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CREEK CRIPPLE • Idaho nurse Krystal Jean Kenney told investigators a detailed account of Thanksgiving's murder of Woodland Park's mother, Kelsey Berreth, and the appalling availability of her body , said an agent of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation Tuesday.
When Kenney entered Berreth's town hall two days after the murder, she found a horrible scene: blood splattered on the walls, floor, and children's toys.
Patrick Frazee, 32, allegedly blindfolded Berreth and told him that he wanted her to guess the scent of a scented candle. Instead, he clubbed him with a baseball bat, Kenney told investigators. She said that she was in Idaho and Frazee described the act and urged her to come to Colorado to help clean up the crime scene and to give the girl a chance. impression that Berreth left the city voluntarily – partly by sending messages from the victim's phone.
"You do not know how difficult it was to go to dinner on Thanksgiving after being killed," Frazee was quoted as saying by Kenney, according to testimony from the investigating officer's office. from Colorado, Greg Slater.
The alleged murder plot and the ensuing camouflage were first described during a preliminary hearing for Frazee, whose case has been in secret for weeks. Lawyers and investigators are silenced by a gag order and many investigative documents are sealed.
Judge Scott Sells of the Fourth Judicial District said Tuesday that the evidence was sufficient to justify a murder trial for Frazee, who is still held without bail in the Teller County Jail. A trial will probably be scheduled for Frazee's return to register his plea on 4 March.
In addition to Kenney's statements to the investigators – including a story of Frazee burning Berreth's remains on his Florissant property under the look of his mother – investigators detailed records on cell phone, possibly found blood under the boards in Berreth townsite and a surveillance video that showed Frazee in a Woodland gas station filling a can of gasoline that could have been used to cremate his body. Kenney can be seen in the same sequence, investigators said.
The judge also heard the recording of a phone call between Frazee and a police officer from Woodland Park investigating the disappearance of Berreth. He told the officer that Berreth had attempted to terminate their relationship and suggested that custody of the child may be at stake.
After the murder, Frazee allegedly put Berreth's body in a black bag, placed it in the back of her pickup truck, and reportedly drove to Thanksgiving with her family, including her brother, a Colorado police officer. Springs.
Cell phone records show that Frazee and Berreth phones were connected to the same cell tower near Cripple Creek, saying the phones were reunited after Frazee's departure from Woodland Park, officials said.
Kenney told investigators that Frazee later drove the body to Nash Ranch, Fremont County, and placed it on top of a haystack in a barn, Slater said. Kenney would have gone to the ranch and helped Frazee recover the body. Berreth's body in a Toyota Tacoma, they drove into the property of Frazee, in Teller County, where he used gasoline and oil to burn a bag containing the body and the baseball bat used to kill it.
"She (Kenney) stayed there for several hours while the fire was burning," said Slater. At one point at least, Frazee's mother, Sheila Frazee, would have gone out and looked around.
Berreth, 29, disappeared November 22 – Thanksgiving Day – and is presumed dead, but her body was not found. Frazee was arrested on December 21 and then charged with murder.
Kenney, 32, of Hansen, Idaho, is an ex-girlfriend of Frazee who revived his relationship with him in March 2018, unbeknownst to Berreth, according to eyewitness accounts.
She pleaded guilty to evidence of falsification of evidence earlier this month, under a plea contract that requires her to cooperate with investigators and take a stand against Frazee. She faces up to 18 months in prison.
In the two months before the assassination, Frazee reportedly asked Kenney to kill Berreth three times, three counts of soliciting murder against Frazee.
In convincing her to help, Frazee claimed that Berreth was a "terrible mother" who had abused their 14-month-old daughter. Authorities claim to have no evidence that the child was injured and she seemed happy and healthy at the time.
At the end of September, the couple were discussing drugging Berreth's coffee. Kenney went as far as knocking on Berreth's door posing as a neighbor with a Starbuck caramel macchiato, Berreth's favorite drink. Although Kenney said that she had handed the glass to Berreth, she had not added any drugs, as she would have discussed with Frazee.
Irritated, Frazee then asked him to attack Berreth with a metal pole, which he had supplied, and with a baseball bat, Kenney told the authorities. Kenney said every time she was losing her temper.
Then, on November 22, Frazee called Kenney in Idaho and said, "You must be here now. You have a mess to clean up, "Slater said.
This led her to Colorado with a cleaning kit including rubber gloves, a protective suit and garbage bags. She said she entered Berreth's house on November 24 after collecting Frazee's keys.
"When she opened the door, it was horrible," Slater said.
Kenney said she spent three to four hours in the Berreth townsite, whitening the walls and floor, removing curtains and couch cushions, and looking for a tooth that Frazee had been knocked out of, Slater said.
As her involvement grew stronger, Kenney declared that she feared for herself and for a child, persuaded that Frazee would target them while apparently targeting Berreth.
