Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 'Rodeo Queen' mistress sobs in court over her role in gorgeous young mom, Kelsey Berreth's murder

Episode Date: November 14, 2019

Patrick Frazee now on trial for the murder of Colorado mom, Kelsey Berreth. Statements from witnesses show he took time to plan out the murder. Frazee, however, insists that he's innocent with his attorneys placing the blame on mistress Krystal Lee Kenney. Joining Nancy Grace today to discuss the case: Ken Belkin- NY Criminal Defense lawyer Cloyd Steiger- 36-year Seattle PD Officer, 22-year Homicide Detective & Author of "Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer-Gary Gene Grant" Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst Sheryl McCollum - Forensics Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder Alexis Terezchuck - Entertainment Editor, Crime Stories & Radar Online Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. A so-called rodeo queen, Crystal Lee Kinney, the other mistress of so-called killer fiancé Patrick Frazee, on the stand insisting she had nothing to do with the murder of 29-year-old single mom, Kelsey Barrett. Barrett, a beautiful young woman, raising her baby girl and supporting her alone, had just bought her own townhouse condo, was working as a flight instructor, going about her life trying to raise her daughter, and then suddenly she drops off the map. The only thing the cops find is a tooth,

a human tooth in the home. Well, a closer inspection reveals a massive bloodletting in the home that had been cleaned up by who? The rodeo queen. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Patrick Frazee is charged with killing Kelsey Barrett, his fiancée and mother of their child. The Woodland Park mom was last seen on this Safeway surveillance video on Thanksgiving Day. Prosecutors say Frazee blindfolded Kelsey to smell candles and guess the scent and then beat her to death with a baseball bat and burned her body. Prosecutors told the jury this is a case of a cold calculated manipulator and while showing a photo of Frazee called him the face of a killer.

We learned the trial hinges on cell phone records, trace amounts of blood evidence and testimony from Idaho nurse Crystal Lee Kenny. Without a body, Crystal is the state's star witness. She told investigators she tried to kill Kelsey three times at Patrick's request but couldn't go through with it. She says that's when Frazee took matters into his own hands and she drove down from Idaho to clean up a bloody mess in Kelsey's apartment. The defense is doing everything it can to discredit Crystal and create reasonable doubt since much of the evidence is circumstantial. Wow. You think you're lined up for a romantic, sexy evening when your fiance says, let me blindfold you. I got you these special candles

and you pick the one you want and instead you get a Louisville slugger to the skull not only that according to prosecutors their baby girl was in the next room sure she doesn't know any of the facts now she's just taught but what about when she goes online one day, say, you know, 10, 12 years from now, and finds out what happened to her mother, Kelsey Barrett? And hey, while I'm on it, the star witness, my rear end, a rodeo queen turned killer who cheerfully cleaned up a bloody crime scene. Then she's caught on surveillance at a drive-thru, primping and putting on lipstick and powder to go meet the killer.

Yeah, but as I used to tell juries, when you got to put the devil in jail, sometimes you got to go to hell to get your witnesses. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. You were just hearing our friend at ABC Denver 7. That was Jennifer Kowalewski.

Man, oh, Manischewitz. What a trial is going on right now. And with me, an all-star panel. And I mean that. Renowned criminal defense attorney out of New York, Ken Belkin. Let the duel begin, Belkin. With me, Cloyd Steiker, 36 years Seattle PD, 22 years with me, director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, Cheryl McCollum, CSI expert. But right now, to investigative reporter with RadarOnline.com,

who's been on the case since the get-go, since Kelsey Beareth first went missing, Alexis Tereschuk. Alexis, as we now have learned, Patrick Frazee, the so-called killer fiance, actually boasted no body, no crime. What's happening in the courtroom right now? So Patrick Frazee is getting skewered in the courtroom. The prosecution is presenting so much evidence. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Why is that the first thing you say? He's getting skewered. Normally people say that when an innocent person is wrongfully being lambasted. What about the evidence is pouring from the witness stand about the brutal murder of 29-year-old single mom, Kelsey Barrett? Why is he getting skewered? It's all true, isn't it? It is. And

