Criminology - The Murder of Kelsey Berreth

Episode Date: February 13, 2021

The Thanksgiving holiday in 2018 should have been a joyous time for 29-year-old mother, Kelsey Berreth. She was engaged to be married and had a little girl with her fiance Patrick Frazee. But, Kelsey went missing and the police began to suspect that Patrick was somehow involved. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance and murder of Kelsey Berreth. The details that emerged were so salacious that some seem almost made up. Patrick had reunited with an old flamed named Krystal Kenney. She was a nurse from Idaho who had an on-and-off relationship with Patrick for years. Prior to that fateful Thanksgiving, Patrick had been telling anyone that would listen that Kelsey was unstable. But, it's the fact that he was able to manipulate Krystal into helping him with his murderous plans that shocked everyone. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 146 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford, what's going on with you, brother? I'm doing good. How about you?

I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Got buried under quite a bit of snow up here in the north, but we're making it through. Yeah, no snow down here, but it was a little chilly the other day, so I can get a sense of what you're talking about. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you can get a sense. Get a sense. Hey, we continue to have some amazing support on Patreon. Let's give some shoutouts. We had Ashley Kavens, Lee Campbell, Jane Powell, Frankie and Dave, Marta Ledbetter, Bobby, and Reed Variety.

So that's a lot of great support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, that's outstanding. We can't thank you enough for all the support that our Patreon supporters give us. And if anyone else would like to support the show, they can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, Morf, we have to jump right in. We've got a lot to get to in this episode.

It starts out on Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd, 2018. That was supposed to be a happy day for 29-year-old mom, Kelsey Barreth. She planned to spend the day with her little girl and her fiance. But things went horribly wrong. And instead of a Thanksgiving celebration that would be memorable for all the right reasons, this Thanksgiving would forever be etched in the minds of Kelsey's loved ones as a day of sorrow and pain. That day, Kelsey went missing and has never been found. But even without finding Kelsey's body, authorities are,

arrested and convicted someone for the young mother's death, someone that was supposed to love and protect her. And he wasn't the only one arrested. He had help covering up his crime. Kelsey Barreth was born on September 15, 1989 in Washington State. She had lifelong dreams of being a pilot, which she achieved, and she worked as a flight instructor for DOS Aviation. She grew up in Moses Lake, Washington, received her education there at a private Christian school. eventually moving on and attending Big Bend Community College for aviation training. Kelsey was an outdoorsy type of person who loved to ride her bike, canoe, and paddleboard. She ended up moving to Woodland Park, Colorado in 2016 when she was 27,

to foster a closer relationship with a man she was interested in romantically. Patrick Frazy. Kelsey met Patrick who was 31 on a dating website early that year. He was a cattle rancher from Florissant, Colorado. Kelsey fell for the country boy who was raising cattle dogs and grooming donkeys. He worked as a ferrier, someone who shoes horses. Patrick lived with his mother, Sheila. And the first night Kelsey arrived in Colorado, she stayed over with Patrick because she was exhausted.

The next morning, Kelsey was accused by Sheila of being a gold digger and a sex worker. Kelsey was shocked and found this upsetting, but didn't bring it up again. and forgave Sheila. Because Patrick lived with his mom, Kelsey got her own place in Colorado rather than moving in with him. It's not known for sure why Frazy stayed with his mother instead of moving in with Kelsey, but with all of his duties on their 35-acre ranch, it's possible that it just made more sense for him to stay there.

The couple grew closer and made plans to marry. in 2017, Patrick and Kelsey welcomed a daughter together, who they named Kaylee. Kelsey's friends called her considerate, honest, compassionate, and above all, reliable. So when she went missing shortly after Thanksgiving, 2018, and stopped responding to messages, friends and family knew something was wrong. The police confirmed that Kelsey made a shopping trip to a safe way on Thanksgiving Day because she was recorded on camera there. She was shopping for last minute Thanksgiving dinner supplies, specifically the ingredients for a sweet potato casserole.

That morning, Kelsey called her mother to ask for the recipe for their family's bread dip. She talked about making cinnamon rolls for Kaylee and mentioned that she was tired because she had been out late getting medication for Patrick. Later, Kelsey texted Patrick to let him know she bought sweet potatoes just in case he wanted casserole, but that she had forgotten to buy pecans. It seemed like a typical busy Thanksgiving day. Nothing really out of the ordinary. But after that day, her family became concerned when they didn't hear anything more from her. Kelsey was not reported missing until 10 days later on December 2nd, 2018, when her mother,

Cheryl Barrett, finally filed a report. So I think, morph, the first thing here we have to discuss is this 10-day delay before Kelsey was reported missing. that seems odd, given the fact that Kelsey is involved with this man, Patrick. They're engaged and she's been gone for quite a long time. But when police came to question him about his missing fiancé, he had an explanation for them. Patrick claimed that he and Kelsey had broken up at her request on November 21st the day before Thanksgiving. He said that they discussed custody of Cayley and had both agreed that they would be splitting custody 50-50. He said that he had returned her purse, her car keys, and the keys to her townhome, as well as the gun.

