Doctor's records confirmed that she was eight weeks pregnant, with the presumed father being. Her last confirmed text message was sent to Lucas at 11:18 p.m. Suhr messaged Lucas on Facebook saying she was new to the Pueblo area and that she was looking to meet new people. Ad Choices, Benjamin Satterthwaite; Kelsie Schelling; Donthe Lucas, Criminal defense attorney Danielle Iredale, Body parts found in suitcases, luggage tags lead to suspected killer; Kelsie Schelling update - TCDPOD. When the time came, Saxton even took the stand against her daughters killer. I mean, I could barely function.. I do not.. Since the trial is over, and Kelsie still hasn't been found I've just felt very, very lost and very empty, Saxton said in the week following the trial. Asked about the conversation he allegedly had with Schelling the prior day, Feb. 9, when she called him from a blocked number, Lucas said the conversation was very short and consisted of Schelling yelling at him and telling him not to leave her voicemails. I'm never going to recover without getting her back, Saxton said. Leave me alone, Lucas said. On Feb. 4, 2013, Saxton said she called Kelsie's phone several times but didn't get an answer. Donthe Lucas, 28, was found guilty on Monday in the killing of his missing girlfriend, Kelsie Schelling, according to the Denver Post. [He said] that [she] was his best friend and he had nothing to do with it, and then he would just shut down and start crying hysterically and get upset, Suhr said. During the interview, Lucas admitted to moving Schelling's car specifically, driving it from the Walmart where they were supposed to meet to a nearby medical center where it was later found. Pueblo County District Attorney Jeff Chostner said investigators received a tip Lucas may be trying to skip town. However, Kadie, Megan Lancasters sister-in-law, did make her meeting. @KOAA. Apparently she had a miscarriage yesterday.. They alleged that when she left Lucas at the Walmart, she was going to meet up with a drug dealer. Schelling,. I wont tell you about my appointment. Once the money was exchanged, then this courier person would go and get Kelsie and bring her back to the McDonalds, Saxton said of the instructions she received. We know that that's his phone. From the. Schelling's body hasn't been found. Prosecutors confirmed that Wilkins and Martinez were the same person. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. She regularly made the 220-mile drive from her home in rural Yuma, Colorado, to Pueblo. After a few weeks, they met in person. 10:50 a.m.: Opening statements wrapped up from prosecutors and Donthe Lucas' defense. More women ice fishing? Late in the afternoon on March 8, a Pueblo County jury issued a guilty verdict in the trial of Donthe Lucas, who'd been charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend, Denver's Kelsie . Even though Kelsies remains have never been found, shes long since accepted her daughters death. Walker said domestic violence, broadly speaking, addresses patterns of coercive control where one person in a relationship maintains power over the other. The defense in Lucas' trial rested on Monday without calling any witnesses. Lucas said hed informed Schelling during their visit that he did not want to be in a relationship with her. The search for Tibbetts and the . She used to work out there and she lived there for a while. Kelsie's father Doug Schelling received a strange text from his daughter when he tried to check on her. KRDO NewsChannel 13 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation. After 13 days of trial, the defense surprised many when they announced they would not call any witnesses and immediately rested their case. Follow her on Twitter for the quickest updates. If She said she received text messages, but they were curt and short, which was unlike Kelsie. There was no deals like that.. The burden of proof is on the government, former Pueblo public defender Lisa Wayne told 20/20. So it's simply messaging in a very strong way to the jury, They haven't done it. 1 In February 2013, Kelsie Schelling was very happy to find out she was eight weeks pregnant, according to ABC News. Kelsie Schelling disappeared after driving down from Denver to Pueblo on February 4th, 2013. Donthe Lucas (credit: Pueblo Police Dept. Sinnema said he spoke to Lucas that evening and Lucas told him Schelling had come to see him in the early morning hours of Feb. 5. A jury. She texts again at 11:24 p.m., saying Where are you? She drove to Pueblo that night to meet him, explaining that he had told her to come. I dont feel right. Just had to make sure I was right. I felt like he did genuinely develop feelings for me and did genuinely fall in love with me. Pueblo Police Capt. Therefore, after many delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he stood trial for the same in early 2021. Ryan Rivera said that Lucas once told him while they were about to play a game of cards that investigators would never find Schelling's body. You dont have to marry me. Lucas said they met up again the following morning and that he brought