One of many extra disturbing episodes of the longstanding CBS present 48 Hours highlights the troubling story of 29-year-old mom Kelsey Berreth, who disappeared after a visit to the grocery retailer together with her toddler daughter round Thanksgiving in 2018.
Berreth was final seen together with her then fiancé, Patrick Frazee outdoors her house in Woodland Park, Colorado on Nov. 22. On Dec. 2, her mom reported her lacking after days of nerve-racking worrying. Whereas her physique was by no means discovered, Frazee was finally arrested and convicted of first-degree homicide. He was sentenced to life in jail plus 156 years.
The small print of the homicide, dropped at life by Frazee’s sidepiece Krystal Lee, are disturbing, violent and exhausting to get out of your head when you hear them. So what occurred? Let’s begin from the start.
Who’s Kelsey Berreth, and what occurred to her?
Kelsey Berreth grew up on a farm in Washington and dreamed of being a business pilot in the future. She had a reasonably quiet, remoted childhood, in accordance with her mom. She was decided although, and finally went to pilot faculty in Washington.
She met her fiancé and finally killer, Patrick Frazee, on-line and moved to Colorado to be nearer to him. She labored as a flight teacher at an Air Power base in Grand Junction, after which took a job at Doss Aviation, the place her boss Raymond Siebring sang her praises.
“She was extremely diligent in taking her time in ensuring that what’s an intensive course of was accomplished right. I’m referring to grade sheet necessities, flight necessities, and it appeared prefer it was one thing as nerve-racking because it was — and it’s meant to be nerve-racking — that it was dealt with nicely.”
Berreth and Frazee finally had a daughter collectively, and Kaylee turned the “mild” of Berreth’s life. She saved a photograph of her daughter on her desk always, together with bible verses that demonstrated her religion to her God.
One factor lacking from the entire unlucky incident is the “why.” Why did Frazee brutally homicide the mom of his little one in chilly blood? Why did he danger it? One attainable motive comes from a wrongful dying lawsuit filed by Berreth’s mother and father in 2019. Per the civil criticism:
“Upon info and perception, Frazee had motive to kill Kelsey in that he wished full custody of [Kaylee Berreth] and/or Kelsey to go away [Kaylee Berreth] with him and Kelsey wouldn’t agree.” Regardless, the case is fairly horrific.
One of the best we are able to do is extrapolate that Frazee wished to maneuver on along with his secret mistress and preserve his little one. When this didn’t appear attainable, he murdered Berreth.
The final time Berreth was seen in public was at a Safeway grocery retailer in Woodland Park. Earlier than she left, Berreth requested her mom for a recipe for bread dip. She additionally bought a poinsettia.
What occurred subsequent is ugly. Berreth went to Frazee’s residence ostensibly to drop off Kaylee, and as soon as inside, he requested her to placed on a blindfold so she might “guess totally different candle” scents, in accordance with the arrest affidavit.
He then batterted her to dying with a baseball bat whereas Kaylee was in a playpen within the different room. The police investigation started on Dec. 2 when Berreth’s mother known as police. After doing a welfare verify on the home, the investigation shortly turned from a lacking individuals one to a homicide one.
Once they contacted Frazee, he stated he “exchanged custody” of Kaylee in an alley behind her home, making him the final particular person to see her alive.
After the homicide, Frazee contracted his mistress Krystal Lee and instructed her he wanted her to “clear up a large number.” She would later testify that initially she didn’t know Frazee had a fiancé, a lot much less a daughter. Nearly all the element in regards to the homicide itself got here from Lee, who cooperated with police and was given leeway in her sentencing.
Lee instructed investigators that Frazee instructed her he had been enthusiastic about murdering Berreth “for months.” She stated that he claimed Berreth was an “abusive mom who bodily abused their daughter on a number of cases, together with with an iron.” There are not any information of such abuse.
Lee stated Frazee even requested her to homicide Berreth herself, and even gave her a steel pipe to hit her with and kill her. Lee didn’t find yourself going by with it however didn’t dismiss the thought, even going so so far as contemplating poisoning Berreth’s espresso.
Lee stated Frazee known as her on the twenty second to come back assist with cleanup, however she couldn’t make it up till the twenty fourth. Within the meantime, he disposed of the physique. Lee introduced bleach, gloves, a hairnet, shoe covers and different miscellaneous homicide hiding materials together with her.
In the course of the cleansing, Frazee instructed Lee he was anxious he left a tooth on the home as a result of “when he hit her within the face with the bat … it brought about a number of of her enamel to grow to be dislodged.” Lee discovered that tooth and removed it, per the affidavit.
She described a harrowing scene: There was blood in all places; on the curtains, pillows, child toys, bools, oven mitts and Berreth’s purse, amongst splatter all around the partitions and ground. Lee grabbed a whole lot of the blood soaked objects and took them to Frazee’s residence in Florissant. She stated she spent hours cleansing up the home, utilizing bleach and windex to take away stains.
She wore a white swimsuit whereas she cleaned, with the gloves, hairnet and booties on her toes. She additionally stated she left some blood on the rock face of the hearth in hopes that investigators would discover it.
Whereas all this was happening, Frazee was eliminating the physique. He saved it in a black plastic tote and took it to a farm, after which to his land in Florissant. Together with Lee, he put the physique in a trough with the homicide weapon, and poured gasoline and motor oil on it.
At one level, the tote melted and Lee noticed what appeared like a physique within the flames, she instructed investigators. In additional makes an attempt to cowl up the crime, Frazee instructed Lee to eliminate Berreth’s gun so it might appear like a suicide, after which take Berreth’s telephone to so far as Utah and use it to throw police off the path.
Frazee was arrested on December twentieth, lower than a month after the homicide. Due to her cooperation, Lee was sentenced to 3 years in jail, which was later diminished to 18 months.
In court docket, Lee testified that Berreth’s final phrases have been directed to her fiancé: “Please cease,” she pleaded.