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The video of Kelsey in the supermarket, she's just like any mom at the grocery store. I mean, it's snowballed into this big mystery. Kelsey would never, ever have abandoned her baby, never. I'm trying to find a missing person.
The supervisor asked me to interview a girl named Crystal. We didn't really have any idea who she was. She told us everything. This woman knew about a murder, covered it up.
She could have stopped this from happening. She had a hold on her that he totally exploited. The mom who vanished on Thanksgiving Day, on a labric plot with an evil twist. This old thing is crazy.
Check my breath away. Unlessed her halt, and this is Date Live. Here's Andrea canning with Devil's Bargain. You're witnessing something highly unusual.
A woman at the center of a murder investigation, reconstructing the scene of the gruesome crime. Can you tell me what you saw in here and what you cleaned up? There was a lot of work. Go away.
This is all the bullets. Her name is Crystal Lee Kenney. A mother of two. And this is where the furniture is.
And a key player in the murder case of another young mom. I also threw in all the clothing that I was wearing. It's a fire. Watch carefully.
Is she a witness? An accomplice? Or something else? And was the sentence she received, Farron Just, or just the opposite?
You called this, making a deal with the double. I did. We'll take you inside the investigation. You'll hear from the investigators who crapped the case.
It was horrific. And from family members living through it all. I still wait for her to call. Really?
I'm healthy, can't be gone. Our story begins with the most unremarkable scene. November 22nd, 2018. A mother with her baby was captured on security camera at a local store in Colorado, buying last-minute groceries for Thanksgiving dinner.
The video would go viral, because it was the last time she was ever seen in public. Her name? Kelsey Barrett. More than a week after that Thanksgiving day.
Kelsey's mom, Cheryl, was home in Idaho, with a nagging feeling. She last spoken to her daughter on the phone Thanksgiving morning. Kelsey was preparing to have dinner with her fiancé, Patrick Frasie, and their daughter, Kaylee. Small talk, basically.
She fixed Kaylee's cinnamon rolls. You know, kind of celebrate Thanksgiving and Kaylee didn't like them. She wanted the honey net Cheerios. Two days after that, Cheryl received a text from Kelsey's phone saying, I'll call you tomorrow.
But Kelsey didn't call. At first, that wasn't surprising. Kelsey juggled motherhood, as well as looking for a home so she and Patrick, who lived on a ranch with his mom, could move in together. She also had a demanding job as a flight instructor.
She's a busy lady. She works long shifts. She spends a lot of time with Kaylee. It takes a lot to be a mom, a working mom.
Still, Kelsey rarely went this long without calling. So after about a week, Cheryl called Kelsey's fiance, Patrick. He told her he'd last seen Kelsey on Thanksgiving day, when he picked up their daughter. And then, he said something that took Cheryl completely by surprise.
He told her Kelsey had called and had broken up with him, and seemed to have taken off. I can't think of anywhere she's ever gone that she hasn't told me this is the plan. It's just not in her character to just take off and be gone. Cheryl called to ask if we've heard from Kelsey.
And we hadn't. Scott and Kim Warren are Kelsey's aunt and uncle. The family was growing more anxious by the minute. I remember laying in bed just calling Kelsey's phone.
Leaving a message to have her call me. It was now ten days since Cheryl had last spoken with her daughter. She called the police. What happened on day one of this investigation?
December 2nd was day one, and Cheryl Behrth called in a missing person for Kelsey. Chris Adams would become a special agent in charge with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. But back in December 2018, he was with the Woodland Park Police Department and led the investigation into Kelsey's disappearance. And officers were dispatched.
Initially went out to her house trying to make contact. We weren't able to. No one answers. Correct.
Cheryl's anxiety turned to panic. She and Kelsey's brother set off for Colorado. She calls us back and says Clint and I are flying down. Pray.
It's like chilling. Even just hearing you say that. Yeah. As Kelsey's family agonized over her whereabouts, investigators went back to her condo.
We're just trying to find evidence of where she may have gone. Did she leave behind her phone, her purse? Anything that would be out of the ordinary? We never found her phone, her purse or her keys.
Both vehicles were on the driveway. She's got a black sedan and a red Chevy truck. Also in the condo, investigators found Kelsey's makeup bag. Something her family said she never traveled without.
