‘Madly in Love’ Idaho Nurse Cleaned Up Crime Scene After Her Boyfriend Murdered His Fiancée
A woman from Idaho became so blind in love that she agreed to cover up evidence associated with a murder committed by her boyfriend, authorities said.
Patrick Frazee from Colorado was handed down a life sentence for murdering his fiancée in her townhouse in 2018, and taking the help of his girlfriend to clean up the murder scene, Oxygen reported.
Krystal Lee Kenney and Frazee linked up in 2006 and embarked on a relationship, Oxygen reported. They were on-again, off-again, with Kenney believing Frazee was her first true love. The man did not reciprocate her strong feelings, and the romance eventually fizzled.
The duo reconnected in 2018 and began an affair. Kenney was not aware at that time, that Frazee was already engaged to another woman and shared a child with her.
Kelsey Berreth, a flight school instructor began a romance with Frazee in 2015, after chatting with him on an online dating site, Oxygen reported. She moved from Washington to Colorado, to build a life with him. In 2017, the couple welcomed a daughter. They soon got engaged.
Berreth and Frazee lived separately, Oxygen reported. Berreth stayed at a Woodland Park condo, while Frazee lived at his family ranch about 20 minutes away.
In November 2018, Berreth was reported missing by her mother after she was unable to contact her for more than a week, Oxygen reported. She was last seen on the morning of Thanksgiving Day in surveillance footage captured at a grocery store.
The police questioned Frazee about Berreth. He claimed that he hadn’t seen his fiancée since Thanksgiving Day when he had gone to pick up their daughter, Oxygen reported. He alleged that after going missing she called him to break up and followed it up with a series of messages.
On November 25, at around 5:13 p.m., Berreth's phone became active in Gooding, Idaho for a little while and then switched off, Oxygen reported. Investigators looked into Frazee's phone and found that he had been in contact with a woman living in Idaho, near the area, where the victim's phone last pinged. The woman was Kenney, a former rodeo queen who worked as a senior nurse at a local hospital and had two young children.
"We knew that she had a family, that was about it," CBI Agent Gregg Slater recalled. "She didn’t have a criminal history or anything like that."
Initially, Kenney claimed that she did not know Barreth or Frazee but after being confronted with phone records, she changed her story, Oxygen reported. The woman alleged that she owned a horse with Frazee and made a 13-hour drive to Colorado on Thanksgiving Day, to discuss the sale of the animal.
Some weeks later, Kenney came to authorities with a lawyer and shared how she was involved in Berreth's murder, Oxygen reported. After Kenney came to know about Berreth, Frazee told her that he wanted to get rid of the relationship and painted his fiancée as an alcoholic and abusive mother.
"He started telling Krystal that Kelsey was an abusive mom, that he had people watching Kelsey, and that he was concerned that Kelsey was going to hurt the baby, if not worse,” CBI Agent Jon Grusing said.
Frazee convinced Kenney to murder Berreth, Oxygen reported. The first attempt was made in September 2018, when Kenney gave the victim a Starbucks coffee laced with sedatives. She pretended to be a neighbor, and offered the coffee but Berreth in all probability, did not drink it.
After she failed, Frazee told her to go to Berreth's townhouse with a pipe and hit her in the back of her head. She got spooked by a dog barking in the area and returned.
For the third attempt, Kenney went to the townhouse with a baseball bat to attack the victim, Oxygen reported. She could not go through with the murder as she saw a police car in the area.
"She was madly in love with Patrick and that overruled all her common sense and her judgment,” Grusing shared, Oxygen reported. Kenney testified in court that after three failed attempts Frazee took matters into his own hands, and killed Berreth on Thanksgiving Day.
He beat her on the head with a bat, at his own house. He lured her into a sense of safety and convinced Berreth to play a game where she tried to guess the scent of different candles. He made Berreth put on a blindfold. During the game, he launched the attack.
After the attack, he called Kenney and asked her to clean up the scene, Oxygen reported. "When I first walked in, I saw, um, blood all over the floor," Kenney told investigators of her actions. "I saw blood up the wall. Saw blood on this wall." After cleaning up, she went to Frazee's house where he burnt Berreth's body.
Kenney took the victim's phone with her, made the calls, and sent the text messages that Frazee showed to the police, Oxygen reported.
Kenney made a deal with prosecutors and became a key witness for them, the Denver Post reported.
The then District Attorney, Dan May, called it a deal with the devil, Oxygen reported. "I’m not proud of it," he stated. "I’m not telling you it’s justice for Krystal Lee. It’s not justice for Krystal Lee, but it got justice for Kelsey in the end."
Frazee was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the Denver Post reported. Kenney was originally sentenced to three years for felony tampering with evidence in the case. She appealed the sentence in the Colorado Court of Appeals and it was eventually reduced to 18 months. Kenney was released in 2021.