Schelling to Parkview Medical Center, where she went inside the hospital and emerged a short time later, saying Im not pregnant. Love you, Sara Lucas said. Prosecutors said he also admitted to that in 2017. Saxton said the messenger told her Lucas had sold her daughter into sex trafficking. CBS4 was on scene in 2017 when investigators dug up the yard of a home where Lucas used to live. Back in 2013, Kelsie Schelling felt like she had her whole life ahead of her. [3] Overview [ edit] Donthe Isiah Lucas pleaded not guilty to the charge against him in 2018. In August of 1995, a local film crew in Arlington, Texas was doing a documentary on single mothers in welfare trying to get jobs. We received the information from the Pueblo landfill that there was some video evidence of a vehicle being there. Regardez le Salaire Mensuel de Michael Jackson Bad 25 Documentary en temps rel. Torres said texts showed Schelling eventually agreed to come to Pueblo. He testified to various tests he ran on around 45 items of evidence. 3 p.m.: Laura Saxton, Kelsie Schelling's mother, recalled the last time she saw her daughter, which was eight years ago as of Tuesday. "Kelsie Schelling was feloniously killed when Donthe Lucas committed first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter against Kelsie and Sara Lucas and Lucas acted as. Then you can take her back home., Sara Lucas allegedly responded: What happened? and, Are you OK? to which Lucas responded, Yeah. Without a body or any direct evidence that tells us something happened to her, [changing the case] to a homicide, it may happen one day, but right now we haven't had any evidence to reclassify it, former deputy Pueblo police chief Andy McLachlan said. Emmanuel Chandler was arrested for Martinez's death. He said that Schelling had called him early that morning from a private number and said he told Schelling she needed to get in touch with her family members because they were worried about her. So, lets find out more about where he is today, shall we? Though Schellings family got the verdict they wanted, they were still unable to bring her home for a proper burial. Kelsie Schelling (credit: CBS) When she disappeared in February 2013, Schelling was pregnant and was reportedly travelling from Denver to Pueblo to talk to Lucas about it. Then in October 2015, Saxton had a new possible lead. Saxton still doesn't have all the answers she's searched tirelessly for. In most scams, they're compartmentalized, Garrett said. Saxton said she told Lucas that she didn't care if they were together or apart, but she told him "there is a child involved now." Though it might have taken four years for Donthe Lucas to be arrested and charged for the murder of Kelsie Schelling in December 2017, there were a number of observations made by those who knew the couple that raised a few flags. I have nothing. In partnership with When all this got combined with Donthes former home catching fire just weeks after officers searched it for evidence, he was charged and arrested for his former girlfriends mysterious murder. She texts him at 10:20 p.m., saying shes arrived and Lucas replies that hell be there shortly. Opening statements were set to begin just after 8 a.m. Wednesday, and. It's a sad situation that didn't have to end up like this if he had just let her come home.. Just wait and see for yourself, you probably wouldnt believe me if I told you anyway, so you can see for yourself.. Obviously it's an important piece of evidence that he moved the car because it shows he's covering up the crime. If the offender is used to having the victim take care of them and be focused on them and dancing around to be sure the offender is doing OK, if now, suddenly, thats not happening, that can lead to an escalation, Walker said. I love you very much and you know it. At the end of the day, I said, I think we have enough here to go forward. Saxton said she asked him to track the number and that he said he would, but, of course, he never did, Saxton said. I never was.. Even thinking about it now that we have the guilty verdict, [there is] just so much still to do to find Kelsie and bring her back to the family.. YouTube: Body parts found in suitcases, luggage tags lead to suspected killer; Kelsie Schelling update - TCDPOD, TRUE CRIME DAILY: THE PODCAST covers high-profile and under-the-radar cases SUBSCRIBE: APPLE PODCASTS / SPOTIFY / STITCHER / GOOGLE PODCASTS / YOUTUBE. Lucas pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in August 2018. Police say her death does not appear to be related to the trial, but instead a possible result of domestic violence. She did say that he called once from jail, but they ultimately never spoke again. Kelsie Schelling was only 21 years old when she vanished. Schelling, and Hegel. Police decided then that they would write an arrest warrant for the robbery to catch him before he left town. Kelsie Schelling's childhood rocked with emotional fallout from family split: Part 1Schelling's parents got divorced and she lived with her mother, Laura Sax. NR | 03.26.21 | 01:20:44 | CC more episodes 42:55 Schelling left work