He had confiscated from her due to concerns about her mental health. And I think this mention of a gun was a big red flag because, you know, you can tell just by the way, I talked about it. It's as though Patrick was hinting that Kelsey may have been suicidal in the past. Or was this an attempt to get people to look more into Kelsey and to believe that she had left on her own, possibly going off to harm herself? That seems like it could be a way to point police in a certain direction. What's also curious is that Kelsey had not mentioned.

this supposed breakup to her mother on Thanksgiving morning. And if they had broken up, why would Kelsey text Frazy on Thanksgiving about sweet potatoes as if they were planning this meal together? And, you know, for me, Morph, it's the not mentioning that to her mother. I have a daughter who's away at college. She talks with my wife multiple times a day. everything that is going on in her life becomes at a certain point part of one of those conversations. I just don't see this huge event happening in Kelsey's life and she's not mentioning at all to her mother.

Yeah, that's a good point because this isn't some casual man she's dating. This is her fiance and the father of her child. Patrick claimed that the last time he personally saw Kelsey was on Thanksgiving. when they exchanged custody of Kaylee, and the last time she texted him was on November 25th, three days after Thanksgiving. When police looked at the text records between Kelsey and Patrick, there was no sign of animosity or any arguing in the most recent text that the two exchanged.

The last known citing of Kelsey is footage of her recorded on her neighbor's security camera, after she came home from that Safeway shopping trip on November 22nd. In the footage, she and Patrick can be seen entering her house, along with Kaylee, who was in her car seat, and Kelsey was holding in the Poinsetti she had purchased from Safeway. Patrick has seen on camera later on with Kaylee, and once again alone. But police haven't mentioned if he's coming or going from the townhouse. The important thing is that Kelsey is nowhere to be seen in that footage after entering her home following the Safeway trip. We should also point up that this neighbor, Leslie Jackson, states that her camera

is motion activated, and it only picks up images of the movement about half the time. time. There was no word from Kelsey until November 25th when she or someone claiming to be her texted into her work saying that she would not be in for the week because she had to go away and visit her sick grandmother. When Kelsey's mom heard about this text, she found this very alarming because Kelsey's only living grandmother was incapacitated in a care home and would not require an urgent visit. Her coworkers also found this text odd because while Kelsey did previously text in sick to work, she always followed up with a phone call to the scheduling department, but that didn't happen this time. Another text from Kelsey's phone to Patrick's read,

Do you even love me? Police later to determine that this text was sent from Gooding, Idaho, at 5.15 p.m., 800 miles away, from Kelsey's home. Kelsey's mother was adamant that her daughter was a responsible person and would never have just run off, especially without telling anyone where she was or without making arrangements for Kaylee. An unplanned, unannounced trip like that would be extremely out of character for Kelsey. When police searched Kelsey's home, they found no signs of foul play. What they did find led them to believe that Kelsey, if she had left, wasn't planning on being way long. Both of her cars were parked in their normal spots. Pan of cinnamon rolls was still uncovered in the kitchen. The ingredients for

bread dip were unused, lying out in the kitchen. Kelsey's makeup was still out, and her toothbrush was still in the bathroom. Her luggage was untouched. Only her purse and phone were gone. We should point out that this first visit by police wasn't a crime scene investigation, but rather more of a wellness check when Kelsey's family made their way into the home. It was them that noticed a few things were missed. Curtains were missing from the home. The thermostat was set on 72 degrees, which was much warmer than Kelsey usually left it on when she left her house. Kelsey's mom also noticed that toys she had bought for Kaylee's birthday weren't in the house. Kelsey's brother Clint Barrett noticed that there was a dirty broom on Kelsey's bed. The trash was full and a plug-in

candle was still on. Disturbingly, there was blood on the base of the toilet and the bath mat that was normally in the bathroom was missing. When Kelsey's family informed investigators about the blood found on the toilet, they came back and tested the substance. It did turn out, in fact, to be blood, and they quickly chemically tested the rest of the bathroom for the presence of blood. the cliche phrase lit up like a Christmas tree can be used here to describe how many areas of the bathroom indicated that blood had been cleaned up. The blood was DNA tested and it was later determined to belong to Kelsey. A police canine alerted to the presence of human decomposition on the rear driver's side bumper of Kelsey's Toyota Corolla.

So I think no doubt. Police knew they had a crime scene on their hands, and after realizing this was not a case where someone had walked away voluntarily, a $25,000 reward was quickly offered by the Woodland Park Police Department for information leading to Kelsey's safe return. The police publicly asked for help. But behind closed doors, they focused on Patrick Frazy. They began digging into his life. and it didn't take long. To uncover a secret, Frazy had been keeping

a girlfriend named Crystal Kinney. When Kelsey went missing, Crystal Kenny was a 32-year-old nurse from Twin Falls, Idaho. When the FBI first contacted her, she claimed to have no clue who Kelsey Barrett was, and she also claimed she didn't know Patrick Frazy.

Investigators knew she was lying. It turns out that Crystal met Patrick Frazy in 2006 while working on a ranch in Lake George, Colorado. She had attended the Teller County Fair, and that's where they ran into each other. Crystal fell for Patrick quickly, and she visited him in Colorado ten times that year. They would text nearly every day, but he soon began to play mind games and wouldn't call Crystal back for days.

