TELLER COUNTY, CO – Patrick Frazee, the fiancé of missing Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth, 29, has been arrested and taken into the Teller County Jail, police said Friday. Another arrest in the case is possible, the Woodland Park police chief said.
Patrick Frazee is facing charges of first-degree murder and solicitation of first degree murder, the 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May said. Formal charges will be filed within ten days, May predicted.
Investigators still have not found the 29-year-old flight instructor’s body.
“While we have not found Kelsey at this time, information has developed that will narrow down our search,” Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said. Evidence led investigators to believe the crime took place at Kelsey’s townhome in Woodland Park, De Young said.
The couple’s 1-year-old daughter is in “protective custody” and will be reunited with family members, the police chief said. De Young said the community could expect lots of law enforcement activity in the area in the next few days. De Young told reporters there was a possibility that there might be another person arrested. Kelsey’s phone “did end up Idaho” the police chief confirmed.
The arrest affidavit for Frazee has been sealed, District Attorney May said. He said records may take up to 30 days to unseal the records.
Wednesday and Thursday, investigators removed evidence from Berreth’s townhome and said the investigation was following up on multiple leads.
Last week, investigators served a search warrant on Frazee’s 34-acre ranch property and seized his pickup truck. They brought cadaver dogs and backhoes to Frazee’s ranch, but ultimately said they had not found any evidence of the missing mother, who was last seen on Thanksgiving day.
Berreth was missing for 10 days before a missing persons report was filed. Police were asked to make a welfare check on Berreth by her mother, Cheryl Berreth of Idaho ten days after she had last been seen.
Frazee told police, through his lawyer, that Berreth brought the couple’s baby to him on Thanksgiving Day. Police said three days after she disappeared, text messages from Berreth’s phone were received at her employer, Pueblo-based Doss Aviation and Frazee. Investigators said Berreth’s phone “pinged” near Gooding, Idaho, about 600 miles from her home in Woodland Park, a small town in the mountains west of Colorado Springs.
On Dec. 11, the Woodland Police Department released a short surveillance video taken Nov. 22 at the Safeway grocery store that showed Berreth entering the store with her baby’s car seat and loading the seat into a grocery cart.
Kelsey Berreth was employed as a flight instructor for Doss Aviation, commuting about 60 miles or more than an hour each way. Berreth does not own a plane, her family members posted on Facebook. “She does not own a plane nor do we know of any local friends that she would borrow one from,” they wrote on Facebook. “I don’t believe she has ever made a flight without filing a flight plan. We do realize that it is possible to rent a plane, but I believe someone would be missing it by now.”
Anyone with information on Kelsey Berreth’s disappearance is still asked to contact the police at kelsey@city-woodlandpark.com.
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Image via Woodland Park police
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