Pueblo, CO– The Colorado Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Patrick Frazee, who was found guilty in 2019 of murdering his fiancée, Kelsey Berreth, in 2018. The Court’s decision comes after Frazee appealed his conviction, challenging a key part of the trial involving statements he made to a Teller County Department of Human Services (DHS) caseworker.
Berreth, a 29-year-old mother, was last seen alive on Thanksgiving Day in 2018 at a Safeway grocery store in Woodland Park, Colorado. Days later, her phone pinged in Gooding, Idaho, but her body has never been found. Despite the lack of a body, Frazee was convicted of her murder in 2019.
Frazee’s appeal focused on a meeting he had with a DHS caseworker on December 26, 2018, while he was incarcerated at the Teller County Jail. The meeting, which was primarily to discuss the future of Frazee and Berreth’s child, became a point of contention in his appeal. Frazee argued that he was subjected to a custodial interrogation without being informed of his Miranda rights, which protect against self-incrimination.
The caseworker later testified in court, offering statements that were used against Frazee. Frazee’s defense team contended that those statements should have been suppressed because he was never read his Miranda rights prior to the conversation.
However, the Colorado Supreme Court rejected this argument. The Court ruled that the DHS worker was not acting as a law enforcement officer at the time of the meeting. Instead, the Court concluded that the caseworker’s primary duty was to investigate the safety and welfare of the child, not to assist in a criminal investigation.
Peter Blink, a partner at Black, Blink & Associates, explained that while the information gathered by the caseworker did eventually aid law enforcement, it was not the worker’s primary purpose. “The DHS worker had an independent duty to investigate for the protection of the child, not to further the criminal investigation,” Blink stated. “Because the caseworker was not law enforcement and did not have arrest powers, Miranda warnings were not required.”
As a result, the Supreme Court upheld the original ruling that Frazee’s statements to the DHS worker were admissible in court. Frazee’s conviction remains in place, and he continues to serve his sentence for the murder of Kelsey Berreth.
This decision marks a significant moment in a case that has garnered national attention. Although Berreth’s body has yet to be recovered, the legal battle surrounding Frazee’s conviction and the use of statements made during his detention continues to highlight complex issues around Miranda rights and the role of caseworkers in criminal investigations.