Patrick seemed to be controlling. Her last visit with Patrick was in August, 2007, when he asked her to pick up unspecified items from his ranch. But Patrick kept on calling Crystal, and eventually she did take it. in and ended up answering one of his many calls. But by now, Crystal had moved on and was dating a man named Chad Lee. Patrick knew about this relationship because he had Crystal's voicemail password, and he listened to one of Chad's messages. Patrick and Crystal continued to talk to each other, despite her dating Chad. In December 2008, Patrick told Crystal that he wanted to buy her a border

Collie puppy. Accepting this gift was the beginning of another game of control for Patrick over Crystal. When she arrived to pick up her new dog, Frazy gave her an ultimatum and told her she had to choose between himself and Chad Lee. And the deadline for that decision was March of 2009. Crystal decided to stay with Chad. In April 2009, Frazy demanded money. for the dog. And in May, he said that if he didn't get it, he'd travel to Idaho and kill her dog. Crystal ignored Patrick Surrets. In July 2010, Chadley and Crystal Kinney got engaged. That same month, she apologized to Patrick Frazy for never sending him any money. Her reasoning was that Chad Lee had told her that sending him money would mean the end of their own relationship.

On October 1st, 2010, the day before her wedding to Chad, Patrick Frazy called Crystal and told her not to get married because he wanted to, quote, rescue her. Although Crystal was in love with Patrick, she decided to marry Chad Lee because she knew it was the right thing to do. Crystal didn't communicate with Patrick again until four years later. Sometime in 2014, Patrick Frazy texted Crystal again. She informed him that in 2012 she had a son, and in 2014, she had given birth to a daughter. She hadn't seen Patrick in person since 2008 and hadn't talked to him at all since 2010. In 2015, Chad and Crystal started having marital issues, and Crystal started talking to Patrick once again. In October, she visited Colorado, and she began to have an affair with Patrick Frazy.

Patrick encouraged her to leave Chad and get a divorce. By February 2016, Crystal had asked an attorney to start her divorce paperwork, which she told Patrick Frazy about. She was hesitant to start an actual relationship with him, though, because she feared he would cheat on her. By March, Crystal was pregnant with Patrick's child, and when she asked him what she should do, he heavily hinted that he preferred she have an abortion. Crystal did terminate her pregnancy, but she told Patrick that she had miscarried. When she told him, he had no emotional reaction to the news. Crystal finally filed the divorce paperwork in her marriage to Chad in May. Despite her divorce being final, she didn't talk to Patrick Frazy again until October 2017,

almost a year and a half later. By the time Patrick and Crystal started talking again, Patrick was in a relationship with Kelsey. And in fact, they'd already had their young daughter, Kaylee. But there was no mention of either Kelsey or Kaylee in these conversations. In June 2018, Crystal visited Colorado again, and in a face-to-face meeting with Patrick, there was still no mention of his fiance or young daughter. But during the visit, Patrick mentioned that it would be nice to have a son to help fix the fence they were repairing. And he gave Crystal a baby wipe when she needed to blow her nose.

It didn't dawn on her that he had a daughter. until she met up with her former boss for dinner, and they mentioned Patrick Frazy and his daughter, Kaylee. I think Crystal was a little shocked upon hearing this news, and the next time that she talked with Patrick, she tried to steer the conversation towards kids, but he still made no mention of the fact that he had a daughter. It took almost two months for Crystal to come clean to Patrick that she knew he had a fiancé and a child, but he told her that it wasn't a great time to talk about that, and he essentially blew her off. Crystal wasn't the only person from which he hid his fiance and daughter.

Multiple clients used Frazy as a farrier, and they didn't know that Kelsey was even pregnant. He even told some people who did know that he had a daughter that he only learned of Kaylee the day she was born, and that Kelsey texted him that day to pick up the child because she didn't want. owner. On the flip side, Kelsey's coworkers were aware of Patrick Frazy and even thought Kelsey and him might have already been married. Patrick spent his time telling coworkers and friends that Kelsey was an unstable alcoholic who abandoned her child. Some people bought this story. But in order to be a pilot or a flight instructor, Kelsey had to pass drug test, so I think we can lay this rumor to rest. It's not known why Frazy was so hell-bent on painting Kelsey in a bad light. All of these conversations were

before Kelsey went missing. So maybe Patrick was trying to paint her in a bad light to set up some sort of backstory for when she went missing. Learning that Patrick Frazy had a fiancee and a young daughter didn't cause Crystal to stay away. In fact, she got even closer with Patrick and in a pretty short amount of time. Crystal went from being kept in the dark about Kelsey and Kaylee to helping Patrick plan, carry out, and cover up Kelsey's murder.

Patrick spoke negatively of Kelsey to Crystal and spun a web of lies about her. He asked Crystal to kill Kelsey three times in less than four months. Frazy had a way of manipulating Crystal somehow because instead of either running away or going to police, she agreed to help him. Crystal claims that she never felt the kind of chemistry she did with Frazy before or since. But despite any love or attraction that she felt for Patrick or eventually the fear, she came to feel because of him, she had the opportunity to save Kelsey multiple times over a period of months but did nothing. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work.

and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases and a touch of mom-style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a motherly touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. There were other people that could have helped Kelsey along the way as well. Crystal's best friend Michelle Stein had an inkling of what Crystal and Patrick had planned, but she didn't have all the details. Even without knowing all the exact details like names or locations, Michelle Stein could have alerted authorities to Crystal's and Patrick's plans. We'll talk more about the details that Michelle knew later in the episode.

Patrick also hinted at his plan to his friend Joe Moore. Moore contacted authorities in April 2018, months before Frayette, Crazy first asked Crystal to kill Kelsey. He too did nothing. The mischances here to save Kelsey are heartbreaking and disappointing. I think it's easy to view this story, look at the headlines in the news, and think that jealousy was the only thing at play here. While that's a pretty obvious and very important piece of the puzzle, it's important to note that Frazy claimed that Kelsey was an abusive mother to Kaylee. According to Crystal, Patrick claimed that Kelsey was not stable and that she was going to harm Kaylee.

