MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida man is facing a manslaughter charge related to events leading up to his wife Isabel Burke-Thompson’s suicide.
According to his arrest affidavit, the incident happened in the early morning hours of Jan. 14, while the couple were in bed at their home in southwest Miami-Dade.
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“The defendant produced his firearm. Shortly thereafter, the victim assumed custody of the firearm and shot herself in the head,” the documents stated.
Many of the details leading up to that moment, which investigators say were provided to them by Seth Burke-Thompson, have been redacted from public view on his arrest form.
During his bond court appearance, the 29-year-old husband of two children broke down in tears after a judge granted the state’s request for a stay away order which prohibits Burke-Thompson from having any contact with his young kids, who are 9 and 2.
As the hearing concluded, Burke-Thompson walked away, raising his handcuffed hands to his face to wipe back tears.
In court, prosecutors explained that his two children are currently in the care of their maternal grandparents.
On the day of his wife’s death, Burke-Thompson posted a profile picture on Facebook showing his arm wrapped around the back of his wife as she leans in for a hug. The caption read: “I lost my best friend. She was my guardian angel and I didn’t deserve her. I stopped letting her know how important she was to me.”
It was the first time he had posted to the platform since 2017.
On a GoFundMe page to raise funds for her funeral, which was created on the day she died, the organizer stated that the victim loved her children and ”couldn’t have been happier planning her 30th birthday next Wednesday. Life will not be the same.”
Investigators said Burke-Thompson told them that on the evening of Jan. 13 he was lying in bed with his wife and their two children watching television. Shortly after midnight on Jan. 14, he asked his children to go to their room to sleep.
Police said he told them that after the children left he asked his wife about “the status of his firearm.” He said his wife explained she had not touched it and that “the firearm was in the same place where the defendant had left it.”
Investigators said Burke-Thompson told them he “retrieved the firearm from a cardboard box, which was stored on the bedroom windowsill, adjacent to the bed.” The next several lines of text outlining Burke-Thompson’s recounting of events of that evening are redacted from the report.
The arrest form later states that “the above listed sequence of events, which clearly illustrates that the defendant acted with reckless disregard for the safety and welfare of his wife, the victim,” but the renaming words of that sentence and additional text are also redacted.
During his bond court appearance, a defense attorney for Burke-Thompson stated that “the facts as alleged are definitely strange but I don’t necessarily know that there is manslaughter there.”