Crimefeed on ID chronicles Kelsey Berreth’s murder by her fiance, Patrick Frazee, on Thanksgiving Day in 2018. The episode will air on the network this Wednesday, December 13, 2023, at 11 p.m. ET.
According to NBC News, Kelsey Berreth, a Colorado mother, disappeared from her home. She was last seen with her fiance, Patrick Frazee, and their child outside her house on November 22, 2018. Ten days later, on December 2, her mother filed a missing person’s report, prompting an extensive search for the missing woman.
Eventually, Frazee’s then-mistress, Krystal Lee Kenney, cooperated with authorities and made shocking revelations. Kenney claimed that Frazee had tried to enlist her to murder Berreth thrice before killing her on his own. She also admitted to having helped him in covering up the crime and disposing of the victim’s remains.
Kelsey Berreth’s murder case: Everything to know
People Magazine reported that according to Krystal Kenney, Patrick Frazee had tried to enlist her to kill his fiance, Kelsey Berreth, one three occasions. Berreth was a flight instructor in Woodland Park, Colorado, and the mother of the couple’s toddler daughter. However, each time, Kenney either failed to complete the job or simply refused.
Then, on Thanksgiving Day in 2018, Frazee committed the crime on his own. According to Denver 7, investigators believe he killed the mother-of-one inside her apartment. He allegedly blindfolded her, asked her to smell a scented candle, and then beat her to death with a baseball bat. Later, he enlisted Kenney, his then-mistress, to help him cover up the murder. She complied, fearing that he might kill her too if she refused.
Kenney claimed she entered Berreth’s home to find “a significant blood pool on the floor in the living room.” Jennifer Viehman, a senior deputy district attorney, told in an episode of People Magazine Investigates, “There’s blood on the walls. There’s blood on the couch, on the TV, on tables, in the kitchen. As she [Krystal Kenney] spends hours cleaning up this horrific, bloody crime scene, she bags up items that can’t be cleaned. Pillows. Baby toys.”
As per CBS News, Kenney also told police that after Frazee killed Berreth, he took her body to his ranch. There, he burned her remains and other evidence in a big bonfire on the property. She took detectives through the crime scene at the victim’s house as well as the ranch property, where they reportedly burned her remains and other evidence.
Denver 7’s report stated that police arrested Patrick Frazee on December 21 that same year, a day after Kenney confessed to her role. Later that month, he was formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. The following May, he pleaded not guilty to the murder of Kelsey Berreth. In the meantime, police conducted a widespread search for Berreth’s body but failed to find the same.
In February 2019, Krystal Kenney reportedly pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence and agreed to testify against Frazee. The latter stood trial in late October of the same year. As part of her plea deal, Kenney gave a detailed account of the murder at his trial as the state’s star witness. A jury ultimately found the accused guilty of all charges, including first-degree murder, solicitation for murder, and tampering with a deceased human body, on November 18, 2019.
Not long after, Frazee received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder charge. Additionally, he also got 156 years for the other counts.
