NOV 8, 2019
Friend testifies Frazee said, ‘I figured out a way to kill her’
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FBI Special Agent Donald Peterson, who works on the Safe Streets Task Force, was the next witness called to the stand. He was also a team leader for the search team.
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He explained how they used hand tools and brushes to remove the dirt and other material Frazee allegedly covered the burn area with to expose a plastic crust in the soil.
He was shown several pictures of the plastic crust and explained how investigators sifted other material that was in the burn pit, and said
the way the plastic melted, it appeared to form into the shape of the metal trough.
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May then called FBI Special Agent Stephanie Benitiz to the witness stand, who was involved in the Dec. 14 and 15 searches of Frazee’s home and has special training in searches.
She said they found an ornament and the box it came with that Berreth’s brother had previously testified he sent to [Baby K], as well as paperwork about ownership of a horse with Kenney’s name on it.
She said that there were signs that a child lived there, but few toys at the home. She also testified that the home did not appear safe for a toddler, as there were sharp edges, a hot burning stove in the center of the house with no child gates around it and chemicals around the house.
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She, as did Peterson, also discussed the different consistencies of the soil in the burn area and mentioned finding the partial tooth.
Benitiz said she thought that was significant: “It was a tooth at a site that we had been briefed on where a body had possibly been burned.”
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Moore testified he first met Frazee when Frazee was between 10 and 13 years old when Frazee was riding horses, that he’s been to Fremont County to help Frazee with his cattle and that he’d known Frazee for 20 or 21 years. ...
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In court Friday, he said Frazee had “so much going for him.” Moore said he sometimes called him his step-kid. Through tears in court, Moore testified: “You just don’t want picture somebody that you’ve known this long and trusted – you just don’t want to think that they could do something like this.”
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Moore said the first time he met Berreth was at a ranch around November 2016, when she was helping move Frazee’s calves. ...
“He berated her horribly,” Moore said. “He yelled at her, cussed at her, just terribly.”
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During a trip to shoe horses, Moore said Frazee said he was having trouble with somebody and told them that “kids go missing all the time from playgrounds and schoolyards.” Moore said he told him he shouldn’t say those things, though Frazee said he was kidding.
Moore said that on April 26, 2018, the two were running their bulls on another ranch. Moore said he asked Frazee how things were going with “[Baby K’s] mom,” which Moore said is how Frazee referred to Berreth.
“He said, ‘I figured out a way to kill her,’” Moore testified, “And I went, ‘Don’t even talk about things like that. Get that s--- out of your head.’ He just kind of grinned and said, ‘No body, no crime, right?'”
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During that summer, Moore said, Frazee told him about how he had people spying on or watching Berreth and taking pictures of her because
he said he wanted to sue her for custody of [Baby K].
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Moore said he brought up a line from the movie he thought was funny at the time: “Women: Can’t live with ‘em, can’t kill ‘em.”
He said he told the joke to Frazee, laughing lightheartedly. But he said Frazee responded: “Not so. No body, no crime.” Moore said he blew it off as a joke.
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After the FBI took Frazee’s phone in December, he met with Moore in Woodland Park and asked to use his phone to make a call on Dec. 4, 2018. Moore said the call lasted 5 minutes, 58 seconds, according to his cell.
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“If I get arrested — because they’ve taken my phone — I’m going to have my friend here call you and it will be from this phone number so come and get these horses,” Frazee said over the phone, according to Moore.
Moore said the area code for the number was 208, which indicates an Idaho number. He said he never talked to the person Frazee called that day.
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During one of their trips down to Westcliffe to take care of cattle there in December 2018, Frazee mentioned to Moore than Berreth’s blood could be on him. He said she had a nosebleed and put her head in his lap, so he got blood on his pants, shirt and boots.
“Do you think they’ll be able to find any of that even though it’s all been washed?” Frazee asked, according to Moore.
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Frazee said during one call with Moore that their conversation “was being recorded” but he felt like he needed to ask if anything was “disrupted by the red barn” which Moore understood as the red barn at Nash Ranch. Moore said no, and Frazee said, “Oh, alright, just curious.”
This phone call had indeed been recorded and was played in court Friday afternoon.
After this call, Moore immediately called Frazee’s attorney and then law enforcement. ...
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Moore was excused but not released and was ordered to stay available to the District Attorney’s Office.
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