Mum sent mysterious text messages days after she vanished
A young pilot seen on surveillance video entering a supermarket on Thanksgiving day sent two text messages days after she mysteriously vanished.
Kelsey Berreth, a 29-year-old mother from Colorado, disappeared after visiting the supermarket on November 22 with what appears to be her one-year-old daughter in a baby carrier.
Her fiancé has told police the couple, who did not live together, met sometime on the holiday to exchange their child. After that, police said the only signs of Ms Berreth were text messages sent from her phone.
Her disappearance has mystified her family and police leading a multi-state search.
“Kelsey, we just want you home,” her mother, Cheryl Berreth, pleaded at a press conference.
“Call us if you can. We won’t quit looking.”
Woman’s mysterious text messages
The woman’s fiancé, Patrick Frazee, told police she last texted him on November 25, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Her employer, an aviation company, got a text message from Ms Berreth’s phone the same day, saying the flight instructor planned to take the following week off.
It has not been revealed what text message she sent her future husband.
Police later received data indicating Ms Berreth’s phone was near Gooding, Idaho, that same day, nearly 1300 kilometres from her home in Woodland Park, Colorado.
A police investigation was opened on December 2 after Cheryl Berreth asked for a welfare check of her daughter. The Woodland Park Police Department has classified the disappearance as a missing person case.
‘She doesn’t run off’
Investigators who went to the woman’s home found some cinnamon rolls in Ms Berreth’s kitchen and both of her cars still in place outside the home.
Woodland Park Police Chief, Miles De Young, said the company where Ms Berreth worked, Doss Aviation, has accounted for all their planes and police have no reason to believe she used someone else’s plane for a flight.
In the surveillance video released this week, Ms Berreth is seen entering a Woodland Park grocery store at 12.05pm local time.
Her hair is pinned back in a bun, and she is carrying a purse and a baby carrier mostly covered by a blanket. She then pushes a shopping trolley into the store, perching the carrier on top.
Police have not said what time she and Mr Frazee met to exchange their daughter. The child remains with her father, police said.
Mr Frazee’s lawyer, Jeremy Loew, said in a written statement Wednesday that his client has been interviewed by police and provided investigators with a cheek swab for DNA along with his mobile phone.
Mr Loew said neither he nor his client will comment further “as he does not want to impede law enforcement’s investigation”.
Mr Frazee missed Monday’s press conference where Cheryl Berreth made her plea for information about her daughter, but Mr Loew said his client only learned of the event an hour before it began and would have attended with more notice.
“Mr Frazee hopes and prays for Ms Berreth’s return,” Mr Loew said.
“Mr Frazee will continue to co-operate with law enforcement and continue to parent the child he shares with Ms Berreth.”
Ms Berreth’s family has continued to urge people to share a poster featuring two smiling photos of the slight woman.
“Kelsey loves her God,” Cheryl Berreth said at the press conference.
“She loves her family and friends and she loves her job. She’s reliable, considerate and honest.”
According to public records, Kelsey Berreth previously lived in Washington state. In 2016, she moved to Woodland Park, a mountain community of about 7,500 people two hours south of Denver.
“She doesn’t run off and someone knows where she is at,” her mother said.