On the stove, cold cinnamon buns. It was that evening, it realized certain things weren't adding up. The car is there, but not the keys. You know, she's a young mother, she's not with her kid.
Sort of requested assistance from the FBI and CBI. Greg, that's when you enter the case? Yes. Greg Slater, also a special agent in charge with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, drew on more than 35 years of experience in law enforcement.
And what are your initial thoughts? You know, first you're thinking, all right, you know, we have a missing mom. Check inside the house to see if there's any type of a struggle that may have taken place. We recommended that they start calling around to local hospitals to see if she was there.
By now, investigators had found a grocery store receipt on Kelsey's kitchen table. It was dated November 22nd, Thanksgiving Day. They pulled the security footage from the grocery store. And there was Kelsey.
They started to build a timeline of her whereabouts. Meanwhile, Cheryl and Kelsey's brother arrived in Woodland Park and stayed at Kelsey's condo. They spoke with investigators. Cheryl, recalling her last conversation with Kelsey Thanksgiving morning.
She's been happy. She's been wanting to decorate for Christmas and excited about that. She was planning her Christmas list. Her job was going well.
Investigators also spoke with Kelsey's fiance, Patrick. Was Patrick cooperative? He was. Patrick told investigators the same thing he told Cheryl.
He had last seen Kelsey Thanksgiving Day. He said he picked up baby Kaylee in the alley by Kelsey's home. He also went to the local credit union, and Walmart, and tended to his cattle in the afternoon. Sure enough, security camera footage showed him at the credit union and Walmart.
Patrick also gave the investigators his cell phone. What do you find on Patrick's Phasie's phone? So we find the text message exchanged between Patrick and Kelsey. Investigators found texts that backed up his story that Kelsey had broken up with him on the phone two days after Thanksgiving.
Patrick had messaged. If this is truly what you want, I'll respect your wishes and give you space. Let me know if you change your mind. I'll leave you alone now.
You can call me when you decide what you want to do. Text messages the day after showed Kelsey in distress. One read, do you even love me? And Patrick replied, why would I bend over backwards and stand behind you through everything if I didn't?
So to answer your question, yes, I do. He told investigators that was the last time he heard from her. Kelsey's manager at the flight school said he also received a text from Kelsey's phone. What did it say?
Not to expect her in that she owned a visitor grandmother. And investigators had to consider Kelsey's profession as a pilot. Did you look at airports that maybe she had taken a plane somewhere to get away? Personally I did.
No flight plans were filed. No sightings of Kelsey. No. To find Kelsey, the investigators needed to know more about her.
They dug deeper and uncovered a complicated life. When do we come back? We are treating Kelsey's disappearance as a missing person's case at this time. Where was Kelsey?
Kelsey, we just want your home. I mean, one quick looking. It was just beginning. And one woman would hold the key.
We didn't know how vital she was going to be. She was smart enough to realize that I can't hide this anymore. Part of me wants to see Strangler. Part of me wants to hug her.
Determined, always up for a challenge. That's what Kelsey's mom, Cheryl, was telling investigators about her daughter, who had vanished on Thanksgiving Day. She's a good person. She's very dedicated, very loyal, reliable.
She loves God. Goodness for a better daughter. Kelsey grew up on her family's farm near Moses Lake Washington, about 100 miles from Spokane. Kelsey was a light.
She lit up a room. She lit up your heart. Kelsey's uncle, Scott, is a pastor at the Homedale Friends Community Church near Boise, Idaho. He and his wife, Kim, had a very close bond with Kelsey.
She was smart. If she was determined to do something she fought, she put it all in. She was an incredible woman to watch. You wanted to be with Kelsey.
You wanted to hang out with her. You wanted to hear what she had to say. At some point, she's going to make you laugh. Kelsey discovered her lifelong passion at a very young age.
She loved thinking about flying from watching crop dusters on the farm. She actually wanted to be a crop dester for a time. Yes. That would have been her dream job for a time was being a crop dester.
You don't hear that every day from a little girl. No, I think it was exciting. She was fascinated with it. She loved the challenge.
After high school, Kelsey enrolled in a flying program at her local community college. Kelsey graduated and eventually landed a job as a flight instructor in Spokane. She also dipped her toe in the world of online dating. Around Christmas 2015, someone piqued her interest.
