Judge postpones arraignment hearing for Patrick Frazee
CRIPPLE CREEK • A judge agreed Friday to postpone the arraignment of a man suspected of bludgeoning his fiancee to death with a baseball bat and burning her body at his family’s Teller County ranch.
Patrick Frazee, 32, was expected to enter his plea Friday morning in Cripple Creek. His attorney requested that the hearing be delayed until investigators have completed certain forensic tests. Prosecutors did not object.
“It’s particularly important that everyone have the results of the testing that is being done,” Teller County District Judge Scott Sells said.
His arraignment was rescheduled for May 24. If Frazee pleads not guilty, a trial would be scheduled at that time.
The nature of the testing wasn’t disclosed in court, and District Attorney Dan May said he is barred by ethical rules from saying more.
Investigators previously said they found suspected blood in the bathroom of apparent slaying victim Kelsey Berreth’s Woodland Park townhouse and adult molars at Frazee’s Florissant ranch, among many other items, though it is unclear if they were from the alleged crime. Prosecutors say that some of the material they want to test is so small that testing could destroy it — a step that would need the judge’s approval.
The judge also granted a prosecution motion seeking to bar the public from seeing Teller County Department of Human Services records gathered by authorities in their investigation.
Those records, which contain “extensive interviews” with Frazee and others, were generated after Frazee’s December arrest on suspicion of killing his fiancee, prosecutor Beth Reed said. She said investigators were unable to find any reports of child abuse claims lodged by Frazee against Berreth before her disappearance.
Berreth, 29, disappeared on Thanksgiving Day, leading to a national search for her. But authorities say that Frazee was to blame, alleging at an evidentiary hearing in February that he covered her head with a sweater and beat her to death in her living room before meeting his family for a holiday meal. He is accused of burning her remains on his ranch a few days later.
Frazee is charged with six felonies: Two counts of first-degree murder under different theories; three counts of solicitation of murder; and tampering with a body. He remains held without bond at the Teller County jail.
Teller County Sheriff deputies lead Patrick Frazee, 32, out of the Teller County Courthouse on Friday in Cripple Creek after a judge agreed to postpone the arraignment hearing in the apparent murder of Kelsey Berreth, the mother of his toddler daughter.
Teller County Sheriff deputies lead Patrick Frazee, 32, into the Teller County Courthouse on Friday in Cripple Creek.
Teller County sheriff’s deputies lead Patrick Frazee out of the Teller County Courthouse on Friday in Cripple Creek after a judge agreed to postpone the arraignment hearing in the presumed killing of Kelsey Berreth, the mother of his toddler. Frazee is accused of killing his fiancee with a baseball bat and burning her body on his Teller County ranch. Story, A4