Naman Shrestha
With big plans on Thanksgiving 2018, Kelsey Berreth went grocery shopping, after which she was never seen. Her disappearance rattled the entire community of Colorado, as the detectives followed up on all the clues they could find. Soon enough, Krystal Lee Kenney found herself on the police radar. In an unexpected turn of events, she turned out to be the secret on-and-off girlfriend of Kelsey’s fiancé, Patrick Frazee. NBC’s ‘Dateline: Devil’s Bargain’ chronicles the entire case in detail, including Krystal’s involvement and her chilling confession that helped the police bring the killer to justice.
Krystal Lee Kenney Claimed She Cleaned Up the Crime Scene After Patrick Killed Kelsey Berreth
Born in the 1980s, Krystal Lee Kenney alleged that she first crossed paths with Patrick Frazee at a dance in 2006. While she admittedly fell head over heels in love with him, she stated he did not reciprocate her feelings at the time. Eventually, they fell out of touch, and she moved on with her life. On the professional front, she became a nurse in Twin Falls, Idaho. The one-time rodeo queen tied the knot with another man, with whom she shared two children. However, she allegedly began an extramarital affair with Patrick in 2015. According to her, it led to her pregnancy, which she alleged Patrick was far from happy with.
Their affair fizzled out, and they parted ways yet again. A few years later, she got divorced and reconnected with Patrick in 2018 when she traveled to Colorado. By that time, he was engaged to Kelsey Berreth and had a daughter named Kaylee with her. However, Krystal claimed she was kept in the dark about his relationship until June 2018. Although she was not pleased about the situation, she claimed that she supported Patrick. Krystal claimed Patrick told her that Kelsey was an alcoholic and an abusive mother to Kaylee. The former nurse alleged that she and Patrick hatched multiple plans to get rid of the mother of his child in September 2018.
In her first attempt, Krystal testified that she tried to kill Kelsey by pretending to be her new neighbor and offering her a poisoned Starbucks coffee; Kelsey was a coffee enthusiast and especially a fan of Starbucks. When she didn’t drink it and the plan failed, Krystal further alleged that Patrick gave her a metal pipe and told her to attack Kelsey, but she claimed the plan never went through. For the third attempt, Krystal claimed she waited for Kelsey outside her house with an aluminum baseball bat she had brought from her house in Twin Falls, Idaho. She claimed that she ditched the plan again when she heard police cars driving by and other people in the area.
Cell Phone Data Led the Authorities to Krystal Lee Kenney and Patrick Frazee
On the fateful day of November 22, 2018, Krystal Lee Kenney allegedly received a call from Patrick Frazee while she was spending Thanksgiving at her Twin Falls, Idaho, house. She claimed that he had told her to clean up the mess at Kelsey’s residence in Woodland Park, Colorado. As per Krystal’s testimony, she drove down to her place and washed down the bloody evidence scattered across the house, where she alleged that Patrick had beaten Kelsey to death with a baseball bat. The Idaho resident also testified she watched Patrick burn Kelsey’s remains outside his family ranch in Florissant, Colorado. While driving back to Idaho, Krystal testified, she also sent texts to him from the victim’s cellphone in order to confuse the police.
After the detectives were alerted by Kelsey’s mother, Cheryl Berreth, about her disappearance, the investigators soon connected Patrick and Krystal to the crime through their cell phone data. Initially, she denied having any knowledge about Kelsey’s disappearance. However, three weeks after the murder, she lawyered up and traveled to Idaho to confess to the authorities about her involvement in the case and incriminate Patrick. As a result, her testimony against him led to his arrest. However, she had made a plea agreement with the authorities and agreed to be the star witness in his 2019 trial in exchange for a lesser sentence for herself. Eventually, Patrick was convicted and sentenced to life plus 156 years in prison.
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Krystal Lee Kenney Keeps the Details of Her Life Private Today
Having pleaded guilty to a single charge of tampering with evidence by moving Kelsey’s cell phone, in January 2020, Krystal Lee Kenney was sentenced to a total of three years in prison. More than a year later, in February 2021, her three-year sentence was thrown out as it was concluded that it exceeded the maximum sentence allowed by her plea agreement with law enforcement. The following month, she was resentenced to 18 months in the Colorado Department of Corrections, followed by one year of parole.
Since the 34-year-old former nurse had already passed the mandatory release date of her new sentence, she was released from Denver Women’s Correctional Facility on parole on March 23, 2021. After her release, she was assigned to the department’s parole division and stayed in Colorado for at least a year, until the completion of her parole. As of today, Krystal prefers to stay out of the limelight and lead a private life.
