Co-workers of a young Colorado mother presumed murdered testified at her suspected killer’s trial on Wednesday, contradicting claims Patrick Frazee allegedly made about Kelsey Berreth’s parenting and substance use.
Berreth has not been seen since Thanksgiving Day 2018, and authorities believe she was murdered although her body has not been found. A former girlfriend of Frazee’s, Krystal Lee, previously testified to cleaning up the bloody crime scene in Berreth’s Woodland Park townhouse after Frazee, who had been engaged to Berreth and fathered her toddler daughter, admitted to bludgeoning her to death was a baseball bat.
As 9 News reports, Frazee reportedly told people that Berreth was an unfit mother and had problems with drugs and alcohol. But multiple co-workers of Berreth’s described her as a hardworking, devoted mother who showed no indications of a drug or alcohol problem–but did occasionally talk about trouble with Frazee.
Carolyn Sharp, who reportedly worked with Berreth at Doss Aviation, where Berreth was a registered pilot, testified that she worked with Berreth when she was pregnant and after her daughter was born. She described Berreth as sweet, quiet and reserved, and said she seemed to enjoy being a mother. According to the 9 News report, Sharp said there was never any indication that Berreth had a substance abuse problem, although co-workers reportedly said she did take two weeks off to attend a stress-management program after her daughter was born.
“It was probably a little bit difficult as a single mom to balance the work-life thing, I can’t imagine how she did it,” Sharp said, according to the report.
Sharp reportedly mentioned some conversations she had with Berreth about trouble she was having with Frazee. Berreth reportedly told her co-worker that she had a hard time getting along with Frazee’s mother and had gotten into a confrontation with Frazee when she was pregnant. The report did not disclose any further details about the confrontation.
Mark Maryak was the chief pilot and Berreth’s supervisor at Doss Aviation. In his testimony, he reportedly explained that Berreth’s job was demanding and involved a high level of difficulty.
“This isn’t just general aviation flying where you go out in the clouds,” Maryak said. “We are doing a very specific job in the U.S. Air Force that is more demanding than most aviation.”
According to KRDO, an expert DNA analyst with the Colorado Bureau of Investigations testified about blood samples found in Berreth’s townhome, taken from the fireplace, bathroom, and baby gate. The analyst said that blood was almost certainly Berreth’s, and that it was “46 septillion times” more likely to be Berreth’s blood than another person whose DNA had not been tested against the samples.
Testimony is expected to continue on Thursday.
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