WOODLAND PARK, Colo. — The parents of missing Colorado mom Kelsey Berreth filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her fiancé Patrick Frazee.
Attorneys for Darrell and Cheryl-Lee Berreth filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver.
The suit is seeking an unspecified amount for the Idaho couple’s grief and suffering following the death of their 29-year-old daughter, whose body has yet to be recovered.
The lawsuit alleges Berreth was “murdered on or about November 22, 2018, at the direction and/or hand of Frazee in or about Woodland Park, Teller County, state of Colorado.”
The couple is also suing for negligence, alleging “Frazee enacted physical, mental, and emotional acts of violence upon Kelsey Berreth prior to her death, Frazee breached the duty of care with which a reasonable person should conduct himself toward another human being.”
Frazee was formally charged with murder Monday morning. Authorities allege he tried to find someone to kill Berreth three times between September and November and causing her death on or around Thanksgiving.
Berreth was last seen Thanksgiving Day on a grocery store surveillance video with the couple's 1-year-old daughter. Frazee said the two met that day to exchange their child.
Authorities believe Berreth was killed at her home in Woodland Park, Colorado. Her cellphone was tracked to Gooding, Idaho, three days after Thanksgiving.
ABC News reported earlier this week that a 32-year-old Twin Falls, Idaho, woman was under investigation for possibly disposing of Berreth’s cell phone.
During a court appearance Friday, a judge allowed Frazee to receive a copy of the arrest affidavit in his case but ruled that the document, which contains details of what led prosecutors to charge Frazee with murder and solicitation in Berreth’s death, would remain sealed to the public pending a preliminary hearing.
