The Colorado man on trial for murdering the mother of his child stared out of his car’s window as he headed to court, where it was revealed he claimed to have had a ‘heated’ conversation about their relationship before he allegedly killed her.
Patrick Frazee, 33, told investigators that his last communication from his fiancée Kesley Berreth, 29, was a text asking ‘Do you even love me?’
Frazee replied: ‘Why would I bend over backwards and stand behind you through everything if I didn’t? So in answer to your question, yes I do.’ The message did not go through.
He gave his account of the days leading up to and following Thanksgiving last year – the time when Berreth, the mother of his daughter, Kaylee, was last seen.
But cellphone signal, landline calls and surveillance stills from a variety of stores near Berreth’s home directly contradicts Frazee’s account of the last time he saw Berreth.
Frazee has appeared solemn and has sat with his eyes downcast for much of the proceedings. His once shaggy hair is now cropped close and the man who once worked outdoors, running cattle and shodding horses, has gained weight since his arrest almost one year ago.
He has listened to testimony at Teller County District Courtwithout any reaction.
The murder trial of Patrick Frazee continued on Thursday in Cripple Creek, Colorado, as he was seen heading to court in exclusive DailyMail.com pictures
The father (pictured in February) has appeared solemn and has sat with his eyes downcast for much of the proceedings. His once shaggy hair is now cropped close and the man who once worked outdoors, running cattle and shodding horses, has gained weight since his arrest almost one year ago. He has listened to testimony without any reaction
Frazee claimed he ‘received a text from Berreth asking him to keep Kaylee…and saying she wanted to go to church by herself and that they would talk later.’ At the time of that alleged conversation, police found Berreth’s phone connected to Frazee’s mistress, Krystal Kenney, near the Colorado-Utah border
Senior Criminal Intelligence Analyst, Kevin Clark set out the detailed and damning timeline built from all the available data across November 22 to 25th last year and presented to the court on Thursday afternoon.
In testimony on Thursday morning the court heard how Frazee claimed to have last seen Berreth when he picked up their daughter at 12.30pm on Thanksgiving.
But surveillance stills showed Frazee, Berreth and Kaylee entering her home in Woodland Park at 1.24pm that day.
And while Frazee’s brother, Sean, gave a statement that he arrived at his brother’s home in Florissant at 2.30pm for Thanksgiving dinner, several hours later a call made by Frazee to his mother, Sheila, showed his phone still in Woodland Park.
Frazee was still there when he called his mistress, Kenney, at 4.37pm on it was only at 5.50pm that the cell signals showed his phone traveling back towards Florissant.
But within seconds of his cell phone ping Berreths also pinged leading investigators to conclude that the cells were traveling together.
When Berreth’s mother Cheryl received a message from her phone an hour later investigators are convinced that it was Frazee, not Berreth, who wrote and sent it.
He had numerous communications with Kenney later on Thanksgiving afternoon and into the evening. And shortly after 10pm Thanksgiving night pings showed Berreth and Frazee’s phones traveling together to the Nash ranch – where investigators found the burn site – and back towards Florissant.
The following day Kenney’s phone showed her traveling from her home in Idaho and towards Colorado. Activity monitored across the next two days showed her loop round through Florissant, Woodland Park and back to Idaho where Kelsey’s last cellphone activity registered and from where her last alleged text message was sent
Mary Longmire, an administrator with Teller County Human Services, recalled the conversation she had with Frazee on December 26 – more than a month since Berreth was last seen alive and after he had been charged with her murder.
According to Longmire, Frazee claimed Berreth had ‘lost it’ and told them to keep their daughter Kaylee for a little bit after they argued over their failing relationship and decided to ‘go their separate ways.’
