CO CO - Kelsey Berreth, 29, Woodland Park, Media, Maps and Timelines *NO DISCUSSION*

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FEB 22, 2019
Woodland Park Police confirm search of Midway Landfill starts Tuesday
The search is part of an effort to recover Kelsey Berreth’s remains based on information obtained during the course of the three-month old case. Investigators could comb through areas of the landfill for two weeks up to almost three months.

Investigators learned during an interview with Krystal Kenney, who pleaded guilty to evidence tampering in exchange for her testimony against Patrick Frazee, that Frazee claimed he would dispose of Berreth’s body in a river or landfill. That interview happened on Dec. 20, the day before Frazee was arrested.

Detectives told News 5’s Sam Kraemer that, depending on the alleged burn, they’re likely looking for evidence the size of your pinkie finger. The landfill covers more than 500 acres, according to a Waste Management fact sheet.

Fountain landfill to be searched for Kelsey Berreth's remains
The search at Midway Landfill for Berreth’s remains or evidence linked to the case will begin Tuesday and could last between 16 and 80 days, Woodland Park Police Department Cmdr. Christopher Adams said.

Equipment needed to search the landfill will begin assembling at the landfill on Monday, a news release stated.
 
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FEB 23, 2019
Is The Witness In The Kelsey Berreth Case Getting Off Too Easy?
CBS4 investigator Rick Sallinger asked legal analyst Karen Steinhauser if Kenney is getting off easy. Steinhauser explained there is a reason why Kenney was given a plea deal with a relatively lighter charge than what she could have faced.

“She is absolutely the prosecution’s star witness,” she said.

The nurse, who lived in Twin Falls, Idaho, pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, not accessory to murder after the fact. Kenney’s sentence could be probation and up to three years in prison. It was deal prosecutors had to make according to Steinhauser.

“It gives the family, it gives the community, it gives our system a shot at achieving justice for a young mother who should never have been killed.”
 
FEB 25, 2019
How a successful landfill search helped lead to a conviction in one of Colorado's most high-profile murders
If Berreth’s remains were thrown in the trash, they could have been transported to the Midway Landfill – which is about 40 miles away from her home in Woodland Park.

Finding any evidence will involve searching the right part of a facility that purports to process 275,000 tons of waste per year on a 238-acre footprint, according to a fact sheet on the Midway Landfill’s website.

Again, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack, and stories of successful landfill searches are few and far between. But, finding a body is not unheard of – and in one instance, it cracked one of Colorado’s most notorious criminal cases.

The case would garner media attention from across the country, and Michael Blagg would appear on multiple television programs to plead for the safe return of his wife and daughter.

He has since been sentenced to life in prison for a second time for his wife’s murder. And Michael Blagg’s arrest came just a few hours after investigators found Jennifer Blagg’s severely decomposed body on their 17th day of combing through the Mesa County landfill.

The search happened in a desolate stretch of desert south of Grand Junction during what was described as a particularly hot summer, according to testimony from Michael Blagg’s March 2018 second trial. Temperatures soared above 100 degrees as investigators combed through human excrement, medical waste, animals carcasses, thousands of bright orange Home Depot flyers and green punchouts from Michael Blagg’s employer Ametek Dixson for any evidence related to the disappearance of his wife and daughter.

The search area, according to court testimony, accounted for three-tenths of one percent of the Mesa County landfill. Investigators used landfill records to determine when and where trash from Nov. 13, 2001 was dumped. From there, they dug what’s known as “pot holes” to find newspapers dated at around this time as well as the Ametek Dixson punchouts to guide them to what was thrown in the dumpster of their Grand Junction office in mid-November.

An excavator would bring out loads of trash, and investigators would rake through it. On June 4, 2001, they found what they were looking for. Jennifer Blagg’s leg was seen dangling from the machinery, and what was determined to be her body was found wrapped in a tent that had apparently been in the family’s garage.
 
