Justice for the Murdered Doctor

A psychiatrist's murder sparks an investigation in the Las Vegas desert This looks like somebody's grandfather here. We knew right away that it was a different type of murder When evidence points to a playboy model, investigators delve into a world of fame, money, and manipulation The plac that she would be out with me at are literally the number one nightclubs in all of Hollywood She goes by the nickname Bad Barbie. She ends up on the covers of a couple of magazines. As the strange case unfolds The surprises never stop She told me he was like her sugar daddy I initially had estimated expenses at about three hundred thousand. I said, you know, This is bad. You need to get out of this She had control over him He was just a meail ticket. But more suspects emerge. We found a bat with his name on it. This is a slam dunk. We discovered her boyfriend had recently completed a prison term. here in Nevada He had a gun That was covered in blood She was kicking him, hitting him, screaming at him. told me that he hopes They don't kill me too Las Vegas, Nevada is internationally known for its gambling and nightlife Las Vegas is a place where you can, you know, come and let loose It ends up sticking with people and it ends up carrying them to another place. But on march seventh, twenty nineteen It seems one visitor's stay has taken a turn for the worst When police receive an unsettling call We had a citizen but four wheeling in his new pickup And he sees a A Mercedes bendz a little two door coop where no little two wheel drive coop should be car was stolen When patrolmen arrive at the scene, the caller is gone, but the car is right where they said it would be They were gonna do an inventory of the car and just have it towed out of there They open up the doors There was a lot of blood spatter evidence within the car The blood was found primarily in the backseat behind the driver's seat and on the headliner The officers immediately call for backup and check the rest of the vehicle And when they opened up the trunk, there was a bunch of beddting When they were able to part some of the beddting, they came across what appeared to be a human arm They made notification to the homicide section, and that's how my partner and I became aware of the call My partner Detective Ryan Jager and I drove out to Eastern Clark County. carefully documented everything that's in the car And then we told the whole car with the body in it back to the CSA our Crime lab Once it was in our garage where it was a more controlled environment, we removed the body I remember looking at it, it was just kind of like, this looks like somebody's grandfather here. He was wearing like a sweater vest with a bow tie This didn't look like a guy who would make bad life choices to put him in a situation where someone would kill him. Investigators leave the body for the medical examiner to assess and they conduct a more thorough search of the car. In the trunk of the car, I found a credit card with the name of Thomas Brchard on it We ran that name came up as a missing person. report gave a description White male adult in his seventies And it matched very closely the person we had in the trunk However, when police run the car's plates, they discover it does not belong to Thomas Bershard The name that was associated with the registered owner from San Francisco was an Asian name and his build was much smaller The San Francisco Police Department attempted to go and make contact The registered grer was out of the country at the time. while questions surrounding the vehicle multiply. Detectives try to get to the bottom of who Thomas Berschard is I was able to conduct a records check and learned that Thomas Bishard had been recently reported missing by Judy Erp. So I instructed some fellow homicide detectives to reach out to her and have casual conversations with her. without giving away that this might have become a homicide investigation. Judy said that he missed a flight, so Judy filed the missing persons report. So her concern was something must have happened to him because he would always come home Chris Bichchard was a man who always seemed destined to make a difference in the world He was born in Boston in nineteen forty eight His father tu at Harvard And his mother was a librarian. so he was surrounded was academia He went to medical school at UVA University of Virginia in Charlottesville for child psychiatry And after that, he did several, you know, residencies at Mass General, Cincinnati Children's Hospital UC LA He loved children and For the longest time Tom was the only child psychiatrist in Monterey County Some people called him Santa because of his large white beard And like Santa, Thomas was extremely generous. His former patients talk about what an incredible human being he was and how he assisted them through some very difficult times in their lives Over the years I believe Tom has helped hundreds of people Due to his generous nature, Thomas developed close relationships with all of his patients But by the time he was in his early fifties, he still didn't have a family to call his own That changed in two thousand two when he met Judy Erp a single mother whose own marriage had recently ended We met here in Las Vegas with a group Wh everybody else was out gambling We were just kind of We left to ourselves and we talked and chatted, went to shows and just hit it off For about a year we dated. It was kind of long distance And eventually we moved in together My three youngest children He was you know, the father figure in their life Eventually, they got engaged And over the course of the next seventeen