Patrick Frazee Wanted to Raise Daughter Without Kelsey Berreth, Witness Says

After Kelsey Berreth went missing, fiance Patrick Frazee confided in a business customer that he wished to care for the couple's daughter without her, a witness testified in Frazee's ongoing murder trial.

Margaret Luce testified Tuesday that Frazee, 33, visited her home after Berreth’s disappearance to trim her horses’ hooves. Luce said that while he was there, the pair discussed the possibility that Berreth would return home, but Luce said Frazee responded, “Oh, she’s never coming back.”

“He said he just wants her gone so he can raise Kaylee with someone else,” Luce said, according to the Denver Post.

Berreth vanished last Thanksgiving, and Berreth’s mother reported her missing on Dec. 2 after not hearing from her. She and Frazee, who is charged with her murder, share a 1-year-old daughter named Kaylee.

Meanwhile, the woman Frazee was having an affair with at the time of Berreth’s murder, Krystal Lee, testified that Frazee told her he blindfolded Berreth under the guise of playing a game and then hit her in the head with a baseball bat. 

"He just said he swung away, and that it was really hard," Lee told the court at the time. 

The two took the trash bags and a container holding Berreth's body to Frazee's ranch, where he burned the contents, she said. 

Lee also testified that Frazee had asked her three times to kill Berreth herself, saying Berreth was an abusive mother. Lee said she couldn't do it.

Lee has pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in the case as part of a plea deal. 

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