Cellphone signal, landline calls and surveillance stills from a variety of stores near Berreth’s home directly contradicts Frazee’s account of the last time he saw Berreth
It was revealed on Wednesday that Frazee was listed as Berreth’s beneficiary on her life insurance policy but it is unclear if he would have been able to cash in on the policy, due to a change in company ownership
Longmire said the day before Thanksgiving, Frazee told her Berreth had called him to come and pick up Kaylee but that he couldn’t make it right away, so they agreed to meet at Florissant Post Office an hour and a half later.
She said: ‘He said they met and started a conversation about their relationship and they decided to keep talking while they drove to the Nash ranch and at that point it was about going their separate ways and they would share custody of Kaylee 50/50.’
Frazee described the conversation as ‘heated’, the court heard.
After going to the ranch Frazee claimed he had been ‘sick to his stomach’ and that Berreth had offered to go and bring him some medication.
Longmire said: ‘He said that she arrived at his house very early in the morning of the 22nd, one or two o’clock in the morning and that she took Kaylee and returned home and that he received a text from Kelsey saying they had got home safely.’
Frazee maintained that he and Berreth texted and spoke over the next three days – and that the plan had been for him to pick Kaylee up about 12.30pm on Thanksgiving Day and that she would be with her mother in the morning.
Longmire said: ‘He said he picked up Kaylee up about 12.30 Thanksgiving Day. I assumed at their home…and that they agreed to speak again Friday morning.’
She said instead, Frazee ‘received a text from Berreth asking him to keep Kaylee…and saying she wanted to go to church by herself and that they would talk later.’
Frazee described that later conversation as ‘heated’ saying, ‘Kelsey lost it,’ and claimed that they decided, ‘He would keep Kaylee until the storm blew over.’
Assistant DA Jennifer Viehman pressed the point, saying: ‘He said that was an actual conversation?’ Longmire answered: ‘Yes.’
Teller County Court House where Frazee is being tried for the murder of his fiancee
At the time of that alleged conversation, investigators found Berreth’s cell phone connected to Frazee’s mistress, Krystal Lee Kenney, near the Colorado-Utah border.
Kenney is the prosecutor’s star witness and testified that Frazee made her clean up the bloody murder scene at Berreth’s home and take Berreth’s phone.
CBI Agent Gregg Slater later testified that among the messages they recovered from Frazee’s cell phone there was a response to the last message sent from Berreth’s cell.
Typed at 5.20pm it read, ‘Why would I bend over backwards and stand behind you through everything if I didn’t? So in answer to your question, yes I do.’
The message did not go through.
Slater went onto talk about how text messages recovered from Frazee’s cell phone and Berreth’s iPad told a sorry story of the state of their relationship and Berreth’s hurt and frustration at his broken ‘promise’ that they would make a home and a life together.
Slater said that they began to put together a picture of their relationship from the content and pattern of the messages.
He said: ‘Based on what I read it was mostly Kelsey initiating conversations. There were very infrequent responses. There were messages sent from Kelsey with regard to Kaylee- picking her up, thanking Patrick for a nice day together, logistics as far as exchanging Kaylee back and forth.
‘There were also text messages where Kelsey was expressing frustration and anger with the status of the relationship, the direction of the relationship, where it was going, from time to time and her concerns with that.’
Agents studied messages and Facebook posts and comments from Berreth to Frazee as far back as April 2018.
Multiple witnesses testified Frazee said Berreth, 29, had a drug and drink problem and would disappear for months at a time. it was also revealed he was a beneficiary of her life insurance policy
Agent Slater said: ‘At one point she spoke about the promise that had been made for her to come down here to establish a life together, a family together and it’s not going to be that way. Do you love me?’
‘Text messages that she’s not able to see Kaylee as much as she wants, either we are a family and we live together or we’re not.
‘There may be a response back from Patrick (occasionally saying) ‘we love you.’
‘But they were few and far between.’
Similarly, Slater noted that Berreth often sent links of properties for sale to Frazee via Facebook with a comment such as, ‘Hey look at this nice property. Check this out.’
