Patrick Frazee and Kelsey Berreth of Colorado appeared to have everything going for them; they had a young daughter together and were engaged to be married.
This all changed when Frazee murdered his 29-year-old fiance in an act that prosecutors called “deliberate, premeditated, cold and cruel murder.”
Prosecutors argued that on Thanksgiving in 2018, Frazee attacked Berreth with a baseball bat beating her to death while their 1-year-old daughter sat in a playpen in the other room. He had allegedly tricked her into putting on a blindfold.
He is then accused of placing her remains in a black plastic container, which he then burnt on their property. Her remains still haven’t been located.
It later transpired that Frazee had been having an affair with Krystal Lee. He had told Lee that he thought Berreth was a danger to their daughter. He asked her to help him kill Berreth.
Patrick Frazee tried to get his girlfriend Krystal Lee to murder his fiance
Frazee first suggested that Lee poison his wife’s coffee, he then twice tried to get her to beat Berreth to death, first with a pipe and then with a baseball bat.
When Berreth was finally murdered, Lee confessed to helping Frazee clean up the crime scene. Krystal Lee took a deal with prosecutors, where she agreed to testify against her boyfriend and was sentenced to three years for aiding and abetting.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelAt Frazee’s trial, a prison inmate came forward to testify that Frazee had asked him to use his gang connections to kill key witnesses in the case, including Lee.
Frazee was found guilty of first-degree felony murder and three counts of solicitation to commit murder. He was given the maximum sentence of life in prison plus 156-years.
More from 48 Hours on ID
Follow the links to read about more grisly murders profiled on 48 Hours on ID.
Howard Pilmar was a wealthy Manhattan entrepreneur with several businesses when he was viciously stabbed to death at his headquarters not far from the Empire State building. His wife Roslyn Pilmar and her brother Evan Wald had been the murderers. It took over 20-years for prosecutors to put them behind bars.
In 2009 Samira Watkins’s body was found washed up on shore in a duffel bag about 200 yards away from the entrance of the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. Her killer was her boyfriend Naval Police Officer Zachary Littleton, and he had omitted to tell her that he was already married.
Catch this episode of 48 Hours on ID, Friday, April 17, at 8/7c on Investigation Discovery.