The clip that I played at the beginning of my closing was his phrase to detectives. She said the plan, orchestrated by one of her close friends, was to get close to Lucas. Kelsie Schelling Murder: Donthe Lucas Trial Set To Begin Monday Her mother, Laura Saxton, also knew about their tumultuous alliance. 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. Lucas claimed he and Schelling then went to the South Side Walmart so Schelling could grab some snacks before driving back to Denver. A recording of their conversation was introduced as evidence. sandiway.arizona.edu Walker said domestic violence, broadly speaking, addresses patterns of coercive control where one person in a relationship maintains power over the other. They found out that hed withdrawn $400 from her bank account. CBS4 was on scene in 2017 when investigators dug up the yard of a home where Lucas used to live. She was like, Stop calling me. Binet asked Lucas if there was any chance Schelling might have left her phone with him. That's just 100% clarification that some dirt bags out there are trying to get money off of these poor families.. Its been over eight years since Laura Saxtons 21-year-old pregnant daughter Kelsie Schelling vanished. First published on March 8, 2021 / 11:59 PM. Saxton still doesn't have all the answers she's searched tirelessly for. Where do I go?. He told her that he and Schelling would do drugs together, like cocaine. Then, in December 2020, the murder trial was set to start on Jan. 25, 2021. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. Colette Bordelon also spoke to Martinez's cousin, who said he believes her murder does have to do with the trial. At 1:34 p.m., Lucas sends another text saying, sorry again about the loss, telling Schelling he will soon be going up to Denver to drop off her car. On February 4, 2013, Schelling went to a local Walmart in the town of Pueblo, Colorado, where she planned to meet up with Lucas and tell him about her new pregnancy but according to interview footage taken in 2017, Lucas told investigators that the night had taken a different turn (via Fox 21 News). Police say that Lucas cell phone data shows he couldve been at the landfill that night. She said she doesn't have her phone, and she said she'll be getting ahold of you.. There were some clothes, Kelsies car, and the defendants backyard, but the key pieces of evidence were cell phone data. The story was featured in the international media, including on America's Most Wanted, [2] before her body was found near a lake in Missouri on June 6, 2007. The person sending the messages says I know where Megan is. Schellings car was discovered more than a week after her disappearance without a trace of the young expectant mom. I had no clue anybody was supposed to be exchanging nothing for a human being If I did know, I would not have been involved in this situation," the man told "20/20.". 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. Asked by Binet if he had any idea where Schelling might be, Lucas replied, Shes been saying shes going to go back to California and get her job and get back with her ex-boyfriend.. However McCarthy said, there was no deals made about charges he would get to plead to, time he would get to serve. 4:34. 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. Apart from that, there is also CCTV footage that shows him driving Kelsies car and withdrawing $400 from her bank account the morning after she vanished. Emmanuel Chandler was arrested for Martinez's death. Schelling, and Hegel. Weeks passed until police learned they needed to move quickly to catch Lucas. The argument between Schelling and Lucas, according to the exchanged texts as recounted by Torres, continued into the early morning hours of Feb. 4. But soon, Kelsie started confiding in her friends that her boyfriend was physically abusive and exhibited other toxic behavioral traits. Kelsie Schelling was only 21 years old when she vanished. He admitted to those text messages, Pueblo Assistant District Attorney Kyle McCarthy said. Hours later she vanished. Some of Schellings close friends also testified that Lucas was abusive. We know that that's his phone. By taking this avowal seriously, Adrian Johnston nally claries the philosophical project underlying iek's eorts. Kelsie Schelling's mom opens up about guilty verdict in daughter's After that, she moved to Washington in spring 2017 and never spoke to Lucas again. Torres said texts showed Schelling eventually agreed to come to Pueblo. Sinnema said Lucas told him that Schelling returned later that morning, again to discuss their relationship. In closing arguments, lead prosecutor Michelle Chostner ensured the jury had a clear understanding of the time Kelsies killer had to get rid of evidence or to clean things up. Colorado Bureau of Investigation's Forensic Scientist Collin Knaub takes the stand next and has worked for CBI since 2010. You can use the money and fill the car up…. Please enter valid email address to continue. Ive never had that phone.. There's no body, no murder weapon, no crime scene. Its getting harder to come back, I dread the trips but I know I have to do it, she said. Though they have strong suspicions thats where Kelsie Schelling is, authorities say it would be next to impossible to conduct a systematic search of the landfill for her remains. There was no sign of her in the apartment, and that's when we called the Denver police.. 