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Patrick Frazee murder trial: Frazee's friend testified he said Berreth was 'never coming back'

Denver7

By: Stephanie Butzer and Blair Miller | Denver 7 and Sam Kraemer | KOAA

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CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo. — Two people who worked alongside Krystal Lee Kenney in Idaho said Kenney appeared "sad," "quiet" and "resigned" when she returned to work after she allegedly cleaned up a murder scene in Colorado.

Later Tuesday morning, a "very good" friend of Frazee's discussed a trip he and Frazee made in which Frazee worked to establish an alibi, the friend said, and a CBI crime scene analyst discussed the tiny spots of possible blood spatter found inside Berreth's home, and how there were much longer streaks of possible blood on the side of the floor boards that she processed after they were ripped up.

On Tuesday afternoon an arson expert testified about the burn area at Frazee's property and how bodies break down in a fire, and a friend of Frazee's testified what he told her after Berreth went missing. After a final break, three women whom Frazee communicated with in the months and years surrounding Berreth's disappearance testified about his behavior toward Berreth, which they said was abnormal.

In her previous testimony, Kenney said her ex-lover, Patrick Frazee, 33, of Florissant, Colorado, had demanded she drive from Idaho to the nearby town of Woodland Park to clean up the scene where he had allegedly killed his 29-year-old fiancee. He's accused of killing her on Thanksgiving Day 2018 in her Woodland Park condo. He is also accused of soliciting Kenney to help him carry out the murder.

Frazee faces eight charges, including first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased body and solicitation. While he pleaded not guilty to the charges, Kenney took a plea deal, pleading guilty to a tampering charge and agreeing to testify at Frazee's trial.

Prosecutors decided in July to not file a motion in pursuit of capital punishment, meaning Frazee will not face the death penalty in this case if he is found guilty.

Here is Denver7's coverage from previous days of the trial:

Coworker says Kenney said she did what she had to do to stay safe

Court began at 8:35 a.m. Tuesday. First, the state called Delynn Bird, who worked with Kenney as a nurse at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Hospital in the recovery room.

She said Kenney doesn’t work at the hospital anymore and that they didn’t socialize outside of work.

Prosecutor Beth Reed asked if she had heard of Frazee, and Bird said she had, but not until she started seeing the media coverage of this case. Kenney never talked about Frazee at work, she said.

Kenney told her she was making trips to Colorado, she said. She said she knew Kenney left to go to Colorado on Nov. 23, 2018 — the day after the alleged murder — because a coworker had to pick up Kenney’s shift.

She didn’t see Kenney again until Nov. 28, when she came into work on 7 p.m., Bird said. She noted that Kenney looked tired.

On Dec. 26, Bird learned from a coworker that Kenney was linked to Berreth’s disappearance. That evening, she said Kenney seemed quiet at work. When Bird asked her about Berreth, Kenney 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.

Bird asked about Berreth’s cell phone and Kenney shrugged. Bird said she didn’t know if this meant she was involved or not.

Kenney appeared “flat” and “resigned,” Bird said, which was not typical for her.

During the cross-examination, defense attorney Adam Stiegerwald asked for more information on the day Kenney appeared tired. Bird said she didn’t ask why she appeared that way.

Coworker recalls Kenney as sad, quiet at work on Dec. 26

The state called another nurse, Allyson Wright, to the witness stand next. She also works at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Hospital and filled in for Kenney’s shift on Nov. 24, 2018.

She said she saw Kenney in passing, but only knew her professionally.

They had texted about logistics for Wright to fill in for Kenney, and Wright said Kenney had told her she needed to do “something” in Colorado, but didn’t specify what. On Nov. 23, Wright saw Kenney in the recovery room, and Kenney verified Wright would cover her shift and thanked her for doing so.

The next time Wright said she remembered seeing Kenney was Dec. 26. That day, she said Kenney “didn’t look good" and it appeared that something was wrong. She’s normally happy and talkative, Wright said, and that day she seemed sad and quiet. When she asked if Kenney was OK, she was quiet before shaking her head and saying, “no.” Kenney said she had gotten into a bad situation.

