13 years since she went missing, investigators still searching
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - Kelsie Jean Schelling was eight weeks pregnant when she was last seen in Pueblo, Colorado, on Feb. 4, 2013. At the time, she was on the way to meet her boyfriend, Donthe Lucas. According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations (CBI), Schelling was pregnant with Lucas' child. After Schelling met with Lucas, she disappeared and has not been seen since.
According to CBI, Ms. Schelling's vehicle was parked and left by Lucas at the Walmart on Northern Avenue. They say an unknown man came back and picked up the vehicle, a black 2011 Chevrolet Cruze LTZ. The vehicle was found at 1008 Minnequa Avenue, St. Mary Corwin Hospital, on Feb. 7, 2013, CBI reports. They say a surveillance video showed the vehicle arriving in the parking lot on Feb. 7, 2013, and an unknown person walking away.
CBI says Ms. Schelling was last seen wearing a light gray jacket, a black coat with fur on the hood, black Victoria's Secret workout pants, tan UGG boots, and stud earrings. She was carrying a black and pink Victoria's Secret bag containing a day's worth of clothing and personal items.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to please contact the Pueblo Police Department. You can find more contact information here.
KRDO13 spoke with Schelling's mother, Laura Saxton, about how she continues to honor her memory and search for her remains.
At Pueblo City Park, right next to the playground and kiddie rides, there's a bench honoring Kelsie Schelling. Her mom tells me she had a grandbaby born soon after Kelsie's baby was due. She says they would have been the best of friends if Kelsie had never gone missing. Now, instead of her grandbabies playing together at the park, there's a bench in her unborn grandbaby's and her daughter's honor.
Laura Saxton misses seeing her daughter. She says she was the bubbliest, most kind woman, truly a friend to all. But it's been a devastating 13 years without her.
"I almost feel like I walked all of Pueblo and the surrounding area, you know, for those five years before he was arrested," shared Saxton.
And even when Donthe Lucas was arrested and convicted of killing her daughter, Saxton never got answers.
"I got the outcome that I hoped for in the fact that he, you know, was convicted, and he'll never be able to hurt anybody else again. But I didn't get my daughter back, and that was what I wanted out of that process was the information that would lead us to where she is," explained Laura Saxton.
While she holds out hope to lay her daughter to rest, Laura Saxton created Colorado Missing Persons Day.
"I want to be able to, you know, for her to be remembered. And what better way to try and, you know, help keep her name alive, and by trying to help others as well, because that's what she would have wanted to do. So, you know, because as time goes on, people just honestly don't want to talk about it anymore," said Saxton.
Saxton created Colorado Missing Persons Day in her daughter's honor to help other families honor their missing loved ones and continue to shine a light on the search for those who are missing. She says it's a safe space for grieving families to talk with one another and support each other through their experiences. She encourages family members of missing people to come to the Capitol for the event each year.
MORE: Prayer vigil honors the nearly 700 people missing in Colorado for more than a year
Tuesday marks 10 years since the first Colorado Missing Persons Day. State investigators say the day is important to shed light on these cases and also highlight that they are constantly being worked on.
"I think something to remember is that we do work on these cases, continuously. But missing person cases are really difficult. They're harder, I think, than some of the homicide cases that we see. Just because the evidence that you have available in those cases isn't very much, there isn't very much of it. And so it's hard to identify leads and next steps and those types of things, especially if things may not have been preserved when that person initially went missing, it's really difficult to go back and do that," shared Audrey Simkins, CBI Investigative Analyst.
If you have any information on Kelsie or any missing persons case, you are urged to contact the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
If you have a missing family member and have not been in touch with the CBI, they also ask that you contact them.
"We do have a cold case database that's out there, and it does list missing persons who have been missing for three years or more. So I think we're at least looking for information from the community of someone who happens to remember something. Maybe they lived in a certain area, or if it's a family out there, and maybe that record looks like it's not complete, or we don't have a photograph, please don't hesitate to reach out to me so that I can get those updates made," explained Audrey Simkins, CBI Investigative Analyst.
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