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. I plan to make things work. She did say that he called once from jail, but they ultimately never spoke again. During the trial, investigators had revealed troubling information about Schellings possible whereabouts. [3] Overview [ edit] It was scary. Roxann Martinez was shot and killed at the intersection of E. Kenyon Dr. and S. Wabash St. at 11 p.m. on Feb 25. The lead investigator on the case from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation believes Schelling was strangled by Lucas after he lured her down to Pueblo. Lucas pleaded not guilty to the murder charges in August 2018, and the judge set a trial date for 2019. No blood was found on two knives collected. After Sinnema, the missing persons case was referred to Ted Binet, a DPD detective with the missing and exploited persons unit. This verdict came after the prosecutors shined a light on Donthes relationship with Kelsie and argued that he lured her to Pueblo to kill her after learning about the pregnancy. In 2011, when Kelsie Schelling enrolled in Northeastern Junior College, she met and began dating Donthe Isiah Lucas. Suhr said she always knew what she was doing, trying to gather information about Schelling, and never fell in love with Lucas. Schellings friends said they remembered her relationship with Lucas was often tumultuous, with the two constantly fighting and making up -- then the unthinkable happened. Colette Bordelon reports that the District Attorney has confirmed to her that Martinez was going to testify for the prosecution this week that Lucas confessed to her that he killed Schelling. Warner Bros. Entertainment | He asks her to skip work and come to Pueblo to get him and they continue to argue. PUEBLO, Colo. CBI Investigator Kevin Torres remembers it like yesterday. Schelling goes to work that evening and she and Lucas continue to argue over text. It was just so emotional for everybody, for both sides, Saxton said. Experts testify Tuesday on various evidence found in Schelling's car - KOAA At that point I was kind of done, Suhr said. "We're very thankful for this outcome, but in the end I didn't get Kelsey back, and that's what I wanted more than anything," said Schelling's mother, Laura Saxton shortly after the verdict was read. A case 8 years in the making: The team that solved Kelsie Schelling's The UN and the Colonial World: International Trusteeship and Non-Self-Governing Territories; 2. One minute, he had no involvement. Binet asked Lucas if he had any idea where Schelling might be, to which Lucas replied: Honestly, Im not too sure. Next on the witness stand was Kathleen Tate, a medical doctor who handled Schellings original OBGYN visit on Feb. 4. She'd driven down from Denver to Pueblo to meet her boyfriend Donthe Lucas, who had. That was dumb and I apologize. 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. Body parts found in suitcases, luggage tags lead to suspected killer This all eventually came to a head in February 2013, after Schelling seemingly vanished without a trace even though the investigation turned up activity on Schelling's cell per her phone records, along with footage of Lucas withdrawing $400 from his girlfriend's account in the days after her disappearance, per ABC News. She wanted to be a mom.. Eric Bravo took over the case with the help of Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) agent Kevin Torres. Lucas was found guilty of first-degree murder in connection to the death or disappearance of Schelling. The Pueblo landfill said there was evidence of a car at the dump and Lucas' cell phone data suggest he could have been there the night of Feb. 4, 2013. JDK-8141210 : Very slow loading of JavaScript file with recent JDK I have nothing. She said they dated for a year when, on his porch, he started hyperventilating and crying. 