Kenney asked if Wright had heard about Berreth missing out of Colorado, and Wright said yes, and Kenney said she had gotten herself mixed up in that, Wright said. But she didn’t explain any details.

Wright said she recalled that Kenney told her she did what she had to do to keep herself and her kids safe, and that she feared for her safety.

That was the last time Wright saw Kenney, she said.

Prosecutor Jennifer Viehman asked if Wright was trained in cleaning up bodily fluids, and Wright said she was, but there is no formal training other than “cleaning it all up.” She said they don’t use bleach to clean up blood.

Close friend details how they switched cars in Idaho before alleged murder

Megan Garrison of Jerome, Idaho, was the next witness called to the stand by the prosecutors.

She said her ex-husband and Kenney’s ex-husband worked together, and they knew each other through that connection. Over time, they became close friends, Garrison said.

They have borrowed each other’s vehicles in the past — Garrison took Kenney’s truck to help her move, and Kenney would borrow her car because it was more fuel efficient.

Garrison confirmed she owns a Volkswagen Passat.

She said Kenney would talk vaguely about her trips to Colorado, where she had horses and a dog she shared with a Colorado man. She'd also visit her mom there, she said.

Garrison first heard about Frazee the night before Kenney married her now-ex-husband.

On Thanksgiving, Garrison asked Kenney if she could borrow her pickup truck, which Kenney allowed. They swapped vehicles at the Jerome Walmart — which was halfway between their homes — the following evening. Garrison mentioned it was pouring rain when they exchanged cars, so their conversation was short.

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

In mid-December, Kenney reached out to Garrison to let her know the FBI may contact her to search her car. Kenney said she had provided buccal swabs for them.

During a cross-examination, Stiegerwald confirmed that the Volkswagen had expired tags. He also noted that Kenney texted Garrison that she was “staying at her place” that night as an alibi in case Kenney's husband came looking for her.

Stiegerwald then asked about a gun that Garrison had in her car. She said she keeps a 9mm loaded gun under the driver’s seat in case she needs it to protect herself. She checked on the gun after Kenney called her about the FBI and noticed there were six bullets in the magazine, she said. She said she didn’t remember if there was one in the chamber.

When asked, Garrison said she remembered telling the FBI there was one round missing.

On a redirect, Viehman asked if there was any indication that the gun had been used and Garrison said no.

Special agent collects Berreth’s gun from Kenney’s friend

Special Agent Rodney Draper, who has worked with the FBI since 2002, was called to the witness stand next. He has worked out of the Boise office since December 2013.

Draper said he was called around Dec. 15 or 16 to go to Twin Falls, Idaho to work on this case.

He conducted multiple interviews and searches in connection to this case, he said. This included helping search Kenney’s home and her cell phone, and interviewing her ex-husband, Chad Lee.

On Dec. 17, Lee told Draper that Kenney had bought a new phone only a few weeks before the interview.

The Twin Falls Sheriff’s Office seized Kenney’s phone on Dec. 19. Draper helped to extract information from her phone and downloaded it onto a disc to give to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. He didn’t have much information on the case as a whole at this point, he said.

On Dec. 21, Draper learned that Kenney had given Berreth’s gun — which she allegedly brought with her back to Idaho, per Frazee's request — to her high school friend Mark Pearson when she returned to Idaho from Colorado. Draper met Pearson in a parking lot in Boise, where Pearson works in construction. Draper said Pearson he had the gun zipped in a black synthetic bag with a box of ammo in the front seat of his truck. Draper took photos before collecting it. From there, it was transported to the Denver FBI office for further testing.

The state entered this gun as evidence after showing it in court. Draper confirmed it was not loaded and he had used zip ties to ensure it did not move. He did not open the box in court.

The gun was not loaded when he received it, he said.