His name was Patrick Frasie. We knew he was a rancher. We knew he was successful. At the time, we knew that he was a farrier.
As a farrier, Patrick trimmed and shoot horse hooves. He lived on his family's ranch more than 1100 miles from Kelsey. Kelsey and Flora sent Colorado. But the distance didn't seem to matter.
Over the next year, their relationship flourished. I think they were online interactions for months. He came down and they met each other in person. It was, I don't know, a few months later.
We found out that she was heading to Colorado. In 2017, Kelsey found work with Doss Aviation, a flight school for U.S. Air Force trainees. She was sort of getting the best of both worlds, being able to fly, being able to have a ranch.
She loved being outdoors. So this was good. This was good news. So you must have been happy for her.
Yeah. And there was more good news. Kelsey and Patrick learned they were expecting. She always wanted to be a mom.
She always wanted a family. Pilot and family. That October, they welcomed daughter Kaylee. As soon as Kaylee was born, she was loved.
In May 2018, Kelsey moved into a condo in Woodland Park. It was a 20-minute drive from Patrick's family ranch. And the flight school was about an hour in the opposite direction. It was a stressful situation, as the new parents took turns, caring for Kaylee.
Patrick was a hands-on dad. Often taking Kaylee with him on farrier jobs, while Kelsey was away at work. He had diesel wool socks that he put on on top of her other socks. Clint Cline, a longtime client of Patrick's, saw first-hand how Patrick doted on his daughter.
He had his little jumpsuit for her, and he kept her where he could see her. And he did very good care of that little girl. While one was working, the other one had her, and vice versa. They seemed to have that going pretty well.
So everything's coming together for Kelsey. Right. Perhaps not everything. As investigators put together their timeline, they found that, by Thanksgiving, Kelsey appeared run down.
The day after the holiday, Patrick received a text from Kelsey's phone saying, Actually, do you mind keeping Kaylee tonight? Sorry, I'm really tired and stressed out. Call me in the morning when you guys wake up. Patrick replied with concern.
Sure, I don't mind. What's going on? Are you okay? Do you need anything?
Or can I do anything? The response seemed to come from an exhausted Kelsey. No, I'm fine. Just worn out.
Talk to you guys tomorrow. Not long after that, those texts dried up. And no one seemed to know where Kelsey was. But Patrick's friend Clint had an idea.
He said he knew of another side of Kelsey. Altogether. Coming up. New questions surrounding Kelsey.
Had she vanished before. She disappeared for some time frame. Disappeared. He didn't know where she was.
And where was her gun? Does that concern you at all that the gun's missing? It does. When Dateline continues.
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The home of possibilities. Made easy. As police stepped up the hunt for missing mom Kelsey Barrett, her disappearance made the news. We are treating Kelsey's disappearance as a missing person's case at this time.
I'd just like to talk to you a little bit about Kelsey. She's not the kind that runs off. This is completely out of character. Kelsey, we just want your home.
Kelsey, we just want your home. Kelsey, if you can, we won't quit looking. Patrick did not attend the news conference about his missing fiance. Four days later, police served a search warrant at his ranch.
A lot of developments over the weekend in the search for that young Colorado mother who vanished mysteriously more than three weeks ago now. On Patrick's ranch, they took these photos, including this one. Patrick's list of what he did, the day Kelsey disappeared. You get written down, picked up Kaylee, ran in and went to Walmart.
Then he puts, check cattle. And it passed him home having Thanksgiving dinner. They had come in, they had checked his place, and they didn't find anything. They were moving up.
Did he sound upset at all? He sounded concerned. But Patrick's friend, Clint, wasn't especially concerned that Kelsey was missing. He says Patrick had already confided to him.
Kelsey had issues, and sometimes just took off by herself, leaving Patrick and the baby. She disappeared for some time frame. Disappeared. He didn't know where she was.
She left. And then the next thing he knew, she had checked into a rehab. What did he think happened during those days? He didn't know.
He just said that after she got out of the rehab that first time, she went in to rehab a second time is what he had told me. Alcohol drugs? What I gathered was, it was alcohol. Clint believed maybe Kelsey's Thanksgiving disappearance was another relapse of some kind.
