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Police Now Combing Colorado Landfill In 'Slow, Methodical Search' For Kelsey Berreth's Remains
"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,” officials says, detailing what could be weeks-long search.
Police are now combing a Colorado landfill in an effort to find the remains of a woman presumed dead whose fiancé has been charged with her murder.
Authorities said their search for the remains of Kelsey Berreth, or other evidence in the case, which began Tuesday could take weeks. The site, Midway Landfill in Fountain, Colorado, is located about 90 miles south of Denver.
The area is 686,805 cubic yards large, Woodland Park Police told CNN, but the primary area of interest is about 4,320 cubic yards. That’s about the size of two tennis courts, and it’s about nine feet deep.
Ten searchers will likely be working eight hours a day for about 35 days to make it through that primary focus area, according to the CNN report. An excavator will remove trash from the area so that the searches can sift through in hopes of finding remains.
"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,” Woodland Park Police Commander Chris Adams told CNN.
Berreth, a 29-year-old flight instructor, was last seen near her home near Colorado Springs on Nov. 22.
Patrick Frazee, with whom Berreth had a 1-year-old daughter, has been charged with her murder. He has not yet entered a plea. Investigators testified during a Feb. 19 court hearing that Frazee’s girlfriend told police he used a baseball bat to beat Berreth to death, then burned her body with plans of dumping the remains in a landfill or river. Investigators think Frazee killed Berreth on Nov. 22, Thanksgiving Day, while the couple’s daughter was in a playpen in the home.
An arrest affidavit reveals that Krystal Lee Kenney, an Idaho nurse who was having an affair with Frazee, traveled to Colorado to clean up the crime scene. She has agreed to help the prosecution in Frazee’s murder trial.
Law enforcement visited the same landfill before, back in January, to evaluate the area for a possible search.
Berreth's daughter is now in the care of her parents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
