Theresa Frances Veronica Burke (born Amy Lauren Gardner on May 11, 1956) is a Canadian writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and producer

Television producer

The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

 for the CBC's television newsmagazine

Newsmagazine

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

, the fifth estate

The fifth estate

the fifth estate is a Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into...

. She was born in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

.

On May 20, 1999, Burke was on the telephone with bank robber Ty Conn

Ty Conn

Tyrone Williams "Ty" Conn was a Canadian bank robber. He was the only person in the last half century to escape over the wall from the Kingston Penitentiary, one of Canada's most secure prisons....

, an escapee from the Kingston Penitentiary

Kingston Penitentiary

Kingston Penitentiary is a maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario between King Street West and Lake Ontario....

 (one of Canada's most secure prisons) when he shot himself as the police were attempting his re-arrest. She co-authored Who Killed Ty Conn (2001) with Linden MacIntyre

Linden MacIntyre

Linden MacIntyre is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster and novelist. He has won eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy and numerous other awards for writing and journalistic excellence.-Life and career:...

.

She won a Canadian Association of Journalists

Canadian Association of Journalists

The Canadian Association of Journalists or L'Association Canadienne des Journalistes in French is one of several Canadian organizations of journalists. It was created to promote excellence in journalism and encourage investigative journalism...

 award in 2000 for her work on "His Word Against History", a fifth estate production about the life of Steven Truscott

Steven Truscott

Steven Murray Truscott is a Canadian man who was sentenced to death in 1959, when he was a 14-year old student, for the murder of classmate Lynne Harper...

, a Canadian man who was convicted of murder in 1959.

Burke has a child with writer Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright, journalist, and critic and has been writing for more than forty years....

.

External links

• Who Killed Ty Conn. (Linden Macintyre & Theresa Burke). Penguin Group Canada, 11 October 2001. Retrieved 30 March 2011.