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.. Schelling disappeared almost six years ago when she was heading to see Lucas in Pueblo. I still have nowhere to go to take her flowers, to go sit and talk with her, take her balloons on her birthday, go to her on the holidays. The jury found Lucas guilty of first-degree murder in a verdict that was delivered just after 4 p.m. Monday. It was tense because the time was ticking away, and the tires were turning on the road, Chostner said. Kelsie Schelling was only 21 years old when she vanished. However, Lucas' defense team called the trial "the biggest reach in Pueblo's history," saying that prosecutors didn't have a weapon, cause of death, location of the murder, or location of the body. The community organized search efforts to try and find Schelling with her family filing a lawsuit in 2015 against the Pueblo Police Department and the Lucas family. Kelsie Schelling disappeared after driving down from Denver to Pueblo on February 4th, 2013. March 8, 2021 / 11:59 PM The Denver Police Department has said that they don't believe her death was connected to the trial. Law enforcement finally turned Schellings missing persons case into a criminal case. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The next day, Schellings father tried to get in touch with her and received a strange text waving him off. Lately shes been like threatening to leave to California. I would like to have known what she finally settled on as a career, if she ever would've got married, had more kids, all those things, Saxton said. I was holding onto my dads hand. On February 4, 2013, 21-year-old Kelsie Schelling . Since meeting in 2010 as students at a junior college in Colorado, Kelsie Schelling and Donthe Lucas purportedly had a fraught relationship, one which allegedly turned abusive on the part of Lucas, according to Schelling's friends and relatives (via Fox 21 News). 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Now, follow one mother's crusade for justice in this true crime investigation. She also informed us that Donthe admitted to her to being the one on the video dropping Kelsie's car off at [the] hospital.. Then you can take her back home., Sara Lucas allegedly responded: What happened? and, Are you OK? to which Lucas responded, Yeah. I moved the car, Chostner said. Introduction: Managing the World; 1. Though Lucas denied his involvement in anything to do with Schelling in what eventually became a criminal case, things took a turn in 2017 after local authorities brought him in for questioning, per The Pueblo Chieftain. The Sublime Object Of Ideology Torres detailed a text from Lucas to Schelling just before noon that said, Um, yeah you can if you werent scared to get fired. 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. 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. @KOAA, Kelsie Schelling's mother is called to the stand again. Donthe Lucas, 28, was found guilty on Monday in the killing of his missing girlfriend, Kelsie Schelling, according to the Denver Post. Sara Lucas says she only met her son's girlfriend. She gave an emotional and powerful testimony emphasizing to the jury her daughter Kelsie really wanted to have her child. Strangely enough, around the same time, the family of another missing woman 1,200 miles away in Portsmouth, Ohio, had been receiving similar messages. Using cell phone data from Lucas and Schellings phones, the prosecution believes both phones were in the same location as the texts were being exchanged. Watch Still A Mystery - Season 1 | Prime Video - amazon.com He also told Suhr that a man he did not know picked Schelling up the last time he saw her. It's still an open case. Pueblo County District Attorney Jeff Chostner said investigators received a tip Lucas may be trying to skip town. Though Lucas has been sentenced to life behind bars for her murder, the exact location of Schellings remains have not been revealed and Saxton still hasnt been able to lay her to rest. Authorities reviewed that admission, along with text message records, surveillance video and 60,000 pages of investigative material to determine whether there was enough evidence to prosecute Lucas. Then, he proposed to her. According to News5's Colette Bordelon, Suhr would not categorize herself as a "sex informant," which she was called by the defense. But tragically, Kelsie Schelling went missing soon after she revealed her pregnancy to her partner, Donthe Lucas. The defense pushed a narrative that Schelling was addicted to drugs. Prosecutors called Ryan Rivera, who testified that when he was in jail with Lucas, Lucas claimed that investigators would never find Schelling's body and that they would never convict him. Eric Bravo took over the case with the help of Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) agent Kevin Torres. He was sentenced immediately after the verdict by the judge to life in prison without parole. So, lets find out more about where he is today, shall we? Get the Android Weather app from Google Play. By Feb. 7, Saxton said her calls to Schelling were going directly to voicemail. The prosecution argued that Lucas didnt want his pregnant girlfriend to have their unborn baby, so he plotted and killed her before it could happen. "20/20" Finding Kelsie (TV Episode 2021) - IMDb Waiting for your permission to load facebook comments. 