A nurse who said she loved Patrick Frazee told investigators he confessed to her that he tied a sweater around fiancée Kelsey Berreth’s face, beat her to death with a baseball bat and burned her body on his ranch, according to gruesome courtroom testimony Tuesday.

The nurse, Idaho resident Krystal Jean Lee Kenney, told police she watched Frazee pour gas and oil onto the fire as a large plastic tote bag burned away, revealing a “lump” that she believed to be Berreth’s body, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Gregg Slater testified at Frazee’s preliminary hearing in Teller County District Court.

The day-long hearing — which ended with Judge Scott A. Sells ruling prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to take the case to trial — offered the first explanation of how authorities believe the 29-year-old Woodland Park mother was killed, and what happened to her body.

Frazee, 30, is charged with two counts of murder and three counts of solicitation to commit murder in his fiancée’s death. Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Teller County prosecutors filed additional charges, including tampering with a dead body and two sentence enhancers.

He’s due back in court April 8 to be arraigned on the charges; at that point, he will be asked to enter a plea, and a trial date should be set.

Slater testified that Kenney admitted to investigators that Frazee asked her to kill Berreth several times — including by putting poison in her coffee in September.

Kenney told Slater that she bought Berreth’s favorite mocha coffee at Starbucks, took it to Berreth’s townhome and gave it to her under the guise that Kenney recently moved next door to her. However, the agent said Kenney claimed she didn’t poison the drink.

Kenney told investigators that Frazee was angry when he learned she did not poison his fiancée. Kenney texted him later, apologizing for not killing Berreth. But he texted her that she would have another opportunity, Slater testified.

He then asked her to beat Berreth with a metal pipe he provided on Oct. 15 and put her body in a dumpster. About a week later, he asked her to beat Berreth to death with a baseball bat.

Kenney drove to Berreth’s townhome twice, but on both occasions couldn’t bring herself to do it because that wasn’t what she was like, Slater said.

Frazee wanted Kenney to kill Berreth to “protect the innocent,” according to testimony. Frazee had told Kenney that Berreth was a terrible mom who physically abused their 1-year-old daughter Kaylee on several occasions, including burning her with a hair curler, Slater testified.

But Slater confirmed that authorities had not received any reports of abuse of Kaylee and that she was a happy girl with no prior injuries.

“I’ll have to do it”

When Kenney failed three times to execute their plans, Frazee called her and said, “I guess if you can’t do it, I’ll have to do it.”

On Nov. 22, Kenney revealed to investigators, Frazee told her in a phone call: “You need to get out here now. You’ve got a mess to clean up.”

Kenney obediently collected items to clean the home, including a full-body hazardous materials suit, a hair net, a box of plastic gloves, slip-on booties and bleach. She drove 700 miles to Frazee’s ranch and picked up a key to Berreth’s townhome at the gate to his ranch. When she opened the townhome, the scene was horrific, she told authorities.

There were blood spatter and stains all over the walls, wood floors, toys and furniture, Slater testified. It took her four hours to clean. She told police she filled garbage bags with items too difficult to clean, including curtains, toys and pillows. She found a complete tooth, including roots, on the floor. She threw that away, Slater told the court.

Kenney informed investigators that Frazee told her that while he beat Berreth to death, their daughter was in the room in a walker, Slater testified.

Exhausted, Kenney wanted to return home to Idaho, Slater said, but Frazee allegedly told her that she was in it now and had to follow through to the end.

They went to a barn where Frazee had hidden Berreth’s body in a large tote bag on top of a haystack. They took Berreth’s remains to Frazee’s ranch, Slater testified. Frazee put Berreth’s body on a metal trough, filled it with wood, doused it with gas and oil, and lit it on fire, he said.

Kenney told investigators that Frazee said he’d scooped Berreth’s remains from the fire after it went out, and either left them in a dump or threw them in a river.

Blood and cellphones

Slater testified that after law enforcement searched Berreth’s house twice in early December and found no evidence of blood, Berreth’s parents texted pictures they took in her bathroom of blood in the toilet and on the doorknob and floor. CBI technicians than went to the home and found blood on the exterior of the bathtub, on the toilet, a doorknob, on the floor and beneath a trash can, in a light fixture, on a towel rack and vanity hinges, and on the walls. There was blood on the refrigerator and evidence it was wiped down.

Tests showed that it was Berreth’s blood. Slater said investigators believed at that time that Berreth met with foul play. When they learned that the main attack had happened in the living room, investigators tore up the wood floor and found traces of what they believe to be Berreth’s blood all over the room, Slater said.

The prosecution’s case is largely built on evidence surrounding Berreth’s cellular phone. Although Frazee claimed he last spoke with Berreth at 12:27 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, investigators determined that her phone ended up at his ranch in Florissant that night based on pings off of nearby cellular towers, Slater testified.

Kenney admitted that she took Berreth’s cellular phone to Idaho to throw off the investigation. While she traveled through Colorado, Utah and Idaho, it was apparent that Kenney’s personal phone was in the exact same location as Berreth’s phone, based on cellular towers, Slater said.

The case has captured the attention of national media representatives who huddled outside the 1904 courthouse while it snowed, photographing and filming Frazee as he entered the building.

Berreth’s body has never been found, and prosecutors had not previously specified what evidence they have to prove she is dead. Prosecutors also have not said what motive drove Frazee to allegedly kill the mother of his child.

Berreth was last seen on Nov. 22 shopping at a Safeway grocery store with the couple’s daughter, Kaylee.

On Feb. 8, Kenney, a Twin Falls, Idaho, nurse, pleaded guilty to felony tampering in the same Cripple Creek courthouse, acknowledging she took Berreth’s cellphone to Idaho to disrupt the investigation into the missing woman’s disappearance.