that's the thing. The prosecution is showing that they have video evidence of him from the neighbor surveillance cameras that show that he was at her house the day that he murdered her and that he was seen going inside and outside of her place 11 times. So the prosecution started out with the video evidence that they have. They show Kelsey had been at the grocery store a couple hours earlier. And then she goes into her house with the baby. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you telling me, let me understand what you just said. Patrick Frazee, the so-called killer fiance, star witness for the state, the single mom, literally rodeo queen he had been also sleeping with, he tries to get her to murder kelsey barrett three times three times she seemingly agrees to murder kelsey and then backs out see right there i think that's

a perfect defense for patrick frazee to say she finally did it but long story short that's the star witness that i hear you say this is yes no, no, Alexis Tereschuk. You know, reporters, especially the investigative ones, are almost as bad as lawyers because I've never known a lawyer that can answer in one word. It's just impossible. Alexis Tereschuk, did you just tell me that he, Patrick Frazee, went in and out of the door 11 times? He was caught on surveillance? See, I told you she could not say it in one word. Just go ahead. He was caught. The neighbors had a camera, like a ring camera or a nest, whatever everybody has, or ADT.

And it's set off by a motion sensor. And that caught him. Well, first it caught her going into the house with the baby. And then he came in and out of that door 11 times afterwards. And he came out at one point carrying the baby, you know, who never came out ever, Kelsey. So I think what you're trying to say is yes. And my point is, Cheryl McCollum, you know how much I love my husband, okay, David Lynch. But when he comes home and he sits down in that chair, he is not going to go in and out of the door 11 times. That is not happening.

He has worked all day long. He has come home. And that's that. Okay. I mean, he might get up and go to the dinner table, but there is no in and out 11 times. That's not happening. Nancy, I think it's important to point out he was identified on that surveillance 11 times. That's not happening. Nancy, I think it's important to point out he was identified on that surveillance 11 times, but that camera activated 27 times and none of them were the

victim. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining me out of LA. Weigh in, Bethany. Well, it is a little suspicious that he's coming in and out of another person's apartment. What the heck is he doing? He obviously has not invested his life in taking care of his baby girl who's one years old. He says he's her fiance, but obviously there's no wedding plans. He has not been available to her in any way, but now he's coming in and out of the house. Yes, it is actually very suspicious, and it's a deviation from his normal behavior. He lives on a 35-acre ranch away from his supposed fiance, away from his one-year-old baby daughter, and he's arrears in terms of the child support. He owed her $700 in back support. So he has not engaged with her in any way, and now he's going in and out of the house?

Yes, very strange. And not only that, to Cloyd Steiger with me, 36-year Seattle PD, 22 years homicide, and author of Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer, Gary Jean Grant. Cloyd, I know that $700 may not mean a lot to some people. It means a lot to me. But to some people, they may think, well, that's not a motive for murder. But it's deeper than that, Cloe. It's the fact that when you have a baby and you don't want to live with the baby

and you don't want to support the baby and you dole out money begrudgingly, I mean, that's the last thing I want to do is be and you dole out money begrudgingly i mean that's the last thing i want to do is be late on the twins doctor bill or their orthodontist bill or something they owe at the school that is the last thing i want to do much less pay for their actual support yeah you know i don't i don't remember what he did for a living, but he didn't have a very high-paying job, as I recall. But the thing the last guest said is exactly right, the deviation in behavior, that's the stuff you're looking for. Did you just refer to Dr. Bethany Marshall, renowned psychoanalyst, as a girl?

