Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Young Mom Murdered, Evil Love Rival WALKS FREE

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

Thanksgiving, 2018, Kelsey Berreth talks with her mother that morning and is then seen on video at a local grocery. Two days later, text messages from Berreth's phone were sent to Patrick Frazee, Berreth's fiance, her mother, and her boss, saying she was taking a few days off. After not hearing from her daughter in over a week, Cheryl Berreth asks the police to check on her daughter. Kelsey Berreth is missing.  The investigation into Berreth's disappearance goes on for a month before Patrick Frazee is arrested, and charged with murdering the woman he was supposed to marry. One of the breaks for police was information coming from Frazee's mistress Krystal Lee Kenney. She tells police that Frazee had asked her three times to kill Berreth and when she refused, he did it himself.  Frazee blindfolded Berreth on the pretense of a game of guessing the scent. He then bludgeoned her with a baseball bat, calling Kenney and telling her she had a mess to clean up.  She drives from her home in Idaho to Colorado to clean up the bloody crime scene. She tells police she accompanied Frazee to his nearby ranch, where she said he burned Berreth’s remains as well as her personal belongings. Frazee is convicted on all charges including first-degree murder, solicitation for murder, and tampering with a deceased human body. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, plus 156 years for the other convictions. His appeal was denied  Krystal Lee Kenney accepted a plea deal in exchange for her testimony against Frazee. She was sentenced to three years in prison. After Frazee's conviction, Kenney was sentenced to 18 months in prison for evidence tampering. She has now been released.  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Eric Faddis - Partner at Varner Faddis Elite Legal, Former Felony Prosecutor and Current Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Attorney; Instagram: @e_fad @varnerfaddis; TikTok: @varnerfaddis  Dr. Jorey L. Krawczyn - Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide” Sheryl McCollum -  CSI, Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder; Host of "Zone 7;" Twitter: @149Zone7                                                                          Dr. Tim Gallagher– Medical Examiner, State of Florida; Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine; Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference Alexis Tereszcuk - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker, Lead Stories; Twitter: @swimmie2009  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A young mom is shopping at the grocery store for items for Thanksgiving, chatting on the phone with her mother trying to get a recipe, and then she's never seen alive again. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and Sirius XM 111. How did the whole thing start?

Take a listen to this. 29-year-old Kelsey Barath, reported missing by her mother Cheryl, Woodland Park Police Commander Chris Adams says a few days after Thanksgiving, her cell phone pinged nearly 800 miles away outside Gooding, Idaho, not far from where she has family. Her brother traveled to her home in Colorado, and after combing through her home, he is certain Kelsey did not pack to go anywhere. Nothing was taken from her home. Her cars are still in Colorado. And after combing through her home, he is certain Kelsey did not pack to go anywhere. Nothing was taken from her home. Her cars are still in Colorado. The only thing missing is her purse. OK, I don't like it. Kelsey Bar And what about her baby girl? With me, an all-star

panel to make sense of what we have learned. But first, to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Alexis Tereschek. Alexis, tell me about the video, the surveillance video in that grocery store that captured Kelsey walking along along and we now know speaking to her mother about a thanksgiving recipe you know no matter how many times i make homemade dressing i still ask my mom about it same thing a lot of chopped onions a lot of chopped celery to where you think it's really too much, but it all melts away into the dressing. I go through the same thing. I make the same cornbread, chop, squish it up with my hands every year, but I still ask her. And I wonder,

I've always wondered, was that what Kelsey was talking to her mother about? That's exactly what she was doing day before before Thanksgiving, on the phone with her mom, she's getting ready to make her own meal, and she's just walking through the store, she's pushing the cards, she's chatting on the phone. Not a care in the world. And that was the last time she was seen in public. We are talking about an incredible young woman, Kelsey Barrett,

the mother of Kelly, just 14 months old when her mom goes missing. Now, tell me about Kelsey. I want to know some more. But first, listen to our friends at Crime Online. Cheryl Barrett spoke to her daughter, Kelsey, the morning of Thanksgiving Day. It was a normal conversation. Kelsey asked for a recipe that she needed. Later that day, Kelsey Barrett was captured by store security cameras at a Safeway store shopping with her daughter. That is the last known time Kelsey Barrett was seen

