Case file 0045

Kelsey Berreth: The Missing Mother’s Case Reached a Murder Verdict

The Colorado prosecution ended with a life sentence despite the absence of a recovered body.

Kelsey Berreth was twenty-nine when she disappeared in Colorado in November 2018. Her fiancé, Patrick Frazee, was convicted of killing her following a trial a year later. ABC's November 18, 2019 report records a sentence of life without parole plus 156 years. ^[S1]

What the trial resolved

The jury found Frazee guilty on all counts, including first-degree felony murder and three solicitation counts. The prosecution placed the killing at Berreth's Woodland Park home on Thanksgiving Day, 2018. The defense emphasized that neither a body nor the murder weapon had been recovered. ^[S1]

That dispute is important to the history of the case. The lack of recovered remains did not prevent a trial, and the guilty verdict was not merely an announcement that police suspected Frazee.

Evidence beyond the missing-person appeal

ABC's court reporting describes prosecutors using a neighbor's surveillance images to challenge Frazee's account of his location. The trial also included testimony from his former girlfriend and a fellow inmate. ^[S1]

The court outcome concerned the combined case presented to the jury. A single surveillance frame or one witness should not be portrayed as independently issuing the verdict.

A judgment without a recovered daughter

The conviction answered the criminal charges against Frazee. It did not mean that Berreth had been found alive or that her remains had been recovered.

The end of the prosecution and the end of a family's search are different events. Kelsey's case carries a specific murder judgment while retaining the loss expressed by the original missing-person inquiry.