years, Thomas and Judy built a life together in Salinas, California They often return to the city where they first met We would come to Las Vegas every year for medical conferences In twenty nineteen, at the age of seventy one Thomas was still seeing patients But his health forced him to start planning for retirement. The last fourteen months of his life He started having problems I highly suspect that he's in the early stages of Alzheimer's or some form of dementia During this time, went on a trip to Las Vegas It was a very spur of the moment thing. and he booked a flight on Friday and to return on Monday He didn't come home on the airplane then I knew Something was something terrible had happened I initially reported Tom missing. I told him maybe he's got lost or something Las Vegas police begin their investigation by contacting Thomas's partner, Judy. Judy says Thomas went to Vegas to visit a friend named Kelsey Turner. He was well known in the community for helping He had received a text from Kelsey Turner that she was very sick He went to her house. to talk to her The next day, I get a text from him, which is Saturday And he says, I look forward to coming home See you on Monday Okay I don't hear from him. Judy goes on to tell police that Thomas has been missing for almost a week She had requested what is known as a welfare check. that patrol officers go to Kelsey Turner's home. They knock, there is no answer There's mail piled at the door. And as a detective, what it suggested to us is the Residenceces now been suddenly vacated And we cannot account for Kelsey Turner, living or dead So it's imperative in this investigation that we find her to determine if she is in fact still alive becausecause somebody that she's closely connected to is deceased up. Detectives find a crucial piece of evidence There was a baseball bat. and on the baseball bat Written and Marker was a name. We were able to determine it was her boyfriend. And Thomas' partner believes she knows why she was killed She's trying to use whatever she can to keep his money coming Investigators have found what they believe is doctor Thomas Gershard's body in the trunk of a car And the following morning, they attend an autopsy to confirm fingerprints, they were able to confirm that in fact The body of the deceased was Thomas Bachard The medical examiner decided that the cause of death was blunt force trauma Closer inspection of the Mercedes provides clues to how the murder occurred You could see defects in the headliner where you could tell Something was being swung hitting the ceiling of the car. In the trunk of the car was probably one of the most complete body disposal kits that I've stumbled across in my career. There was leather gloves, there was rags, there was garbage bags full of cleaning products There was potential DNA evidence there were latent prints There was a baseball bat And on the baseball bed. Written markarker was a name, Greg Haggio Now that they have more information and Thomas is officially identified The detectives called Judy to break the news. I received a phone call. It was Detective Jagger And he told me that they'd found Tom I asked him, well, can I talk to him? Is he okay? And he said no, they had It was deceased and time you know my world crashed in by virtue of her alibi, We were able to determine that Judy had nothing to do with the murder of Thomas Bichard Detective Jagger told me that he'd been found in the trunk of a Mercedes After learning this detail from detectives, Judy reveals valuable insight Judy tells investigators that the Mercedes found in the middle of the desert belongs to Kelsey Turner I suspect that She's involved in this somehow So I told him everything about Tom'sal history with Kelsey Turner Judy says Thomas met Turner two years ago She was a twenty five year old single mother who was struggling financially. He starts helping her out with her finances and helping her out with rent A acccording to Judy Turner quickly became a problem He did this for so many people And a few of them took advantage. But nothing to the extent of this It was always, Oh, I need money for medicine for my son or this or that. I initially had estimated just what I had known from rent and car and some of the credit card expenses at about three hundred thousand But when I actually delved into the records I stopped counting At about seven hundred fifty thousand dollars I told Tom, I said, you know, This is bad. You need to get out of this He said, Okaykay, I will tell her She wanted to move her out of state to kind of quell the waters a little bit to keep everything The friction down between Judy and her. so he rented a house in Las Vegas. Judy says when she found out about the new arrangement She convinced Thomas to cut Turner off for good was the purpose of his trip when he left for Vegas on march first And the next day, I get a text from him I have effectively resolved the situation here And I'm looking forward to returning home on Monday But on Sunday Judy got a strange message from him I received this text saying he wanted to send me money. And so I'm thinking, this is fishy the language, the grammar was not his I think she's stolen his phone and is trying to get my information And so I texted back, I said, You need to call me. I don't believe this is you And after that the phone went dead. Now, Judy is convinced Kelsey Turner had something to do with Thomas's death basased on the circumstances of his visit Investigators are starting to share that suspicion. After Judy's interview, investigators get in touch with the registered owner of the Mercedes in San Francisco He explained that he turned over the