No, no, no. Okay. Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, the CSI expert. That G-I-R-L? No, I was talking about the end. We're going to get a hold of you at CrimeCon. I said previous. I think he's sorry about that. But the deviation in behavior is the key in this. The fact that he's seen coming in and out of that apartment so many times but in the previous it's never happened and then uh just all the odd behavior and of course there's a lot of

other stuff in this case that points to it but the fact that he's plotted with this uh other girlfriend of his to get rid of the rodeo queen the rodeo queen man i'm telling you what ken belkin i've saved the best for last. Ken Belkin, criminal defense attorney out of New York. You know, when they say if you want something done, just do it yourself. Because now this Rodeo Queen, the other mistress, is on the stand singing like a bird. But I'm going to give you food for thought, something to ruminate upon. Take a listen to our friends at Denver 9, Alexandra Lewis. A long week of testimony in the Kelsey Barrett case ended with a friend of Patrick Frazee taking the stand.

He told the courtroom about some of the disturbing things he heard Frazee say. Joseph Moore says he's known Frazee since middle school. They also ran cattle together. Well, in April of 2016, more than a year and a half before she went missing, Moore said he was with Frazee. Frazee told him, quote, I figured out a way to kill her. No body, no crime, right? Days after Kelsey was reported missing, Frazee told Moore he didn't understand why her disappearance was getting national attention. Moore also told the court that Frazee said, man, if I had known it was going to blow up this big, I never would have. Moore says Frazee never really finished that thought. He also said Frazee never seemed concerned about Kelsey's

disappearance. Police have not found Barrett's body. They say Frazee beat her with a baseball bat, then burned her body. In court today, prosecutors showed a tooth fragment that was found in a burned area of Frazee's property. They did not show any testing about whether it belonged to Barrett or not. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Prosecutors continue to lay out their case on day three of testimony in a plot with his ex-girlfriend and former Idaho nurse Crystal Kenny. They argue Frazee beat Kelsey to death with a baseball bat and then burned her body. Kenny came forward to investigators after cutting a deal and agreeing to testify of former lover who could make or break the case. The state called five witnesses to the stand Tuesday. A digital expert, Woodland Park police officer, furniture store employee whose cameras captured Frazee's truck,

state investigator, and Frazee's younger brother. Sean Frazee is a Colorado Springs police officer. He called Patrick's demeanor concerning during a phone call in early December when he first learned Bereth was missing. As he got off the stand, Frazee's brother looked at Patrick and rolled his eyes. A plot twist appearing to show

some of Frazee's family members have turned against him. The digital expert explained how investigators obtained surveillance video from Barrett's neighbor. It shows Frazee and Barrett leaving her Woodland Park condo multiple times on the day of the murder. Prosecutors have accused Frazee of killing Barrett in her condo and putting her body in a black tote bag in the back of his truck. Frazee's attorney stressed none of the images show Frazee carrying the black tote bag. The state investigator combed through other surveillance videos showing Frazee. Prosecutors focused in on two key videos, one which shows the black tote in the back of Frazee's truck and another three hours later showing the same tote in a different

position. This is the state's strongest piece of evidence that Frazee put Barrett's body in the back. I'm thinking about Kelsey Barrett at the young age of just 29, a single mom. She had a, quote, fiancé, Patrick Frazee, air quote. But he wasn't paying his child support. She had bought a townhome, a condo, all on her own. She was a flight instructor, which is traditionally a field that is male-dominated, but that was her love, and she pursued it and became an expert and was really setting an example for her baby girl.

She's dead. There's no doubt about it. And I want you to take a listen to what we learned in court. The trial is happening right now. With around a dozen witnesses taking the stand on this day two of Patrick Frazee's murder trial, there was a really big theme that the prosecution was trying to pursue. It's a deviation from normalcy. We heard from those close to Kelsey, her family, her co-workers, who said they really noticed that the texts coming from her phone after November 22nd, that is the day that police believe that Frazee killed Barrett, they say that those texts were different, whether it's punctuation, word choice, that sort of thing. It just didn't seem right. We also heard from some of the Woodland Park police officers who first responded to this call

