Authorities in Thurston County, Washington, believe they’ve found the missing couple they claim died at the hands of a tenant. The local coroner’s office must still determine if the bodies actually belong to the victims, chiropractor Karen Koep, 62, and her husband, Davido, 68.
Deputies said they were dispatched Saturday afternoon regarding a report of a body found off Stedman Road SE. Authorities confirmed the caller’s findings. Another body was found during the investigation, investigators said.
“Detectives responded to the scene to investigate the discovery, and sadly, we believe Davido and Karen Koep have been located based on the preliminary investigation,” deputies said.
Timothy Burke, pictured right, murdered a couple, Davido and Karen Koep, deputies said. (Image of the couple: Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders; screenshot of Burke: KIRO)
Timothy Burke, 45, is charged with murdering the couple.
Those who knew the victims, including Koep’s patients, have spoken lovingly of them and held a candlelight vigil in their honor.
Koep’s sister, Pauline Dutton, told NBC she last communicated with her sister via text on Friday, Nov. 10. Deputies have said they responded to the couple’s home for a welfare check the following Monday after Koep missed work.
Though Dutton did not know of any problems the couple had before the disappearance, she said, “there was always some drama with the tenants.”
Investigators learned from a witness that Davido (who had no legal last name) was getting ready to evict Burke, according to court documents obtained by Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO. Burke, who lived on an Olympia property that Davido owned, allegedly wrote “very negative” emails about him. For example, he claimed Davido put something in the water, authorities reportedly said.
Investigators did not immediately find the bodies, but presumed the couple had died; there was so much blood at their home that it was unlikely they survived.
A friend of the couple called Burke out during a hearing last month.
“Tell him to give that family some closure and tell them where the bodies are,” the friend said, according to KIRO.
Evidence against Burke included shell casings of his.45-caliber gun discovered in the couple’s home, authorities said. Blood was in Burke’s and Koep’s respective vehicles, according to Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor Jennifer Lord in the KIRO report. Blood in the couple’s garage reportedly matched where a car trunk would be.
Authorities ask that anyone with information on this case to contact [email protected].
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