lease of the vehicle to Kelsey Turner and that The transfer process was facilitated by Thomas Busard. And according to Miss. Erb Thomas traveled Last minute to Las Vegas for the sole purpose of cutting her off That's when the focus began to narrow on Kelsey Turner local records checks We found an incident that was about a month before the murder that involved Ms. Turner and an individual by the name of Greg Haggio We're able to determine that Greg Hagio was a boyfriend of Kelsey Turner If he is the boyfriend at the time and this individual is coming to visit his girlfriend You can see that we have the potential for even a love triangle that went terribly awry I had arrest warrant ready to go. I'm like, dude, we found a bat with his name on it, with blood on it. Come on, this is a slam dunk We speak with Greg and it appeared that Greg and Kelsey broke up Greg Hygio wasn't happy with the kind of life that Kelsey was leading with with the partying and So he left And he left all of his belongings in Kelsey's house. We looked at historical phone locations on him He was actually working as a deck hand on a fishing boat when the murder happened. So we're able to rule Greg Haggio out of the equation And Since Kelsey Turner is the only connection left to track down Investigators obtain a search warrant for her home in Las Vegas S uniformed patrol officers showed up and we're able to make entry through an unlocked door They determined that the house was unoccupied. could establish very quickly was our crime scene Police find bloodstains. They find blue and white towels that match the towels that were found inside the car in the desert. They find a door that was almost off of its hinges, completely broken There's also a smell of cleaning products and some sort of attempt of a cleanup inside the home desespite all the evidence in the home pointing to foul play, investigators still can't find Kelsey Turner. We would have fully expected her to have reached out to law enforcement because Thomas's role in her life is so important But there's no effort, no effort whatsoever for Kelsey Turner to make contact with law enforcement. None It's not like she's involved or she's dead, it's more like She's likely involved and we have to find her The evidence in Kelsey Turner's home suggests Dr. Thomas Bersard might have been killed there So detectives contact the landlord of the property to see if they know where she is When police talk to the landlord They confirm that Thomas Burchard had been paying the rent there and that Kelsey Turner lived inside the home Police discover Kelsey had two roommates A woman named Diana Penya and a man named John Kennison. Uncertain of their connection to Kelsey, investigators take a closer look at the roommates So once we determine Everybody that's staying at the house That's when we start investigating phone numbers to them While waiting for cell information, investigators also put out a bolo alert for all three They then track down Turner's loved ones to learn more about her. So as police are talking with acquaintances, friends, and family members of Kelsey Turner, they learned that Kelsey comes from Arkansas, had divorced parents, and kind of grew up with a little bit of a rough upbringing People always said she did not seem like the type of woman who would stay in Arkansas They knew she had big dreams She wanted to be in front of a camera Turner married and had two children When the relationship ended, she took the children and moved to California to pursue her dreams Kelsey Turner was an aspiring model She had a very involved social media platform that she was utilizing to move her modeling career forward She ends up on the covers of a couple of magazines, including Playboy Italia and Maxim. but a lot of her work is through Instagram. She has hundreds of thousands of followers. She goes by the nickname Bad Barbie. It really kind of leans into that persona According to Kelsey's friends, she was doing more than just modeling I'm a celebrity DJ and I first met Kelsey when she started coming out with other girls that were in our Hollywood kids circle. The places that she would be out with me at are Literally the number one nightclubs in all of Hollywood Most of the girls that would come out with me were there to find You know someomeone else that could help them get to another level Kelsep seems like another needy LA girl You know, that's just trying to find someone to latch ont to. That's just all it seemed to me And it seems, Kelsey eventually found what she was looking for About a year after that playayboy appearance is when she starts reaching out to doctor Thomas Berschard for help with finances Jarb was kind of her sugar daddy Paying for the residents, paying for the car, paying for car insurance I believe that Thomas Bichard and Kelsey Turner had some kind of a physical relationship, but You know, a lot of people were're able to keep that to themselves Even without confirmation on the exact nature of their relationship It's clear to investigators Kelsey leaned on Thomas It appears that after Playboy Italia, She didn't really have any big publications or any great gigs in modeling Thomas says, Hey, you know I'll pay you to move to Las Vegas thinking that it would be a better spot for her. They determined that it might be best for her to relocate to Las Vegas to help advance her modeling career in this city Kelsey's daughter stayed in California with family. And her son joined her in Vegas Friends confirm she was sharing the house Burchard provided with her friend Diana Penya and new boyfriend, John Kennison When we looked into the background of John Logan Kennison, we