when it came in as a missing person case. When they walked through her home, they said they really weren't looking for anything to suggest that this was a murder. They were looking instead for a sign of a disturbance, anything to suggest that something happened, maybe perhaps that she committed suicide. They didn't see any of that. Remember, it was her brother Clint who had come to town looking for her who noticed that spot of blood on the rim of the toilet December 6th. He said if you really were just looking at the bathroom you wouldn't have saw it he had to sit on the toilet to see it. So just it's really they're focusing on anything that's out of the normal including some neighbor surveillance footage. That is what we wrapped up court with today. They saw Patrick Frazee according to a neighbor surveillance camera

about 11 times throughout November 22nd. Compare that to just about three or four times that camera hits on normal days. Wow. Our friend at ABC Denver 7, that was Sam Kramer, Cheryl McCollum, forensics expert, director of the Cold Case Research Institute. And let me tell you, she has been in the trenches on many, many, well, thousands of crime scenes. It's where we first met on a crime scene about 3 a.m. in the morning, according to her. Cheryl McCollum, what about it? The scene was so cleaned up that only when you, the brother came to visit and sat down on the commode and noticed some blood on the rim. When you just looked in the bathroom, you saw nothing. And then he calls police, and they get in there with the white light,

and they find... Yep, probably luminol. Luminol. Explain how it works, Cheryl. When you have enzymes in your blood, when luminol hits it, they glow blue. So if you turn on the... Wait, to tell me hits it, they grow blue. So, do you turn on those? Wait, tell me. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Cheryl McCollum, walk into the crime scene. I want you to explain what we do when we go into a crime scene and everything looks perfectly neat and clean, except the brother has seen a speck of blood. Okay, what do you do? That bathroom would be my focus. So I would turn all the lights out, and I would spray luminol everywhere, the shower, the commode, the sink. It's like spraying hairspray.

Exactly, like a water bottle, like Windex. So you spray the places where you think the blood would have gone and where somebody would have cleaned up. So again, the shower, the tub area, the drain, the commode, the sink, and then of course the floor. And then you're going to take photographs of that because it's going to start to glow immediately. And it's really a tremendous tool and it's fascinating, but it also paints a picture because when you clean, you smear. But what would be there would be the amount of, you know, this blue illuminating, just devilish example of what happened to her. So again, when the witness that was on the stand, the mistress says,

there was blood everywhere, I her a baseball bat you would have splatter you would have just this on the ceiling on the walls on the floor on the commode it would have been everywhere and only when the brother came in and sat down on the commode and was just sitting there he noticed the blood on the rim nobody else else had noticed it. As a matter of fact, Alexis Derezchuk, investigative reporter, RadarOnline.com. Alexis, tell me about the crime scene. What is alleged that happened, and where was blood ultimately found? So just in this bathroom, and this was her condo that she lived in, that she'd been spending, she was making Thanksgiving dinner for Patrick.

Which also, I just want to point out, you know, her mom testified and she said she never knew that they were broken up. Patrick's telling everybody they're broken up, his family and everybody. The mom says, no, they weren't. They weren't broken up at all. He was lying to everybody all the time. But the crime scene didn't even look like a crime scene. It probably looked like an absolutely perfect house. You know why? Because he had his mistress come and clean it up. The only thing that maybe was a little weird was there were cinnamon rolls that were on the stove that had looked like they had never been eaten. And there was a candle that was burning that was really, really, really burning. And nobody would ever leave a candle like that in their house. It would be too dangerous. Take a listen to our friends at KDVR Fox 31. Just a few moments after Crystal Lee continued her second day of testimony, she began to cry. She had been handed several

photographs of Kelsey Barrett's condo, which she had cleaned. Lee went on to say, I saw blood all over the floor and all over the wall. Her belongings were covered in blood. More tears began THE WALL. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED.

THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WALL WAS CLOSED. THE WASE IS NOT A CASE OF INVESTIGATION. THE CASE IS A CASE OF INVESTIGATION. THE CASE IS A CASE OF INVESTIGATION. THE CASE IS A CASE OF

INVESTIGATION. SHE TOLD HER TO TEXT FROM BARRETH'S PHONE AFTER SHE WAS DEAD SAYING HE WANTED TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE SHE WAS STILL ALIVE. LEE TOLD THE COURT TODAY THAT SHE WAS PRESENT WHEN HE STARTED

THE FIRE IN WHICH BARRETH'S BODY WAS BURNED. HER ATTORNEY POINTED OUT THAT LEE HAD NOT TOLD THE TRUTH Lee's attorney pointed out that Lee had not told the truth until a plea agreement was made. He said, that's a story you had to tell agents to get your plea deal. Lee said, I had to tell them the truth. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Lee testified that Frazee told her he beat his fiance to death with a baseball bat on Thanksgiving Day and that Barrett's last words were, please stop.

After the murder, Lee says Frazee called her and said she had a mess to clean up. Crystal Lee says when she walked into Kelsey Barrett's townhome, she saw blood everywhere. She was cleaning up this massive crime scene. Lee claims she drove from Idaho to Colorado and cleaned up the crime scene because Frazee told her to and she feared for her life. A few days after the murder, Lee says she watched as Frazee burned a black tote bag that he told her contained Barrett's body and the baseball bat. More than 20 witnesses have been called to the stand so far. Earlier this week, a prosecution expert testified that a neighbor's surveillance camera captured Frazee 11 times at Barrett's condo the day she

disappeared. The defense argued it's not clear if the person was Frazee. At this very hour, the murder trial of the so-called killer fiance Patrick Frazee goes on in Cripple Creek, Colorado. We have been hearing from a forensic expert on the stand, Frazee, 33, charged with murdering the mother of his only child. Last Thanksgiving day, her blood, Kelsey's blood, found all around the home, along with a woman's tooth. Reportedly, Kelsey Barrett beaten so badly with a baseball bat, it knocked her teeth out. Witnesses also testifying about how Frazee had badmouth trashed Barrett, who was his fiancée. It was also revealed in court, Frazee was Barrett's beneficiary on her life insurance policy.

A large blood stain discovered on the hardwood floor in the living room, which matches Kelsey Barrett, indicating that that is where the initial attack began. Blood all around the home, however. Welcome back. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with me. Straight out to Ken Belkin, veteran criminal defense attorney out of New York. Ken Belkin, if you're defending this case and your client is bragging to friends, no body, no crime. What do you do? What's your defense? Look, you're going to have to explain away a ton of circumstantial evidence. And that's basically what this is. This is a case based on circumstantial evidence and, to a lesser part, hearsay testimony, which is being allowed in under various exceptions.

So you've got a lot of explaining. You're going to be twisting in the wind on this. Twisting in the wind. And the reality is, you know, you're going to have to try everything you can to just hammer home that, like, no one actually saw him do this. You don't have a body. You don't have actual evidence of death. But, you know, they've got evidence of a lot of other things that when you put the pieces together, it equals one conclusion, really. Well, in my mind, their best bet, not that i believe that it's true is to blame crystal

lee kenny the rodeo queen he was having another affair with i mean come on please dr bethany throw belkin a bone here for pete's sake a guy calls you on the phone and says hey you got a mess to clean up and she drives all the way from id to Colorado cleans up a bloody crime scene finds a human tooth and then does the drive-through to get some fast food and you see her putting on makeup and primping in the mirror to go hook up with the killer seriously oh yeah I would totally blame her Nancy of course you know there is there is a whole psychology to women who align themselves with criminals, thieves, murderers, fall in love with them, and then conspire with them to get another lover out of the way.

On some level, she was under his firm control. But on another level, she hated Barath. They were probably, in some paranoid way, constantly obsessing about Barath. Barath's taking our money. She's not, you know, she's doting on the child and not giving you attention. You know, she has this great life. What is she doing for you? I mean, they have aligned themselves in a very paranoid way against her.

