Shivangi Sinha
In November 2018, Kelsey Berreth’s mother contacted the police to report her daughter missing, expressing concern after not hearing from her for several days. Investigators initially pursued multiple leads, including the possibility that the young mother had voluntarily disappeared. However, the discovery of blood spatter in Kelsey’s condo suggested a far more sinister turn. The breakthrough in the case came through an unexpected witness, leading authorities to arrest Patrick Frazee, Kelsey’s fiancé at the time, and charge him with her murder. The episode ‘Flight Risk’ from ID’s ‘People Magazine Investigates’ explores the case in detail.
Patrick Frazee Claimed That Kelsey Berreth Had Broken Up With Him
Patrick Frazee was a rancher and farrier based in Florissant, Colorado. In 2015, he met Kelsey Berreth through an online dating app, and the two quickly formed a strong connection. Kelsey later relocated to Colorado and settled in Woodland Park. Although they didn’t live together, the couple spent a lot of time with one another. In October 2017, they welcomed their daughter, Kaylee Berreth. Following her birth, the couple got engaged and began planning a future as a family of three. However, everything changed on November 22, 2018, when Kelsey mysteriously vanished.
It was Kelsey’s mother who reported her missing a week after she disappeared. Police quickly discovered that she was last seen on surveillance footage at a grocery store, accompanied by her daughter. Naturally, her fiancé, Patrick Frazee, was the first person they questioned. Patrick told investigators that the last time he saw Kelsey was on Thanksgiving Day when they met so he could pick up their daughter. He claimed Kelsey broke up with him over the phone later that day. To support his story, he showed text messages allegedly sent from Kelsey’s number in the days following, including a breakup message. The last message from her phone was on November 25. However, suspicions grew when police examined Patrick’s phone records and discovered frequent communication with a woman named Krystal Lee Kenney.
When police brought Krystal in for questioning, she initially denied seeing Patrick around the time of Kelsey’s disappearance. However, investigators had already discovered a blood smear in the condo bathroom. A luminol test revealed extensive traces of blood that had been cleaned up and it was strong evidence that something violent had occurred. When confronted with phone records placing her near the scene, Krystal changed her story, claiming she had visited Patrick to discuss a horse they co-owned. The case took a major turn three weeks later when Krystal returned and was ready to tell the full story.
Patrick Frazee’s Former Girlfriend Gave an Incriminating Account Against Him
Krystal Lee Kenney told investigators that she and Patrick Frazee had been in an on-again, off-again relationship since 2006. Their affair rekindled in early 2018, even though Patrick was engaged to Kelsey Berreth. When she learned about the engagement, she was furious but claimed Patrick had manipulated her emotionally. He allegedly told her that Kelsey was abusive toward their daughter and that he feared for the child’s safety. She alleged that he pressured Krystal to help him “eliminate” Kelsey. In September 2018, Krystal went to Kelsey’s home with a coffee laced with drugs but couldn’t go through with it. She alleged that Patrick then sent her back twice more, once with a metal pipe and then with a baseball bat, each time instructing her to kill his fiancée.
Krystal also claimed that Patrick called her to Kelsey’s condo after the murder and made her help clean up the crime scene. She testified that he had bludgeoned Kelsey to death with a baseball bat. After the cleanup, they drove to Nash Ranch to retrieve a tote containing Kelsey’s body. According to Krystal, they transported the tote, bat, and other incriminating items to Patrick’s property, where they burned everything in a metal trough. He then reportedly gave Krystal his former fiancée’s phone, which she used while traveling back to Idaho to create a false digital trail. Investigators later found a woman’s tooth near the burn site, and bloodstain analysis at Kelsey’s condo supported the claim that she had been bludgeoned. Additional testimonies and evidence further strengthened the case against Patrick.
Patrick Frazee is in Prison Today
Patrick Frazee was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of solicitation to commit murder, and one count of tampering with a deceased human body in 2019. He received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus an additional 156 years, along with five years (with parole eligibility) for the solicitation charges. Despite overwhelming evidence and testimony, Frazee has continued to assert his innocence in Kelsey Berreth’s murder. According to official prison records, the 39-year-old is currently serving his sentence at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley County, Colorado. On the basis of his current sentence, he will never be released from prison.
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