When you first heard that Kelsey had disappeared, did your mind go back to those times that Patrick had told you about the fact that she would disappear? Yeah, that's what my first thought was as well. She's in rehab again somewhere, and she'll show up. You know, that 20 days or so, whatever the rehab time frames are, that she'll show back up.
But Kelsey didn't show back up. You don't know anything about this woman, so is that one possibility that you have to consider that she willingly disappeared or that she took her own life? It is. As the investigators delved into Kelsey's past, they didn't find any evidence of drug or alcohol abuse.
But did find about three months before Thanksgiving, Kelsey had been to a clinic that treats depression. It's a facility in California where clients pay to go to get over some depression, sleep deprivation, anxiety, things of that nature, and it was a 10 day clinic. So it's just more to give Kelsey an opportunity to get back to a position where she felt that she could function better, both as a mom and as a pilot. Kelsey's not in the best frame of mind she's ever been.
To go away from your child and to go to a facility like that, you know, says to me she needed to clear her head. I think she was just worn out, and she's trying to figure out, why am I tired? Why am I feeling, you know, maybe a little depressed? A thousand miles away near Boise, Idaho, Kelsey's family knew she had bouts of fatigue, but said her problems weren't bad enough to make her run away.
I don't think she suffered from depression more than anyone else does. Especially when you're so tired. A new baby. Yeah.
I would say she had a down day. You know, there was times she was more tired and needed some rest. I would never put her in that category of depressed. Yeah, she definitely had a lot on her plate.
She did. Patrick had already told police, P. and Kelsey broke up over Thanksgiving. He said, in the days that followed, they continued texting to tie up loose ends.
P and Kelsey had decided to, in their relationship, but other than him returning property that belonged to Kelsey, her car keys, her gun, that was the extent of it. The whereabouts of Kelsey's gun was a cause for alarm, especially when investigators recalled one of the text messages from Kelsey's phone to her mom on Thanksgiving. It read, We went shooting today. Was so much fun shooting my gun again.
Patrick is going to let me keep it. But when police searched Kelsey's home, there was no sign of it. There's no gun in the condo. Correct.
Does that concern you at all that the gun's missing? It does. It was one of the things we looked for once we learned about it, but that could also lead to the impossible suicide scenario. That she might have used the gun on herself.
Yeah. You had to seriously consider that? We did, yes. But then something completely unexpected happened that would change the trajectory and tone of the investigation.
Kelsey's brother made a worrying discovery in Kelsey's condo. A smudge on the bottom of the toilet that looked like blood. Police hadn't noticed it when they'd been in the condo because they hadn't been looking for forensic evidence. If the initial search, we were just looking for evidence of a disturbance.
You know, obvious. And anything that could lead us to where Kelsey is at the moment. Now we don't get our hands in these, lift things up, look at the bottom of the toilet. We don't do that.
After finding the smudge on the toilet, Cheryl and Kelsey's brother took a closer look at the rest of the condo and found suspicious smears on the furniture and appliances. Does this now spark a full blown search of the condo? Yes. They sprayed Kelsey's bathroom with Blue Star Agent, a substance that glows on contact with blood.
So the bathroom kind of lit up like a Christmas tree. Correct. Kelsey's home was now being treated as a crime scene. The experienced investigators began to suspect she'd been murdered and teams of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies descended on the condo.
Then, suddenly, 800 miles away, there was a baffling new development that would break the case wide open. Coming up, a startling clue from Kelsey's cell phone. Kelsey's phone. You have a location, you're good in Idaho.
Are you thinking maybe she's in Idaho right now? Absolutely. Enter the rodeo queen of Magic Valley. You're really starting to connect dots now.
Yes. As police in Colorado continue to search for Kelsey Barrett, the trail led unexpectedly to Idaho. Kelsey's phone gave a location, you're good in Idaho on November 25th, at about 5-13 in the afternoon. Kelsey's phone had pinged off a cell phone tower near this Idaho gorge.
So even though her condo was being treated as a crime scene, investigators had to consider the possibility that Kelsey might still be alive and on the move. Are you thinking maybe she's in Idaho right now? Maybe she decided to get away? Absolutely.
Any idea where she would have been going? Is there any theories about what was in Idaho? Her parents live in Idaho. The news reached Kelsey's aunt and uncle, Kim and Scott.