During his confession, Kenney led the investigators to Nash Ranch on December 21 to show them where Berreth's body had been stored, as well as on the Frazee property, indicating where it had been burned, said Slater. FBI evidence technicians and a fire investigator from the Colorado Department of Public Safety investigated the suspected burn area and found evidence of accelerating, but there is no rest left. Frazee reportedly told Kenney that he would "pick her up" and get rid of her leftovers in a dump or somewhere else.
Kenney told investigators that she had gone to Idaho with Berreth's phone at Frazee's request. She sent him a text message to Berreth's work supervisor.
Kenney also claimed to have intentionally left blood in Berreth's chimney and on a baby door in the townhouse, among other places, in the hope that it would be discovered. For the same reason, she said, she voluntarily turned on Berreth's phone at times when leaving Colorado, knowing that this could be related to the movements of her own phone. She apparently thought it would inform investigators and create a trail.
Kenney stated that she had thrown the keys of Berreth's townhouse into an Idaho gorge and that she had burned the woman's cell phone in her backyard.
Prosecutors sought to summon Sheila Frazee to the stand on Tuesday, but Judge Sells ruled that she was not obliged to testify after her attorney had declared in court that she would invoke her right not to incriminate yourself. In his court application, El Paso County District Attorney Dan May said that Frazee allegedly told her mother to lie about Berreth as part of a campaign to present her as a bad mother. May also said that Sheila had witnessed the fire of evidence during the murder.
Slater also revealed that medico-legal tests had revealed traces of Berreth's blood in his bathroom. Berreth's family warned the IWC after finding blood on a toilet on December 6th. The Woodland Park police and the CBI remained empty in their house sweep on December 3 and 4.
Cell phone records from the day of Berreth's disappearance showed that Frazee had called her mother, Sheila, at 4:24 pm, Slater said. His phone connected to the tower that serves Berreth's house.
At 4:37 pm, Frazee called Kenney's Idaho number – also near Berreth's home – and received a call back from that number a few minutes later.
Cmdr of the Woodland Park Police Chris Adams told the court that on November 23, the Berreth and Frazee phones "destroyed" the tower that serves Frazee's house in Florissant.
Kenney was seen on the surveillance video on November 24 in a Conoco at Florissant. Frazee was also captured in this video and filled a carafe of gasoline.
On November 25, Kenney and Berreth phones rang simultaneously at Grand Junction.
Also that day, Berreth's supervisor received a message from her saying that she would not be at work and that she was going to visit her grandmother, Slater said. Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, told Slater that Kelsey had never mentioned the trip.
Cheryl also told Slater that she had received an SMS from Berreth's phone on November 24 saying she would call the next day. This call never came, says Slater.
Sean Frazee, Patrick's brother and a police officer from Colorado Springs, stopped by Patrick at 2:30 pm. November 22, said Adams. Patrick was not at home but arrived "a little later" with the couple's child. Adams is nothing extraordinary. Patrick and Sean Frazee have been described as "separated".
Adams also described a recorded appeal on December 2 between Frazee and a police officer from Woodland Park. Frazee told the officer that Berreth wanted to end their relationship. She wanted "space", he told the police. "We would find a custody arrangement from there," said Frazee.
In the recorded appeal, Frazee also claimed that Berreth was suffering from depression and had gone to a California clinic to be treated there in August 2018. After she left, she had complained of the stress resulting from daily trips between Woodland Park and Pueblo.
In 2017, Frazee confiscated Berreth's weapon after being threatened, said Slater, claiming the episode was linked to investigators of Berreth's mother. The couple was arguing over finances when Berreth said, "Maybe I would be better off" and pointed the rifle at his head.
Prior to Tuesday, the only possible ground for the alleged murder had been found in an amended suit filed in the US District Court on Friday in the Berreth family's wrongful death lawsuit in Frazee. In this document, they claim that Frazee, who had the keys to Berreth's townhouse, asked for custody of her daughter and killed her when she refused.
Slater said Tuesday that detectives had found a motion in police custody during a search of Frazee's home. The documents were completed from August, but were not filed in court, said Slater.
The case, which caught the attention of the international community, also led to a battle for the custody of the couple's daughter, pitting Berreth's parents against Frazee's mother. A judge granted temporary custody to Berreth's parents.
Frazee's friends described him as a hard-working breeder, farrier and horse trainer who lived on his family's property in Florissant. Some speak of him as an average Joe, while others describe him as a caring father who would help anyone.
Their claim that Frazee was unfairly linked to death was shaken earlier this month when Kenney pleaded guilty to tampering with the evidence.
"I learned that Patrick Frazee had committed a homicide," Kenney said, reading a handwritten statement. She cried admitting that she had helped hide a cell phone, revealing nothing about the murder case or other elements of apparent concealment.
Kenney's plea agreement prevents him from discussing the case.
Liz Forster of The Gazette contributed to this story.
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