in public. Patrick Frazee is Kelsey Barrett's fiance. He told police he last saw Kelsey on Thanksgiving afternoon when he picked up their daughter. After Thanksgiving Day, no one has come forward to say they saw or talked to Kelsey Barrett. Okay, so we've got her covered through Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving morning, she's speaking to her mother about that same recipe that she was shopping for in the Safeway the day before. She the fiancee who they're set to marry he's the father of baby Kelly and then suddenly everything goes black it's like you just cut the TV off there's nothing there who is Kelsey Barrett very often let me go to you, Dr. Jory L. Crawson, joining us, psychologist,

former law enforcement, also faculty, St. Leo University, and consultant with the Blue Wall Institute. You can find him at drjory, J-O-R-E-Y.com. Dr. Jory, I always look at the victim when I can't figure something out, not to blame the victim, but to figure out their lifestyle. For instance, if my victim, like in the Long Island serial killers case, is a prostitute or as we say now, a sex worker, I'm going to look at where is she advertising? Who are her customers? Does she have regulars? What can you tell me about her activities? Does she have regulars? What can you tell me about her activities? Does she

have a family? Is she likely not to come home one night and nobody notices? But in this case, Kelsey was always home because she was the one taking care of the tot girl, Kelly. So I look to her past. When you don't know what a horse is going to do, you look at the track record. You look at what they've done before. So isn't that important to you in the study of victimology, Dr. Jory? Yeah, if you want to be able to predict future behavior, you have to know past behavior. And her past behavior is pretty well documented. It's very consistent. She's a young mother.

Her focus is on her child. She's got good connections with her parents, her mother she's interacting with. She's planning for the holidays. So, you know, this has probably been repeated several years in her life. She's in a romantic relationship. She's getting ready to be married. So all this is very predictable. And then all of a sudden it goes dark. That's very concerning. Very concerning. And according to witnesses that

I've spoken with, she would never, ever have left Kelly unattended. That is not going to happen. But in this case, when she went missing, isn't this right, Alexis Dreschuk? She wasn't leaving Kaylee unattended. The fiance had come to pick up Kaylee. So Kaylee was fine. She wasn't leaving Kaylee unattended. No, she wasn't at all. And she had never done that before.

Her family was, there wasn't even a concern in any way, shape or form. That was nothing she had ever done. As you said, you know, you look at a horse's track record. She was a perfect mother. She never, there was never anything. Child protective services was never called. There was never a fire, a concern for the baby's welfare. She was a great mom. Never once had there been a disturbance at her condo. Never once had social services been called. No problems in daycare. Nothing. She was completely devoted to Kelly, which makes her disappearance even more concerning. So who's Kelsey Barrett? Listen. 29-year-old Kelsey Barrett grew up on a farm in Washington state, but she always dreamed of

becoming a commercial pilot. She went to pilot school in Washington and moved to Colorado after meeting her fiance online. Barrett was a flight instructor at Falcon Air Force Base in Grand Junction before taking her position at Doss Aviation in Pueblo, Colorado. Her boss says her desk at work had photos of her one-year-old daughter and Bible verses. Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, said Kelsey was a great mom. Her daughter was her life. Just thinking this whole thing through, I mean, Cheryl McCollum joining me,

longtime friend and colleague, forensics expert. She claims we met on a crime scene. I don't know about that. She is the founder and director of the Cold Case Research Institute. She's a forensic expert, and she's a star of a hit new podcast series, Zone 7. Cheryl, you and I have investigated so many cases where our victim, whose life is just as important as any other life, is is a dope addict a dope dealer sometimes a

sex worker a horrible mother this that a car thief how often do you find a victim whose desk is covered with photos of her daughter and Bible verses. It's rare. So when you're looking at, is this person doing anything that's going to increase the likelihood that they would go missing on their own or go missing at the hands of somebody else, this woman doesn't check very many boxes. She's a pilot. She works at a base where there's people that could easily protect her she goes to and from work she's only with her daughter after that she's a good mother she's

consistent she stays in contact with her family she doesn't disappear for days at a time she doesn't gamble she doesn't use drugs she isn't with people that have a criminal background can i ask you a question, Cheryl McCollum? Of course. Very often, and I'm not judging, I don't care, you hear moms want to do a girl's getaway. This woman, Kelsey Barrett, she didn't go for me time. She wanted one thing. She wanted to be with that baby, you know?

