Saturday, November 16, 2019

The Murder Of Kelsey Berreth: Patrick Frazee Trial: Day 7: A Friend Of Frazee's Testified That He Just Wanted Kelsey Gone.

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Coworker of Krystal Kenney, Delynn Bird testified that Krystal said she did what she had to do to stay safe. 

On November 28th 2018, when she came into work on 7 p.m., Bird said. She noted that Krystal looked tired.

On December 26th, Bird learned from a coworker that Krystal was linked to Kelsey’s disappearance. When Bird asked Krystal that evening at work about Berreth, Krystal said the press may “hound them at work about the case” and that she did what she had to do to keep herself and her children safe. Bird said that Krystal seemed uncharacteristically resigned and flat.

Another co-worker of Krystal's, Allyson Wright, testified that she was the one that filled in for Krystal on November 24th, 2018. Krystal had told her she needed to do “something” in Colorado, but didn’t specify what.

Wright said she remembered seeing Krystal on December 26th. She said that Krystal “didn’t look good" and it appeared that something was wrong.  When she asked if Kenney was OK, Krystal said she had gotten into a bad situation. She also allegedly told Wright that she had gotten mixed up in Kelsey's disappearance and that she had to do what she did for the safety of her and her family.

Megan Garrison, a close friend of Krystal's, testified that she and Krystal had switched cars in Idaho before Kelsey's alleged murder. It was on Thanksgiving when Garrison asked Krystal if she could borrow her pickup truck, which agreed to. The following evening, they swapped vehicles at a Walmart halfway between their homes. Garrison mentioned it was pouring rain when they exchanged cars, so their conversation was short.

Sometime on November 24th or 25th, they switched back at the same Walmart, Garrison said.


In mid-December, Krystal reached out to Garrison to let her know the FBI may contact her to search her car.

Twin Falls Police Officer Josh Hayes testified that On December 17th, authorities got a search warrant for Krystal’s home.

They searched the home again on December 21st. On that day, That looked for a burn pile that may contain the remains of a purse, documents, a cell phone and a bat.

He found a burn pile about 500 feet away from their home, Hayes said.

The state showed photos of a burn pile and separate burn pit in the back of Krystal’s home and the second was a closer look at the burn. 

Other photos showed the burned ground and rubble, and a very small piece of an electronic device and glass that may have came from a phone. The prosecution also showed pictures of a circuit board on the electronic device, more burned pieces of the possible phone and a burned glass screen protector.

Frazee’s "very good" friend,  Robert Slagle, confirmed that he and Frazee went on a trip to collect alibi evidence after the date of Kelsey's alleged murder. They first went to Ent Credit Union, then drove by a Safeway and a gas station. The state published a photo of Frazee and Slagle at the teller window of the Ent.

In December, Slagle drove to Nash Ranch with Frazee and he mentioned that he and Kelsey had broken up.

CBI crime analyst, Tanya Atkinson, photographed and processed Berreth’s town home on December 6th and on the December 19-21 searches. She testified that she also processed the scene at Nash Ranch on December 21st and in February 2019. She was called to Kelsey's apartment because of apparent blood on the toilet inside the home and administered a presumptive test on the possible blood and on other items inside the home.

One of the late December reviews of Kelsey’s home, she found wipe marks on various parts of the apartment that made her believe it had been cleaned.

Prosecutors showed her several exhibits of what appeared to be tiny blood stains on various items in the townhome, as well as the floorboards that were pulled up after Krystal gave her statement to investigators.

Atkinson was showed a photo of the discolored portions of a hay bale inside the Nash Ranch barn that Krystal and other have talked about during the trial. The discolored area was shown to be about 38 inches by 30 inches, which was about the same size as the tote that Frazee was alleged to have put Kelsey's body in. She testified she saw no other areas of discolored hay inside the barn when she processed it.

Atkinson said that she went to a Waste Management facility on December 17th, to look for trash Frazee dumped that day and confirmed she did a presumptive blood test on a tarp with a brown or red substance on it.

Adams County Fire Rescue Investigations Chief and the state’s arson expert in the case, Jerry Means, testified he was contacted Dec. 21 to help investigate the case. He said he had experience in dealing with melted plastic in fire investigations, as well as on investigations involving human remains. When shown a picture of the burn area at the Frazee ranch he stated that it was fairly obvious that there was black plastic melted into the gravel and soil in the area and that the plastic had fused with portions of the soil. He described the two types of plastic and how they melt down, and said that the melted shape of the black tote would be consistent with what would happen with the type of plastic of which the black tote was comprised.

Means then discussed  about how bodies break down in fires. And that how the scene at the ranch seems consistent with that of a body being burned.

“You can pick one up with a gloved hand, and just – poof. It turns to nothing. … It turns to dust,” Means said.

Friend of Frazee’s, Laurie Luce, told prosecutors she had met Krystal once when she came to her house with Frazee. 

She also testified that when she discovered that Frazee had a daugher, he told her he had a relationship with the girl’s mother but didn’t learn she was pregnant until she had the baby. Frazee told her that his daughter’s mother did not want to be a mother, so he would have to be the only parent moving forward and that the conversation happened sometime in the spring of 2018. She described Frazee as being the happiest she had seen him.

Luce told the court that Frazee went to her house on December 20th, and that they talked about November 22nd at the time. Frazee told her he went to Kelsey’s to pick up their daughter before he went to run errands and to give Kelsey her gun back even though Kelsey had commented on committing suicide. Luce said that Frazee expressed frustration of telling the story “so many times” but she told him she had never heard it before.

She said Frazee also discussed that day several scenarios as to what might have happened to Kelsey, most of them dealt with her running away.

Luce testified that she asked him about the phone ping in Idaho, but he did not answer. She told Frazee that maybe Kelsey was headed back home and committed suicide before she got there or that maybe she was coming back. To this theory Frazee answered, "Oh, she’s never coming back."

Luce told the court that sometime between August and October 2019, Frazee told her he wanted to raise his daughter with someone else and that he wanted Kelsey gone.

Another acquaintance of Frazee's, Kayla Daugherty, testified that Frazee told her about the vastness of Teller County and that it would be hard to find a body during a discussion in 2015.

When asked if Frazee told her that somebody could carry a body on a horse somewhere no one could find it, to which she replied, “Yes.” 

Savannah Greasby, for whom Frazee had been shoeing horses for about nine years, said Frazee asked her to dinner around October 2018, which she said she could not make. The court was shown a text message thread between Savannah and Frazee from November 21st through December 4th.  

Frazee texted Savannah just after midnight on November 21st, talking about getting there when he gets done, though Daugherty said she was not sure what he was referring to and told him to go to bed. They told each other happy Thanksgiving in messages the next day.

Kathryn Donahue, another woman for whom Frazee shoed horses, testified that Frazee mentioned one time he had friends in Idaho. He also allegedly told her that he was “free,” meaning he had no kids or wife. Around December 2015, Frazee showed up with Kaylee and told Donahue that she was his daughter. Donahue was surprised because she did not know he was dating anyone. She also said that Frazee he did not know Berreth was pregnant until she went into labor.

“We didn’t discuss her a lot, but he would never say anything kind about her,” Donahue said about Kelsey in court. 

Frazee told her Kelsey took off shortly after their daughter was born and that she was absolutely crazy. 

Around December 19th, 2018, she asked how Frazee was holding up. She said he asked if she saw the news, and she pressed him for details after hearing about Kelsey.

Frazee told her Kelsey went to rehab.

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