Karen Koep, a 62-year-old White/Caucasian female and a well-respected chiropractor in Lacey, Washington, was known for her healing hands and caring presence. On November 13, 2023, concern grew when she failed to show up for work, an absence completely out of character. A coworker’s call for a welfare check brought deputies to the home she shared with her husband, Davido, 68, where they discovered a grim scene.
Inside the residence, investigators found large pools of blood and the overwhelming smell of bleach, evidence of a violent encounter and a desperate attempt to clean it up. The amount of blood loss suggested no one could have survived.
The couple and their gray Toyota hatchback were missing from their home in the Lake Forest Development. The case immediately shifted from a missing persons search to a homicide investigation. The couple's car was later found abandoned in a rural area of Olympia. As law enforcement delved into their lives, they identified a person of interest: Timothy Burke, a 45-year-old man who was a tenant on a property owned by Davido. Investigators learned that the relationship had become hostile. Davido was in the process of evicting Burke, who had sent negative emails and accused his landlord of poisoning the water on the property.
Neighbors would later recall hearing gunshots on the stormy night of November 10, the last day anyone had heard from Karen or Davido. After the couple disappeared, surveillance video captured a man believed to be Burke using their credit cards. On November 17, authorities arrested Burke as he was hiding along a trail not far from the crime scene. He was carrying a pistol at the time of his arrest. Further investigation revealed blood in both Burke’s vehicle and the couple's car.
The search for Karen and Davido, who had two adult sons, came to a tragic end on December 2, 2023. Their bodies were discovered by civilians in a wooded area on Joint Base Lewis-McChord property, less than a mile from their home. The Thurston County Coroner’s Office later confirmed their identities and determined that both had died from multiple gunshot wounds.
Timothy Burke was charged with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Following a trial that spanned several weeks, a Thurston County jury found Burke, then 47, guilty of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in June 2026. The verdict brought a measure of closure to a community that had been deeply shaken by the loss of a couple remembered by family and friends as kind, loving, and selfless people of faith.
