Investigations yield few clues about missing Colorado woman

DENVER (AP) — Kelsey Berreth was last seen on Thanksgiving Day. Surveillance video shows her entering a grocery store with what appears to be her 1-year-old daughter in a baby carrier. Weeks later, investigators still don’t know what happened to the 29-year-old Colorado mother.

Her fiancé told police that the couple, who do not live together, met at some point on the holiday to exchange their child. After that, police say, the only trace of Berreth was text messages from her cell phone. Her disappearance has baffled her family and police, and sparked a multi-state search.

“Kelsey, we just want you home,” her mother, Cheryl Berreth, pleaded at a press conference on Monday. “Call us if you can. We won’t stop looking.”

The woman’s fiancé, Patrick Frazee, told police she last texted him on Nov. 25, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Her employer, an aviation company, received a text message from Berreth’s phone the same day saying the flight instructor planned to take the following week off.

Police later received data indicating that Berreth’s phone was located near Gooding, Idaho, that same day, nearly 800 miles from her home in Woodland Park, Colorado.

On December 2, a police investigation was launched after Cheryl Berreth requested a welfare check on her daughter. Woodland Park police have classified the disappearance as a missing persons case.

Investigators who went to the woman’s home found some cinnamon rolls in Berreth’s kitchen and her two cars still parked outside the house. Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said the company where Berreth worked, Doss Aviation, reported all of its planes and police had no reason to believe she used someone else’s plane for a flight.

In surveillance video released this week, Berreth is seen entering a grocery store in Woodland Park at 12:05 p.m. Her hair pulled back in a bun and she is carrying a purse and a baby carrier mostly covered by a blanket. She then pushes a shopping cart into the store and places the carrier on top.

Police have not disclosed when she and Frazee met to exchange their daughter. The child is still with her father, police said.

Frazee’s attorney, Jeremy Loew, said in a written statement Wednesday that his client was interviewed by police and gave investigators a cheek swab for DNA testing and his cellphone. Loew said neither he nor his client would comment further “because he does not want to hinder the law enforcement investigation.”

Frazee missed Monday’s press conference where Cheryl Berreth asked for information about her daughter, but Loew said his client only learned about it an hour before the event began and would have shown up if notified in time.

“Mr. Frazee hopes and prays for the return of Ms. Berreth,” Loew said. “Mr. Frazee will continue to cooperate with law enforcement and will continue to care for the child he has with Ms. Berreth.”

Berreth’s family continued to urge people to share a poster with two smiling photos of the petite woman.

“Kelsey loves her God,” Cheryl Berreth said at the press conference. “She loves her family and friends and she loves her job. She is reliable, considerate and honest.”

According to public records, Kelsey Berreth previously lived in Washington state. In 2016, she moved to Woodland Park, a mountain community of about 7,500 residents two hours south of Denver.

“She’s not running away and someone knows where she is,” her mother said.

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Associated Press writers James Anderson and Colleen Slevin contributed to this report.