He would only refer to her as the mother of his child. He would not say Kelsey's name to Crystal. In fact, he wouldn't mention her name to other people. He would often refer to Kelsey simply as Kaylee's mom. He told Crystal about incidents where Kelsey was responsible for a baby gate falling on Kaylee and another incident where she purposefully closed a refrigerator door on Kaylee's hand. Patrick claimed that he had to take Kaylee to the emergency room due to Kelsey's actions. Frazy sent Crystal a picture of an injury to Kaylee supposedly caused by Kelsey.

Crystal claims she told Patrick to call Child Protective Services, but he told her that they didn't take the abuse seriously. Crystal also admitted that Frazy planned to kill Kelsey for a couple of months before it happened. According to her, he had talked about it since at least September of 2018. He enlisted her help on three different occasions, but she always backed out. By October 2018, Patrick Frazy was talking more and more about getting rid of Kelsey, talking about what needed to be done, claiming that Kaylee was in. in, quote, imminent danger due to Kelsey's abuse. Around this time, he started asking Crystal about what happened when people took too many

medications, like sleeping pills. Since she was a nurse, he felt she would have helpful information that he could use. Crystal confirmed that the drugs could hurt or kill a person. This is when he first came up with what he deemed a poisoned coffee plane. Crystal is supposed to offer Kelsey a coffee, which would be laced with Ambien and Valium, enough to cause an over time. As a nurse, Patrick thought that Crystal might have been able to get these drugs from her job. Crystal told Patrick about plans to travel to Colorado and attend a birthday party, and he told her to come look at a horse trailer he had while she was in town. This was when he told her that Kelsey's favorite Starbucks drink was a caramel macchiato

and that she should obtain the drugs to poison her. Patrick didn't elaborate, but he made the statement to her at the time, people go missing every day. He also told Crystal that in August, Kelsey had gone to rehab. So it wouldn't seem too suspicious if she had to be away for a while again. On that, Patrick was actually telling the truth. In August, Kelsey did go to a rehab facility. But the facility she went to is described as a stress rehab, not a place to deal with

substance abuse issues after the birthday party in Greeley, Colorado. Crystal told her aunt that she wanted to visit a friend in Woodland Park and her aunt accompanied her. They first drove three hours south to Florissant where Frazy showed Crystal a picture of Kelsey. He had previously provided her with Kelsey's address and by around 9 p.m. Crystal and her aunt were half an hour north in Woodland Park. Her aunt stayed in the truck while Crystal went up to Kelsey's home. She made something up about finding a dog and gave Kelsey the Starbucks drink. But she had not poisoned the coffee like Frazy had wanted her to. While the two women talked, Kelsey mentioned she had moved to the area because of Patrick and their daughter. And Crystal was overcome with

emotion. And she decided she didn't want to harm Kelsey. During this conversation, she tried to gauge whether Patrick was telling the truth about Kelsey as a mother and a person. And ultimately, she left without harming Kelsey. Upset. Patrick called Crystal the next morning, wondering what happened. He was aggressive, and Crystal made an excuse that Kelsey must have just thrown the coffee away. A co-worker would later recall Kelsey telling them about the random woman who showed up at her door with a coffee. After this first unsuccessful attempt were dry run, whatever you want to call it, Crystal spoke to her friend Michelle Stein about the situation. Michelle would later say that Crystal explained that a man she knew wanted her to, quote,

take care of his baby mama. The man claimed that his ex wanted custody of her child and that she was an abusive mother. Michelle recalls that when Crystal called her, she was bawling and extremely scared. She told her a document this man's request. But the next day, Crystal apologized to Michelle and expressed that she felt stupid even in getting her involved in the situation. Michelle Stein later expressed guilt that she could not stop Kelsey's murder, but she didn't know any of the names or actual locations of the people involved in another state. Patrick Frazy told Crystal that there was an opportunity to make up for her mistake,

but Patrick wouldn't communicate with Crystal through writing or texts about this. And I think this is telling, right? He would only call her to ensure that there was no paper trail. Frazy claimed that Kelsey's abuse was escalating in intensity and that he was really worried about his daughter. But I think Morph, and we kind of already mentioned it, you know, at this point, Crystal was doubting what Patrick was telling her. She later admitted that she never once saw any signs of abuse on Kaylee, but even that fact. or the idea that she began to doubt what Patrick was saying didn't stop Crystal from moving forward. Because Patrick came up with a second plan. He gave Crystal a metal pipe and told her to hit Kelsey.

But to make sure she hit her in the back of the head, to minimize the amount of blood that would result from the attack. And around October 15th, Crystal actually took this pipe all the way to, to Woodland Park, and she sat outside of Kelsey's home in her car. A dog barked, scaring her away, and she returned the pipe back to Frazy's Ranch. She slept in the parking lot of a nearby gas station that night. In the morning, Patrick called her again asking what happened the day before. She told him she couldn't do it. He got upset and wanted to talk about the plan, but he had to go to work. So he had Crystal babysit Kaylee. When he got home, he criticized Crystal for numerous things, including her babysitting skills.

And she started to realize that he was probably lying about Kelsey and that Kelsey had most likely not done any of the things that Patrick claimed. Frazy told Crystal she had one last chance and asked her if she had a bat. He told Crystal to beat Kelsey with a bat, using the phrase, swing away. Crystal drove to Kelsey's home and sat on the ground outside with a baseball bat, while Kelsey and Patrick exchanged custody of one-year-old Kaylee nearby. But Crystal couldn't go through with it. She decided not to attack Kelsey and left. As she drove back to Florissant, she passed Kelsey on the road.

