Two years later, no new leads in the search for Kelsie Schelling
Wednesday marks two years since Kelsie Schelling vanished in Pueblo.
Schelling, who is from Denver, went to the Walmart at 4080 W. Northern Avenue to meet her boyfriend, who police identified as Donthe Lucas. Schelling was eight weeks pregnant at the time with Lucas’s child. That was on the evening of Feb. 4, 2013. Kelsie hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
“I don’t even know how to explain how much it hurts to have your child just ripped out of your life like that and to not know, to not know where she is,” said Laura Saxton, Schelling’s mother.
Police questioned Lucas as part of their investigation into Schelling’s disappearance. They say they have no evidence that he was involved. Lucas has denied having a relationship with Schelling. After Schelling went missing, Lucas was arrested on suspicion of identity theft for using Schelling’s debit card but the charges were later dropped.
“We found out through friends and other interviews and bank records that that was not uncommon. She gave him the card and told him to go get money. So that would be a very difficult charge to prove then in court when there was evidence that in the past he had did that,” said Deputy Police Chief Andy McLachlan.
McLachlan said police haven’t talked with Lucas in over a year, but add that he’s never been a person of interest.
“Currently, there’s no persons of interest,” McLachlan said. “For me to label someone as a person of interest, I have to have some evidence that I can support that there were crimes committed.”
A detective is still assigned to the case but McLachlan said it’s been several months since they received any leads.
“Leads we have had in the past have basically — we have not been able to substantiate them. Basically they weren’t credible leads. It has been probably five months or so since we had what we considered a credible lead,” he said.
But Schelling’s mom has no doubt a crime happened.
“She’s deeply loved and deeply missed by a lot of people,” Saxton said. “This pain is just overwhelming.”
McLachlan referred to the police department’s relationship with Schelling’s family as “strained” but acknowledged the heartache they’re feeling.
“It’s really disheartening and things keep going from bad to worse the way it looks,” said Saxton of the family’s relationship with police. She added that police didn’t tell her that volunteers with Pueblo police were handing out purple ribbons at the south side Walmart on the two-year anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance.
“We firmly believe this case like many of our other cases that someone knows and that someone has to come forward to help us solve the case,” McLachlan said.
Schelling’s car was found in the parking lot of St. Mary Corwin Hospital on Feb. 14, 2013. Surveillance video shows the car was parked there by an unknown person at 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 7, 2013. Whoever parked the car at the hospital walked away and never looked back.
Since then numerous search parties have been organized in an effort to find Schelling. Her family setup a website, social media sites and a phone hotline.
Anyone with information is asked to call Pueblo Crime Stoppers at 719-542-STOP (7867).