So I believe, Cheryl McCollum, that you have been accused of having me time, and you call it whining crime or something like that. But this is a woman, back to the case, she didn't even want me time. That's right. You know, it's funny because even when my sisters and I are playing trips and getaways, our spouses and children are always included. So I agree. This woman, what was she doing the last day she

was ever seen? Making Thanksgiving dinner, talking to her mom about recipes with the baby in hand. Wait a minute, Cheryl. Right there. She's making Thanksgiving dinner, which means she didn't plan to go anywhere. She was cooking dinner. I am not slaving over the stove and the oven for three days straight and then not show up to dinner. That's not happening. No. So she was planning to be there that night. Kelsey Baird was planning to be there that night. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Joining me right now, in addition to Dr. Jory, Cheryl McCollum, Alexis Tereschuk, is Eric Faddis. Joining us out of this jurisdiction in Colorado, partner of Varner Faddis Elite Legal. Now, I didn't learn that in law school.

There is a tier of the law that is elite, Eric Faddis. Is that true? There is, and it solely exists here at our firm in Colorado, actually. Regionally, that's where it is. Eric Faddis joining me from Varner Faddis. This is the part I like, former felony prosecutor, criminal defense attorney now. You can find me at VarnerFaddis.com.

Eric, what we're doing right now, and I'm sure you've done it a million times as a prosecutor, you sit around with your colleagues. Now I know that starts like you're going to have lunch, you're having a good old time, but what you're doing is you're talking about all the facts of the case because each fact can be broken down and could very well be probative. In other words, prove something at trial. For instance, she was last seen by the public we know her fiance came and picked up the baby later but she was seen in public on safeway security cam going up and down the aisles i believe

she's talking on the phone all right then her mother speaks to her on thanksgiving morning she's still cooking she's asking again about this recipe what What does that mean? That means she was cooking dinner and she planned to be around that evening for Thanksgiving dinner. If you break apart each fact, which it is your duty to do as a prosecutor or a defense attorney, you kind of get into the mind of the victim. You can parse a fact, slice it up, and realize it proves so many different things. Yeah. I mean, you've got to explore the nuances as a prosecutor. Right. These small details can can really elucidate what your case is going to be. And like you said, you know, in talking, you know, sort of roundtabling these cases at the DA's office. You're also trying to think about what potential defenses

could be. And here, you know, in a disappearance case, you think, oh, is the defense going to argue suicide? Are they going to argue that this was someone else other than their client? But as Cheryl said, there are no indicators that Kelsey was at risk or living a reckless lifestyle or anything like that. And so you're able to kind of undermine those defenses from the outset. And, you know, you're going to laugh, but what about this, Eric Faddis? I would even want to know, did she buy a whole turkey? Okay. Sure.

I get a whole turkey. In fact, we have a turkey off every Thanksgiving. I bake a turkey in the oven. My husband smokes a turkey one year. He even fried one. And then we compare and everybody that eats with us compares. They always vote for David. Of course, that's not true. They're just trying to spare his feelings. I'm sure they really like mine better. But that said, did she just get a turkey breast like that big? Did she get some slices of turkey? You can get that at the grocery store. Or did she

get the whole thing? My point is, how many people was she expecting to feed? Were they coming to her home? Who were they? Did they know about her life? Were they just neighbors? Were they family? Who were they? I want to know who's coming over for dinner. I want to know every single thing right down to what size turkey she bought and how much stuff she got at the grocery store. Because I want to know who was in her life and who was coming over. But there was no turkey dinner. That never happened. Listen to this.