Because she had failed Patrick again, Crystal began to feel like her life was definitely in danger. and that either her or Kelsey were going to be dead, that Patrick was going to kill one of them somehow. After Patrick found out that Crystal hadn't gone through with it, he talked to Crystal about how great of a dad Chad Lee was, and how he and their children would be okay on their own. To Crystal, this was a thinly veiled threat. After their conversation, Patrick slammed the door of Crystal's car and told her to put Kelsey in a trash can and take her body to Idaho and just figure it out. Crystal later claimed that she never informed police out of fear that Patrick would somehow set everything up to place the blame on her. On November 4th, 2018, Patrick called Crystal and told her it was time for her to go through with the plan. But she was in the car with her family.

So she really couldn't talk openly about murdering the mother of her boyfriend's child. So he called her back half an hour later. She looked up flights to Colorado, but they were too expensive. So she told him that she couldn't help at that time. On November 21st, Patrick called Crystal, and they had a pretty normal conversation. He didn't mention any Thanksgiving plans. The next morning, he called Crystal, but she didn't answer. He later texted her multiple times, wants to say happy Thanksgiving,

and another to aggressively tell her to answer her phone. He called her several times while she was eating Thanksgiving dinner with her family. When she answered, he sounded shaken up and she had never heard him in this state before. He told her she had a mess to clean up and complained about how long Kelsey took to get his medication. The next day, Crystal made arrangements to switch shifts with a shift. co-worker. She also traded vehicles with a friend. A friend needed to borrow Crystal's truck. So Crystal began the drive from Idaho around 6 p.m. in her friend's car and at around 6.30 a.m. arrived in Colorado on the 24th. At first, Crystal didn't believe Patrick had done anything.

She thought he was still trying to get her to commit Kelsey's murder or to prove her loyalty in some way. They spoke a lot on the phone during the lawn drive. One conversation around midnight began to scare Crystal. Patrick gave a lot of details that made it seem like he had indeed already killed Kelsey. She picked up the keys to Kelsey's townhome, which were on Patrick's gate at his ranch. He warned Crystal that she would have to wipe off candles, clean up the footprints in the living room, make sure the bathroom look good, and almost nonchalantly mentioned later to check for a tooth in the vents. at 7 a.m. on November 24th, Crystal parked at the Woodland Park Cultural Center and walked up the sidewalk to Kelsey's townhome with cleaning supplies and trash bags in hand.

She walked into a literal blood bath. There was blood on the floor, on the walls, on an exercise ball, stuffed animals, the stove, the dishwasher, and even on the foil on top of a pan of cooled cinnamon roll. that were later seen still out in the kitchen by police. Crystal later said that while looking around the scene, she felt as though she was next. She felt that if Patrick could murder the mother of his child, then she could easily be killed as well. Later, she said that in that moment, she really regretted not helping to save Kelsey.

Crystal Donned shoe covers, a hair cover, a painter's suit and gloves for the cleanup. Patrick called multiple times to instruct Crystal to clean specific items or areas in the home. Though she brought cleaning supplies and trash bags, Crystal didn't think to bring tails, rags, or any type of cloth to clean with. She used some that were already in Kelsey's bathroom and put bleach into an empty spray bottle. The curtains couldn't be clean, so she threw them into a garbage bag. A framed photograph of Kelsey and Kaylee was covered in blood and had to be clean.

Crystal saw a bloody sweater with the sleeves tied together. Bloody bootprints led up the stairs from the living room. She moved the cedar chest and found a tooth behind it. It was like a scene out of a horror movie. Crystal says that she could not clean the blood off the fireplace and that she didn't even attempt a cleanup behind the cedar chest. She later said that she hoped someone would find the blood someday if she left little spots. It took four hours of cleaning and six trash bags, which she loaded in her trunk.

Before she loaded the bags in her trunk, she leaned them against Kelsey's Corolla, which helps explain the canines alert for decomposition. She locked Kelsey's door behind her, attempting to create the appearance that she had simply left home one day and not come back. Frazy also instructed her to send texts about looking at horses, at specific times. After this, Crystal drove to Sonic to get a drink and lunch for Kaylee and Patrick. The details of Kelsey's murder are extremely cruel

and were later revealed at trial. Patrick set out different candles on the table and blindfolded Kelsey with her own sweater, telling her that they were going to play a game, where she smelled the candles and guessed their scent. With their daughter Kaylee and a playpen in the next room, Patrick tricked an unsuspecting Kelsey. He grabbed the bat and bludgeoned her to death.

It's believed this occurred between 1.30 and 145 p.m. on November 22nd. After this, Patrick and Kelsey's phones began traveling together. Another detail that would come out of trial. A plastic bin, the baseball bat, and Crystal herself, are never seen on the neighbor Leslie Jackson's camera surveillance. Though on the 22nd and 24th, Leslie did say she received motion alerts at the times that line up with Patrick's activity. That day, her camera sent her more alerts than usual.

Jackson's camera can only see from about the doorknob level and above. If Patrick dragged anything, the camera would have been able to capture that. And anything below that level may not have triggered the motion sensor. Later at trial, Patrick Frazy described how difficult it was to sit through a Thanksgiving dinner when he had Kelsey, the mother of his child, in a box, in the bed of his truck, Frazy's brother, Sean, later testified that Patrick was very late for their Thanksgiving meal and didn't even call. To inform them, he would be late until 4.30 p.m. Well after they had already finished eating, he showed up with Kaylee around five.

