On Thanksgiving 2018, November 22nd, Kelsey Berreth was seen at a local Safeway with her 1-year-old daughter. She was next seen at around 1 pm on a neighbour’s CCTV standing on her porch with the flowers she bought, talking to her fiancé Patrick Frazee. Sadly, this was the last time Kelsey was seen.
Her phone would ping around 700 miles away from her Colorado home in Idaho; a text was sent from this location to Kelsey’s employer at Doss Aviation requesting some time off. According to Frazee, he last spoke to Kelsey through text on November 25th, the same day as the phone ping and text to Doss Aviation.
Despite the phone being in Idaho, where Kelsey’s family lived, they didn’t get a visit, which, on top of their calls and texts being unanswered, was cause for concern. The last time Cheryl, Kelsey’s mother, spoke to her was at 9 am on November 22nd for around five minutes.
“Her voice was fine. It was a normal day for her.” Cheryl described Kelsey on that five-minute call.
Cheryl said that Kelsey mentioned not getting home until 4 am after helping Frazee check on the cattle at his ranch. Kelsey was planning to celebrate Thanksgiving with a dinner, but she didn’t mention anything about relationship troubles, which will become relevant shortly.
On December 2nd, Cheryl reported her daughter, 29-year-old Kelsey Berreth, missing. She was adamant that her daughter wouldn’t just run off, saying, “It’s just not in her character to do something, to just take off and be gone… Never has she gone anywhere without saying anything. It’s just not like her.”
The police searched Kelsey’s home, finding a cold tray of cinnamon rolls in the kitchen, her clothes, make-up, and suitcases all left behind. Phone records were checked and found Kelsey’s device travelled west from her home along with Frazee’s phone. The same CCTV that captured Kelsey’s last sighting at around 1 pm also saw Frazee leaving at 3:36 pm; it’s believed he took the phones at this point.
According to Cheryl, she spoke to Frazee on December 2nd trying to find Kelsey before reporting her missing. It’s said that Frazee told Kelsey’s parents he and Kelsey split up on Thanksgiving, had dinner at Cracker Barrel, and they agreed to split custody. He also allegedly said Kelsey “may have flown somewhere with a friend or co-worker” since Kelsey was a flight instructor at Doss Aviation.
For days, there was nothing. But then, on December 6th, Kelsey’s parents called the police again. They had gone to her home and found blood in the bathroom.
An analyst confirmed that there were traces of blood in the bathroom: on the toilet, the exterior part of the toilet, the bottom of the trash can, the sink, and on the wall.
The police began searching the phone records, finding the previously mentioned movement west on November 22nd with Frazee’s phone. This, along with other data and evidence, led to Patrick Frazee’s arrest on December 21st for the murder of his fiancée, Kelsey Berreth.
Following the arrest, the police spoke to a 32-year-old nurse in Idaho: Krystal Kean Lee Kenney. She would eventually take a plea deal for one count of evidence tampering if she would testify against Frazee. The tampering she pled guilty to was disposing of Kelsey’s phone 35 miles outside of Twin Falls, the town she worked in.
Kenney and Frazee, both 32, had met in 2006 in Lake George, Colorado, and had a year-and-a-half-long relationship, keeping in touch following the break-up.
In December 2008, Frazee reached out to Kenney again, while she was dating her future husband. He was offering her a Border Collie puppy. Months after Kenney had this puppy, Frazee reached back out again demanding payment for the animal and allegedly threatening to kill the puppy if she didn’t. From what I can tell, she paid, or at least the dog was not harmed.
The day before Kenney’s wedding, Frazee once again reached out, leaving a voicemail where he allegedly begged Kenney to call it off and said he wanted to “rescue her”. Kenney went through with the wedding, though she confessed that her heart was torn.
Then there was nothing; Kenney gave birth to a son and a daughter. Until 2015 came and Kenney was in a rough patch with her husband when Frazee reached out once again. Soon after, Kenney and Frazee began an affair.
They were planning a family, with Kenney talking about divorce and moving to Colorado to be with Frazee fully. In March 2016, Kenney discovered she was pregnant with Frazee’s baby; his alleged reaction was “I guess you’re a baby killer or you’re not.”