A few days after her disappearance, detectives say a text message was sent from her phone to her employer, saying she would not be showing up to work for a week. The following week, another text was sent to her fiancé. Cell phone tower data indicates her phone was hundreds of miles outside Gooding, Idaho. But investigators have not found Barrett there. When the person starts missing work, Alexis Tereschuk, this is a woman that had gone out and gotten her pilot's license. She was a professional pilot. She bought her own home. She was raising her daughter alone with the bio debt, having regular visitation.

She was doing it all on her own. She never missed a work appointment. She never missed a flight. Not one blemish on her aviation record at all. And now she calls in sick. No, no, no. Texts, texts. And then her phone is pinging.

Where did her phone ping, Alexis Tereschuk? 800 miles away in Idaho. And she didn't just say, I'm going to be out for one day. She said, I'm going to be gone for a week. I mean, that's not what you tell your boss. If you're taking a week off, one day you're sick, I'm not coming in fine. A week is not how people do things. And what about your baby? Have you made any arrangements for someone to take care of the baby? The dad just comes, picks up the baby for visitation and then you just leave without any plans at all. Hey, I've got to go out of town on a trip. I'll be back on this date. This is where I am. Here's my location in case there's some kind of an emergency. Call me,

let's FaceTime, blah, blah, nothing, right? None Call me. Let's FaceTime. Blah, blah. Nothing. Right. None of that. No, nothing at all. Nothing. Nothing. And as I said, the phone was found 800 miles away. You do know when I go to any courthouse, like I was just in Idaho on Brian Koberger. I was just at the Hugo Black courthouse for Jorne Vandersloot sentencing that piece of crap.

I traveled to Manhattan to shoot the ID investigation discovery show in New York. If I did not have FaceTime, I would be miserable, miserable because I can't talk or see the twins. So you want to tell me Kelsey Barrett just takes off for a week with no plan to FaceTime, to talk nothing with the baby Kelly. I don't believe it. No, there was, she was sending text messages from her family, getting a text message. A baby doesn't want a text message, Alexis. No baby wants to text. Babies don't have cell phones, Alexis. They want to talk to mommy. They want to see mommy. They want to be with mommy. But then the days drag on.

Let's take a listen to Chief Miles DeYoung from Woodland PD. Based on information developed during the course of this investigation, and because of the length of time, it's been 23 days that has passed since Kelsey was last seen. Our investigators believe that Kelsey's disappearance is more suspicious and that she is not intentionally avoiding efforts to find her. We are looking at all avenues, and our focus is on finding Kelsey. Investigators obtained a search warrant today, correction yesterday, on a property nearby in Teller County, Colorado.

That search is currently being conducted. This property is where Patrick Frazee is known to reside so her Kelsey Barrett's phone pings 800 800 miles away yet the Woodland Park PD is searching a nearby property a farm belonging to bio dad, fiance, Patrick Frazee. Listen. We are asking Patrick to sit down with investigators since he is the last person to talk with Kelsey face to face based on our investigation. There have been numerous questions about whether Patrick is a suspect or a person of interest. At this point, we are considering every possibility, and I'm not willing to jump to conclusions or label people involved in this highly complex investigation.

Do I think Kelsey is still alive? That's absolutely a possibility, and that is our hope. What was the probable cause to search the home? So in order for us to get a search warrant, we have to have enough information for a judge to sign off on it. We did have enough information. A judge did sign off on that search warrant and that's all I can comment on that sealed search warrant. Yeah. Why did it take so long? And to you, Eric Faddis, partner, Varner Faddis, elite legal in that jurisdiction of Colorado. Could you explain in simple terms, we're not the Colorado Court of Appeals. You don't need to impress us with Latin phrases. The difference between a POI, person of interest, and a suspect. You know, these are terms of art that law enforcement uses. You know, suspect is

when, you know, they really believe that this person had some criminal involvement, whereas person of interest is kind of just, you know, they're associated in some way, you know, with the investigation. Would you agree, Eric Faddis, you started off by saying it was a term of art. That's exactly what it is. If the cops say you're a suspect, then all sorts of constitutional protections immediately surround you. If you're a POI, maybe not. Yeah, I think that a lot of those constitutional amendments and rights can attach once the person is a suspect, certainly once they're being interrogated by law enforcement. Maybe they're being detained in custody during

