Patrick Frazee, fiancé of missing Colorado mom Kelsey Berreth, arrested for murder, solicitation to commit murder originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Patrick Frazee, the fiancé of missing Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth, was arrested for first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree murder Friday morning, nearly one month after Berreth vanished, police said. Berreth, a 29-year-old mother of a 1-year-old girl, was last seen on Thanksgiving in the area of her Woodland Park home. (MORE: Police search fiancé's home amid Colorado mom Kelsey Berreth's 'suspicious' disappearance) Her body has not been found but information is helping narrow down the search, Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said at a news conference Friday. PHOTO: Kelsey Berreth is pictured in an undated handout photo. (Woodland Park Police Department) The crime may have occurred at her home, police said. Berreth's phone, however, ended up in Idaho, and authorities are working to recover it, police said. Berreth and Frazee's baby is in protective custody and will be reunited with Berreth's family, the chief said. (MORE: Family friend of missing Colorado mom pleads for help in desperate search) Frazee was booked on first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree murder, prosecutors said, with formal charges to follow. PHOTO: Patrick Frazee, the fiance of missing Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth, is pictured in a booking photo released on Dec. 21, 2018. (Teller County Sheriff via KMGH) Additional arrests are possible, the chief said. Under Colorado’s solicitation statute, a suspect would have not only discussed the commission of a crime with a second person, but would have taken steps to see it through, according to District Attorney Dan May of Colorado’s 4th Judicial District. "So, it isn't just a discussion," the prosecutor told CNN on Friday. "You've actually done something that shows the firmness of your actions." Affidavits in this case were sealed by the court, prosecutors said. No members of Berreth’s family appeared at Frazee’s first court appearance on Friday afternoon, where the suspect appeared via a video feed, according to ABC’s Denver affiliate KMGH. Story continues Frazee is being held without bond pending his next court appearance, currently scheduled for Dec. 31 at 8:30 a.m., KMGH reported. PHOTO: Investigators served an arrest warrant Friday morning for Patrick Frazee, the fiancé of missing Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth, who hasn't been seen in nearly one month, sources told ABC News. (Clayton Sandell/ABC News) (MORE: Security video shows missing Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth and baby at store the day she vanished) Frazee's former attorney, Jeremy Loew, said last week his client "continues to cooperate with law enforcement in the missing person investigation." Frazee was focusing "on parenting the child he shares with Ms. Berreth," Loew said at the time. Loew said on Friday that Frazee is now represented by public defender Adam Steigerwald.<doc-sep>(CNN) — The fiancé of missing Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth was arrested and booked on murder charges in connection with her death, authorities said Friday. Patrick Frazee’s arrest came nearly one month after Berreth, the mother of his 1-year-old daughter, vanished on Thanksgiving Day near Woodland Park, a city between Denver and Colorado Springs. Teller County Sheriff's Office Patrick Frazee was charged Friday in connection with the death of his fiancée, Kelsey Berreth. Frazee was booked on charges of first-degree murder and solicitation for first-degree murder at the Teller County Jail, officials said. Frazee is being held without bond. Formal charges will be filed against Frazee in about 10 days, District Attorney Dan May of the 4th Judicial District said at a Friday news conference. Frazee made his first appearance in court by video Friday afternoon. He was never addressed by the judge directly and could not be seen by reporters in the courtroom. The judge granted the prosecution’s request that Frazee have no contact with any witness or anyone else named in the sealed arrest affidavit, with the exception of his family. Authorities do not believe Berreth is alive but have not found her body, De Young said. They have not determined a motive, he said. Frazee’s attorney, Jeremy Loew, had no comment early Friday afternoon and planned to have “a statement issued later today,” his legal assistant, Kristine Patterson, told CNN. As dozens of officers a week earlier searched Frazee’s home and property, Loew in a statement said his client “continues to cooperate with law enforcement.” “We encourage law enforcement to take whatever steps it deems necessary to find Kelsey Berreth and to be able to exclude Patrick Frazee as a possible suspect in this missing person investigation,” the attorney said. “Mr. Frazee will continue not to participate