Patrick Frazee pleads not guilty
A Florissant rancher accused of killing his fiancée, Kelsey Berreth, and burning her remains on a makeshift pyre has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Patrick Frazee’s arraignment was Friday morning in Teller County District Court, where District Court Judge Scott Sells set a trial for Oct. 28, according to a tweet from Rob McCallum, spokesman for the Colorado Judicial Branch. Sells also established a calendar for other hearings later in the summer, including on June 14 and Aug. 23.
In a decorum order issued Wednesday, Sells barred the media from taking video or photographic images of the proceeding out of concern that widespread media coverage of the case could impinge on Frazee’s right to a fair trial.
Frazee is accused of fatally beating Berreth on Thanksgiving Day. He has consistently denied the allegations.
Frazee’s girlfriend, Krystal Lee, a 32-year-old Idaho nurse who has admitted complicity before and after the alleged killing, told Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents that she watched Frazee burn Berreth’s remains on a pyre of gasoline-soaked wood on a cattle water trough at his Florissant ranch two days after the alleged murder. She claims she spent four hours scrubbing the bloody walls and floors of Berreth’s home two days later.
A massive search of a landfill for Berreth’s remains that lasted for several weeks was eventually discontinued.
Although Lee is a key witness in the case, a small army of state, federal and local law enforcement officers and forensic scientists have developed what they say is corroborating evidence supporting her allegations and disputing comments Frazee made about Berreth’s disappearance.
For example, although authorities initially only found Berreth’s blood in her townhome bathroom, Lee told CBI agents that the battering actually took place in the living room. Crime-scene experts pulled up the wood floor and found blood in the seams of the wood, police say.
Lee posed for photographs of her pointing out blood spatter on the walls of Berreth’s home that she claims she intentionally left behind, hoping police would find the evidence.
Another key piece of evidence includes Berreth’s cellphone. Lee admitted to police that on Frazee’s direction, she took his fiancée’s phone to Idaho in an attempt to establish an alibi for himself. Authorities allege Frazee’s version of events contradicts his story that Berreth was headed to Washington or Idaho to visit family.
Lee claims Frazee’s stated motive was to kill Berreth because she was an abusive mother and he feared that she would harm their 1-year-old daughter, Kaylee.
Berreth’s parents, who live in Idaho, have been granted temporary custody of the child.