that interrogation. That is when those rights, rights to an attorney, rights to remain silent, that's when those rights really attach. Whereas person of interest, it's a lot more kind of squishy. And of course, Dr. Jory Cross, and of course, you're going to look at the fiance. You know, get used to it. Every fiance, husband, ex, former, boyfriend, that goes for women too, wife, girlfriend, ex. You're the first suspect. They're looking at you first because statistically, Dr. Jory Croson, that's who did it. Statistically, not always, but often. But that's correct. And that would be being a police officer, too, in handling cases like this. They would be the first person we would go to as far as, again, starting to establish background information and look for any deviation in her background

history of behavior, like the one with the child, leaving the child with him and then just disappearing. I mean, that doesn't make any logical sense or even psychological sense for the victim. Exactly. Take a listen to more from Chief Miles DeYoung. Why did it take so long before the home was searched? That's a very good question. Why did it take so long to search the home? There are a number of other things that we have done up to this point that have led to us being able to search the residents at this point. In your remarks,

you just said that you were asking Tracy to talk with investigators. His lawyer has been saying that he's been cooperative. Has something changed? Why did you specifically publicly ask him to talk to investigators? We have yet to have him sit down with one of our investigators. And that's what we're asking for, is just for him to sit down with an investigator, since he was the last person to talk with Kelsey face-to-face, from what we can tell. Is he saying no when you're asking him to do this? Not at this time.

Have you asked him, outside of this press conference to sit down with you? Is he refusing that conversation? He is communicating with us through his attorney, and that's about all I can say on that. Did he deny your searching the residence to begin with? That's just part of the investigation. Speaking to us through his lawyers,

Cheryl McCollum with me, forensic expert at coldcasecrimes.org. Cheryl, that stinks. You know who I always hold up as the gold standard? Mark Klassen. You know this. Mark Klassen's daughter, Polly, went missing from a spend the night party at the mom's house. They come beating down Mark's door. He's like, come in. You don't need a warrant. Search my whole place. Search my car. Search my garage. Search my office. Take my blood. Take my fingerprints. Do whatever you have to do so you can go out and find the person that really took my daughter. And now this guy will only speak to the PD through his lawyers. Really? That's a big old red flag. And the other thing is

we already know he's the last person to see her alive. And then we work backwards. Talk to her mama. She wanted that recipe to feed how many people? One, four, five, because here's what we know. There weren't a whole bunch of guests that showed up Thanksgiving and she didn't answer the door. So why was it she reported missing earlier? Exactly, Cheryl. Exactly. So the chief of police is being asked about the boyfriend, the fiance, Patrick Frazee, what happened to Kelsey, but there's a very disturbing reason that guests were not invited into the home for Thanksgiving dinner. And let's just hear it from the horse's mouth. Take a listen to the mistress of Patrick Frazee. Now remember, he's engaged to Kelsey Barrett. They're going to get married.

Kelsey has given birth to his baby girl, right? So who the hey is the so-called rodeo queen, Crystal Lee, and what does she say she observed inside Kelsey's home. Listen. When I first walked in, I saw blood all over the floor. I saw blood on the wall. I saw blood on this wall. And? I didn't see anything. I was specifically told to clean the bathroom. Okay. So, but I didn't see anything. There might have been blood. There was a lot of blood. So there's on the floor, all over the floor. And there, so there may have been bloody footprints in here, but I don't specifically remember.

Okay. I wiped the sink pail. I wiped the toilet, the top of the toilet. I turned on the shower just in case there was stuff in the bottom. I didn't see anything in the bottom of the shower. She's as calm and cool as a cucumber, isn't she? Sure is. Did you hear what she says? I walked when I first walked in. I saw blood all over the floor. I saw blood up the wall. There was a lot of blood on the floor, all over the floor. There may have been bloody footprints. I wiped the sink down.