During the cross-examination, Stiegerwald asked if Draper had scanned any of Kenney's burner phones and he said he had not. He only scanned the phone Kenney had owned for a few weeks.

The next witnesses were on their way to Cripple Creek from out of town. The court took a recess at 9:38 a.m. Prosecutor Viehman said they are ahead of schedule.

Detective describes burn pit in back of Kenney’s home

After a mid-morning break, prosecutors called up Twin Falls Police Officer Josh Hayes. Hayes currently works as a detective on the special investigations unit for the Twin Falls Sheriff’s Office.

On the evening of Dec. 16, 2018, the CBI reached out to him and briefed him on the missing person case. They asked him to look into a cell phone ping and phone number that was listed for Kenney. He said they needed help getting a search warrant for her home, which was in Kimberly, about eight miles outside of Twin Falls.

Hayes said he was able to get a warrant for buccal swabs from Kenney, which an evidence technician at the department performed. That woman testified after Hayes, and confirmed she collected the buccal swabs from Kenney at the police department on Dec. 17.

Hayes also got a warrant for Kenney’s phone. He, along with Special Agent Draper, downloaded the information on Dec. 19 and Hayes took a copy with him back to Twin Falls. As they downloaded the information, Hayes said Colorado Bureau of Investigations Agent Gregg Slater asked him to look for the name “Pearson.” Hayes said he found him through Facebook.

On Dec. 17, authorities got a search warrant for Kenney’s home, Hayes said. He noted that he received consent from Lee, Kenney’s then-husband, when he tried to call Kenney. They searched the home again on Dec. 21. On that day, Slater told Hayes to look for a burn pile that may contain the remains of a purse, documents and a cell phone. He was also instructed to look for a bat, he said.

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

The state published multiple photos in the courtroom — the first showed a burn pile and separate burn pit in the back of Kenney’s home and the second was a closer look at the burn. Lee told Hayes that was not where they would normally burn items from the property.

Other photos showed the burned ground and rubble, and a very small piece of an electronic device. Hayes said it resembled something in a phone. They also saw glass, which could have been from the phone, he said. 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.

They found paperwork where the edges hadn’t been burned, but each piece crumbled apart upon examination, he said.

They gathered what they could for evidence, Hayes said, and transported it to the CBI on April 1, 2019. Some of the items, including the burned cell phone pieces and burned screen cover, were shown in court Tuesday morning.

During the cross-examination, Stiegerwald confirmed with Hayes that some items were completely burned, and others were left behind because the fire wasn’t hot enough.

Frazee’s ‘very good’ friend explains his alibi-obtaining trip

One of Frazee’s “very, very good” friends, Robert Slagle, was brought to the witness stand next. They’ve known each other more than 10 years, he said, and were friends in November and December of 2018.

Slagle said Frazee told him about a package at Berreth’s townhome, and around Dec. 2, he asked Slagle to pick it up for him. Slagle said Frazee told him that the Woodland Park Police Department had reached out to let him know about the package. The state published surveillance video that they said showed Slagle at Berreth’s home picking up the package and leaving. He said he noticed the surveillance camera when he got out of his truck but had also seen it on previous visits to her townhome. He noted that it’s fairly obvious.

He said he didn’t know if Frazee had ever noticed the camera before.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Dan May asked if they went to collect alibi evidence after the date of the alleged murder. Slagle confirmed they had but wasn’t sure of the date. He said he just knew it was after Berreth had been reported missing.

They first went to Ent Credit Union, then drove by a Safeway and a gas station. Slagle said he didn’t recall going to any other locations.

The state published a photo of Frazee and Slagle at the teller window of the Ent. At this point, Slagle said Frazee told him he made bank deposits on Thanksgiving afternoon.

He said Frazee told him he went to the Safeway on Nov. 22, which is why they drove by it. He also said the same about the gas station.

When May asked if Frazee went over a timeline with Slagle about Nov. 22, Slagle confirmed he repeated it several times. May handed Slagle an envelope and while he said he didn’t know whose handwriting it was — he didn’t know if it was Frazee’s — the envelope appeared to have a timeline written on it.