What I mean about that is they become obsessed about what she's doing to them. They have no cognizance or concern about how they're about to treat her. And it almost seems like this, we could recast this as some kind of a love triangle where Crystal Lee is in love with Tracy, wants to get the love rival out of the way, and she'll do anything, anything to save him. Not only is she under his firm control, but she hates this other woman. I mean, willing to go clean up a bloody crime scene, take Kelsey Beareth's telephone or cell phone, drive it hours and hours away, throws it off the side of the road to make it look like she herself threw it away

en route to see her family. As a matter of fact, take a listen to Jennifer Koboleski, our friend at ABC Denver 7. Frazee's attorney compared the case to buying a house, telling the courtroom, it looks good from the outside. It looks like it's all there. But when you really start hearing all the evidence, there are deep foundational issues. And they say Crystal lied to investigators multiple times and only told her tale after she hired an attorney and made a deal with prosecutors. Crystal is facing up to three years in prison, but she won't be sentenced until after she testifies against Frazee. The trial is expected to last for several weeks. The jury is made up

of seven women and five men who will now decide the fate of Frazee. We have very high restrictions on the media. The judge has ruled that we cannot have a camera in the courtroom. There can be no photography in the courtroom, no sketches in the courtroom, and so that is why you are getting the information after we leave the courtroom. We also are not able to report any information as it's happening in the courtroom, which means there's no tweeting, there's no Facebook. We have to be in court, come outside the courthouse, and that is when we then can relay the information out to you guys in the public and to our teams back at the station because the judge has said he is very concerned about making sure that Frazee has a fair trial and that is why he has decided to restrict the media.

Hey, hey, hey, don't get mad at the judge. Yes, I'd love to have a camera in the courtroom. Yes, I'd love to rush out on the courthouse steps and tweet and Facebook and Instagram what's happening. But the judge in the judge's mind believes this will secure the trial because if there's a conviction, you do not want a reversal in Frazee to walk free on some flimsy excuse. And oh, I mean, come on, Dr. Bethany, help me out. She wasn't his only woman on the side. He had Kelsey Barrett. He had Crystal E. Kinney. And then multiple other women have come forward claiming he was asking them out, was sleeping with them, was flirting with them. I mean, what is it about him? He's not all that. And Dim Sum. No, he's not. And he lives with his mother. He's a lonely white guy living with his

mom out on a lonely ranch. I mean, what's the draw? I don't get it. Well, Nancy, let's think about the profile of the sociopath. Promiscuity, multiple sexual partners, failure to pay back debts to society. He wouldn't even give her $700 in child support, a parasitic lifestyle. He's living off his mother. I'm not sure he owned that 35 acre ranch. She probably owned it. He did it. He did not. The mom owned it. Mom owned it. So he's in a parasitic relationship, playing by their own rules rather than the rules

of society. He's just doing whatever he wants. He's just freewheeling. He's calling her a fiance, but he's not even raising their child together. So this guy is completely going his own way. And I would imagine that all of these women he's asking out, it's not only driven by promiscuity, but he wants to control women. He wants to get whatever he wants whenever he wants it. And probably as with the case with most of these men, he probably had a jealous streak, feeling that Barath was cheating on him. So he was always evening the score by cheating on her. Believe me, she was not cheating. She was working every day to pay for that condo she moved into with her baby girl. She was the sole support for the baby. Whoa,

I hear Cheryl. And again, Cheryl, I'm not saying it's all about a man having money, not at all. It's about a guy being faithful and loyal and being involved in your life and taking care of the baby. I mean, you know what? I like to complain about David just for the fun of it. You know what? He's the greatest guy I've ever met. He takes care of the children. He's supportive. You know, he's not all jealous and crazy. I mean, I don't get why she liked this guy so much. Nancy, Dr. Bethany Marshall is a whole lot smarter than me, but I'm fixing to break this down. This guy's a piece of shit and the women can't see it because they want to

be stupid. And I mean that. You've got not one woman, but two. So let's take the victim. Bless her soul. He was never going to marry her. And she needed one family member or one real good friend to tell her the truth. We are so worried about hurting somebody's feelings or making somebody angry. We just go on and go, oh, I'm sure he's great. This is fabulous. He worked on a ranch and y'all are engaged. Bet she didn't have a ring. She went nine months and had a baby, no marriage.