Frazy told Crystal that after he killed Kelsey, he brought a plastic bin inside the home, put the bat inside of it, washed his jeans, and tried to clean the same. scene. Patrick wanted Crystal to go back to the house to take care of this stuff, but she said she had to get back to Idaho. She had a birthday party to attend, and she said hardly anyone knew she was even out of town, but Crystal didn't leave immediately. On November 25th, Crystal was given Kelsey's phone and her password by Patrick. He told her to drive the Woodland Park and text Kelsey's mom a message saying that she would talk to her the next day. Patrick and Crystal retrieved the plastic bin from the Nash Ranch

about an hour south of Florissant, where Patrick used a tractor to move the bin off the top of the stack of bals, of hay, and into the bed of his truck. According to Crystal, there was a gun nearby the entire time. They took the bin containing Kelsey's body, presumably, back to the fluorescent ranch. Patrick became emotional and cried. Later it would say it had nothing to do with Kelsey,

or even the horrible axe he had committed. It was only out of sadness for when he would inevitably be caught. And he wondered what might happen to Kaylee if he was arrested. Patrick told Crystal where she could find the key to his safe and his cattle papers. And shockingly, he told her that she may end up having to take care of Kaylee for him. Patrick placed a tote into an aluminum water trough filled with wooden pallets. He poured multiple gallons of gasoline on top of around, and into the container Kelsey was in.

Frazy was recorded on surveillance that day at a Canoco station, filling up his large gas can. Crystal claims she never looked when he opened the container. He threw a match onto the trough, and the container and the pallets immediately went up into large flames. He tried different methods of tending the fire, first by putting tin under the trough, and then throwing in a bottle of motor oil.

to create a hotter fire. He soaked more pallets and buckets of gasoline and threw the pallets and buckets into the fire as well. Crystal admitted that she was the one who threw items from the crime scene, including pillows, curtains, baby toys and building blocks, plastic cookie cutters, stuffed animals, books, and even Kelsey's Bible into the fire. Notably, Sheila Frazy came outside onto the dead.

when the fire started. Online slew suspect that Sheila had a much larger role in Kelsey's death, or at the very least, the cleanup, because of a Facebook post by a Sheila Frazy made just hours after Kelsey was murdered. It had a photo of Glenda from the Wizard of Oz with the words, the witch is dead. Authorities have explained this was just an eerie coincidence as that account, did not belong to Sheila Patrick's mother. It was actually a different Sheila phrasing. Crystal took Patrick's truck to the gas station where her car was parked and drove her car back to

the ranch. She unloaded the trash bags and then took Patrick to the gas station to retrieve his truck. Patrick gave Crystal Kelsey's phone, purse, and gun, then instructed her to drive as far as she could and then text Kelsey's work that Kelsey wouldn't be coming in that week because she had to visit a sick grandmother. He also wanted her to text his own phone, the message, do you even love me? Crystal was instructed to send Patrick photos from Kelsey's phone. Investigators learned that Crystal's phone left Colorado around 7.30 p.m. on the 24th, and she arrived in Idaho, according to the phone pings around 10.30 a.m. on November 25th. Well, Crystal drove back to Idaho. Patrick actually called her on Kelsey's cell phone, and they talked for a while until Crystal became uncomfortable and asked

Patrick if she could use her own phone. Crystal gave Kelsey's gun to a friend, saying it belonged to her aunt who was currently suicidal. She burned Kelsey's phone, put the ashes into a silver box, and placed the box in a plastic bag, which she threw away on her way to work. Frazy called Crystal a lot, telling her to stick to their story that she was looking at horses if anyone contacted her. At this point, Crystal was worried. She felt that she and her children were completely disposable to Patrick Frazy.

On December 2nd, Patrick told Crystal that Kelsey's mom, Cheryl, wanted him to check on her daughter and that Kelsey's phone had already been traced to Gooding, Idaho. He warned Crystal to keep calm. On December 3rd, Patrick told Crystal that he had hired an attorney and reportedly told that attorney that Kelsey wanted space, the same story he had told Cheryl, Kelsey's mom. On December 4th, Patrick called one of Crystal's family members from his friend Joe Moore's phone and said that the FBI took his phone and were going to question him the next day. He then called Crystal and asked her if she had destroyed the evidence yet, and he again warned

her to stay calm and stick with her playing story. Patrick's attorney would later state that Patrick voluntarily gave up his phone and his DNA to the FBI. Sean Frazier was actually with his brother when Patrick was approached for his phone and he encouraged his brother to cooperate and hand it over because he was concerned about Patrick's behavior. A search of Patrick's mom's home produced Kelsey's health care card, five teeth, a bottle of simply green cleaner, and a bottle of bleach, which tested positive for traces of blood. On December 5th, Patrick Frayette, went into an E&T credit union and asked manager Patricia Key for photos of him using their ATM

on November 22nd. She found his reasoning odd. He had explained the entire story about needing to prove his alibi at the time that the mother of his child went missing, but she agreed to his request. On December 14th, while she was in Las Vegas at a national rodeo event, the FBI contacted Crystal. She had been expecting this because her ex-husband, Chad Lee, had called her the night before to tell her that the FBI came to her dad's house looking for her. She told Chad she was being framed and told him the horse story that Frazy had come up with. She was still afraid at this point that something would happen to either herself or her

young daughter, recalling that Patrick had told her, quote, little girls go missing from playgrounds all the time. Crystal told the FBI that she didn't know Patrick Frazy, but then later admitted that she looked at some horses with him and that she had last seen him about a month and a half before. Back in Colorado, 75 members of law enforcement searched Frazy's 35-acre ranch. A backhoe was utilized and a cadaver dog alerted on top of a hay bough, likely the one that Crystal described the container being on top of. A tooth fragment was found near an obvious burn site, a large area of freshly discolored ground. The tooth fragment tested positive for female DNA, but there wasn't enough DNA there to extract a profile for testing.

