Mom cried ‘please stop’ in tragic final words as fiance beat her to death with bat before burning her body, court hears
A MOM whose fiance allegedly beat her to death with a baseball bat before burning her body screamed, "Please stop!", his mistress claimed this week.
The apparent tragic final words of Kelsey Berreth, 29, were revealed at the highly publicized murder trial of her partner Patrick Frazee.
Lee, who turned state witness after agreeing a plea deal with prosecutors in February, claims she spent 12 hours scrubbing the blood-stained murder scene at Frazee's home - after he called her to say he "had a mess to clean up".
I didn’t know that he was capable of what happened, and I didn’t do anything to stop it
Krystal Lee
She claims that when she arrived at Frazee's condo on Thanksgiving 2018, she was presented with a horror show - including dried blood on the walls and bloody footprints all over the floors.
Lee said: "I didn’t know that he was capable of that.
“I didn’t know that he was capable of what happened, and I didn’t do anything to stop it.”
During the frantic effort to destroy evidence, Frazee told her that his blindfolded fiance's desperate final words as he beat her to death were: "Please stop", Lee claimed.
'BLOODSTAINED BIBLE'
Lee, who'd had a 13-year affair with Frazee, has pleaded guilty to evidence tampering for moving Berreth's cell phone.
She claims to have helped Frazee move a container that had Berreth's body inside and burned it to cover their tracks.
No remains have been found by police despite several searches.
On Thursday, Lee said she also grabbed several blood-spattered items from Berreth's home to be burned.
Among the items were a stuffed animal, children's building blocks and what she thought was a Bible, she said during her second day of testimony.
She also said that Frazee and Berreth's baby daughter was in the home when the mother was bludgeoned to death.
'BRAINWASHED'
Lee alleges that she was brainwashed into helping her lover murder Berreth - after Frazee claimed she was abusive to their little girl.
Lee said: "He said his little girl was being abused.
"I know it was wrong, but I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t make the right decisions."
Such was her devotion to helping Frazee "take care of the problem" of his fiance that she carried a weapon with her every time she saw Berreth, Lee claimed.
POISON PLOT
The pair even plotted poisoning Berreth's caramel macchiato coffee, Lee alleged.
But her doubts about Frazee's allegations against his fiance were raised when she saw him scolding his daughter.
Lee said: “That’s when I had the thought that Kelsey probably wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“She just couldn’t do anything right.”
After the alleged murder, Frazee's mistress took Berreth's phone from the condo and drove it to Idaho at his request to make it look like Berreth had left the state, Lee claimed.
She was later found by law enforcement and initially lied to the FBI before eventually agreeing to cooperate.
On Thursday, defense attorney Adam Steigerwald raised doubts about whether Frazee truly had so much power over her to maintain her silence and cooperation.
Prosecutors have not offered a motive for Frazee to kill Berreth, but her parents argue in a wrongful death lawsuit that they believe he wanted full custody of the couple's daughter.
Frazee would be sentenced to life in prison without parole if he is convicted of first-degree murder - which he denies.