There was a time you wouldn't even be showing yet before there was a marriage in place. He wasn't trying to marry her. He was stringing her along. Well, hold on. Let me just was a marriage in place. He wasn't trying to marry her. He was stringing her along. Well, hold on. Let me just tell you a quick little story. When my grandmother got married, Lucy, that I named my daughter after, the night before her wedding, she went out with soon the next day be my grandfather.

He brought her home. He kissed her on the cheek on the porch. The next day was their wedding, literally. She walked in, and my great-grandmother was standing there and she said, well, I saw you kiss him. Now what if he doesn't marry you? What are you going to do now? Okay, let's go out on that. We'll come back in and I'll fight with Belkin and Cloyd. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Crystal Lee's story was damning and chilling, but the jury must decide if it is true.

Holding back tears, she detailed a long relationship with Patrick Frazee, at one point getting pregnant by him. I guess you are a baby killer or not, she claimed Frazee told her. Lee said she then got an abortion and prepared divorce papers in order to be with Frazee. Later, she learned he already had a daughter with another woman, Kelsey Barrett. He wanted her not to be Kelsey Barrett. He wanted her not to be a problem anymore. He wanted her dead. Lee told the court Frazee had her bring a poisoned Starbucks drink to Barrett, but she didn't taint the drink. Next, Lee said Frazee wanted her to kill Barrett using a pipe, then another time with a bat, but each time she backed out. It was

Thanksgiving 2018. Kelsey Barrett was last seen on this grocery store security video. That night, Lee said Frazee called her and said that I had a mess to clean up. Wow. You are hearing our friend Rick Salinger, CBS4 there in Denver. The trial is happening right now. Thank you for being with us. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Story. So Ken Belkin, New York criminal defense attorney, he's won a lot of cases, no stranger to a courtroom. You know, a lot of lawyers that claim they're trial lawyers, they'll do anything to work a case out to get a settlement to take a plea

because they absolutely are afraid to just stand up, strike a jury, and go to trial. Not true with Belkin. Belkin, I mean, this woman that was willing to divorce her husband, have an abortion of her baby, and I'm not commenting on a woman's right to have an abortion. That's neither here nor there what i'm saying is she went through a lot to be with patrick frazee knowing he's got kelsey bereth and a baby i mean it was like she drank the kool-aid in my mind ken belkin i mean she's the perfect scapegoat for him not that i think she did it of course but i think they both should have been tried for murder. Oh, she went through a lot, certainly. Maybe she went through so much so that she helped kill another woman with him or of her own volition by herself. The reality is you do have to hit her hard. You got to hit her hard for her cooperation with the district attorney's office. You got to

hit her hard for the fact that she might be receiving some consideration on her own sentence in her own case for this testimony. And you got to hit her head for the fact that she might be receiving some consideration on her own sentence in her own case for this testimony. And you've got to hit her head for the fact that she did not like this woman. She was herself jealous of her and would have a very strong motive to take an action such as this. But sometimes it's difficult to really light into a witness and really destroy them on cross-examination. Because I really don't think it's in most people's nature to just be cruel. But when it comes down to it, and you want a true verdict, and you believe in your case, you've got to get in there, and you have to take them down, even if it means you go down with them.

You've got to take that witness down, Belkin. Look, you don't want to lose the jury, certainly. There's a way to do things and there's a way not to do things. You can approach it in a nice, non-hostile manner, just very matter-of-fact. I don't even know what you're talking about, non-hostile manner. When you've-of-fact. I don't even know what you're talking about. Non-hostile manner? When you got somebody on cross-exam, you have to destroy?