discovered that he had recently completed a prison term here in Nevada for drug related offenses Now we have other names. people that are intimately connected to the home, we need to be able to to get a hook into them and have an opportunity to interview them and figure out what's going on. In march twenty nineteen, the search for Thomas Berschard's killer continues, as detectives subpoena the data of Kelsey Turner and her roommates, hoping to build a timeline Thomas arrived in Las Vegas on march first during the evening hours bodyies found at the seventh And it's apparent by march fourth Somet happened when he didn't return home to California So first through the fourth are very, very important dates as it relates to devices being or near the Puritan address We have Diana Penya. Kelsey Turner And then John Kennison We know we're all living in the house We get good phone numbers for them We do a location history on those phone numbers Everybody was at the house night hours. March third. into early morning hours of march fourth And then Diana Penya John Kennison. Kelsey Turner. all leave the house Based on the phone records, theirir phones all appeared to be shut off around the same time and ended in the area of the Rio Hotel Detectives contact the Rio Hotel, hoping the three might be there. We find out that Diana Peny had rented a room at the Rio And they just abruptly left and left all of their items Upon learning that information, we generated a search warrant to go into the storage room at the Rio to search for what items that were left They found personal items of Diana Penya, some prescription drugs and a black notebook belonging to Thomas Berschard. They also found the ID of Kelsey Turner inside what appears to be Thomas's notebook They find his account of how desperate Kelsey had been to maintain his financial support She was threatening him, accusing him of child pornography Tottally unfounded and absolutely untrue But if you can imagine a man that his whole life has been a children's psychiatrist. deevastating just those accusations would be I submitted Thomas Pchard's bone to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Internet crimes against children They found no evidence of child pornography on the device So Kelsey Turner' allegation was completely unfounded If that information were to be released to the public, it would be incredibly damaging to Thomas's reputation. being attractive and providing companionship to Berschard is paying for her house 's paying for her car and she doesn't want to get off the gravy train. She's trying to use whatever she can to keep his money coming. Because police were able to find that connection of the card to Kelsey Turner, The home with bloodstains inside and the towels matching the home and the car and a black notebook from Thomas Berschard inside that hotel room This gives them the green light for an arrest warrant The search for Ms Turner was turned over to a criminal apprehension team them about a week They were able to identify her living out in California at a residence that belong to one of Kelsey's friends when she was apprehended She was in the company of John Logan Kennison We did not have a warrant for Kennison at that particular time. so They had to let him go Turner refuses to speak with investigators But on april fourth, they receive new evidence that implicates both of her roommates in the murder as well. The fingerprints that were gathered from the vehicle had been analyzed and came back belonging to Diana Penya and John Kennison With that, we establish probable cause to get an arrest warrant for Diana and Kennison. Both of them were charged with murder with use of a deelily weapon But a week later, Diana turns herself in, and in hopes of a deal, she agrees to tell her story from the beginning. I met Kelsey from a friend of a friend and then she asked me to move in Not too long after that I think she was very new to Vegas so Dror Brchard. financed quite a bit of her expenses. She told me that he was like her sugar daddy. She would call him, message him, send him videos, and he would send her money He was just a meail ticket. She called him her whale Cing up Diana's interview provides shocking insight. There were messages about taking her son away from her and possible motives are revealed He told me they were going to kill him. He hopes that they don't kill me too. On april thirteenth, twenty nineteen Detectives sit downown with Diana Penya. Wh says when Dr. Thomas Berschard showed up in Vegas on march first Kelsey Turner knew he was there to end their arrangement. Kelsey had told me Probably about a month before he had come out that he was talking about cutting her off But he was having a hard time actually doing it. She kind of had control over him And Dr. Brchard said that Kelsey needed a lot of help He said that he loved Kelsey, but she needs to get her life together. Stuff like that According to Penya, it led to heated arguments between the two which she experienced firsthand the day after Thomas arrived. the next morning I went to work. Kelsey messaged me and she's like, C you please come home early? I'm upset And she said she would come pick me up When I got in the car, I was in the back seat Kelsey was in the front seat Dr. Brard was driving. So Kelsey took Dr. Bichard's one and was trying to do the GPS. And while she was on his phone, She kind of looked through his messages and seen messages between him and her mother about taking her son away from her Penya says the discovery caused Turner to snap. She was kicking him, hitting him, screaming at him. eventually we did make it back to the house Dr. Berschard went