Kelsey Berreth was last seen shopping with her toddler daughter on Thanksgiving Day
Patrick Frazee has been found guilty of murdering his fiancee, Kelsey Berreth, who vanished last year on Thanksgiving Day. Her body has not been found.
A six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for less than four hours Monday before convicting Frazee on all counts filed against him, including first-degree murder, three counts of solicitation to commit murder and tampering with a corpse.
The 33-year-old defendant had pleaded not guilty to killing his 29-year-old fiancee. His trial began Nov. 1.
Berreth was seen near her Colorado home on Nov. 22, 2018. Surveillance video showed her shopping at a grocery store earlier in the day, with the couple's 1-year-old daughter.
On Friday, Frazee's ex-girlfriend took the stand in his trial and said Berreth's last words were "please stop," as Frazee beat her to death with a baseball bat.
Krystal Lee, a nurse from Idaho, said she and Frazee discussed the killing and he told her Berreth's last words. She is charged with tampering with evidence in connection with Berreth's disappearance. She pleaded guilty in February and is testifying against her ex-lover as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
Berreth's mother reported her missing on Dec. 2, after days of being unable to reach her.
Lee told jurors that Frazee called her on Thanksgiving and said she needed to come over and clean up a mess at Berreth's condo.
At the home, Lee said she saw blood on the living room floor, splattered on the walls, behind the couch and in the kitchen. It took four hours to clean up the mess, she said. She did it, she said, to protect Berreth's daughter and mother.
"Her mom and that little girl never needed to see what Patrick did to her," she testified. "And I didn't know he was capable of that. I didn't think he was capable of what happened."
Lee said she filled six garbage bags with items including stuffed animals and couch pillows because she couldn't get the blood out of them.
She feared Frazee would also harm her, she said, so she did as he asked. "I left little spots so that somebody would see it and it would raise suspicion about what had happened," she said.
Afterward, Lee said she met Frazee and he told her what happened. He said he told Berreth they were going to play a game, and he blindfolded her and then had her guess the scent of various candles, Lee testified. Then he hit her in the head with a baseball bat, she said.
"He just said he swung away, and that it was really hard," Lee told the court. The two took the trash bags and a container holding Berreth's body to Frazee's ranch, where he burned the contents, she said.
Frazee gave her Berreth's cellphone and told her to get rid of it, Lee said. She burned it and disposed of it in Idaho, where she lives.
Lee also testified that Frazee had asked her three times to kill Berreth herself, saying Berreth was an abusive mother. Lee said she couldn't do it.
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