When you heard that Kelsey's phone had pinged in Idaho, did that give you just even a glimmer of hope that maybe our instincts are wrong? Maybe she's okay. It did for just a minute. Yeah.
But it pinged in the wrong part of Idaho. Kelsey's parents lived in northern Idaho. Her phone pinged in the southern part of the state. When you leave Colorado and you head to northern Idaho, you go through Montana.
You don't go through southern Idaho. Kelsey had no reason to be in this part of the state. It just doesn't make sense. That was not the route.
That was not the route. No. Investigators asked the local sheriff's department to check out the location of the ping, but they didn't find Kelsey. So that dashed your hopes right there?
No. But there was an Idaho connection. When Patrick turned over his cell phone to police, they found an Idaho number in his call history and they learned the number belonged to a woman. Why did she stick out this woman in particular?
The timing of a phone call after the last ping on the 25th. It was, I want to say, ten minutes and gone by between when Kelsey's phone, last ping to Idaho, that Patrick's record showed this 208 very cold phone number. The woman's name was Crystal Lee Kenney. So it's just this bizarre timing of this Idaho connection.
Correct. And Crystal lives in Idaho. Yes. Crystal, and what she might know about Kelsey's disappearance, suddenly became the most important lead in the investigation.
Are you now learning more about Crystal? Who is she? Yes. We knew that she had a family.
That was about it. She didn't have a criminal history or anything like that. I took on social media to an extent into horses ranching that lifestyle. What was her personality like?
Very loving, very caring. Laura Stotsman is a friend of Crystal's and has known her since she was ten years old. She really is the type of girl who would give you the share offer for her back. Crystal worked at a local hospital as a senior registered nurse.
She wasn't just a nurse, she was a good nurse. Anything Crystal did, she did it very well. In her early twenties, she was even crowned rodeo queen of Magic Valley, a title awarded for beauty, horsemanship and good character, which made her something of a local celebrity. Is it like a really big deal?
Would she be like Julia Roberts in Twin Falls? I don't know. She would probably be bigger than Julia Roberts because everybody knew and loved Crystal. Laura said rodeo queens embody tradition and what local people call the cowboy code.
The cowboy code is living life correctly. It's helping your fellow man, it's helping your neighbor, it's just being a downright good person. Honest integrity community God? You bet.
In short, Crystal seemed like the last person who'd be mixed up in the disappearance of Kelsey Barrett. Nevertheless, investigators had to check her out because of what they found in Patrick's call history. What are you seeing? Between their two phones, Crystal and Patrick.
A lot of phone calls. I couldn't put the number on it, especially from that November 22nd, 25th through December 4th. It's a critical time here. You're really starting to connect dots now.
Correct. What does that tell you? Right there. We need to talk to Crystal and find out what's going on.
By now, the feds were involved in the case. An FBI special agent was about to give Crystal a call. Coming up. Crystal tells her story, and one thing becomes crystal clear.
She lied, and we could refute those lies easily. Is Crystal realizing she's in a whole lot of trouble? Yes. When Dateline continues.
FBI special agent John Bruising had joined the investigation into Kelsey Barrett's disappearance and was now dialing the number of the Idaho nurse named Crystal Lee Kenny. When he reached her, she was with a group of friends in Las Vegas, attending the National Finals Rodeo, the Super Bowl of Rodeo. I identified myself as the FBI, said we are looking for a person named Kelsey Barrett, she says I have no idea who Kelsey Barrett is. The FBI agent kept probing, asking Crystal if she knew anything about Kelsey's cell phone that had pinged off a tower near an Idaho gorge.
I asked her, are you aware of the phone? And she says that she heard about it from the news. And I said okay, well the gorge is only about 20 miles from your house from what we see. And she quickly said no, I live at least an hour, I don't live near any gorge.
He sensed Crystal was hiding something. If you had nothing to do with this, why are you distancing yourself from a gorge, why did any of that make any difference? And so I asked again, did you had no relationship with Kelsey? You didn't know who she was, have you ever met her and it's absolutely not no.
The more they talked, the more suspicious he became. Her story was not solid to start out with and then it got worse as we went on. The investigators wondered if Crystal was covering something up. She initially said that she didn't know Patrick but when confronted with, well, we saw your phone number in his phone and that's when we have a business relationship.
