A man who worked with suspected murderer Patrick Frazee has given another media interview in support of the Colorado father accused of killing Kelsey Berreth, the mother of his child.

Frazee is a farrier, someone who cares for equestrian hooves, and worked with Clinton Cline on a herd of donkeys who live free in a protected area in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Cline told People magazine that the day before Frazee was arrested on suspicion of murdering Berreth, he gave Cline a second cell phone number to make sure his client would be able to reach him amid constant communication on his primary phone regarding Berreth’s disappearance.

“He’s very conscientious about his work,” Cline said. “He had the health and the well-being of the donkeys’ interest at heart.”

Cline also suggested Berreth and Frazee, who were engaged, did not have a particularly close relationship at the time of her disappearance on Thanksgiving Day. As has been previously reported, the couple who shared a 1-year-old daughter did not live together, but Cline said in a previous interview with KOAA that Frazee was the child’s primary caretaker, and told People that the nature of his relationship with Berreth means Frazee may not have known right away that Berreth had gone missing.

Further, Cline claimed that Berreth had vanished in the past, only to return. Authorities have not corroborated any of Cline’s claims about Frazee and Berreth’s relationship.

On Thursday, a judge granted temporary custody of Berreth and Frazee’s daughter to the missing woman’s parents. Frazee, who is facing a first-degree murder charge and a charge of solicitation for murder, is due in court on Monday.