Slagle said the information on the timeline appeared to match what Frazee had recounted to him on “several occasions” about Nov. 22.

May continued to ask more questions about this alibi-obtaining trip. He asked if Frazee told Slagle that he was in Woodland Park around 4:30 p.m. that day, and Slagle said no. He noted that Frazee and Berreth exchanged Kaylee at Berreth’s home, but didn’t know the details of it.

May asked if Frazee mentioned anything about Berreth eating Thanksgiving dinner with him. Slagle said he recalled something about Berreth preparing a meal, per Frazee, and that Berreth expected him to eat with her. Slagle said Frazee never mentioned anything about going into the home for dinner or anything else that day.

He said he remembered Frazee telling him that he, Berreth and Kaylee went to Nash Ranch the day before Thanksgiving — Nov. 21 — and then returned to Frazee’s ranch. Berreth had indicated that night that she wanted to get an apartment closer to her work in Pueblo, Slagle said. As they drove to the Frazee ranch that evening, Frazee stopped the car and threw up near the Florissant post office, Slagle said. Berreth went to the Woodland Park Walmart to buy medication for Frazee for an upset stomach and diarrhea, Slagle said.

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

Frazee never mentioned Kenney, Slagle said, aside from saying that there was a person in Idaho who was helping him sell dogs and whom he was training a horse for.

Stiegerwald cross-examined Slagle and started off by asking about the surveillance video showing him picking up the package at Berreth’s front door. Stiegerwald said it wasn’t clear in the video that he was picking up a package.

He then asked about Slagle’s relationship with Frazee. When asked, Slagle said Frazee never mentioned anything about a mob contact in the mountains — which had been mentioned in a testimony on Friday — or said anything along the lines of “no body, no murder.” Slagle said he would have remembered if his friend had said that.

CBI crime analyst discussed possible blood found on side of floor boards

Prosecutors then called CBI crime analyst Tanya Atkinson to the stand, who is a latent print examiner and has been trained in bloodstain pattern analysis. She told the court she had testified around 70 times in various cases and has been admitted as an expert in half the cases. The court has admitted her as a crime scene expert for the Frazee case.

She photographed and processed Berreth’s townhome on Dec. 6 and on the Dec. 19-21 searches. She testified that she also processed the scene at Nash Ranch on Dec. 21 and in February 2019. She testified Tuesday that she was called to Berreth’s apartment because of apparent blood on the toilet inside the home. She said a presumptive test was done on the possible blood and on other items inside the home.

She testified that during one of the late December reviews of Berreth’s home, she found wipe marks on various parts of the apartment that made her believe it had been cleaned.

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

Atkinson said that there were possible blood stains on the sides of the floorboards, which she said a presumptive test showed was positive for blood. Several of the boards showed possible blood stains that went along nearly the full length of their sides.

She explained how she swabbed the evidence for potential blood and how she packaged and sealed the items as evidence. Most of the exhibits shown were various items from inside the apartment Atkinson had processed, and she was shown multiple floor boards.

May, the district attorney, then showed Atkinson a photo of the discolored portions of a hay bale inside the Nash Ranch barn that Kenney and other have talked about during the trial. The discolored area was shown to be about 38 inches by 30 inches, and May then had her measure the bottom of the tote, which was about 38 inches by 20 inches, she said. She testified she saw no other areas of discolored hay inside the barn when she processed it.

The court took a lunch break from 12 p.m. to just after 1 p.m.

After lunch, Atkinson retook the stand and was cross-examined by Stiegerwald. She told him the first time she was at Berreth’s townhome was on Dec. 6 and that she knew that it had already been searched by police and processed by CBI, and that Berreth’s parents had stayed there since the alleged crime was committed. She confirmed that Berreth’s father found the suspected blood on the toilet. She also confirmed that BlueStar blood reagent was used inside the bathroom.

