Former Rare Staff
One of the last things a Colorado woman did before she disappeared in 2013 was text her boyfriend a picture of an ultrasound.
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Eight weeks pregnant, Kelsie Schelling, 21, then drove two hours to her boyfriend, Donthe Lucas, after he asked to meet her.
She arrived at a Walmart in Pueblo around 11 p.m., but Lucas wasn’t there. She texted him to say that she was “tired of waiting.”
Lucas asked her to meet him near his grandmother’s house in Pueblo.
“Where are you … I’ve been here for over an hour just waiting,” she wrote in the last text message she would ever send.
Lucas later used Schelling’s card to withdraw $400 and was seen driving her vehicle. He was later charged with three counts of identity theft, but the charges were dropped. After excavating his home, investigators said they found unspecified evidence, but not Schelling’s body.
Now, four years, officers have charged Lucas with murder in the first degree after reopening her cold case.
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According to a Facebook post, Lucas was already in the Pueblo County Detention Center “facing unrelated charges,” which was later revealed to be robbery.
While information about what led police to arrest Lucas after he spent years as a person of interest, Pueblo Police Department Captain Kenny Rider expressed confidence in the evidence gathered to make the decision.
Schelling’s mother, Laura Saxton, said, “I know that this is the first stop in a really long process, but the main thing is we still don’t have Kelsie back, so it’s kind of a victory, but it’s a pretty empty victory. What our family needs more than anything is to be able to bring her home.”
She added that she was “thankful” for the steps taken towards finding justice for her daughter.
Anyone with information is encouraged to leave an anonymous tip with Pueblo Crime Stoppers at 542-7867 or www.pueblocrimestoppers.com.