Kenney decided to terminate the pregnancy, but she told Frazee that she had miscarried. She also filed for divorce the same month.
After the end of this pregnancy, Frazee stopped talking to Kenney and would soon begin dating Kelsey Berreth.
In October 2017, Kelsey gave birth to her and Frazee’s daughter. In the same month, Kenney reached out to Frazee, claiming it was just to request his help with their mutual friend’s fundraiser. Shortly after she contacted him, an affair began, with Kenney supposedly unaware of Kelsey and the baby’s existence.
Kenney claimed she learned of Frazee’s family in July 2018, though she wouldn’t confront him until the following month. Frazee immediately began accusing Kelsey of being an abusive mother. Just to be clear, there is no evidence of any abuse towards the little girl at all.
But it wasn’t just the affair that made Frazee a bad partner to Kelsey.
Kelsey’s childhood friend, Ashley, described the relationship as borderline abusive, with Frazee allegedly always mad and Kelsey usually upset.
“She couldn’t win… The things that he would say to her were somewhat demeaning. I remember one time in particular she came to me, and she was just crying. And Kelsey is this — She’s a tough girl… and I can’t remember specifics, but I just remember gathering, ‘This person is borderline emotionally abusive to you right now’.”
Even at the hospital for the 3-week premature birth of their daughter, Frazee was verbally abusive towards the nursing staff. It was to the point Social Services had to be informed. The trigger was because the baby was required to get extra care and couldn’t stay in Kelsey’s hospital room. Frazee believed the first few hours after birth should be spent with the parents for bonding.
Cheryl, Kelsey’s mother, remembered Frazee saying he “should have killed the nurse that reported them” and joked about the incident again at the baby’s first birthday celebration.
This sadly brings us back to Kelsey and the attempts made on her life before she vanished on November 22nd, 2018.
Frazee managed to convince Kenney to attempt to murder Kelsey, using threats against her and her family along with claims of Kelsey being a bad mother. The first time was in September, when Kenney took Kelsey her favourite Starbucks drink, claiming to be a neighbour saying thanks. Kenney, thankfully, never put the drugs in the drink as Frazee planned.
Frazee was furious when Kenney told him she couldn’t do it, but he claimed she’d have “another chance”. Which she did.
Kenney went back to Kelsey’s home with a metal rod, intending to beat her to death. She again backed out as there were people around and it spooked her.
Following this second attempt, Kenney babysat Frazee and Kelsey’s daughter at Frazee’s ranch. When Frazee came back inside, he bashed Kenney’s cooking and the chores she had done around the home. Coupled with the baby not showing signs of abuse, Kenney allegedly began thinking Kelsey “was probably doing nothing wrong”.
Not long after this supposed realisation, Kenney went to Kelsey’s home again, this time with a baseball bat. She was once again scared off when she heard passing police sirens.
On November 22nd, 2018, Frazee went to Kelsey’s home, and with their 1-year-old in the other room, convinced Kelsey to put on a blindfold to play a game. He said she was going to guess the scents of different candles. Instead of the innocent game, Frazee took a baseball bat and beat Kelsey to death with it.
He would call Kenney shortly after the brutal murder and tell her, “you got a mess to clean up.”
Kenney arrived on the 24th with cleaning supplies, though she claimed she didn’t quite believe he had done it until she saw blood covering every imaginable surface in Kelsey’s home. Apparently Kenney left behind drops of blood on the fireplace and baby gate so the investigators would find them.
After cleaning, Kenney went to Frazee at his 35-acre property and watched as he took a plastic tote containing Kelsey’s body and set it on fire, burning the abt with it. Frazee allegedly claimed he was going to take what remained and dump it into a dump or river, though Kenney didn’t witness this. The police actually found evidence of the fire on Frazee’s property.
On November 18th, 2019, Frazee was found guilty on all charges, including first-degree murder, following just four hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced to life plus 156 years without the chance of parole.
On January 28th, 2020, Kenney was finally sentenced to 3 years in jail with 1 year of parole; the plea deal she took was for evidence tampering relating to Kelsey’s phone.
That’s all for this case. Thank you for reading!
