OLYMPIA, Wash. (Court TV) — A Washington state man will spend the rest of his days behind bars for murdering a chiropractor and her husband — who was also the killer’s landlord — and dumping their bodies in the woods.
Timothy Burke, 47, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A jury last month convicted him of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of Karen Koep, 62, and her husband, Davido, 68.
Timothy Burke appears in court on May 13, 2026. (Court TV)
For much of the two-hour hearing, family members spoke of the kindness and generosity of the victims. Koep had a chiropractic practice for years in the community.
Koep’s eldest son Justice Dutton lamented how his mom and Davido never met his son. He wished they could hold his hand for the first time, see his first steps, read books to him and watch him graduate from school.
“These are the moments that I know would have brought them the most joy in the world,” he said.
Koep’s sister Pauline Dutton described how her heart “sank so deep” when authorities told her they had found the victims’ bodies.
“He took two of the kindest souls on this earth away from us in such a violent and senseless manner,” she said of Burke. “Davido was trying to help him. And it was shocking and saddening for me to hear that he felt like Davido was a bad person, and that he was even capable of hurting him or his daughter.”
Prosecutors said Burke felt “almost entitled or justified” in killing Koep and Davido because he felt as if they were conspiring against him. In his statement to the court, Burke claimed Davido had called the cops on him for no reason and heard Koep speaking with someone about “tracking” his daughter down. He said he killed them because stress caused him to lose his mind.
“The things I did were horrendous and unthinkable and it’s hard to believe that I did that,” Burke said.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge John Skinder urged Burke to take advantage of social programs in prison. He also noted that there used to be a death penalty in the state of Washington before it was abolished.
“You have a gift, a gift that Karen and Davido do not have — you have a gift of life,” Skinder said.
Deputies with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office were called to the victims’ home on Nov. 13, 2023, after an office manager reported that Koep had failed to arrive for work. Officers who arrived at the home said the doors and windows were all locked with the blinds closed, and they noticed that it appeared someone had tried to “drill” through each of the home’s exterior doors and deadbolts.
When deputies got inside the garage, they said they immediately noticed an “overwhelming smell of bleach” before advancing into the living room, where there were two large bloodstains as well as signs that someone had tried to clean up. A probable cause affidavit reviewed by Court TV detailed towels, bedding and clothing at the end of the blood with smear marks. “You can see the vacuum marks,” Thurston County Sheriff’s Detective Kyle Kempke testified at trial, “where somebody presumably vacuumed after the blood stain was there, because it’s bloody trails in the shape of a vacuum.”
Bullet damage was found inside the home, but detectives were unable to locate any shell casings. While Davido’s car was parked in the driveway, detectives began searching for Koep’s vehicle.
Koep’s vehicle was found unoccupied hours later. Looking inside the car from the outside, an officer noted she saw “a significant amount of what appeared to be human hair in the car. She could also see blood in the trunk of the car, but no body.” Inside the car, investigators found five .45 caliber shell casings and a fired .45 bullet.
The bodies of the victims were found nearly three weeks later, near a rental property the couple owned. A child out looking for dirt bike tracks came across what he initially thought was a Halloween decoration, but was really Davido’s body. “It was so heavily overgrown that I’m surprised that the child was able to locate the human remains to begin with,” Kempke said. “It was pretty deep in there and it was very thick foliage and it was very difficult to kind of smash our way through the bushes and stuff to get out there.”
Once he reached Davido’s body, Kempke said, he saw Koep’s legs sticking out from a culvert. When officers searched for more evidence nearby, they found a large steel bar and a shovel that appeared to have been recently left there.
Detectives said that Burke rented his home at a property owned by the victims; a review of past records from the address showed Burke had a history of calling 911. The calls revealed he may have had a history of mental issues and that he was also previously a victim of arson.
Detectives said they found evidence showing that Davido was in the process of evicting Burke when he disappeared.
Lauren Silver contributed to this report