FEB 25, 2019
Investigators to begin landfill search for Kelsey Berreth’s body
KOAA reporter Sam Kraemer said on Twitter that Woodland Park Police Commander Chris Adams led a news conference about the planned search on Monday afternoon, and shared a media advisory with reporters that said the investigation was now focused on the recovery of Berreth’s remains.

According to the media advisory shared on Twitter, the search is set to begin Tuesday and last for up to 35 days. Investigators have reportedly narrowed in on a “target” area in the landfill that includes 4,320 cubic yards of trash.

Adams reportedly said that 30 to 40 people from multiple local and state agencies will aid in the search of Midway Landfill in Fountain, Colorado. The search will not involve cadaver dogs.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, a spokesperson for Midway Landfill said in mid-January that authorities had requested to search the landfill. When asked why there was an apparent delay in the start of the search, Adams told the KOAA reporter that investigators had been working to corroborate Kenney’s story and seek outside help experts more experienced in landfill searches.
 
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Denver7 News‏Verified account @DenverChannel

Today, authorities will start the search for #KelseyBerreth's remains in a Fountain landfill. http://bit.ly/2BTS0dM

D0Vp8YIX0AAWuFJ.jpg


Denver7 News on Twitter
 
FEB 25, UPDATED FEB 26, 2019
Landfill search for Kelsey Berreth’s remains begins Tuesday
Authorities will search for eight hours a day for 35 days, according to CNN. The 10 searchers will have to scour 686,805 cubic yards. In total, the primary target area is 135 feet by 32 feet and 9 inches deep. The bigger search area is 250 feet by 125 feet and 25 feet deep.

The estimated time frame could change based on their progress, Woodland Park Police Commander Chris Adams told CNN. An excavator will remove the trash to another location and lay it out in lines so that searchers can sift through the material, he said.

Searchers will typically set up a grid and a create subsections, then remove material layer by layer to another area for closer inspection, Vicki Wedel, an associate professor of anatomy at Western University of Health Sciences in California, told CNN.

Searchers pass the material through a wire mesh so they can look at it as closely as possible, she said. That's why it takes so long.
 
FEB 26, 2019
How investigators will search a landfill for Kelsey Berreth's remains - CNN
It may sound like an impossible task: searching a quarter-acre of a landfill for charred, decomposed human remains three months after a person was last seen alive.

But searchers are hopeful that they will find the remains of Kelsey Berreth and any other evidence that could shed light on her death.

[...]
Frazee's alleged mistress, who is cooperating with law enforcement, shared information that helped lead investigators to the Midway Landfill in Fountain, Colorado. Searchers will begin sifting through landfill detritus there on Tuesday and continue for at least 35 days until they make it through the area.

This is what we know from Woodland Park police about the search, plus additional insight from forensic anthropologists on what to possibly expect.

[...]

Ten searchers are expected to work eight hours a day for 35 days to make it through the primary target area, which is roughly the size of two tennis courts, and nine feet deep. The entire search area is 250' by 125' and 25 feet deep -- that's roughly two hockey rinks with 25 feet of garbage piled on top.

The estimated time frame could change based on their progress, Woodland Park Police Commander Chris Adams said.

[...]

"It's a slow, methodical search. We don't want to miss anything. I think we owe it to Kelsey and her family to -- to be as thorough as we can," Adams said.

The process resembles the procedure that forensic anthropologists use to search areas.
 
FEB 26, 2019
Colorado police search landfill for missing woman's remains
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Crews search the Midway Landfill for the remains of Kelsey Berreth, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, in Fountain, Colo. Berreth fiance Patrick Frazee is charged with her murder.

Authorities begin landfill search for Kelsey Berreth's remains
landfill1.jpg
Authorities say they have reason to believe Berreth's remains ended up in the Midway Landfill near the El Paso/Pueblo county line. They have targeted a specific area at the site.

"Based on the information we've gathered and received in the investigation, it's all pointed right here for us," said Cmdr. Chris Adams with the Woodland Park Police Department.
 