On December 16th, when Crystal returned to Idaho, agents from both the FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation arrived at her home. with a warrant for a bucle sample, which is a DNA sample taken from the inside of the cheek with a cotton swab. They informed her that they knew she had lied to them, which she acknowledged, and they also told her that she could be helpful in this case. Crystal felt that cooperating would keep her safe from Patrick Frazy, so she opened up to investigators. On December 20, 2018, wearing black clothing and a black FBI, hat, Crystal took law enforcement through Kelsey's home and pointed out different areas of the

crime scene. When authorities pulled up the floorboards, Kelsey's blood was found soaked through underneath. Crystal pointed out blood spots on the fireplace and described blood on chairs, the table, walls, appliances, and even on a shopping bag. Other agents were talking to Kelsey's friends, shedding more light on their relationship. Kelsey's friend Ashley Cogburn said that Kelsey often seemed like she was upset after speaking to Patrick, and though she was a very tough person, she called her crying once because of the things Patrick said to her. Cogburn saw red flags in their relationship and felt that Patrick was always angry about something and was often demeaning to Kelsey. She believed that Patrick was almost emotionally

abusive towards Kelsey and encouraged her to leave him. But Kelsey wanted to work their relationship out. Immediately after hearing that Kelsey was missing, Ashley felt that Patrick was behind whatever had happened to her. Several friends felt Kelsey was a responsible and reliable person and didn't agree that she was suicidal or unstable, despite what Patrick may have said. And they all agreed that Kelsey would never have left her daughter. Just after 7 a.m. on December 21st, Patrick Frazy was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, three counts of solicitation to commit murder and tampering with a deceased human body.

He pleaded not guilty. On January 5th, 2019, Kelsey's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Frazy. The only motive that Kelsey's family can piece together is that Patrick planned to challenge Kelsey for custody and thought he would lose. Maybe he wanted to eliminate the possibility of child support payments or he was afraid Kelsey might take Kaylee back to Washington with her. That same month, Patrick's mom, Sheila, filed for interveners' rights or parental rights of Kaylee. Sheila attended every hearing for her son, avidly supporting him, but never spoke out publicly. That same month, an emergency temporary custody order was granted, leaving Kaylee in the care of Kelsey's parents, who hoped to adopt her. In April 2019, a search of a midway landfill in Fountain, Colorado, was called off after almost two months.

Nothing of importance was found. Investigators were disappointed. Crystal informed him that Patrick planned to dump Kelsey's body in a landfill or a river. Kelsey's body has still never been found. In July 2019, prosecutors made the decision not to try for the death penalty. Patrick's trial started on October 28. An inmate came forward to notify authorities that Frazy had a hit list and was actively trying to get him to act on it. This inmate and Patrick had passed 16 notes together on paper towels while housed

together in September and October that Frazy had instructed him to flush after reading. The hit list included Crystal Lee, some of her family members, Cheryl Barrett, Michelle Stein, Chad Lee, CBI agent Greg Slater, Patrick's friend Joe Moore, Joe's girlfriend, Joe's girlfriend, Vicki Clark and others. He wanted all of these people to disappear, be gone, or remain unseen until after his trial. These notes also included instructions and suggestions of what Frazy truly meant by unseen. With this inmate stating that Patrick specifically wanted to see a bullet in Crystal's head, his friend since childhood Joe Moore, who was on his hit list, testified during the trial that Frazy actually spoke

to him about killing Kelsey and in April 2018 had mentioned he had actually figured out how to do it. He said he told Patrick not to talk like that. He also said that Frazy mentioned the belief of nobody, no crime multiple times to him. He also said that Patrick claimed to have people following Kelsey and that he had received video of her leaving Kaylee in the car at a gas station. When pressed for the video, he said it was on his computer at home and he never mentioned it again. Joe never believed that the video even existed. Crystal testified for nine hours. Over two days, her testimony included Kelsey's heartbreaking last words to Frazy.

Please stop. Patrick Frazy's trial lasted three weeks. Jonathan Priest, a blood spatter analyst, an expert in crime scene reconstruction, believes it took 10 to 15 impacts from the baseball bat to kill Kelsey. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for three and a half hours, and Patrick Frazy was found guilty on all counts. Judge Scott Sills sentenced him the life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 156 years.

He's serving his time at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Colorado. Prosecutor Beth Reed recalls Patrick Frazy as emotionless, charming, manipulative, and controlling, and feels that based on her observations, he may very well fit the bill of a psychopath, someone unable to feel empathy for another person. An ex-girlfriend of Frazy's Vanessa Curie said exactly that, that he had no empathy. They dated on and off from 2010 until 2014 when she saw the definition of a psychopath online and it completely described Patrick Frazy. She recalls their relationship quite similarly to how Crystal describes her relationship with Patrick.