in any interviews with the media and instead focus on parenting the child he shares with Ms. Berreth.” Solicitation charge signals more than ‘a discussion’ Frazee was the only person arrested in the case as of Friday morning, De Young said, and officials wouldn’t provide any more detail about how they came to the solicitation charge. Under the solicitation statute, a suspect would not only have discussed committing a crime with another person but would have taken steps to see it through, May said. courtesy Berreth Family Berreth was last seen November 22. “So, it isn’t just a discussion,” the prosecutor said. “You’ve actually done something that shows the firmness of your actions.” The criminal affidavit in the case has been sealed until investigators can follow up on leads and feel confident the release of documents won’t hurt the investigation, May said. Authorities are still combing Berreth’s house for clues, May said. Investigators “recovered a number of items” that have led them to suspect the murder took place in the residence, De Young said. Investigators with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Woodland Park Police Department and the FBI were spotted Thursday evening carrying large brown bags out of Berreth’s home, and a firefighter was seen carrying a ladder into the house, CNN affiliate KMGH reported. Frazee and Berreth’s daughter is in protective custody and will be reunited with Berreth’s family, De Young said. Berreth’s phone tracked to Idaho Frazee previously had told police he last saw Berreth on November 22, when he picked up their daughter, making him the last known person to report seeing Berreth alive. Police said they have surveillance video of Berreth, a flight instructor, shopping with her daughter that day at a Woodland Park supermarket. Berreth’s employer got a text from her phone on November 25, saying she wouldn’t be able to work that week, police have said. Frazee also said she texted him that day, but the contents of that text haven’t been released. A week after that, she was reported missing. Woodland Park police began their search on December 2, when Berreth’s mother, Cheryl, alerted them to her daughter’s disappearance. Berreth’s phone was tracked to a location near Gooding, Idaho. Berreth has family in that state, De Young said. Gooding is roughly 800 miles northwest of Woodland Park. “She’s not the kind that runs off,” Cheryl Berreth said at a police news conference on December 10. “This is completely out of character. Kelsey loves her God, she loves her family and friends, and she loves her job. She’s reliable, considerate and honest.” Berreth’s phone did end up in Idaho, De Young confirmed Friday, adding that police are still working to recover it. The reward for information leading to finding Berreth is $25,000, Woodland Park police said. Frazee voluntarily released his phone to be searched and allowed officers to take a DNA sample on December 12, his lawyer said. Two days later, investigators combed Frazee’s home and 30-plus-acre property in Florissant, Colorado, with a search party of 75 officers, a law enforcement source told CNN at the time. De Young declined to say then what investigators were looking for or what prompted them to search that location. CNN’s Kaylee Hartung reported from Colorado, while Dakin Andone and Christina Maxouris reported and wrote in Atlanta. CNN’s Sara Weisfeldt, Keith Allen, Steve Almasy and Sheena Jones contributed to this report.<doc-sep>A young mother's Thanksgiving Day disappearance seems to finally have been solved. Kelsey Berreth was last seen in public on Nov. 22 shopping at a grocery store in Colorado, but wasn't reported missing until almost 10 days later on Dec. 2 by her mother. And since then, the details that emerged about her disappearance kept getting more shocking, especially regarding her relationship with her fiancé and the father of her young daughter, Patrick Frazee. And on Dec. 21, almost one month after she was last seen, the police arrested Patrick, 32, charging him with Kelsey's murder. "Today we arrested Patrick Frazee on charges of first degree murder of Kelsey Berreth," Woodland Park Police Department Chief Miles De Young said in a press conference. "He is currently being held in the Teller County Jail." While their 1-year-old daughter had been in his care since Kelsey's disappearance, she is now in protective custody and was expected to be reunited with Kelsey's family soon, according to police. On Thursday, Dec. 27, a Colorado judge awarded temporary physical custody of the little girl to Kelsey's parents.