At the time she was also communicating with her parents in the hope of pulling together a down payment for a property. According to Slater, Frazee did not respond to these messages.
Agent Slater also revealed that cops might never have discovered the burn pit on Frazee’s property, the blood in the bathroom of Berreth’s home or other vital forensic evidence without the co-operation of Frazee’s mistress Krystal Lee Kenney.
He admitted to the court that Berreth’s condo was about to be turned back over to her parents without any samples taken and key surveillance footage was on the point of being automatically scrubbed clean, when Kenney agreed to talk.
He described the burn area on Frazee’s property as being, ‘hundreds and hundreds of yards, several football fields,’ from the ranch gates.
He recalled how she led investigators directly to it and said, ‘It was painfully obvious to me that there was discoloration in the dirt. I had a reaction to it just based on some of the experiences I’ve had.’
Asked where the investigation would have gone without Kenney’s co-operation he said, ‘I honestly don’t know.’
Frazee leaned back in his chair and stared into the middle distance as Slater testified that it was Kenney who broke the case they might never have cracked.
On Wednesday, the court heard how Frazee bad-mouthed Berreth to multiple people, saying she had a drink and drug problem, would disappear for months and speculated she had ‘run off’ to ‘sort herself out’.
It was also revealed that Frazee was listed as Berreth’s beneficiary on her life insurance policy but it is unclear if he would have been able to cash in on the policy, due to a change in company ownership.
Additionally, an expert forensic anthropologist testified that fragments of a human tooth were found on the property where police suspect Frazee killed Berreth.
According to Forensic Anthropologist, Dr Diane France who was sent the fragments by Colorado Bureau of Investigations, ‘It’s consistent with a human tooth and there is nothing that is inconsistent with a (broken) human tooth, I think it’s human.’
There was not enough DNA to generate a full profile but subsequent testing revealed the tooth to have come from a woman.
Frazee, 33, claimed to have full custody of his daughter, Kaylee, and told more than one person that 29-year-old Kelsey Berreth ‘signed away her rights’ the moment the child was born. Frazee is accused of beating Berreth to death with a bat at her home last Thanksgiving Day
A large bloodstain found on the hardwood floor in the livingroom tested positive for Berreth’s DNA and also that of a male. It could not conclusively be identified as Frazee’s but the analysis was described as giving ‘limited to moderate’ support for his being there.
Earlier in the day, Alyssa Smith, who has known Frazee since she was a child, said he only mentioned he had a daughter a month prior to Berreth’s disappearance. He had never spoken of Berreth up until that point.
Smith admitted: ‘I was shocked. He said that he always had [Kaylee] and that he went and picked her up from the hospital when she was born.
‘He said that her mom told him to come pick her up. He said he had full custody of the child.
‘He said that there could be weeks to months that he didn’t hear from her to check on the baby.’
But a string of Berreth’s former colleagues at Doss Aviation where she was a flight instructor, cast doubt on Frazee’s assertions describing Berreth as a ‘strong woman,’ who completed grueling training and was ‘very happy’ to be a mother.
Jennifer Barks, the Human Resources executive at Doss Aviation where Berreth was a flight instructor, testified that Frazee was listed as the beneficiary on Berreth’s life insurance policy.
Barks she said around the time Berreth was reported missing, the company was bought by new owners and she didn’t enroll Berreth in the new life insurance policy, meaning her insurance may have been inactive.
If Berreth’s policy was inactive, Frazee wouldn’t be able to cash in.
Banks also cast doubt on Frazee’s claims that Berreth was a neglectful mother who had substance abuse issues, as she called Frazee as Berreth’s emergency contact when reports first emerged that she was missing.
The Teller County District Court heard how Frazee immediately speculated that Berreth had ‘run off’ to ‘sort herself out,’ on being told she was missing. But a string of Berreth’s former colleagues cast doubt on Frazee’s assertions, describing Berreth as a ‘strong woman,’ who completed grueling training and was ‘very happy’ to be a mother
Banks said: ‘He told me that he was aware [of the reports]. He told me that Kelsey had gone to him, given him the baby and said she needed a break, she needed to figure things out, she didn’t know what to do with her life and would be taking some space.
