Country girl Kelsey Berreth was unaware there had been three attempts to kill her, until it was too late – leaving behind her baby girl after the horrific and violent killing
Kelsey Berreth grew up on a farm, driving tractors and helping with the harvest. She was a country girl at heart, who went on to get her pilot’s licence and start a career as a flying instructor.
When Kelsey met Colorado rancher Patrick Frazee online in 2016, there was an instant connection. Frazee lived on a 35-acre ranch, where he had horses, donkeys and cattle dogs. With Kelsey, 29, living over 1,000 miles away in Washington state, they started a long-distance relationship, but she soon moved to Colorado and got her own place about 20 miles from Frazee.
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In October 2017, the couple had a baby girl and got engaged. Kelsey continued to teach flying alongside caring for her daughter. But on 22 November 2018, Thanksgiving Day, her family struggled to get hold of her and her mother Cheryl Berreth reported her missing.
Frazee, then 33, told the police that Kelsey had wanted to end their relationship. He said she’d left the baby with him on Thanksgiving Day and they’d agreed that, moving forward, they’d equally share custody. Frazee insinuated that Kelsey was depressed, but her family strongly denied it and Cheryl insisted her daughter hadn’t mentioned the break-up on Thanksgiving morning when they’d last spoken.
An investigation began and the police found that Kelsey had been shopping for dinner. She’d sent Frazee a text saying, “I bought some sweet potatoes in case you wanted sweet potato casserole.” Why would she be buying ingredients for a family meal if they had split up?
Frazee said he hadn’t seen Kelsey since 22 November, when he’d driven their daughter to his house without Kelsey, but phone records showed that her phone had travelled to Frazee’s home. Records also showed the pair exchanged texts in the following days. In one message, Kelsey told Frazee she was going running. In another, she was about to “jump in the shower”.
Then, three days after Thanksgiving, Kelsey’s phone started to move out of Colorado. It was last recorded 800 miles away in Idaho. So had Kelsey walked out of her life?
Another woman
At Kelsey’s home, the police found some items were missing, including a bath mat. Kitchen appliances appeared to have been wiped down and Kelsey’s blood was found in the bathroom. It was now a crime scene.
Investigators then discovered that Frazee had been having an affair – with a woman in Idaho. Recently divorced mum-of-two Krystal Lee Kenney, then 32, was a nurse and a keen horsewoman. The pair met in high school and had dated on and off. They’d reconnected and secretly been seeing each other for eight months.
At first, Kenney denied knowing anything about Kelsey – but then, in a plea deal, she made a shocking confession: Frazee had killed Kelsey, and she had helped him cover it up. After Frazee sent texts from Kelsey’s phone, pretending to be her, Kenney took her keys and phone and threw them into a canyon in Idaho. But Kenney also did more than that.
She said Frazee tried to get her to help him kill Kelsey three times, claiming he told her Kelsey was depressed, had addictions and was a risk to her daughter, so he wanted full custody. All lies. Kenney said she went along with it because she had been manipulated and was scared for her life.
She said Frazee suggested drugging a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, Kelsey’s favourite. Kenney, with her nursing knowledge, recommended a lethal dose of Ambien and Valium. She then drove 12 hours from Idaho, got the coffee and went to Kelsey’s home. She knocked on the door, pretending to be a new neighbour and gave her the drink, but she hadn’t put the poison in it because she couldn’t go through with it.
An annoyed Frazee then came up with a new way: he’d leave a metal pipe near his home and Kenney would hit Kelsey over the head with it. Kenney collected the pipe, but a barking dog stopped her at the last minute. The third plan was to wait outside Kelsey’s home with a baseball bat, but Kenney saw a police car and fled. She had failed again, so Frazee stepped in.
The clean-up
Phone records showed that he sent a text to Kenney at 4.30pm on Thanksgiving Day. It read, “You need to get here now. You’ve got a mess to clean up.”
Kenney loaded her car with cleaning products and, two days later, drove 800 miles to get keys from Frazee to enter Kelsey’s home. She said the scene was brutal. There was blood everywhere.
Kenney admitted spending four hours cleaning and anything that was too drenched in blood, like some curtains and baby toys, were put in her car, in rubbish bags. She said Frazee told her there might be a tooth at the scene. She hunted for it and found it.
Kenney then met Frazee, who said he had killed Kelsey. Frazee described inviting his fiancée to a “guessing game”. He blindfolded her with a jumper, and she had to guess the scent of candles. Then he took a baseball bat and beat her to death while their baby was in the next room. He put her body in a black tote bag and loaded her into his truck before hiding it in a hay barn.
Kenney admitted that after cleaning Kelsey’s home, she went to the ranch with Frazee. He put the bag and other blood-drenched items in a large trough. He covered it all with gasoline and set it on fire. There was nothing left for the police to find.
On 31 December, Frazee was arrested and charged with murder. Kenney, despite her part in the crime, agreed to testify against him for a reduced sentence.
At the trial in 2019, the defence barristers said Frazee couldn’t be connected to the crime, but Kenney’s testimony was damning. The court watched a chilling video of Kenney at the crime scene talking officers through the way she’d cleaned it up, pointing out where the blood had been and where she’d found Kelsey’s tooth.
Kenney revealed Frazee had told her that Kelsey’s last words were, “Please stop.” He’d also said the beating had been horrific and had admitted, “I wouldn’t do it like that again. It was inhumane.”
The jury found Frazee guilty. At the sentencing, the judge said, “Your actions were vicious, senseless, without reason nor explanation… After you beat her, you burned her body like a piece of trash. Your crimes deserve the absolute punishment available.”
Frazee was sentenced to life in prison plus 156 years. Kenney was given three years, which was later reduced to 18 months. Kelsey’s family were angry at the short sentence but accepted that without her testimony, Frazee could have got away with murder. The district attorney admitted he’d done a “deal with the devil”. Kenney was released from prison in 2021.
Kelsey’s daughter went to live with her parents, but the ordeal wasn’t over as Frazee vowed to appeal. In February this year, he was back in court trying to have his conviction overturned.
His appeal was based on a caseworker not reading him his rights during an interview. But the court ruled she wasn’t acting as a law enforcement officer, and it didn’t apply. His conviction was upheld. Kelsey’s murder continues to shock seven years on. She had no idea that in the final weeks of her life, she was in terrible danger and that on the fourth attempt, she would be dead.