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. He comes off so lost and hurt. She said she received text messages, but they were curt and short, which was unlike Kelsie. For a full recap of Day 10 in the trial, click here. 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. Geo resource failed to load. Kelsie Schelling Missing: Family of pregnant Colo. woman, 22, pleads Johnston also uses iek's combination of . I wont tell you about my appointment. Follow below: 4 p.m.: In a bombshell revelation, prosecutors called a former Pueblo County Jail inmate who claims that Donthe Lucas said investigators would never find Kelsie Schelling's body. She wanted to see what I was going to do if I was going to leave her, try to help her, a whole bunch of crazy stuff., He said Schelling visited him around 2 a.m.Feb. 5, after shed driven to Pueblo and met him near his grandmothers house. Schelling's body hasn't been found. the Alert is a 2023 documentary on Peacock. During the hearings, while the defense called upon no witnesses, the prosecutors invited Kelsies friends, family members, investigators, along with other experts to take the stands and highlight how Donthe could have slain Kelsie. Sinnema said Lucas also did not mention dropping Schellings vehicle off at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center on Feb. 7. Documentary films The Invention of Marxism: How an Idea Changed Everything Christina Morina (Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Bielefeld University) . Donthe Lucas was charged with killing his 21-year-old girlfriend, Kelsie Schelling, who was pregnant at the time. Schelling replied that she did want Lucas to accompany her to the doctor until I realized thats the last place you wanted to be.. PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Years after Donthe Lucas' arrest following the disappearance of his pregnant girlfriend, Kelsie Schelling, jurors are hearing the case against him in court Wednesday.Lucas is accused of killing Schelling and has been charged with first-degree murder. Suhr testified that Lucas had admitted to her that he was the mysterious figure seen picking up Schellings car after it sat overnight in a Walmart parking lot and that he had also dropped the car off at the hospital. Dont worry about me. In cross-examination, Lucas attorneys sought to discredit Walkers testimony by pointing out she has testified for prosecutorial bodies about trends in domestic violence more than 75 times in the past, and only testified on behalf of the defense in one prior case. In December 2019, the judge postponed the trial until May 2020, as a new lawyer joined the defense team. Saxton was the first witness to testify. 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. Schelling and Lucas met at Northeastern Junior College in 2010. She also said Schellings medical paperwork indicated that she self-reported discontinuing her birth control in October 2012. 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. Schellings family offered $50,000 for information about her disappearance and set up a Facebook page called Help Find Kelsie.. From the. Her mother said she wonders what would have become of her life. 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. Without a crime scene, murder weapon or body, how could the jury be convinced this was murder, and that Lucas was responsible? He said Schelling wanted a relationship but thats not what he wanted. In August of 1995, a local film crew in Arlington, Texas was doing a documentary on single mothers in welfare trying to get jobs. Read More: Where is Kelsie Schellings Mother Now? Updated June 10, 2022 ABC's '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. Didnt expect to feel like this now.. Investigators have said he took $400 out of her account on that day. And even though investigators were unable to locate her body or a crime scene, by late 2017, they had managed to gather enough evidence to charge Donthe for her murder. Mom fights to bring pregnant daughter's killer to justice 8 years after Suspecting foul play, police accelerated the investigation. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. 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. In most scams, they're compartmentalized, Garrett said. Schelling,. So-called jailhouse snitches are often considered to be not credible as jurors often ask what that witness may have received in return for testifying. An officer stated that they believed Donthe strangled Kelsie. Movie Reviews and Spoilers - Page 2 of 12 - Reviews and spoilers for Lucas tells her to, Just stop wasting time and come..