‘He said she had a drug and alcohol problem and that she had gone away for that in the past and he didn’t know if it was related to that.’
In fact, Berreth’s only spell in any sort of rehab program was in August 2018 when she underwent treatment for stress and depression.
Barks said she had challenged Frazee’s assertion regarding drugs and alcohol as did every other colleague who testified.
Each noted that flight training is conducted in such close quarters that it seemed incredible to them that such a problem could pass unnoticed.
And while Frazee bad-mouthed Berreth, if he spoke of her at all, Berreth told colleagues that he was her husband and rarely spoke of any troubles at home.
Friend and former colleague Robert Hill was the only one with whom she shared the fact that she and Frazee had some difficulties.
Hill recalled: ‘There was one conversation she said, ”Something really weird happened to me yesterday.” She said a random lady had come over to her house with coffee.’
‘I asked if she drank it she said no.’
During her testimony Frazee’s mistress told the court he had urged her to kill Berreth and one of the ways he suggested was for her to lace her cappuccino with poison.
In the afternoon, an expert forensic anthropologist testified that fragments of a human tooth were found on the property where police suspect Frazee killed Berreth. According to Forensic Anthropologist, Dr Diane France who was sent the fragments by Colorado Bureau of Investigations, ‘It’s consistent with a human tooth and there is nothing that is inconsistent with a (broken) human tooth, I think it’s human’
On Wednesday, DailyMail.com published exclusive footage of Kenney picking up food from Sonic after she claimed she spent hours cleaning up Berreth’s home after Frazee beat Berreth to death with a bat.
Kenney was seen in surveillance footage pulling up to the drive-thru window, and while she waited for her order, primped and played with her hair, before leaving with her food around 1pm the day after the alleged murder.
Kenney testified she had picked up the food for Frazee and his one-year-old child with Berreth after she spent hours cleaning up splattered blood at Berreth’s home, and then went over to Frazee’s home with the fast food.
She claims Frazee went on to burn a black tote that contained Berreth’s body on his property.
The court heard on Wednesday that Berreth’s blood was found in locations throughout her townhouse.
Extensive DNA analysis found that traces of blood found in areas including the bathroom, on the fireplace and on the baby-gate ‘very strongly supported the proposition,’ that the blood was Berreth’s.
On Tuesday Kayla Daugherty, who had a relationship with Frazee for six to eight weeks during 2016, claimed Frazee told her that Teller County was so vast you could ‘get rid of someone’ and no-one would know. She said that he made the comment in 2015.
Frazee worked as her farrier from 2010 until 2018 though she said that their relationship lasted just six to eight weeks and was ‘more sexual,’ than romantic in nature.
Krystal Lee Kenney is the star witness in the case against Frazee. DailyMail.com obtained exclusive surveillance footage of Kenney picking up fast food at Sonic after she claimed she spent hours cleaning up blood at Berreth’s home at Frazee’s request
Kenney testified she had picked up the food for Frazee and his one-year-old child with Berreth. After arriving with the food at Frazee’s home, she claims Frazee burned a black tote back that contained Berreth’s body
Daugherty was followed by Savannah Greasby, another of the farrier’s former clients.
In testimony Greasby was taken through a series of text messages that she and Frazee exchanged across Thanksgiving last year and early December last year.
The messages were remarkable not so much for their content, which was vaguely flirtatious, but for the time across which the exchange took place.
The texts spanned November 21 through to December 11, covering the period during which Berreth was missing. Yet Frazee made no mention of this. Instead at the time he asked Greasby to dinner – she did not go – while she offered to keep him company on drives.
The only hint that all was not well came on December 4 when Frazee texted: ‘Life has taken some awkward turns of late. I’ll fill you in when the dust settles.’
