Donthe Lucas trial: focus on damaged lock at landfill

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- During the Donthe Lucas murder trial on Monday, the focus was on a damaged lock at a landfill.

Lucas is accused of murdering his girlfriend Kelsie Schelling, who went missing in 2013 when she was pregnant. However, her body has never been found.

According to The Pueblo Chieftain, the court heard from Kim Pearce, the lead office administrator for the Southside Landfill.

Pearce testified saying a lock was broken on an entrance gate off Highway 78 overnight between February 5 and the 6 back in 2013.

The Chieftain reports that the landfill is just a few miles from where Lucas was living with his grandmother. Investigators confirmed his phone pinged off a cell tower near the landfill the same night the padlock was tampered with.

Pearce said that the damage to the lock happened when the landfill was closed for the evening. She said whoever damaged the lock did not break it completely, however, they could've gotten into the landfill through that gate or a second gate further onto the property.

A camera at the landfill caught a vehicle idling nearby, but the camera was too far away to identify it.

Guadalupe Maestas, a now-retired landfill employee, said he had seen a handful of incidents where a tampered-with lock had to be replaced as a result of people illegally dumping their trash. Maestas said on Feb. 6, 2013, he found no illegally dumped trash.

The jury also heard from a Texas missing persons detective who identified as one of only two experts on landfill investigations in the United States.

Lee Reed was not brought in to evaluate the Southside Landfill until 2020. However, Reed testified without critical data needed to evaluate a landfill, finding items of evidentiary value would've been unlikely even early on.

Several local law enforcement officers discussed physical evidence, including finding Schelling's 2011 Chevy Cruze at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center on Feb. 14, 2013.

Nikki Thomas, a sergeant at the Pueblo Police Department, said the vehicle was examined and no blood or other biologic evidence of homicide was found during the search.

The excavation of the Manor Ridge Drive backyard, where Lucas was living during Schelling's disappearance, was also brought up.

Stephen Jesik, a Pueblo PD sergeant, explained that a small amount of hair was discovered and sent to a lab to be tested. While those results were not revealed, Lucas's defense attorney said the hair was too degraded to test.

Gloria Dimick, an expert in mitochondrial DNA analysis employed at Mitotyping Technologies in Pennsylvania, told the jury the Colorado Bureau of Investigation sent her lab four hair samples that were taken from the trunk of Schelling's car.

Those hairs were compared to swabs from Schelling's mother, Laura Saxton, and Lucas's mother, Sara Lucas. Two of the hairs didn't match either of the samples.

However, Dimick testified saying one hair found on the passenger side floormat matched the mitochondrial DNA profile of Lucas's mother, and one found in the trunk matched Schelling's mother.

For more information on the testimonies given on March 1, click here to read The Chieftain's article.

To read past days of the trial, click here.