Atkinson told Stiegerwald that she went to a Waste Management facility on Dec. 17 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.

Stiegerwald walked Atkinson back through the Dec. 19 and 20 processing of Berreth’s home and pointed out the tiny size of the alleged blood spatter that was left behind, and stressed that many of the tiny spots were not found until Dec. 20. He asked her if any of the spots on which investigators used BlueStar had turned up with presumptive negatives, and she said that they collected from presumptive positive spots. She said presumptive tests from various parts of the apartment did turn up negative – particularly under a few floorboards and near the fireplace floorboard.

On redirect, Atkinson said crime scene analysts stopped collecting once they had a dozen pieces with presumptive positive samples of blood. She said at that point, they felt they had collected enough samples.

When asked questions from the jury, Atikinson reiterated that investigators collected samples from the discolored portion of the hay bale and said that she did not measure the diameters of stains on Berreth’s home’s floor.

Another CBI crime scene analyst, Eric Bryant, was called to the stand and testified that he took samples of the hay bale, which were shown in court.

Arson expert testifies about how bodies break down in fires, the Frazee Ranch scene

Prosecutors then called Adams County Fire Rescue Investigations Chief Jerry Means to the stand – a fire investigator of nearly 30 years who also worked for CBI before retiring earlier this year, and who was entered as the state’s arson expert in the case.

Means testified he was contacted Dec. 21 to help investigate the case and said he had experience in dealing with melted plastic in fire investigations, as well as on investigations involving human remains.

He told May when shown a picture of the burn area at the Frazee ranch – in which he was present – 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 what could happen to bodies if they are burned in the matter in which Kenney has testified that Frazee burned Berreth’s.

He said that the “wet” area Kenney had discussed seemed to be more oily than wet, and went on to explain how it was common for the body to liquefy in a fire such as the one at the Frazee ranch. He said fat and skin can liquefy and drip, creating a sticky, oily material. He testified that eventually, a fire will break down muscles and bones and that burning a body can produce soil staining like the oily substance seen further downhill from the burn area. He said the plastic and oily substance would have burned downhill from the burn site.

Means also said that it was possible that motor oil caused the oily and wet-looking stain in the soil, but that he couldn’t say the stain in question was caused by motor oil, human oil, all three or a combination. But again, he testified that the burn area they saw was consistent with the story shared by prosecutors. He said that the tote would have liquefied first and that the metal trough would have contained the plastic save for the holes at the bottom – which was consistent with the scene that has been described so far during the trial.

Means said extremities will burn first and the torso and upper pelvis would be the last to burn, and said that if something fell on a body’s head in a fire, it could disintegrate. He also testified that depending on how long bones are exposed to fire, they are prone to disintegrating too if they burn for long enough.

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

He said that animal antlers are tougher than human bones but can also be mistaken for human bones because of the marrow they contain inside.

Stiegerwald then got his turn to cross-examine Means. He asked about the plastic residue and about nails that should have remained in the fire’s remnants because of the burnt pallets – which Means had told prosecutors would have been picked up by magnets if they were used.

Stiegerwald continued to ask Means about clasps for the black tote and why they were not found in the fire, to which Means responded he did not find them.

In answering jury questions, Means said he did not recall getting the odor of a burned human body at the scene, but upon a question from May on follow-up, he said that the month between when Berreth’s body was allegedly burned and when he toured the scene could have “dramatically” changed the odor of the scene.

Friend of Frazee’s says he told her: ‘Oh, she’s never coming back.’

Prosecutors then called Laurie Luce to the stand, a woman whose horses Frazee cared for for about 5 ½ years, she said. She said that initially, he was a very private person but eventually opened up and started talking about what she said was surface-level stuff like dating and love interests. She told prosecutors she had met Kenney once when she came to her house with Frazee.

She testified that she found out Frazee had a daughter when she walked by his truck and saw Kaylee inside when she was about 4 months old. She testified that Frazee told her he had a relationship with the girl’s mother but didn’t learn she was pregnant until she had the baby – something the court had previously heard during the trial.

