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Death With A Dose Of Divorce
Woman shot before divorce hearing, children hid from killer
Posted by Rianne Walker on Fri, 09/14/2007 - 3:45pm
Tracy Burke of Rineyville, Kentucky was due to appear in Montgomery County, Tennessee today to finalize her second divorce, from Brent Burke a Ft. Campbell military policeman.
Instead, her family is in mourning while police search for the person responsible for murdering her and her former mother-in-law, Karen Comer, on Monday.
Burke's nine-year-old son called called 911 on Tuesday afternoon, after he and his two siblings found their mother and grandmother murdered.
"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."
According to the boy, the children hid from the killer all night. Police said the three children, aged nine, five, and two, were found unharmed by Kentucky State Police.
It is unclear from news reports if the boy witnessed the shootings, or if the children only heard the gunshots. The boy reported the intruder wielded a handgun, and shot his mother, grandmother, and one of his grandmother's dogs, but also that he and his siblings hid after hearing shots fired.
According to papers filed in the Tennessee divorce case, Tracy wanted to end her marriage due to "inappropriate conduct, cruel and inhumane treatment and adultery." She filed for an emergency protective order after a May 27 incident.
Tracy alleged that on another occasion, Brent intimidated her by twirling a gun on his finger, and bragged to a friend that he could "kill everybody and it wouldn't bother him in the least."
Police have yet to name any suspects, though they are interviewing Brent Burke, and have cleared Tracy's first husband, a solider based in Washington state.
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What Others Have Shared ()
Why does it have to come to
Why does it have to come to this? I will never understand the want to take another life. And these poor children! Where is the justice? And why didn't someone intervene before it got this bad?
CM
Tears to My Eyes
This is the very real and very ugly outcome for some poor women who just want to stop the madness and try to figure out how to end a dangerous relationship. She was just trying to move on - not out. It is a horrible story.
It breaks my heart for her, the grandmother and the kids. We need to work harder as a society to find a better answer for these poor women...who are just like us - but in a really bad place. They must have better safer options.
Emergency protective orders end up being BS. C'mon we can do better than this.
Protection
Why even bother with Protection from Abuse papers...when the courts are handing these orders down..don't they realize 99% of the time women and children are in immenint danger or do they simply think that piece of paper will do the job? Judges need to enforce the law and so do the police officers...but the women need to stop taking these guys back into their lives. Really the only protection one has is to protect themselves...no matter how it has to be done!!
No matter..this is a sad story that is experienced every day of the week and every month of the year.