Woman says man told her to kill fiancee before fatal beating

After urging a woman he was having an affair with for months to kill his fiancee, investigators say a Colorado man did it himself on Thanksgiving Day, bludgeoning her to death with a baseball bat.

The grim details revealed in a Colorado courtroom Tuesday provided the first public account of what led prosecutors to charge Patrick Frazee with murder and other charges in the death of Kelsey Berreth, the mother of his 1-year-old daughter.

Berreth, a 29-year-old flight instructor, was last seen on Nov. 22 near her home in a mountain town near Colorado Springs, south of Denver. Her body has not been found.

Patrick Frazee's mother, Sheila Frazee, right, heads up the hill to the Teller County Courthouse in Cripple Creek, Colo., Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, before Patrick Frazee appeared in court. Patrick Frazee, charged with murder in the death of his missing fiancee Kelsey Berreth, tried to convince a woman he was having an affair with to commit the killing, investigators testified Tuesday. (Jerilee BennettThe Gazette via AP)

Investigators testified that Frazee began planning Berreth's death in September and enlisted an Idaho woman who told authorities they been having a romantic relationship for several months before that.

Krystal Jean Lee Kenney, a 32-year-old former nurse, told police that Frazee claimed Berreth was abusing the couple's 1-year-old daughter. Police said there is no evidence that the girl was abused by her mother or anyone else.

Frazee asked Kenney to kill Berreth three times, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Gregg Slater testified Tuesday.

Slater said Kenney reported that Frazee suggested using a poisoned drink from Starbucks in September. Kenney told police that Frazee later told her to hit Berreth in the head using a metal pipe or a baseball bat.

Kenney said he was angry each time she failed to act. She loved Frazee and wanted to make him happy but could not hurt Berreth, Slater said.

Kenney received a call from Frazee on Nov. 22 demanding that she drive to Colorado, Slater said.

"You got a mess to clean up," Frazee said according to Kenney's account to police.

She said she arrived two days later and found a "horrific" scene with blood spattered on the walls and floors of Berreth's townhome, Slater said.

Kenney told police that Frazee had wrapped a sweater around Berreth's head before beating her to death with a baseball bat and stashing her body on a ranch. After she cleaned the house, Kenney said she went with Frazee to retrieve Berreth's body and watched as Frazee burned it on his property along with the wooden bat, Slater said.

She said Frazee later told her he planned to throw the remains in a dump or river.

Kenney has pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and is required to testify against Frazee as part of her plea agreement with prosecutors.

Following the daylong hearing, Teller County Judge Scott Sells found there is enough evidence for Frazee to stand trial for murder and other charges.

He was arrested last December, about a month after Berreth was last seen alive on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22. Prosecutors announced additional charges this week, including tampering with a deceased body.

Frazee has not entered a plea to any of the allegations.

His attorneys focused most of their questions Tuesday on Kenney's account.

Police acknowledged that Kenney did not see Berreth's body or a baseball bat. They also said Kenney denied knowing Berreth or having a personal relationship with Frazee when investigators first contacted her in mid-December.

Defense attorneys also highlighted a lack of blood or other physical evidence detected in Frazee's truck and questioned the Berreth family's access to Kelsey's townhome following initial police searches. Blood in the bathroom identified as Berreth's was discovered Dec. 6, days after police turned the property over to her family.

Apart from Kenney's account, the prosecution's case relies heavily on data from cell phone towers charting the physical location of phones belonging to Berreth, Frazee and Kenney. Investigators testified that data showed Berreth's cell phone was always in the same location as Frazee's phone or Kenney's phone after Nov. 22.

The hearing did not reveal why prosecutors believe Frazee killed Berreth. Her parents argue in a wrongful death lawsuit that they believe Frazee wanted full custody of the couple's 1-year-old daughter. The child has remained with them while the criminal case proceeds.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.

The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.

The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.

Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.

Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.

Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.

The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.

A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)