COLORADO
Rocky Mountain News
By Felix Doligosa Jr., Rocky Mountain News
September 23, 2005
Andrew Burke, a former Catholic clergyman, would often spend hours planting flowers in the backyard garden of his Pueblo home. The garden was where his body was found Wednesday.
Burke, an ex-priest accused of sexually abusing a teen more than 30 years ago, committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his chest at his home Wednesday morning, according to Pueblo County Coroner James Kramer.
"I am shocked," said neighbor Rose Campos. "He seemed to be very nice."
Burke, 62, was under investigation for allegedly molesting a teenage boy in the early 1970s, The Associated Press reported.
He left the priesthood in 1973.
John Ercul, Pueblo deputy police chief, confirmed that Burke was a suspect in a sexual assault. Burke did not mention the allegations in his suicide note, Ercul said.
Police said Burke's wife, Nancy, told them he had been depressed for the past year since allegations of sexual abuse were made against him. She said her husband was depressed because he believed the investigation was not going favorably for him.