Four months in, he began to stop calling Vanessa, and when he did call after days of no contact, it would be in the middle of the night to tell her he dreamt of her in a wedding dress. He would build her up and tear her down. Patrick Frazy knew how to press people's buttons, something multiple people in his life have noticed. Vanessa even claimed to witness Frazy hitting his dogs. Crystal had to wait for phrasing for her own trial to start. She pleaded guilty to evidence tampering. And in exchange for her cooperation and testimony, she only faced a maximum of three years in prison.

A judge had the option to suspend the whole thing and let her only serve probation as a free woman. But on January 28, 2020, she was sentenced to all three years in prison. If he hadn't involved Crystal, Patrick may have gotten away with Kelsey's murder. It could have been a situation very similar to Josh and Susan Powell, where everyone suspected that he killed his wife, but no one would be able to prove that fact or do anything about their suspicions. Crystal was a weak link, immediately telling people when she got too emotional. She slipped up and ultimately foiled Patrick's plan multiple times. Michelle Stein, who Crystal told about phrases and tensions, called Joe and Patty Rockstall, who owned a law office, telling them what Crystal told her.

They asked her to have Crystal come to them. But the next day, Crystal told Michelle to drop it and apologize for dragging her into the whole mess in the first place. The Rockstalls later called authorities when a reward for information was announced. In January 2020, Patrick announced that he planned to appeal his conviction. There's been no further movement on that in any public reports. his notice to appeal came just before most of the COVID lockdown starter. So we may still see appeal paperwork be filed in the future.

On January 31st, 2020, Patrick Frazy and Kelsey's parents attended a hearing regarding custody of Kaylee. The final decision of this hearing was not made public, but Kaylee remains with the Barras to this day. In March 2020, Crystal was up for consideration to be. moved to a halfway house instead of prison after serving only two months of her three-year sentence. The fourth judicial district attorney's office disagreed with this move, and it was rejected. The role Crystal played in Kelsey's murder was inexcusable, and time and time again, she could

have helped to stop Patrick Frazy's plans. But it's also important to point out that without Crystal's cooperation, authorities would not have known about. about much of the information they ultimately had. The burn pit, the plastic container, the trips to the gas station, or Nash Ranch. The canines did not alert to human decomposition at Frazy's ranch only at Nash Ranch. So Crystal may have been the only foil to Frazy's nobody part of the plan. But again, it doesn't excuse Crystal in any way for her role. in November 2020, a parole board denied to Grant Crystal Discretionary Parole.

She will have another annual parole eligibility hearing, but her estimated release date is currently July 7, 2022. In April 2020, Patrick Frazy wrote a letter to CBS4's Rick Salinger, maintaining his innocence and stating that he wanted Kaylee to know that he didn't hurt her mother. Patrick wrote of unidentified DNA in Kelsey Sallinger. sink, which the authorities deny, stating that all DNA was accounted for. Investigators even detailed that, oddly enough, the previous owner of the townhome had some sort of condition that thinder skin and made it cut and bleed easily. Her blood was also found

underneath the floorboards. Barring release from prison via some unseen reason, Patrick Frazy will likely die there for murdering his fiancé and the mother of his child, Kelsey Barrett. So no doubt, Morph, this is a tragic case. You know, when you look at it on the surface, you try to find the reason for Patrick doing what he did. I mean, his reason. Obviously, there's no reason that we could come up with. But what else could it have been other than the fact that he either wanted custody of Cayley or he didn't want to pay child support, right? If he had made the decision that, He didn't want to go through with the marriage. He didn't want to be with Kelsey. I can't think of any other reason than money. And that, you know, to boil it down to that is so disgusting. I'm not buying for a second these things that Patrick tried to tell Crystal,

tried to tell other people about Kelsey hurting her daughter, being a neglectful mother, being an abusive mother. I'm not buying any of that. I think all of that was just a ruse because he knew. In his mind, he was planning to either kill her himself or get Crystal to do it for him. And what really makes me angry and I just can't explain is how Crystal would go along with these plans willingly time and time again. She had every opportunity to say this is wrong. I need to get away from him.

I need to go to police. I need to warn Kelsey, but she didn't for whatever reason. She just kept listening to the next plan and the next plan and the next plan and pitching in to do her part to try and cover it up. And I know some people have control over other people. I think most of us would just run the other way in the situation. But there's certain people that do control other people and manipulate them. There was definitely a lot of that going on in this situation. Yeah, and I know some people will point out that Crystal has expressed that she was fearful of Patrick, that he would hurt her, hurt her children. And maybe that is true at a certain point in time, but that realization seemed to have come pretty far into all of this. Would you agree with that more if it seemed like, you know, she could have backed out very, very early?

and said, whoa, what are you talking about? I don't want anything to do with any of that. Yeah. And what to me is weird is just how the whole thing rekindled after years of being disconnected and going their separate directions, almost as if their relationship never ended. It picked right back up where it was. And maybe that goes back to what you were talking about, right?

The controlling nature, the manipulation that Patrick Frazy was able to do. specifically with Crystal. I do think he had a hold on her in some way. And it was a big way if you think about what she was willing to do for him. But that's it for our episode on the murder of Kelsey Barrett. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon for research and rating assistance in this episode. As always, if you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating. you can leave a review, but keep telling your friends about the podcast.

That word of mouth goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. So another episode of Criminology in the Books, Morph, but we'll be back with everyone next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morf. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.