Fiancé Arrested In Case Of Colo. Mom Missing Since Thanksgiving

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Authorities searching for a Colorado mom who vanished on Thanksgiving Day have arrested her fiancé in connection with her disappearance.

Patrick Frazee was taken into custody early Friday and is in the process of being booked into the Teller County jail, a jail official confirms to PEOPLE.

Kelsey Berreth, a 29-year-old pilot instructor from Woodland Park, was last seen in public Nov. 22 on store surveillance footage that showed her walking into a Safeway market with the 1-year-old daughter fathered by Frazee, to whom she was engaged.

Her mother, Cheryl Berreth, reported her daughter missing 10 days later, on Dec. 2, provoking early questions about why Frazee had not alerted police previously.

Last Friday, investigators searched the home and 35-acre property of Frazee, who lives in Florissant, about 15 miles west of Woodland Park, according to ABC News, the Denver Post and local TV station KMGH.

Frazee, who did not live with Berreth, told police that he'd not seen her since that Thanksgiving when they met up so that Berreth could hand off their daughter, Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young previously told the media.

Kelsey Berreth last seen entering a market on Nov. 22.

The couple's daughter had been staying with Frazee after Berreth disappeared. Family member JoDee Garretson, who is first cousins with Berreth's mom, tells PEOPLE, “I'm just relieved. I saw that [the girl] is safe. I don't know where she is - but I did see she's safe.”

Three days after Berreth apparently vanished her mobile phone pinged on a cell tower near Gooding, Idaho, nearly 600 miles from her home in Woodland Park, Colorado, 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.

Video obtained by ABC reportedly shows Frazee's arrest.

In a statement to PEOPLE at the time that Frazee's property was searched, his attorney, Jeremy Loew, said: “Mr. Frazee was never asked to voluntarily participate in this search. 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.”

Loew did not immediately return PEOPLE's call and email for comment.

Police tell PEOPLE they will hold a news conference at 10 am MT on Friday to update the case.