Luce said Frazee said his daughter’s mother did not want to be a mother, so he would have to be the only parent moving forward, she testified, and that the conversation happened sometime in the spring of 2018. She described Frazee as being the happiest she had seen him but said Frazee never mentioned Berreth by name.

Luce said Slater, the CBI agent, called her in January 2019 about the conversation. She said she recounted telling him Frazee had been vague during the discussion and that she told him about what Frazee had said about Berreth not wanting to be a mother. She testified she remembered Frazee paying an attorney to try and get custody of the child, and told that to Slater as well.

Luce told the court that Frazee went to her house on Dec. 20, and that she felt concerned for him and asked how he was doing. She testified that Frazee told her some details about the search of his property that had occurred days earlier and said he felt some of what the investigators did to his property “seemed a little mean and unnecessary.”

She said that they talked about Nov. 22 at the time. Luce testified that Frazee told her he went to Berreth’s to pick up their daughter before he went to run errands and to give Berreth her gun back, claiming to Luce that Berreth had threatened suicide. He claimed that he didn’t want to give it back but did anyway, she said. Luce said in court Tuesday 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 regarding what might have happened to Berreth. First, she said, he told her that Berreth might have flown away because she had a lot of friends who were pilots. He also proffered that she might have gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd in Pueblo.

But Luce testified that she instead asked him about the phone ping in Idaho, which had been reported by media outlets at that point. She testified he did not answer. She said she offered to him that maybe Berreth tried going home but died by suicide, or that maybe Berreth was coming back.

“Oh, she’s never coming back,” Luce testified that Frazee told her, though she admitted in court that she did not initially tell the story and only told prosecutors a few weeks ago when she was subpoenaed.

Luce told the court that sometime between August and October 2019, Frazee told her he wanted to raise his daughter with someone else. Later, she testified, Frazee told her: “I wanted her (Berreth) to help with medical expenses before. Now I just want her gone.”

Ashley Porter, one of Frazee’s defense attorneys, cross-examined Luce and pointed out that she wasn’t entirely truthful when she spoke with Slater on Jan. 10. Luce responded she was truthful but did not feel comfortable at the time talking about what Frazee had confided in her, and admitted that she left some information out.

Luce was then excused and the court took another recess, as both of the defense attorneys said they felt sick Tuesday.

Woman Frazee dated says they talked about ease of hiding body in Colorado

The jury was kept outside the courtroom for the next witness as a juror had an issue. Prosecutors called Kayla Daugherty, a personal and professional acquaintance of Frazee’s, who said she and Frazee had dated in the spring of 2016 for a couple of months. She said she and Frazee hadn’t spoken since spring 2018, when he cared for some of her horses.

She 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 Viehman, the prosecutor, asked Daugherty if she remembered a separate statement Frazee made about saying a body could be hidden anywhere in Colorado, she said no. She said that the topic may have come up a second time but that she didn’t remember.

Viehman asked her if Frazee told her that somebody could carry a body on a horse somewhere no one could find it, to which she replied, “Yes.” Daugherty said she told police that information when she was interviewed, and that she agreed with Frazee when they discussed the topic.

Upon cross-examination, Stiegerwald noted that she told police she first pointed out the statement about hiding a body to Frazee.

The court then worked to decide if the testimony was admissible in court since the jury was left outside. Viehman argued the testimony was relevant because Berreth’s body still hasn’t been found, and Stiegerwald argued the testimony had no logical relevance.

But Judge Scott Sells ruled the testimony was admissible despite Stiegerwald’s objections because it established Frazee’s knowledge of the Teller County area.

After the jury was let back into court, Daugherty again took the stand, they went back through the aforementioned testimony in front of the jury and she was subsequently released.

Woman texted with Frazee around the time of alleged murder

The state then called Savannah Greasby to the stand, for whom Frazee had been shoeing horses for about nine years, she said. She said she and Frazee mostly talked intermittently, mostly about the horses, but that he asked her to dinner around October 2018, which she said she could not make. But the court was shown a text message thread between the two from Nov. 21 through Dec. 4, which was admitted as evidence.

