Years ago, Burke suffered a triceps tear and had to be put under to repair the injury. He struggled coming around and was in a coma for some time. During this period, IFBB pro moderators on some of the boards like Tom Prince were refusing to talk about the incident, deleting inquiring threads, etc. Many of us assumed he was dead, and then pics like the (first) attached one surfaced. Burke is still alive, but apparently suffered permanent issues from the coma, like movement/speech problems.
Shame, Burke had some freaky aspects to him, even if his physique had little flow.
