Mystery Surrounds Female Pilot Who Vanished Thanksgiving Day

Twenty days in, police and family have revealed little information about Kelsey Berreth.
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The Thanksgiving Day disappearance of a mother and flight instructor from Colorado is shrouded in mystery.

The last confirmed sighting of 29-year-old Kelsey Berreth was on Nov. 22. She was captured on surveillance video at about 12:27 p.m., shopping with her 1-year-old daughter at a Safeway in Woodland Park, some 20 miles northwest of Colorado Springs.

Berreth’s activities after she left the Safeway are not entirely clear.

Woodland Park Police Chief Miles DeYoung held a press conference about Berreth’s disappearance on Monday, at which time he shared bits and pieces of the timeline in the case.

According to DeYoung, Berreth’s mother, Cheryl Berreth, contacted her daughter’s fiancé, Patrick Frazee, on Nov. 25. She wanted to know if Frazee had seen her daughter, whom she had apparently been unable to locate.

Frazee, the father of Kelsey Berreth’s child, allegedly said the last communication he had with his fiancée was a text message he received that same day – Nov. 25. The content of the message is not yet known.

He also allegedly said the last time he saw his fiancée in person was on the afternoon of Nov. 22, when he picked up the couple’s daughter.

Among the many unanswered questions in the case is why Kelsey Berreth and her fiancé did not spend Thanksgiving Day together and why she handed off her daughter to him that day.

It’s also unclear why Frazee did not report Kelsey Berreth missing to police.

“That’s a question you’ll have to ask Patrick,” DeYoung told reporters.

Speaking at the same press conference, Cheryl Berreth said Frazee and her daughter have never lived together. She did not elaborate on how long the two have been a couple and said only that her daughter has been living in the area since 2016.

“Kelsey, we just want you home,” Cheryl Berreth said. “Call us if you can, and we won’t quit looking.”

It was Cheryl Berreth, who lives in Idaho, who reported her daughter missing to police on Dec. 2.

Both the missing woman’s vehicles were found at her residence and a subsequent search of the home did not turn up any clues as to her whereabouts, police said.

Kelsey Berreth’s brother, Clint Berreth, posted a message on Facebook last week saying it does not appear she packed for a trip out of town.

“All luggage is here,” he wrote. “Her purse is all that seems to have gone.”

When police contacted Kelsey Berreth’s employer, Doss Aviation in Pueblo, investigators were told they also received a text message from her on Nov. 25. The message they received, according to DeYoung, was that she would not be coming into work the following week.

Kelsey Berreth’s disappearance became all the more peculiar when it was recently reported her cellphone had pinged a tower in another state, roughly 600 miles away.

“Kelsey’s phone gave a location near Gooding, Idaho,” on the afternoon of Nov. 25, DeYoung said.

Gooding is a rural town some 100 miles southeast of Boise. At this point, the location does not appear to have any significant link to Kelsey Berreth. There is an airport located three miles outside the city, but police said all the airplanes at Kelsey Berreth’s flight school are accounted for.

Kelsey Berreth’s brother lives in Tacoma, Washington, but that is located about 615 miles from Gooding. Her mother lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, which is also roughly 600 miles from Gooding. According to police, she had not indicated she would be traveling to visit anyone.

Public records indicate Kelsey Berreth has, at some point in her life, resided in both Warden and Ephrata, Washington. Both those cities are more than 400 miles from Gooding.

Still, the relevancy of the cellphone activity is not entirely clear. While DeYoung stated it as fact at the press conference, Woodland Park Police Commander Chris Adams on Friday told KEPR-TV, “It could just be a false ping.”

The police department referred questions in the case to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which is assisting in the search. The state agency failed to return a call for comment from HuffPost on Tuesday.

When a reporter at Monday’s press conference asked DeYoung why Frazee, whom police said they invited to the press conference wasn’t in attendance, the police chief again replied, “That’s a question you’d have to ask him.”

DeYoung was then asked by the same reporter if Frazee was cooperating with investigators.

“Yes,” he said. “At this time, yes.”

The police chief added, “We are treating Kelsey’s disappearance as a missing person’s case at this time. We have not identified anyone as a suspect.”

Frazee did not return calls for comment from HuffPost on Tuesday.

It was mentioned durin the press conference that the family created a Facebook page called “Missing Mother – Kelsey Berreth” to raise awareness about her disappearance. An individual answering messages sent to the page on Tuesday directed questions back to police.

With so little information being released on Kelsey Berreth, her life appears to be just as mysterious as her disappearance.

Kelsey Marie Berreth is described as a white female with brown hair and is approximately 5 foot 3 inches and 110 pounds. She was last seen wearing a white shirt, gray sweater, blue pants, white shoes and carrying a brown purse.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Woodland Park Police Department at 719-687-9262 or the Colorado Bureau of Investigation at 719-647-5999.

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