Frazee told Greasby that he was seeking full custody of his daughter and described her mother as ‘in rehab’ and ‘bi-polar.’
Another former client, Catherine Donahue, told the court that Frazee ‘never had anything nice to say about Kelsey,’ who he claimed was ‘absolutely crazy’ and had ‘abandoned her baby directly after the birth.’
The women appeared in court on the eighth day of his trial, when the jury heard from prosecution witnesses who testified about the death of Berreth, who disappeared last Thanksgiving Day.
Expert witness Jerry Means, Investigations Chief at Adams County Fire and Rescue Denver testified Tuesday that a burn site found on Frazee’s ranch had tell-tale signs of a body having been placed in a plastic tote and burned to the point of consumption.
Patrick Frazee (pictured) told Kayla Daugherty – a woman with whom he had a brief fling – that Teller County was so vast you could ‘get rid of someone’ and no-one would know
It was also revealed Frazee invited another woman to dinner after his fiance Kelsey Berreth (pictured) disappeared
Berreth’s family sat in the front row of the Teller County court room as the court heard gruesome testimony about the impact of fire on a human body and Means pointed out to an oily patch of ground, next to the burn site.
The soil was fused together in a way that could only have been caused by burning plastic, he said. And the oily stain was consistent with human body oil.
Questioned by prosecutor Dan Mays, Means explained: ‘It is very common for [fat on] the body to somewhat liquefy, just like cooking a steak. It liquefies and it drips down on a concentrated level.’
Means described the process by which a body, ravaged by fire, ‘hangs tough’ for a remarkably long time before its destruction.
Means described the chronology of a body burned to the point of destruction. He said: ‘Small parts go first, fingers and toes, they dislocate from larger items, your hands for example. The big muscles like your forearms dry out and draw up and it causes the arms to go into a sort of pugilistic posture.’
He said that the same ‘drawing up’ occurs with the legs and feet with the pelvic area and torso being the last to go before.
For his part Frazee sat impassive. Wearing a blue checked shirt, his head shaved closed, he looked down for much of the Means’ testimony. Occasionally he looked towards the witness, cocking his head to the side and blinking rapidly as he listened.
Asked if there was a possibility that the oil observed on the ground could have been motor oil, Means conceded that it could have been, or it could have been a mixture of human oil and motor oil.
Expert witness Jerry Means, Investigations Chief at Adams County Fire and Rescue Denver testified Tuesday that a burn site found on Frazee’s ranch had tell-tale signs of a body having been placed in a plastic tote and burned to the point of consumption. Pictured: Frazee’s property where authorities say he burned Berreth’s body in a pit
Margaret Luce, a former client of Frazee who used his services as a farrier for her horses, took the stand to testify that Frazee had told her that Berreth ‘did not want to be a mother,’ and that she was ‘unstable’ and had threatened suicide.
Luce claimed that in a conversation after Berreth’s disappearance Frazee had shared the fact that he had returned a gun to Berreth despite having concerns that she would ‘hurt herself.’
She said: ‘He said he didn’t want her to have a gun because she might hurt herself… but she wanted the gun back and said that she was threatening to go to the police so he asked if he could try to sell it for her.’
When he couldn’t get a good enough price, Luce said, Frazee told her he had returned the gun.
She said: ‘I sort of wondered why he was telling me it.’
Later Luce tried to comfort Frazee with the comment: ‘Perhaps Kelsey will come back.’
Frazee replied: ‘Oh she’s not coming back.’
Berreth’s father looked down and put his face in his hands as investigators described the blood stains they found throughout her apartment.
Working on tips from key witness Krystal Lee Kenney, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation evidence technician described identifying blood spots on walls, the stone fireplace and a wooden baby gate, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Last week the court heard from Joe Moore, one of Frazee’s closest friends who recalled that Frazee (left) had commented to him, ‘no body, no crime’
Investigators also found blood under the living room’s wooden floor boards, as well as cleaning marks on couch cushions and a picture frame.
