Naman Shrestha
When an engaged, doting mother named Kelsey Berreth vanished on Thanksgiving 2018, the entire community of Woodland Park, Colorado, hoped for her well-being. Within a few weeks of the search and investigation, her loved ones’ worst nightmare was confirmed as she had passed away. All the intricate details of the complicated homicide case and the investigation that ensued are covered in the episode titled ‘Devil’s Bargain’ of NBC’s ‘Dateline,’ which also features emotional interviews with the deceased woman’s loved ones.
Kelsey Berreth Built a Fulfilling Life as a Flight Instructor
The beloved daughter of Darrell and Cheryl Berreth, Kelsey Marie Berreth was born on September 15, 1989, in Washington. While growing up, she and her brother, Clint, were surrounded by the love and care of their parents. While raising them on their family farm, not far from Moses Lake in Grant County, the pair nurtured both kids with deep-rooted values that became lasting lessons as they moved through life. Kelsey was a bright individual who figured out quite early on what she wanted in life. She had set her eyes on the skies and was fully determined to become a pilot. While she was also inclined towards crop dusting, her love for piloting was far greater. There was no stopping her post high school, as she pursued her passion for aviation by joining a flying program at the community college.
After her graduation, Kelsey began training young minds in Spokane as a flight instructor. In her mid-20s, Kelsey had been leading a fulfilling life that she had built with immense dedication and hard work. A coffee aficionado, she enjoyed her coffee runs at Starbucks, especially sipping on her favorite drinks from their holiday menu. She loved the simple things in life, which included sound sleep, a strong connection with God, and staying fit through regular runs. She had also stepped into the online world of online dating in the hope of finding her one true love. It was in December 2015, particularly around Christmastime, that her paths crossed with a rancher and farrier from Florissant, Colorado, named Patrick Frazee.
Kelsey Berreth’s Life Was Cut Short Before She Could Marry Her Love
Though they resided 1,100 miles apart, Kelsey and Patrick didn’t let the geographical distance come in the way of falling for each other. Soon, as their connection deepened, she decided to take a leap of faith for love and relocated to Colorado in 2017. Not long after her move, Kelsey secured a job at Doss Aviation, which offered training and mentorship to candidates prepping to become US Air Force pilots. In October of the same year, Kelsey and Patrick welcomed their baby girl, Kaylee, into the world. To be closer to Patrick, Kelsey settled herself and Kaylee in a condo in May 2018, located in Woodland Park. Since it was located just about 20 minutes from Patrick’s family ranch, the couple could conveniently look after their adorable daughter and each other.
The two got engaged soon and began envisioning a future together, wherein they’d raise their daughter in the best way possible. Unfortunately, they could never realize that dream as Kelsey went missing on the morning of Thanksgiving in 2018. When her mother couldn’t reach her after over a week despite multiple attempts, she grew concerned about her safety and reported her missing to the authorities. Upon inspection, the police found her two cars in the driveway, but not the keys. While her makeup pouch was recovered, her phone and purse couldn’t be located. It was soon discovered that on November 22, the 29-year-old went to the grocery store with Kaylee. The visit was recorded on surveillance footage. Over the course of the next few weeks, she was declared dead, with the alleged cause of her death being bludgeoning. Sadly, her remains remain missing to this day.
The Killer Allegedly Tried Getting Kelsey Killed on Multiple Occasions
When the investigation started, the detectives naturally questioned Kelsey Berreth’s fiancé, Patrick Frazee, who claimed he hadn’t seen her since Thanksgiving. He also told them that she had broken up with him over the call, showing them the texts regarding the same in the following days. The investigators were perplexed when they learned that the missing woman’s phone pinged all the way in Gooding, Idaho, on the evening of November 25. Complications increased as they also found traces of blood on the toilet of her apartment in Woodland Park, Colorado.
Upon closer inspection of Patrick’s phone, they noticed he had been in constant contact with a woman named Krystal Lee Kenney, a nurse and a divorced mother of two in Twin Falls, Idaho. When the detectives called her, she denied knowing both Kelsey and Patrick, but changed her story when they confronted her with the phone records. A few weeks after Kelsey’s disappearance, Krystal reached out to the authorities and told them about her years-long on-and-off affair with Patrick, who she claimed had killed Kelsey on Thanksgiving 2018. She told the police that he had painted Kelsey as an alcoholic and an abusive mother, convincing her to help him get rid of her for the sake of his daughter.
According to Krystal, she had tried to kill Kelsey on three occasions, using different methods. First, she was allegedly supposed to make her drink a poisoned Starbucks coffee. When that plan failed, he provided her with a metal pipe, with which she was supposed to hit her in the back of the head. For the third attempt, Patrick had allegedly told Krystal to attack Kelsey with a baseball bat. The former Idaho nurse claimed that when all her attempts failed, he decided to take matters into his own hands and hatched a plan. As per Krystal’s accounts, he convinced Kelsey to play a game where she was blindfolded while she guessed the scent of candles in front of her. That’s when Patrick allegedly started hitting her with a baseball bat about 10-15 times, as per a blood spatter expert.
Related
The Killer’s Fellow Cellmate Provided Critical Testimony During the Trial
Once Patrick had killed Kelsey Berreth, he allegedly called Krystal and instructed her to clean up the mess in the Woodland Park, Colorado, apartment. The former rodeo queen claimed she gathered the necessary equipment and clothing, drove to the murder scene, and scrubbed the house clean. However, she intentionally left a few blood spots behind as evidence for the police. As for Kelsey’s remains, they were allegedly burned, along with other pieces of evidence, by Patrick outside his family ranch in Colorado. In order to mislead the law enforcement, Krystal sent him text messages from Kelsey’s phone, which they later destroyed. Krystal’s chilling confession led to the arrest of Patrick Frazee, who was charged with first-degree murder, solicitation to commit murder, and tampering with a deceased body.
While she pleaded guilty only to tampering with evidence by moving the victim’s cell phone, Patrick stood trial for her murder. In November 2019, his murder trial began, and Krystal served as the prosecution’s star witness, a part of her plea agreement. In his defense, he claimed that on the fateful day, he was tending to his cows and didn’t go inside Kelsey’s residence. A jailhouse informant named Jacob Bentley also took the stand during the trial and testified that the defendant had given him notes to get rid of certain witnesses, including Krystal and Kelsey’s mother, Cheryl. Eventually, Patrick was convicted of all the charges against him and sentenced to life plus 156 years in prison. On the other hand, Krystal was sentenced to three years in prison.