I wiped the toilet, the top of the toilet. I turned on the shower just in case there was stuff in the bottom. She sounds like she's reading off the grocery list. I'll take a pound of ground beef and let's see some tomato paste. That's what she sounds like. To Dr. Tim Gallagher, special guest joining us, medical examiner for the state of Florida, lecturer, University of Florida Medical School, Forensic Medicine and, importantly, the founder of the International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference. You can find him at PathCareMed.com.

Dr. Gallagher, how much blood is in the human body? Well, there are approximately five liters of blood in the human body. That's about five quarts of blood in the human body. That's about five quarts of blood in the human body. And in order to get somebody to die from esanguination, which is the loss of blood, they must lose about three quarts of that blood to enact the fatal response. So you are saying the human body has about five quarts of blood? Exactly right. It has about five quarts of blood, a little more, a little less. A little over like a gallon of milk? Right about it. If you think about a gallon of milk and then a quart of milk

sitting next to it, that's about how much blood the average human body has in it. Is it based on how big the person is? Like a person that weighs 100 pounds has less blood than a person that weighs 300 pounds? It is and also depends on what's going on with them. For instance, women typically have a little bit of a little less blood, but if they're pregnant or if they're heavy, their body does tend to produce extra blood to compensate for the extra tissue and compensate for the extra tissue and compensate for the extra weight and even compensate for the fetus that may be gestating inside of her. So it just depends on a lot of things, but on the average, at least a gallon, if not

more than that. I'm thinking this through, that this woman, Crystal Lee Kinney, as I call her the rodeo queen, and I call her that because she was voted the rodeo queen, goes into this home and she sees Cheryl McCollum about a gallon of human blood all over the floor, the walls does she call 9-1-1 no she doesn't call 9-1-1 she starts cleaning up and if i'm right alexis tereshak didn't she have on like um a hazmat suit a protective suit with rubber gloves yes she, she had booties, booties, gloves, a white suit, a thing on her hair, hairnet. She was fully like, I'm breaking bad. Would that be a good comparison? So in other words, she didn't go in and was surprised, Cheryl McCollum. She went in with her mop and broom

and her rubber gloves and booties on. Well, Nancy, there was nobody better than you to paint a picture for a jury. So I want to try to paint a picture. There was blood on the floor, on the wall, on the carpet, behind the sofa, on the windowsills, on kitchen appliances, on the pillows, on the sofa. But let me tell you, she found blood splattered on the baby's stuffed animals. She found so much splattered with blood that she filled six trash bags of items she couldn't clean. I'm just thinking about this mom who was planning this beautiful meal for her family. She's gone. Her phone is pinging 800 miles away. And now you've got her fiance's mistress waltzing around cleaning it up with a mop and a broom. No wonder the place looks spotless when police got there. Listen. Did you say that you cleaned off some of the

appliances? I did. I wiped the front. There was blood on the front of the dishwasher. There was blood on the front of the stove. There was that cinnamon roll pan had blood on the tinfoil on top of it. Okay, so let me go back. There was tinfoil on top of it? On top of the cinnamon roll pan that was sitting right there. And what did you do with the tinfoil? I put it in the rack. Okay. There was blood on top of the coffee maker. And more. I moved the couch. I wiped the couch off. There was one behind the couch down the wall.

There was a stand, a poor stand right there by the couch. And the lamp and that basket were on it. I worked from that side all the way around. Did the upstairs. And then I did the bathroom and the kitchen and mopped the floor. So she cleaned off the coffee maker. She moved the couch. She mopped and cleaned and shined and sparkled the entire home but there's more blood listen blood everywhere

so did she call 911 no she didn't didn't. To you, Alexis Tereszczuk, what happened to Kelsey Barrett? Her fiance, the father of her child, murdered her. He planned it for months. And he even tried to get this girlfriend to do it with him. He tried to have her poison her. He said, you need to go fill up her Starbucks cup of coffee with poison and give it to her. He was planning to kill her for months in any way that he could. And he finally went into the house, took a baseball bat and beat her, beat her so much. But she was actually able to say, he didn't, he put up, he said, let's play a game. I got all these great candles. You put on a blindfold and tell me if you can tell what scent they are.