up to the room that he was staying in. and just shut the door. feearing the situation might escalate Penya asked a friend to take Kelsey's child who was at the home to a hotel Hours later, her intuition proved correct He went upstairs Kelsey would randomly go up there and start screaming at him. And then Kennison would go up there and start screaming at him And then I would tell them to go downstairs and calm down. Eventually she yelled at Kennison to knock him Dr. Bichard out And Kennison ran upstairs, broke down the door I'm not sure where the back came from, but I knew he had a back You could hear it I ran upstairs into the room And I just kind of try to get Kenison to get off of a shard I told doctor Bashard to stay on the floor because his left eye was like filled with blood He said he needed to go to the hospital and offered to say that he had been monked I helped him downstairs, kind of helped him clean up. Penya says early the next morning, Turner and Kennison eventually agreed to take Thomas to the emergency room I helped him into the backseat of Kelsey's car Dr. Richard said he wanted his coat So Kelsey and Kennison went back into the house. And that's when he told me they were gonna kill him. and that he hopes that they don't kill me too. I just told them that's not gonna happen. They're taking you to the hospital. Why would they kill you And then Kelsey came back into the garage and she told me to go into the house and clean So I went back into the house and I was cleaning. I started hearing Kelsey screaming again. She was calling Kennison a bitch to knock Dr. Richard out So I came running down the stairs and told her to stop But Penya says she was too late Kennison had a gun. that was covered in blood Kelsey told me that that was what he used to beat the doctor's face And I was like, Is everything okay? And she's like, he's dead I was pretty scared and just not sure what to do Terrified that Thomas was right and she might be next Penya went with Turner and Kennison to a hotel to hide out and left. with the car with the body in there to drive her car somewhere and do something with it We sat in the hotel room for days Kelsey was constantly Googling Turning on the news And she had seen on the news that the car had been discovered They just knew that You know, it's Kelsey's car It's her Sugar Daddy in the trunk, like Kelsey was freaking out No it's very easy to connect those dots. Diana Penya says the plan was for all of them to flee the state, but she decided to turn herself in A the interview She was booked in the Clark County Detention Center on her warrant. when they put me in a jail cell That's probably when I felt the most safe becausecause who's gonna break into a jail to hurt somebody She confirmed a lot of things that we already knew and opened our eyes on a lot of other things I assumed I would have to testify at some point. I was there. so it was the right thing to do. It's been a month since Dror Thomas Berschard was found murdered And Las Vegas police have two of their three suspects in custody Chelsea Turner has acquired legal representation Diana Penya went to police to help them piece together exactly what happened But the other man who's involved here, John Kennison, is still out on the loose We established through fingerprints on the bat will cause for Tennison Based on that, we had an arrest warrant. Cat's team was looking for him using his phone They determined that John in fact returned from California to Las Vegas, went back to his mom's house. And that's where the authorities were able to locate and apprehend him likeike Turner. Kennyson refuses to talk Penya agrees to plead guilty to being an accessory and testify against the other two. I was sentenced To three years of probation and a felony accessory Don't harbor any k feelings towards her. I wish she had called nine hundred eleven. But I do understand that she was very frightened and probably in shock And I believe Kelsey Turner probably was using her just like she used everybody In may twenty twenty two Three years after Dr. Thomas Berschard's murder Tennyson decides to plead guilty as well Logan is accepting full responsibility for his actions He knows that he committed a terrible crime. And he is remorseful for that The total sentence, the aggregate sentence will be eighteen to forty five years in Nevada Department of Corrections Later that year, Kelsey Turner makes a deal of her own Do you understand you're being charged with second degree murder? Yes, ma'am? How do you plead to that charge? Guilty pursuant to Alfred or not guilty? Guilty pursuant to Alfred To explain an Alfred plea, you're not confessing to it. You're just acknowledging that the state has enough evidence to convict you of it Turner, and accord to laws the state of Nevad,'re hereby judged guilty of second degree murder, a felony You're hereby sentenced to ten to twenty five years in the Nevada Department of Corrections In the initial court hearings She's smiling and laughing and posing for the cameras. Even if she was not guilty, somebody that you knew was murdered. That's just evil. just evil I never realized such evil existed in this world until this happened. Physically, it has been very difficult for me The emotional turmoil I have experienced was and is literally gut wrenching No matter what Dr. Bouchard's motivations were for trying to help a single mom in need It's just terrible that someone who had helped so many people in his life and seem to only try to help people in his life ended up paying the ultimate price for it. I think Kelsey Turner is a danger to society Honestly, I don't think she should ever get out of prison