West Mifflin man get 15 to 35 years for beating mother to death, leaving her to die

A West Mifflin man was sentenced Thursday to 15 to 35 years in prison for violently beating his 80-year-old mother and leaving her to die in their basement in 2019.

Kenneth Burdick, 45, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder in the death of Dolores Burdick.

Heath Leff, a public defender representing Burdick, did not return a call Thursday seeking comment.

A criminal complaint filed in the case said Burdick called police around 7 a.m. Sept. 7, 2019, to confess that he’d killed his mother the day before.

Responding officers found Burdick on his front porch. He directed them to the basement, where his mother was found dead, the complaint said.

Burdick told investigators his mother had been in her bedroom writing out bills the previous morning when he walked in and began hitting her. He then “knocked her to the ground and began kicking and stomping her,” the complaint said.

Burdick said he then dragged his mother to the basement door and “tossed her down the basement steps,” the complaint said.

He told investigators his mother was still breathing at that point, but she died later, police wrote.

Allegheny County police Lt. Kenneth Ruckel said investigators discovered a history of domestic disturbance calls to the Shady Lane home, though there were no active protection from abuse orders.