shortly after 8:40 p.m. and drove two hours to see Lucas in Pueblo. Yet, there was still someone else who said Lucas had confessed vital information: Lauren Suhr. She received a Facebook message from a person who claimed to be a woman but wanted to remain anonymous, and claimed to have information about Schellings disappearance. But soon, Kelsie started confiding in her friends that her boyfriend was physically abusive and exhibited other toxic behavioral traits. Schelling goes to work that evening and she and Lucas continue to argue over text. Then, at 11:10 p.m., he told her to go to another location near his grandmothers house. Her mother said she wonders what would have become of her life. Oh my god, Torres said Sara Lucas replied. Lucas and Schelling seem to allude to a trip Lucas was planning on taking that day, seemingly to Kansas, on which he asked Schelling to accompany him. Copyright 2021 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. She still wants to bring Kelsie home and give her the burial she feels her daughter deserves. He said he wouldnt be surprised if she was out in California already or was on her way there. Text messages showed the emotionally abusive relationship Kelsie was in. Megan Lancaster, then 25, had disappeared just months after Schelling. On the day she reportedly disappeared, GPS on her phone showed it traveled to the same location in Pueblo as Lucas' phone. It made me sick. According to the State Department of Corrections records, because Donthe is to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars, his estimated sentence discharge date is December 31, 9998. Let me get her out of here. March 3 Fugitive Finder: Pueblos most wanted, Increase in Shigella cases, drug-resistant infections, Remembrance ceremony for Divide woman missing since, Disneyland fan sets record for most consecutive, Biden had cancerous lesion removed, no further treatment, Brothers convicted of killing groom hours after wedding, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Saxton also pleaded with police to not stop searching for her daughter's body, so she can have a proper burial. One minute, he had no involvement. Criminal defense attorney Danielle Iredale joins host Ana Garcia. Rivera said that Lucas once told him while they were about to play a game of cards that investigators would never find Schelling's body. The prosecution asserts Kelsie was killed sometime between midnight the night of Feb. 4 and before 3 a.m. the morning of Feb. 5. He was sentenced immediately after the verdict by the judge to life in prison without parole. Her. According to Lucas' account,the couple drank alcohol together and used marijuana and cocaine that night, the latter of which Lucas alleged was a surprise gift to Schelling. In February 2013, Kelsie Schelling was very happy to find out she was eight weeks pregnant, according to ABC News. Sa fortune s lve 2 000,00 euros mensuels Re-examine a current true crime case where unanswered questions remain and the mystery is still unraveling. ET on ABC. After their talk, he said, he believed Schelling left town. When Suhr was back on the witness stand Wednesday, she said Lucas proposed to her, who took the ring, but said she would have to think about it. Feb. 4, 2013, was the last time Schelling was seen. Schelling, 21, was eight weeks pregnant at the time of her disappearance, according to news reports. Donthe Lucas was charged with killing his 21-year-old girlfriend, Kelsie Schelling, who was pregnant at the time. A murder conviction without a body is an instance of a person being convicted of murder despite the absence of the victim's body. You ready for a smoke and a pancake?, Hell yeah. Dan is a reporter with the 13 Investigates team. Deputy District Attorney Kyle McCarthy then skipped ahead to the communications exchanged the following day and asked Torres to read from texts that allegedly were exchanged between Donthe Lucas and his mother, Sara Lucas. Emails the messenger had sent proved to be untraceable and an FBI analysis of their Facebook page revealed they used an IP address in Russia. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Now, follow one mother's crusade for justice in this true crime investigation. Their lock to their front gate into the dump had been tampered with., It caught my attention when I grabbed the lock in my hand, and I said, Well, somebody tried to get in here overnight, Guadalupe Maestas, a worker at the landfill, told 20/20. Thats what came to my mind right away.. If its really what happened Im so sorry you had to go through that alone, Lucas said in a text to Schelling. It was years before he went to trial for Schellings murder. From the. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. After all, this way, there would be no physical evidence left behind. I know that that is a long shot than anybody [sic] would even try to help us with that., Saxton said the thought of her daughters body being left there is just the worst possibility to me, because he discarded her like garbage. In the back of my mind, I always kept that he is potentially a murderer.. This article has been updated, and we apologize for the error. In a separate incident reported in 2017, a man claimed that Lucas, aided by family members, attacked him over $1000 he claimed Lucas' family stole, perABC News. Donthe Lucas in court for Kelsie Schelling's murder. On Feb. 5, Lucas said the two of them were together, but video from the Walmart cameras show only one person, who police believe was Lucas, getting out of the car. The 21-year-old from Colorado had already announced to family and friends that she was expecting, and she and her parents had even begun picking out baby names. You can use the money and fill the car up…. But their star witness, who would have allegedly testified that Donthe confessed the killing to her, couldnt make it to court as she was shot to death just days before. The young woman had driven down to Pueblo on February 4, 2013, to meet with her boyfriend, Donthe Lucas, after sharing the news of her pregnancy, never to be seen or heard from again. Saxton was the first witness to testify. We're working on getting clarification on that issue. Lucas had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges. Forget Im pregnant, seriously., Just before 3 a.m., according to Torres testimony, Schelling texted Lucas, You dont have to be in a relationship with me. That's direct evidence.. Emmanuel Chandler, then 29, turned himself in for the crime and has not yet entered a plea.. No one but the investigators knew what Martinez was planning to say in her testimony. Police found surveillance video showing Lucas driving her car at an ATM 12 hours after Schelling arrived in Pueblo. Over the course of the following weeks, she became close with Lucas and had the opportunity to speak with him about Schellings disappearance. Lucas pleaded not guilty to the murder charges in August 2018, and the judge set a trial date for 2019. Eric Bravo took over the case with the help of Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) agent Kevin Torres. PUEBLO, Colo. (KKTV . Get the Android Weather app from Google Play. They began to suspect the text messages werent coming from Schelling at all. Synopsis:Kelsie Schelling disappears one night after leaving work, leading family and investigators on a four-year hunt to find the pregnant 21-year-old; cell phone records reveal what happened to . Asked if he believed Schelling orchestrated her own disappearance, Binet said, No. Nevertheless, after just three hours of deliberation, on March 8, 2021, a 12-member jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, and the judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Around the same time, texts were also being exchanged from Lucas and Schellings phones. The trial, which began in February, was delayed multiple times, most recently due to someone in the courtroom testing positive for COVID-19. Saxtons hope was for answers. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way, Opening statements in murder trial begin in case of Kelsie Schelling's disappearance, Donthe Lucas murder trial will begin Wednesday, Long-awaited murder trial to begin in the case of Kelsie Schelling's disappearance, Previous coverage: The Kelsie Schelling Case. The defenses strategy, though, was to contend how this case was the biggest stretch in Colorado history as there was no body, no crime scene, and no DNA evidence against Donthe. ABCs 20/20: Kelsie Schelling, as the title suggests, is an episode that chronicles the 2013 disappearance and murder of 21-year-old Kelsie Schelling from Denver, Colorado. When police questioned Lucas, he told them that the morning after they met, he took Schelling to the Parkview Medical Center and hinted she had a miscarriage there. The white stain in #Schelling's car was negative for saliva. MORE:Lucas trial day 3: Kelsie Schelling's friends continue testimony, cellphone records discussed. Those charges were later dropped when investigators found out that she would sometimes give him permission to use her bank card, and he was released. Torres said Lucas never took the car to Denver. He inferred that Schelling had lied about being pregnant numerous times in the past to try to, make me stay with her and keep talking to her or whatever.. Tate testified that after her appointment concluded, Schelling scheduled her follow-up appointment for March 4, 2013, but never showed up. For a full recap of Day 10 in the trial, click here. Michelle Chostner prosecuted the case alongside senior prosecutor Kyle McCarthy, and Alex Baker, an Assistant Attorney General in the Colorado Attorney Generals Office. Read More: Where is Kelsie Schellings Mother Now? I plan to make things work. Saxton still doesnt have all the answers shes searched tirelessly for. He said Schelling wanted a relationship but thats not what he wanted. It reaches the surface, he said. She said she told her she loved her. Hours later she vanished. The defense argued it was a missing persons case. She claimed Schelling was alive. The man claimed he was lured online into a supposed jewelry venture, and that he was told to pick up the money and wire it to someone hed never met.