Patrick Frazee will face a murder trial in the death of his fiancee Kelsey Berreth, who vanished last Thanksgiving Day near Woodland Park, a city between Denver and Colorado Springs. Her body has not been found.
The couple has a 1-year-old daughter, Kaylee, who is in the custody of Berreth's parents.
Idaho resident Krystal Lee Kenney told investigators that she was in a romantic relationship with Frazee last year and he allegedly asked her to kill Berreth on three different occasions, said Gregg Slater, an agent for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Kenney said she was not involved in the fatal attack, but the suspect ordered her to clean up the victim's home after he killed her, Slater said.
Slater testified about his interview with Kenney, who provided details of the November 22 killing. Kenney pleaded guilty to evidence tampering on February 8.
Plan allegedly involved poisoned coffee
Investigators revealed grisly new details about the killing and what steps the two allegedly took to cover it up.
Frazee and Kenney started an intimate relationship in early 2018, she told investigators. He allegedly concocted a plan to kill Berreth, whom he accused of being abusive to their child and using drugs.
His first plan in September involved Kenney poisoning a Caramel Macchiato and giving it to Berreth, but she could not bring herself to do it, investigators said.
The second and third attempts happened in the next month. The first of those involved Kenney assaulting the victim in the parking lot of her condo with a metal pipe. She waited for Berreth, but still couldn't do it, Slater said. The third attempt was to beat Berreth with a baseball bat, and again she refused.
Frazee allegedly took matters into his own hands and killed Berreth with a baseball bar at her home on Thanksgiving Day last year, according to Slater.
He asked Kenney to come and clean up the blood in the victim's home after the attack, and she brought with her a box of latex gloves, a white suit, booties, bleach, two trash bags and a hair net. Frazee even asked her to look for a tooth near a vent, Slater said.
He allegedly bashed her with a bat
Frazee was arrested in December on murder charges and is being held without bond.
Prosecutors filed new charges against him Tuesday, including tampering with a body and counts related to a crime of violence.
The suspect allegedly killed Berreth by wrapping a sweater around her head and bashing her with a baseball bat. He later burned her body in a water trough, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing in Cripple Creek, west of Colorado Springs.
Frazee tried to enlist Kenney to dispose of the body in Idaho but she refused, according to Slater. Instead, he removed the body to a farm in Fremont County, where it was left in a black tote bag in a stack of hay while he went to Thanksgiving dinner, Slater testified.
The suspect later moved the body to a water trough and added gas and wood before setting it ablaze, Slater said. Frazee allegedly scooped up the remains and disposed of them either at a dump or in a river.
"You don't know how hard it is to have Thanksgiving dinner after killing her," Kenney recalled Frazee telling her, according to Slater.
She allegedly cleaned up the crime scene
On November 22, Frazee called Kenney to say he needed her help cleaning up a mess in Colorado, according to Slater.
She drove overnight to Colorado, bringing with her cleaning equipment. She picked up a key at Frazee's home and opened the door at Berreth's townhouse to what she described as a "horrific" scene, Slater testified. She spent hours cleaning, discarding blood-stained toys and other items.
In early December, investigators examining Berreth's bathroom found blood in the toilet, the bathtub exterior, the bottom of a trash can, the walls, floor, a towel rack, the vanity and an electrical outlet, according to Slater.
Slater, testified the blood matched a DNA profile created with samples taken from the Berreth family. .
Parents reveal possible motive
Berreth's parents, Cheryl-Lee Ellen Berreth and Darrell Lynn Berreth, filed a wrongful death lawsuit and cited a custody dispute as a likely a motive. They said the suspect wanted full custody of their granddaughter, but Berreth would not agree.
Frazee told police he last saw his fiancée on November 22, when he picked up their daughter, making him the last known person to report seeing her alive.
In addition to the charges added Tuesday, Frazee faces two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of solicitation to commit murder in the first degree.
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