Police officials in Colorado said they ended a search in a landfill for Kelsey Berreth’s burned body without finding her remains.
“This is not the outcome that we had hoped for, but we knew going into this search that there was a chance we would not locate Kelsey or evidence related to her disappearance,” Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said in a statement.
Law enforcement officials and other experts spent nearly two months searching the Midway Landfill in Fountain after NecroSearch International narrowed the area where Berreth’s body could likely be found to a quadrant measuring 135 by 32 feet and approximately 13 feet deep.
Law enforcement officials said that they completed “a highly detailed search” of an area measuring 65 by 32 feet and 13 feet deep.
“This is the primary search area identified by NecroSearch International as having the highest probability of locating evidence relating to her disappearance,” the Woodland Park Police Department stated.
Berreth vanished on Thanksgiving Day in 2018. Her fiancé Patrick Frazee was arrested in December 2018.
Officers said in court on Feb. 19 that Idaho nurse Krystal Jean Lee Kenney, who was having an affair with Frazee, told them that Berreth’s fiancé, Patrick Frazee, killed Berreth and wrapped her in a large plastic tote bag.
Kenney said Frazee summoned her to his ranch where she watched him pour gas and oil onto the fire as a large plastic tote bag burned away, revealing a “lump” she believed was Berreth’s body. Frazee allegedly told her he planned to throw the remains in a dump or a river.
Kenney said Frazee tried to convince her to kill his fiancée but she ultimately declined, leading him to kill Berreth.
Officers said that Frazee went to Berreth’s house, tied a sweater around her face, and beat her to death with a baseball bat while their 1-year-old girl was in the room.
Frazee told Kenney to clean Berreth’s house after he killed his child’s mother, and the nurse found the abode spattered with blood. Later, she met Frazee at his ranch where she witnessed the burning.
Shimon Kohn, a Colorado Springs-based defense attorney, said the fact that Berreth’s remains weren’t found could contribute to Frazee not being convicted.
“It’s definitely a victory for the defense—a small victory, but a victory nonetheless—because now, there will always be that residual doubt in the jurors’ minds,” Kohn told the Colorado Springs Gazette.
He noted that the movie “Gone Girl” features a man accused of killing his wife but viewers ultimately find out that the wife was still alive and that she tried to frame her husband.
“Of course, a real-life case can’t be compared to a movie, but jurors have watched movies, and there will always be that residual doubt whether she’s still alive and just ran off and left her child behind—which may be unlikely, may not be. I don’t know anything about the case other than what I’ve read about it,” he said.