On Friday jurors heard from prosecution witness Joe Moore, who has been friends with the suspected killer since middle school, and revealed the chilling comments Frazee told him regarding Berreth’s disappearance.
The longtime friend of Frazee took the witness stand where he revealed Frazee told him ‘if there is no body, there is no crime’ before and after his fiancée Berreth disappeared.
He testified that Frazee repeatedly said to him after she was reported missing, ‘Why do they [police] keep investigating cause if there is no body, there is no crime. Why do they [police] keep questioning me,’ according to Fox.
On one occasion after Berreth disappeared and Moore and Frazee were on a drive together, he recalled Frazee saying, ‘I don’t even understand why, why there’s such a big deal over this.’
‘And he’s like ‘man, if I had known it was going to blow up this big, I never would have …” Moore added.
Moore, who ran cattle with Frazee at multiple leased ranches in Teller and Park counties, testified that Frazee revealed his plans to kill Berreth back in April.
Moore said on April 26, 2018 he was was loading bulls into a truck with Frazee when he asked how his relationship with Berreth was going. The two already had their young daughter Kaylee at the time.
‘He said ‘I figured out a way to kill her.’ And I went ‘don’t even talk about s*** like that. Get that s*** out of your head,” Moore recalled.
‘And he just kinda grinned and went ‘no body, no crime, right?’ And I said ‘Patrick, get that out of your head,” Moore added.
Moore said it was hard for him to take the witness stand on Friday.
‘Just don’t wanna… picture somebody that you’ve known that long and have trusted… you just don’t wanna think that they could do something like this,’ he said through tears. ‘We were very darn close.’
Moore said he only met Berreth twice. They first met in November 2016 before she was pregnant. She helped them move cows and Moore recalled Frazee berated her and yelled and cussed at her.
He recalled another bizarre conversation with Frazee after Berreth’s disappearance in which he tried to theorize that she took her own life.
‘He said ‘you know, if Kelsey wanted to commit suicide, she could go out to Pike National Forest and commit suicide and no one would ever find her.’ I said ‘Patrick, if her phone is pinging up in Idaho, how can she possibly be in Pike National Forest? And he just went ‘huh, yeah…”
Moore said Frazee never seemed concerned about Berreth’s disappearance.
He also told Moore he had Berreth’s blood spattered on his clothes and shoes because she suffered a bloody nose on one occasion and injured her nose on a pole while they were herding cattle on another occasion.
‘He was very curious and always asking questions because he point-blank said that he had Kelsey’s blood on his pants and he had Kelsey’s blood on his shirt and boot, and the bottom of his boot,’ Moore recalled.
Frazee’s mistress Idaho nurse Kyrstal Lee Kenney testified on Thursday saying Frazee beat Berreth to death with a baseball bat and burned her body
‘He said ‘do you think they’ll be able to find any of that, even though it’s all been washed?” Moore testified.
Moore’s testimony came one day after that of Frazee’s mistress Idaho nurse Kenney.
In her bombshell account, she said Frazee told her that he beat Berreth to death with a baseball bat on November 22, 2018, Thanksgiving Day, and put her body into a black tote box that he stored in a red barn at a property he leased.
Lee said she saw Frazee burn the tote on his property after she drove to Colorado from Idaho to clean up the bloody crime scene.
She said the murder took place in front of the couple’s baby daughter Kaylee who was in the back room in her jumper when Frazee bludgeoned his fiancée to death.
Frazee was arrested for Berreth’s murder on December 21, 2018, three weeks after Berreth’s mother reported her missing.
Frazee has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder, and tampering with a deceased human body.
Frazee and Berreth’s daughter Kaylee is in the custody of Berreth’s parents.
His mistress Kenney testified against him and pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in a plea deal with prosecutors. She faces three years in prison.