Sort of maybe a romantic game before then we go in the bedroom. So she puts on the blindfold and he doesn't light the candles. He beats her over the head with a baseball bat. Beats her all over the house. Chases her around the house. Blood, body parts flying everywhere. There was even a tooth in a vent that he had his girlfriend clean up. He slaughtered her and then he took her body 800 miles away to Idaho and he burned it in the field behind his home.

Cheryl McCollum, the tooth they found. Just this baby is going to grow up and know everything that we're saying and the level of planning, trying to put the mistress up to killing his fiance. I mean, Cheryl, they weren't even married. They could just break up, right? Right. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The crime scene shows the level of depravity of the fiance, Patrick Frazee. When you go into a scene like that, you're going to look for cast-off patterns from that baseball bat, and you're going to be able to determine how many times he hit her.

In that direction, everywhere that blood landed, you're going to be able to see where he was standing. Did he walk around and just keep hitting her? And, Nancy, let's talk about the other girlfriend for a minute. For 800 miles, she drove. So every mile, she had 800 times she could have turned around. 800 times she could have called her family or a friend or the police and she didn't at no time when she was cleaning that scene for four hours did she call anybody at no time when she drove

back home 800 miles did she call while she stood there and watched him burn an innocent person she called nobody actually speaking of the burning she then takes investigators on a tour of the farm where she stood by knowing that patrick frazee was burning the body of this young mom kelsey barrett listen we talked for probably an hour hour and a half he needed to do his chores he went in and got his little girl i carried a physical girl around while he finished his chores oh I didn't get the facade. Oh, okay. Got in the facade with a little girl because it was snowing. From there, I told him I have to leave.

He gave me Kelsey's phone and gave me instructions on what to do with the phone. Woman, you can ride in hell right along with Patrick Frazee. She's like, he did this and he did did this, and he told me to do this, and he told me to do that. You're part of it, rodeo queen. You're going to have supper with Satan, mark my words, and that's not all. Listen. Pallets went into the fire.

Mm-hmm. Um, um, material from her home. Um. And those were in what? Garbage bags. Black garbage bags, white garbage bags? Two white garbage bags and I believe

four black garbage bags. The gas and the motor oil. There were a couple of buckets. He poured gasoline in the bucket and pitched it into the fire. And she stood by and watched it happen. And I guarantee you that there were members of Patrick Frazee's family that knew exactly what was going on. So he's the devil and she's Beelzebub.

But how does that play out? Listen to our cut 12. Again, the chief of police, Miles DeYoung. Today we arrested Patrick Frazee on charges of first degree murder of Kelsey Barrett. And he is currently being held in the Teller County Jail. As a reminder, Patrick Frazee is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Patrick Frazee was taken into custody this morning in Florissant, Colorado, just after 7 o'clock this morning Mountain Standard Time

by members of the Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force, including the Teller County Sheriff's Office and the FBI. Patrick was taken to the Teller County Jail where he'll be held. Kelsey's daughter, Kaylee, is in protective custody and will be reunited with Kelsey's family. I want you to hear what the prosecutor had to say in our cut 21. Crystal tells us that on October, I'm sorry, November 22nd, Thanksgiving, Patrick kills Kelsey in a horrific manner with a bat in the back of the head as Kelsey is sniffing candles with a blindfold over her eyes. Crystal tells us that Patrick then calls her after he has put Kelsey in a black plastic tote. Calls Crystal to come out and help him clean up.

She does not come out that day. She cannot come out that day, but she does come out. And as Crystal describes, when she walks into Kelsey's condo, the scene is horrific. There's blood everywhere. There are bloody footprints everywhere and crystal cleans up blood but leaves behind some telltale evidence for our investigators to find frazee is convicted but guess what he has appealed his conviction his first appeal was rejected by the court of appeals. But guess what? Crystal, the rodeo queen, as we call her, because she was in fact voted a rodeo queen. Crystal Kinney is walking free.

