A close friend of missing Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth says she is torn about the plea deal that means a one-time girlfriend of Patrick Frazee will testify against the accused killer.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Krystal Lee Kenney entered into a plea agreement last week in Teller County Court, confessing to one count of tampering with evidence. Kenney, 32, admitted to the court that she knew Frazee had committed a murder on or around November 22, the last day Berreth was seen alive, and that she “moved” Berreth’s cell phone between November 24 and 25 — strongly suggesting she was in Colorado around the time Berreth is presumed to have been murdered. The 29-year-old woman’s body had not been found.
Kenney is a post-op nurse in Twin Falls, Idaho, who was put on administrative leave earlier this year, following Frazee’s arrest in December. Kenney, a divorced mother of two, reportedly met Frazee just after high school on the rodeo circuit, and at some point became involved with him romantically. Kenney has apparently kept up some type of relationship with Frazee over the years, though the specifics are not known.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll get more information about exactly what happened and hopefully be able to find Kelsey’s body,” Nicole Haywood, who grew up with Kelsey Berreth in Washington state, told KOAA.
“It’s incredibly disturbing that another mother could either help commit a murder or at least cover it up. We don’t know how involved she was at this point.”
In exchange for her plea, Kenney will testify in Frazee’s trial and any other possible trials connected to Berreth’s disappearance. She is not in custody and will not be sentenced until after Frazee’s trial and the conclusion of the case. The tampering with evidence charge carries a possible sentence of 18 months in prison; three years if it determined to be aggravated, KOAA notes.
“A maximum of three years seems extremely light,” Haywood told the news station.
It is not known at this time how much Kenney knows about the alleged murder, including the whereabouts of Berreth’s body. At a news conference following Kenney’s plea hearing, Teller County District Attorney Dan May would not comment on whether authorities had recovered Berreth’s cell phone or knew where it was. In the days following Berreth’s Thanksgiving Day disappearance, her phone pinged from a cell tower near Gooding, Idaho, and two text messages were sent from her phone on November 25: One to her employer, saying she would need the following week off, and one to Frazee. The contents of that message are not known.
Frazee is due back in court on February 19.