FEB 26, 2019
Investigators begin searching landfill for Kelsey Berreth’s remains
[...]
Dr. Melissa Connor is a professor of forensic anthropology at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, where she also leads the Forensic Research Station. There, Connor studies how human bodies decompose in different environments, and how that research can be applied in searches for remains.

Dr. Connor said landfill searches involve careful, detailed work. First, investigators have to locate the right area within a dump to start searching. Connor said most landfills are actually highly organized sites.

“They have good GPS recordings on where every truck goes in,” she said. “So if they know, say, a dumpster location that the remains might have been in, they’ll know what truck picked that dumpster up and where that dumpster dumped its load in the landfill."

[...]

Police believe Berreth’s body was burned, and may have been discarded months ago. However, Connor said human remains and evidence can often withstand destruction attempts and outdoor elements, being preserved within the layers of a landfill.

And the sooner a search begins, Connor says the better chance investigators have to find what they’re looking for.

“It’s a matter of taking the time, doing it piece by piece,” she said. “And landfill searches, particularly ones that start up relatively soon after the decedent was dumped are often successful.”
 
Landfill search in Kelsey Berreth case could come with high costs

MIDWAY, Colo. - Given the lengthy search ahead of the Midway Landfill for evidence in the Kelsey Berreth case, it could end up costing quite a bit of money.

Woodland Park Police say, ten people, for eight hours a day, for five days a week are dedicated to searching for anything in the case for a total of at least 35 days.

A similar case out of Phoenix, Ariz. is playing out right now. Christine Mustafa went missing in 2017, investigators believe her boyfriend killed her and dumped her body in a landfill.

The Phoenix Police Department told KRDO NewsChannel 13 that they along with state and federal agencies searched that landfill with rakes and cadaver dogs for three months with anywhere between 20 and 40 people per day.

In total, it cost more than $1.3 million, which included protective gear, tools, and overtime pay.

Even with all that money spent, they did not find Mustafa's body.

While Woodland Park Police aren't using cadaver dogs and won't have as many people out each day as Phoenix Police did, the cost could still add up.

Tad DiBiase, a no body murder expert, believes there is a chance investigators could find something.


"Really not very much amount of time has passed in order for there not to be a chance to not find something," DiBiase said.

Woodland Park Police aren't searching the Midway Landfill alone, state and local agencies are helping. Both the Pueblo Police Department and Fountain Police Department confirm they have sent personnel to help in the search.
 
FEB 27, 2019
Former FBI profiler discusses Patrick Frazee's murder charge
"There are some things that are very clear to me in this," Klismet said. "I believe he's a bald-faced liar, narcissist that is all out for himself."

Based on the evidence that was made public, and assuming it's true, Klismet says Frazee has manipulated his way through life. A large part of the prosecution's case against Frazee is based on testimony from Krystal Kenney, Frazee's ex-girlfriend who was called to help clean up the crime scene.

Klismet watched the video of Frazee walking into court, and he used his experience to tell us about his body language in the courtroom.

"No interest whatsoever in having any contact with anybody -- that's pretty normal, certainly I've seen that plenty of times," Klismet said. "I don't think it indicates any sign of deception."

[...]

"He's perfectly sane, but he's got that personality where he is, in his mind, far more important than anybody else, and so that's how he's going to manifest his personality," Klismet said.

And Frazee's ability to manipulate others is ultimately what got Kenney caught up in the alleged murder.

"Did she fall under his spell? Yes, because apparently she fell in love with him, and for any gal, he's a very good looking guy, and he's got personality, I'm sure," Klismet said. "He can talk his way right through anything."

Klismet believes Kenney's story about leaving clues for investigators to find at the crime scene. Despite being allegedly solicited to murder Kelsey Berreth multiple times, Kenney said she could never go through with it. He says in Kenney's mind, her only way out was to leave a trail of breadcrumbs.
 
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