No, no, no. Scorched-earth policy. Sorry, Belkin. Yeah, but you don't want to look like a jerk in front of the jury. That's true. This is a woman that's traumatized. What? Kelsey Barrett is dead. She was beaten so badly, her teeth were knocked out of her mouth with her baby.

In the next room, her last words were, please stop. And this, you know, I swore not to curse anymore after the twins were born. But you're really pushing me, Belkin. Floyd Steiger, can you help me out here? Throw me a life raft. Help me. Well, I mean, this guy has just wrapped himself in so many knots. And she's the big one of

course but all his statements to his other friends and you know telling everybody that they're they've broken up when she's she's texting him about what's for dinner that night and and things like that it's just it this guy just i mean you know what i'm glad you said that cloyd because that one detail i I mean, I'm already working. We're going to have a Lynch Thanksgiving party at the house with my husband's family. We're going to have a Grace Thanksgiving meal at the house. I'm already working on what would they like? How can I make it so it's delicious and have a great meal?

And here she was. The last call she made that we know of was to her mother. She's going into the Safeway, I think it was, grocery store with her baby in the cart, the grocery cart. How many times, ladies, have you been right there? And they're just grabbing things off the shelves like little monkeys. That's what my twins would do. I'd have all kinds of stuff in the cart that I didn't know about. He's planning his meal for that night. And that fact just breaks my heart. While he's planning to murder her. And this child, Alexis Tereshchuk, is going to grow up without this mom, this mom,

and a flight instructor, buys her own condo, making it work, making that car payment, taking care of the baby, fixing Thanksgiving dinner. I just want to cry. I want to cry, Alexis. And so he took this baby after he kills her. He takes the baby, goes to his parents' house with the baby. And then her parents have don't get to see this child for weeks because he's just acting like nothing's wrong. And his family, his own brother says, you know, he was three hours late for our Thanksgiving dinner. He brings the baby, he starts making the two of them dinner, and he tells us, well, that they're sharing custody. And nobody in his own family questioned

this right away. Nobody calls the police and says, my brother seems to have a child that he's never had before, ever. And so her mom had to beg herself, you know, they had to come down, the brother had to come down and beg the police to investigate because they had no access to this little baby. So Alexis Tereschuk, we also know Kenny, the rodeo queen, testified about the day she took law enforcement to Patrick Frazee buried burned Kelsey's body and that his mother Sheila came out while it was burning and just turned around and went back inside now cell phone records including

Kenny's using Kelsey's phone to make it seem like Kelsey was still alive she's up to it to her eyeballs she's up to her elbows and alligators. Alexis, what's happening now? What's going to happen? So the prosecution is still presenting witnesses. They're still showing the one, the witness that we just heard the recording of. He did. He testified that Patrick had been talking for years about killing her.

He said, you know, it was if there's no body, there's no crime. And he said this repeatedly even after she went missing. He said this to several people, no body, no crime. So he was absolutely arrogant in his thoughts that he was going to get away with this. And this Crystal, the mistress, you know, you said all these things that happened with them. And he never married her. She had an abortion with his baby. He also asked her to murder the girl three times,

and she tried two times. She actually showed up at her house, to Kelsey's house, with poison in a coffee cup. But that's what he told her to do, which she said she got too scared, so she didn't do it. And Kelsey thought it was really weird that this woman just showed up and was like, oh, hi, here's some coffee. Just the strangest things. And he was so manipulative. And that's what the police have been trying to do is try to find the evidence that she finally confessed. I'm not buying what the mistress is selling because I'm looking at her to drive through right now. You can see it at CrimeOnline.com, primping and fixing her hair and her lipstick and her makeup just after cleaning up a bloody crime scene and on her way to see the so-called killer

fiance. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.