The messages showed she texted Frazee “hey” at 10:44 a.m. on Nov. 23 and that he didn’t respond until 2:33 p.m., also saying “hey.” The messages showed she asked him how his day went, to which he responded that it was long but life was about to slow down. They talked about meeting up, the messages showed, but did not do so.

The messages showed Frazee texted her just after midnight on Nov. 21, that they talked about Kaylee and a mess she had made and that he texted her 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.

On Nov. 26, she reached out saying she was thinking about him, and on Nov. 28, after more messages about him apparently not taking her money for shoeing her horses, he told her not to take a sassy tone with him and that he was the all-inclusive passage. Later that day, they both talked about being stubborn and Frazee said Greasby had met her match, according to the messages.

The two exchanged more text messages on Dec. 1, and she texted him on Dec. 3, but he did not respond, the messages showed. On Dec. 4, the messages showed, Frazee apologized saying life had taken some awkward turns. She said she didn’t need details and that she understood.

They did not speak again until Dec. 10 and discussed hanging out that week, but Frazee said he had an issue with his truck and couldn’t. The next day, the texts showed, she said she was sorry to him. That was the last time they spoke via text, Greasby said, and she testified that she didn’t recall speaking to him on the phone since either.

Daugherty told Viehman she was not aware Berreth was missing while they talked but later learned she was. She also testified that she knew little about Frazee and Berreth’s daughter and that she didn’t remember Frazee saying much about Berreth other than claiming she was bipolar and in rehab, and saying he wanted full custody of Kaylee.

Defense attorneys and the jury did not cross-examine her or ask further questions.

Woman Frazee worked for says he never had anything good to say about Berreth

The state called Kathryn Donahue next – another woman for whom Frazee shoed horses. She said they would talk every time he came to do so and that he mentioned one time he had friends in Idaho. She said when she first met him, Frazee said he was “free,” meaning he had no kids or wife.

Donahue recounted an incident around December 2015, in which Frazee showed up with Kaylee. She said she assumed he was babysitting, to which Frazee replied that the girl was his daughter. Donahue told the court Tuesday she was surprised because she did not know he was dating anyone. She also said that Frazee – as others have testified he told them – said that he did not know Berreth was pregnant until she went into labor.

She said that after Kaylee was born, Frazee would bring the baby around during farrier work, but that he never had anything good to say about Berreth.

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

She said she called a tip in for the case, saying Frazee told her Berreth took off shortly after their daughter was born and that Frazee described Berreth as absolutely crazy. Donahue said that the four-to-six times she saw Kaylee, that she saw nothing that would indicate abuse or that the baby was anything but happy.

Donahue then discussed a conversation she had with Frazee around Dec. 19, 2018. They had initially talked about his farrier work and she asked how he was holding up, she testified. She said he asked if she saw the news, and she pressed him for details after hearing about Berreth.

Donahue testified Tuesday that Frazee told her Berreth’s employer had called him and said their daughter’s health insurance was going to expire at the end of January because Berreth hadn’t maintained it, and that he told her employer that Berreth was getting up for work every day but evidently not going. She said he also told her Berreth went to rehab.

Donahue told the court she didn’t ask further question the rehab story but noted that Frazee still had few good things to say about Berreth and that he didn’t talk about what he thought happened to her.

The defense did not cross-examine Donahue, nor did jurors ask questions. Donahue was excused for the day but not released completely, and the court adjourned just after 4 p.m.

Prosecutors told the judge they were ahead of schedule and needed to work on getting witnesses to Cripple Creek days before they expected to originally testify.

Court is expected to begin again Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.

Live tweeting and live reporting is not allowed in the courtroom, per a court decorum. The trial is expected to last three weeks.

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Patrick Frazee murder trial: Frazee's friend testified he said Berreth was 'never coming back'

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