And she said she had last talked to Patrick a month or a month and a half ago, she couldn't be sure. The agent asked if Crystal had seen Patrick in person. She said, well they texted each other, happy Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving. And Crystal decided that she would drive down from Twin Falls.
Crystal told Agent Grucing she made the trip because a few months prior she and Patrick had bought a horse together and Crystal wanted Patrick to buy her out. They both paid $4,000 and Crystal decided she wanted to use that $4,000 to find a new home. But when she arrived in Colorado, Patrick wasn't available. So she said she went and slept at a gas station until he was ready to meet her.
She told the agent that in the early afternoon she finally met up with Patrick to talk business. They talked about her selling her half of the horse. He said it's not a good time because he heard his back. So at five o'clock she gets back in her car and she drives 13 hours back home.
Grucing put himself in that situation. Something about her story didn't add up. I would be very upset that I drove 13 hours. He spends four hours with me and I have to drive 13 back.
I said, weren't you upset about that? Oh, absolutely not. I was just happy to see Patrick and he said that thank you note, thank you text, and everything's good between us. The agent wondered if Crystal's relationship with Patrick was more than just professional.
I said, okay, do you have a personal relationship with Patrick? Absolutely not. And I said, okay. Investigators had also gathered cell phone data showing not just calls and texts, but locations too.
We knew that there was a lot of communication between Crystal and Patrick. We also knew that Kelsey's phone may have been also with Crystal. Do you confront Crystal with what you know now? We do.
And I said, you travel the same time basically that Kelsey's phone lines up in that course. I'm just having a hard time figuring out. I said, Patrick, ever get in your car. Maybe he dropped the phone in your car trying to give her a reason about this phone.
And she said that's highly unlikely. It looked like Crystal had taken Kelsey's phone to Idaho. But why? The investigator pulled his net tighter.
I said, are your texts crystal between you and Patrick only dealing with horses? What are they? And she goes, they're only dealing with horses. I said, would you mind if we verified that on your phone?
And she said no. So at this point, she felt uncomfortable, wanted to interview, and that's about where we stopped. By the time she finished her call with the FBI agent, Crystal was the focus of the investigation. Investigators knew they had to confront her in person.
Because she lied and because we could refute those lies easily. They traveled to Idaho. So the FBI, myself and Twin Falls Police Department go up to Crystal's door and knock on the door and she comes to the door and we introduce ourselves and say we want to talk to her and Crystal voluntarily says, yeah, come on in. We step inside and talk to her at the couches.
Police officers are around and say, we have a search warrant here. And I say, I'd like to talk to you again. I'm the one that talked to you on the phone. As they stood in Crystal's home, the investigators realized they had leverage.
I still remember her daughter with huge eyes looking to see what's going on. She was such a family person. She was a charge nurse, head nurse there, small town, nice house. She had so much to lose by line.
And I tell her those things. You have a lot to lose. We know you lied. How is she reacting to this?
She's just sitting there very attentive, not saying much, shaking her head, agreeing. And at that point, we just say to her, we know you have a story to provide and we want to hear your story. In the end, Crystal decided to get herself a lawyer and the investigators left. Is Crystal realizing she's in a whole lot of trouble?
Yes. Crystal told friends about her situation and it wasn't long before word got out. Thirty-two-year-old Crystal Kenny. You get word that the police have zeroed in on a woman in Idaho who may have knowledge about what happened to Kelsey.
This is a big moment in this case. What are you learning? We learned about her taking the phone and transferring the phone and they finally clicked. Oh, that makes sense why it's in Idaho.
And so, you know, the first question is, why? Why would you be involved in this? Soon, Crystal met again with investigators with her new lawyer present. It was confession time.
Coming up. This is a very important interrogation. Yes. Crystal and Patrick.
Patrick had some sort of hold on her love and secrets. She learned that Patrick has a daughter and she's kind of like dumped down by the whole thing. It was incensed that Patrick had a baby that he didn't tell her about. As the day wraps up, get the scoop on what's been happening.
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Crystal Lee Kenny knew she'd been caught in a series of lies. Three weeks after Kelsey was reported missing, Crystal hired a lawyer and went to Colorado for another meeting with investigators. We knew that there was some information that she was going to share with us. We didn't know the exact specifics.
