community members in need,” McMullen wrote. “… Their deaths were a senseless act that extinguished their kindness.”
McMullen also accused Burke of attempting to manipulate the investigation and the outcome of the case.
“There are simply no facts present which indicate the appropriate use of leniency for this defendant, even if it was available to this Court,” McMullen wrote.
Evidence presented at trial disputes the argument that his mental health issues led to the shootings, McMullen wrote.
“Moreover, many individuals in the community suffer from severe mental health issues and are not committing crimes, let alone the horrific crimes, and the attempted cover-up of said crimes, committed by the defendant in this case,” McMullen wrote.
In a separate memo, Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim rejected the defense’s argument that life without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional.
“Because there is no precedent to support their argument, defense argues that the court should treat people with mental health issues who commit aggravated murder differently,” Tunheim wrote. “This is an argument more appropriately made to the legislature. The defense has not met their burden to prove that the imposition of a legislatively mandated sentence under these circumstances is unconstitutional.”
This story was originally published July 2, 2026 at 3:12 PM.
