keeton12/iStock(WOODLAND PARK, Colo.) — A Colorado man is on trial for allegedly killing his fiancee — and his mistress, who claims she helped clean up the crime scene, brought powerful testimony to the courtroom during her second day on the witness stand Thursday.
Prosecutors allege Patrick Frazee attacked his fiance, Kelsey Berreth, with a baseball bat at her Woodland Park, Colorado, home on Thanksgiving Day 2018 while the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Kaylee, sat in a playpen in a back room.
The 29-year-old’s body has never been found. Prosecutors allege Frazee put Berreth’s body in a black plastic tote and burned it on his property.
Frazee was arrested in December 2018. His trial, on charges including first-degree murder, began last week.
Frazee’s ex-girlfriend and later mistress, Krystal Lee Kenney, claims Frazee called her to clean up the alleged murder scene at Berreth’s home. Lee has pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with physical evidence and is awaiting sentencing once Frazee’s case concludes.
As Lee testified for the prosecution Wednesday, she sobbed on the stand describing the gruesome scene she says greeted her at Berreth’s condo the day after the crime.
Lee described the scene again on the stand Thursday, telling the jury, “I saw blood all over the floor and blood all over the wall … there was blood on the front of the stove and the dishwasher, and on the floor there were bloody footprints.”
As the prosecutor showed a picture of a young, smiling Kaylee, sitting on the floor of her room with her little arms outstretched toward the camera, Lee cried on the stand and described items in the background of the photo that she said had blood on them.
Prosecutors on Thursday also showed the jury a video clip investigators recorded when they took Lee to Frazee’s property in Florissant, Colorado. In the clip, Lee described the black tote that allegedly held Berreth’s body, as well as the location of the aluminum water trough where she claims the tote was set on fire.
“This has all been cleaned up since I was here,” Lee said on the video, showing investigators where she said Frazee had positioned a red can of gasoline.
“He also threw in motor oil,” Lee said on the video.
On the video, Lee told investigators she threw all of the items she says she took from Berreth’s bloodied condo — including curtains, stuffed animals and towels — into the fire.
“I also threw in all the clothing that I’d been wearing,” Lee told the investigators.
Lee said she saw Frazee’s mother step onto the front porch of the house while the fire was burning.
Testimony was delayed nearly two hours on Thursday morning because the defendant felt ill, according to Judge Scott Sells. Frazee was given medication and felt better, the judge said, and then the jury was seated.
“I have no indication Mr. Frazee was feigning any illness,” Sells assured the jury.
Lee said in court on Wednesday that Frazee told her he “swung away” with a baseball bat in the attack on Berreth.
Lee testified that Frazee told her Berreth’s final words were: “please stop.'”
Lee said it took four hours for her to clean Berreth’s condo and that she put the bloody items in six full garbage bags. But Lee testified that she purposely “left little spots so that people would see it and raise suspicions.”
She said Frazee gave her Berreth’s phone and directed her to send a fake text to Berreth’s mom.
Lee also admitted to texting Berreth’s boss to ask for time off. Lee said she also sent a text from Berreth’s phone to Frazee’s, writing, “Do you even love me?”
“I’d seen some of the pictures on her phone,” Lee said, sobbing. “And I knew there were people who care for her and would look for her.”
Lee testified that she burned Berreth’s phone and purse at her Idaho home
Lee explained to the jury that she was too scared to go to the police.
“He told me that he had people, that he had people everywhere,” Lee said on the stand Wednesday. “I figured I was dispensable at that point.”
But Lee added, “I loved and cared for him. He was my best friend.”
The defense has stressed that Frazee’s clothes weren’t bloody when he went to his mother’s for Thanksgiving dinner and that he was not found to have injuries on his body. The defense has also pointed out that the victim’s body and the murder weapon have never been found.
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