<doc-sep>Search for Missing Colorado Mom Expands to Landfill After Her Fiancé Is Charged with Murder The search for missing Colorado mom Kelsey Berreth, who is presumed dead, continues — and investigators are looking at a landfill for answers. “The Colorado Bureau of Investigations contacted Waste Management of Colorado regarding a potential search at Midway Landfill and we are cooperating fully,” a spokesperson for Waste Management told PEOPLE in a statement. Get push notifications with news, features and more. A spokeswoman for the landfill confirmed to ABC News that the search inquiry was related to Berreth’s disappearance. Berreth, a 29-year-old flight instructor from Woodland Park, has not been seen in public since Thanksgiving. The spokesperson for the landfill declined to answer questions about the timing of any search or what investigators are looking for. As of Thursday morning, no law enforcement had been seen at the landfill, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation and 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment. Patrick-Frazee-Kelsey-Berreth-blur Patrick Frazee, Kelsey Berreth and the couple's infant | Credit: Facebook On Thanksgiving of last year, surveillance video captured Berreth and her 1-year-old daughter Kaylee entering a local supermarket. That was the last time she was seen publicly. Earlier this month, Berreth’s parents, Cheryl and Darrell, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Colorado’s federal district court. The lawsuit, which was obtained by PEOPLE, seeks unspecified damages against Frazee for Berreth’s presumed death. Frazee, who did not live with Berreth, told police that he and his fiancée met up that same day so that Berreth could hand off their daughter to him. Berreth’s mother, who lives out of state, reported her missing 10 days later, on Dec. 2, 2018. Kelsey-Berreth-1 While Teller County investigators have yet to detail the specific allegations that led to the solicitation counts, it likely means prosecutors think Frazee allegedly solicited an individual three times or three people on three separate occasions as part of an alleged murder plot. The alleged solicitations occurred between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1, 2018, according to the charging documents, which were obtained by PEOPLE. According to the charging documents, prosecutors filed two murder counts because they have two theories about how the presumed killing may have taken place: either Frazee killed Berreth by himself, or he and someone else allegedly tried to rob Berreth before she was killed. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Frazee remains in police custody without bond. He has not yet entered pleas to the charges, and his criminal attorney could not be reached for comment. It is unclear if Frazee has representation in the civil case. Authorities are investigating a second person — an Idaho woman — in the case. They believe she might have helped dispose of Berreth’s phone, multiple outlets reported. Three days after Berreth apparently vanished, Berreth’s mobile phone pinged on a cell tower near Gooding, Idaho, nearly 600 miles from her home, police have said. That same day, texts from the phone of Berreth were sent to her employer, Doss Aviation, saying she would not be at work for the next week.<doc-sep>
The fiancé of a Colorado woman missing since Thanksgiving was arrested Friday and charged in her murder, police said. Patrick Frazee is being held at the Teller County Jail on charges of first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder, prosecutors said at a press conference. Booking photo of Patrick Frazee released by Woodland Park Police. Woodland Park Police Authorities said they have not yet located the body of Kelsey Berreth, "but information has been developed" that is helping them narrow down the search. Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said authorities believe she was killed at her home. Berreth was last seen in public on Nov. 22 with her 1-year-old daughter at a Safeway grocery store in her hometown of Woodland Park, northwest of Colorado Springs. De Young said the child is in protective custody and will be reunited with her family soon. She wasn't reported missing until Dec. 2 by her mother, Cheryl Berreth. Frazee had not publicly commented on Berreth's disappearance, but had previously told investigators that the last time he saw his fiancée was on Nov. 22 when she left their daughter with him. The two did not live together. He also told police that he last communicated with Berreth on Nov. 25, when she sent him a text message. Police said on that same day, Berreth's employer, Doss Aviation, said it had received a message from Berreth's phone requesting time off from work. Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young also said that on Nov. 25 Berreth’s phone had pinged to a location near Gooding, Idaho, about 800 miles away from her home. De Young said they are still working to recover her phone. Berreth's mom resides in Idaho, but said on "Today" that the town of Gooding is not near where she lives. Investigators searched Frazee's 35-acre property last week, but De Young said on Nov. 16 that the search did not turn up any signs of the missing mother. After a video conference with judge on Friday afternoon, Frazee was ordered held without bond and was scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 31.