Why is that? Why is that Alexis Tereshuk? Well, she was sentenced to she took a plea deal. She was the star witness. She had a deal with the prosecutors that she would tell them everything she knew, and they would only sentence her to about 18 months. So the plea happened. The judge said, I'm going to give you more time because this is such a horrific crime. And even though you cooperated, you didn't do anything to stop this crime. You had hundreds of miles.

The judge said to her, you could have called the police. You could have called anybody. You didn't have to cover this up. And you knew it was going to happen ahead of time. So he gave her a longer sentence. She appealed that. The appellate court ruled in her favor. So he had to reverse the longer sentence and give her 18 months in prison. And she had already served that. So she got out. She got a she was basically out of prison in a mere 18 months and had a one has one year of probation. So this woman who mopped up Kelsey's blood is walking free to you, Eric Faddis. You know, I have a saying that I've told juries before. Sometimes you got to go to hell to get your witness to put the devil in jail. Sometimes

you cut a deal, whether you like it or not, so you can get the main perpetrator. But frankly, in this case, I don't think they needed Crystal Kenny. I think they could have proven the case against Frazee without her. And she could be in jail right now, too. Yeah, you know, Nancy, it's a tough call because murderers don't hang out with Mother Teresa, right? They're hanging out with kind of the bottom of the barrel and, you know, enter into the chat Crystal Lee Kenny. She did have a lot of information in terms of confessions that Patrick Frazee had made to her regarding the killing, regarding the cover-up, regarding intending to do something bad to the victim.

And so her testimony was certainly valuable. Did the prosecutors need it to convict him? That part is still kind of an open question. You know what? Cheryl McCartney is a terrible, terrible taste in my mouth as we approach Thanksgiving to think about what happened to Kelsey Barrett. And by burning her body, her little girl, Kelly, doesn't even have a grave or marker, nothing to go and visit. Nothing at all. Patrick made it clear to Crystal he wanted Kelsey dead. He asked her to do it three times. Three times, Nancy, and told her how to do it. And when you think about who could have stopped this,

she was the only one that could have. Crystal was the only one that could have stopped it. Dr. Tim Gallagher, when you burn a body, do you get rid? Can you get rid? I mean, it's not an incinerator. It's a fire. Can you actually let the fire burn until there's no trace of human bones left, or is that impossible? Yeah, that's impossible with a wood fire. fire burn until there's no trace of human bones left, or is that impossible?

Yeah, that's impossible with a wood fire. The wood fire probably reaches about 1,400 degrees, and if you really want to incinerate somebody as they do in cremation, you have to use propane gas or natural gas, and that fire has to reach well over 3,000 degrees. Even still, you would still have some bone remains, which would be ground up at the crematorium, but teeth can remain, dental work can remain, and some other long, the ends of your long bones, for instance, your femurs, your humerus bone, those tend to remain in spite of the high temperatures as well. Dr. Gallagher, I've got a question for you, following up on something you just said, before I forget it. We know that Patrick Frazee poured gas and motor oil onto the fire. Would that have worked as an accelerant that may have gotten rid of all trace of her bones?

I'm just trying to think of how the prosecutor could prove this case without using the rodeo queen and putting her behind bars for life, too. Right. So the gasoline would accelerate the burning of the body temporarily. It'll burn off very quickly within five, 10 minutes. That'll be gone. But what it does is it ignites the wood, you know, and that's what perpetuates the fire. So even if they're using gasoline in the beginning, that's not going to have any effect on the loss, the total loss of all the bone or all the DNA material. That just sets the wood on fire. Guys, when I think about Kelsey Barrett and her little girl, Kelly, who we continue to pray for. It makes our Thanksgiving all the more sweet when we gather with our friends and family or even on our own. And we thank God for our lives

and all of our blessings. I pause and I think about all those people less fortunate than we are. And I think about little Kaylee every Thanksgiving and how she gets through that day. I'll finish with this. Rodeo Queen Crystal Lee Kinney, you're going to hell. And guess who you'll meet at the front gate? Patrick Frazee. Goodbye, friends.