This is a very important interrogation. Yes. And that gave Crystal some leverage. Before she talked, Crystal told them she wanted to make a deal with the local district attorney.
Before her statement, we didn't know anything. Jennifer Veman was one of the prosecutors who got the case. She had to provide a full and complete statement about what happened. Tell us everything.
Tell the truth. And come back and testify when it's needed. Crystal promised to do all that. And in return, prosecutors offered a plea deal, a charge carrying a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
I think we didn't know the extent of how vital she was going to be to the entire story about what happened to Kelsey Barrett. But they were about to find out. Plea deal in place. Crystal started to spill.
First of all, she confessed her relationship with Patrick Frasie was about a lot more than buying horses. And this has been an ongoing on-again relationship since 2006. Crystal said she first met Patrick at a dance when she was 20. That he was her first true love, and she fell hard.
Obsessed with him. Twitter paid it. I think it was her term. What was it?
Twitter paid it. That was the term she used. What does that mean? The world's all great.
Here I am. Handsome guy, she says. She says to us that he appreciated her. You know, hey, it's nice to have you out here with me, her in-cattle and fix-and-fence.
She craved as a cruel woman. She craved as a cruel woman. She talked about that. He seemed out of real power over women.
I think the women that he went after shared that same lifestyle. Yeah, they like the cowboy life's ranching lifestyle. As smitten as Crystal was with Patrick, he didn't reciprocate. They fell out of touch.
She got married and had two children. But Crystal said she never forgot her first true love. In 2015, she rekindled her relationship with Patrick and they started an affair. She got pregnant by him and ended the pregnancy after she says he got angry at the news.
After another pause in their relationship, Crystal reconnected with him when she made a trip to Colorado in 2018, after she was divorced. She wanted to be with Patrick. She wanted to him to totally have love for her. It's not even like she lived on the street.
She was driving 13 hours each time to do this one way. Patrick had some sort of hold on her that it's rare to see it out there. But Patrick had a secret. Crystal had no idea he was engaged and had a new baby.
Crystal did not know about Kaylee. Did not know about Kelsey. So there's no mention at all of Kelsey or Kaylee. That all changed a couple of months later.
Fast forward to June of 2018 when Crystal's having breakfast with some friends. She learns that Patrick has a daughter. And she's kind of like dumbfounded by the whole thing. But she plays off like, wow, you know, didn't know anything about it and no big deal.
But about three months before Kelsey went missing. Crystal went on to Patrick that she knew. And she simply tells him, I know about the baby. I know about Kaylee.
You don't have to tell me anything about it if you don't want to. But you got to know that I know about her. At first Crystal was incensed that Patrick had a baby that he didn't tell her about. And then she came around to start giving him baby toys and baby clothes.
And she saw what a good dad he is. And they talked about the baby. She said that's when Patrick confided to her that his fiancé was a deeply troubled woman. He tells Crystal Kelsey he's got all these problems.
She's this alcoholic. She's a bad mother. She beats the baby. She started telling Crystal that Kelsey was an abusive mom.
That he had people watching Kelsey. And that he was concerned that Kelsey was going to hurt the baby, if not worse. Crystal claims she told Patrick to report Kelsey to the authorities. She said that Patrick said he did go to the police.
But that Kelsey's family is influential and the police won't do anything. He's filed complaints with Department of Human Services over the abuse. He's gone to the hospital with her. He's tried to file a police report.
But nobody will take him seriously. Crystal said Patrick seemed beside himself. You know, I can't trust her. She's a drunk.
She's not working. She's not doing anything. She would tell us in the interview, no, I was trying to protect the baby. I didn't want her to hurt the baby.
So that's how this whole plan hatches, if you will, with Crystal killing Kelsey to get rid of her to protect Kelsey. Coming up, poison coffee, a deadly plot to kill. He goes and buys a caramel macchiato from Starbucks. And then she goes up to Kelsey's door and knocks on the door.
Some terrifying terms lie ahead. What's your story? I tried thinking out. When Dateline continues.
Crystal Lee Kenny was sitting face-to-face with investigators about to make an extraordinary confession. I think that she knew that we had plenty of evidence against her. And I think that she was smart enough to realize that I can't hide this anymore. And this time, it was about so much more than a long time love affair with Patrick Frasie.
It's like every turn in this case you're getting a new clue. Correct. Crystal told them it all began in the summer of 2018, when she became convinced that Kelsey Barrett was unstable, cruel, and a danger to her daughter. She said she was determined to help Patrick.
So in September, she traveled to Colorado, and together they hatched a plan to get rid of Kelsey. They talk about how people can die from overdosing on drugs and whatnot. Their plan? Crystal, the nurse, would use prescription drugs to poison Kelsey's coffee.
She says, I can get some Valium and some Ambien. Maybe I can get those things and stir it in. Crystal went to Starbucks and bought a caramel macchiato for Kelsey. That's her favorite coffee drink.
So that's what Crystal does. She goes and buys a caramel macchiato from Starbucks and parks in a little alleyway. And then she goes up to Kelsey's door and knocks on the door. She introduced herself as Cassie Johnson.
She already has an alias. She goes, I'm new to the neighborhood, and you put my dog back in the yard. I just want to thank you with this coffee. Kelsey takes the coffee, but says I didn't help with your dog.
Crystal gives Kelsey her phone number and says I'd love to have a play date with you. I have a nephew and Kelsey's like my daughter's only ten months old. I don't think we're going to do a play date. Crystal left.
And Kelsey didn't die. Patrick calls and says, what happened? He was very angry. He said much angrier words than that.
And she says, what are you talking about? He said, she's fine. Did you not poison the coffee? And she says, well, maybe she didn't drink it.
Crystal said a guilt trip followed. And so he said, if you're going to let her kill the baby, then that's on you. But that wasn't the end of it. No, there was a second attempt.
This time, Crystal said the plan involved beating Kelsey with a metal pipe. He hands her a metal pipe and says this is not that hard. When she comes out of the house, you hit her in the back of the head so there's not a lot of blood. She's to beat her and put her in a dumpster and push her on the road.
Crystal takes the metal pipe. She drives to Kelsey's place. She tells us that she parks the car. She's getting out of her car at Kelsey's place with the pipe and she hears a dog bark and she gets scared and jumps back in the car and goes and takes a nap at the conical.
And then Patrick calls her and she says, I'm not the right person to do this. And then again, he goes, maybe you don't love the baby. But this still isn't the end of it. No.
Crystal told them a third murder plot took shape. When Kelsey returned to her condo after handing over Kaylee to Patrick, Crystal was supposed to ambush her. The third attempt I can, unfortunately, still see in my brain from Crystal describing it so well. Because he tells her to use a baseball bat and quote, just go to swinging.
So Crystal takes an aluminum bat from her house in Twin Falls. She drives and she goes and sits in Kelsey's front yard. With a bat in her hand, waiting for Kelsey to come home from a baby exchange. And she gets out of her car and she's sitting on a planter.
She sees a police car drive by. Here's some people and again, please. This whole thing is crazy. Yeah.
Just a picture, a head nurse, sitting with a baseball bat, waiting to hit someone in the back of the head. I just still have that image in my mind. It just bizarre. She said Patrick had the same angry reaction after she failed on the third attempt.
He gave her a litany of reasons of why she failed, putting more guilt on her. Crystal claimed she acted only because Patrick forced her to. It was Patrick who devised the three schemes to murder Kelsey. And she claimed she asked Patrick if he wanted to kill Kelsey so badly.
Why didn't he do it himself? She asked why aren't you taking care of this? And he said, are you kidding? Everybody would know it's me if something happens to her.
She said Patrick countered with threats against her and even her children. She said she was scared of Patrick. If she didn't do it, if Patrick's willing to kill Kelsey, what would happen to Crystal? When the outlandish story filtered down to Kelsey's family, they too were dumbfounded.
The story is so crazy when you think about it. It's about Crystal driving to Woodland Park and first it's going to be she shows up at the door with coffee. Then it's a lead pipe. Then it's a baseball bat.
How do you wrap your head around that? I don't think we can. No. I'll never be able to understand it.
The investigators believed they had an inkling. She was madly enough with Patrick and that overruled all her common sense in her judgment. Even so, the FBI agent believed Crystal was still responsible. Each of us have that choice whether we decide, do I have to do this?