She Sent Her Boyfriend Ultrasound Photo, Vanished

Kelsie Schelling's family is suing the police department for a botched investigation
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted May 13, 2016 6:43 AM CDT
She Sent Her Boyfriend Ultrasound Photos, Vanished
Kelsie Schelling was 21 years old and 8 weeks pregnant when she went missing in February 2013.   (Laura Saxton)

The mother of a Colorado woman who went missing the day after she texted a photo of her eight-week ultrasound to her boyfriend is suing not just his family but local police and city as well. Laura Saxton says her whole world changed on Feb. 4, 2013, when her pregnant 21-year-old daughter Kelsie Schelling went missing; Saxton suspects she's dead, believes her daughter's boyfriend is responsible, and won't rest until there is a conviction. She accuses the police, among other things, of not searching Lake Minnequa in Pueblo even after a fisherman said his line may have encountered a body. A magistrate judge is recommending the suit against the police be tossed due to local regulations, but KKTV reports the suit "gives insights" into what Saxton thinks transpired. The evidence is sparse but a timeline has been established:

At boyfriend Donthe Lucas' request, Schelling drove two hours from Denver to Pueblo, Colo., the night of Feb. 4, 2013. (The Denver Post notes he was aware of the pregnancy long before she sent him the photo.) She arrived at a Walmart just after 11 p.m., and nearly an hour later texted she was "tired of waiting," reports ABC News. Lucas asked her to meet on a street near his grandmother's house; a half hour later, she wrote: "Where are you ... I've been here for over an hour just waiting." She was never heard from again. Later that morning Lucas withdrew $400 from an ATM in Schelling's car using her card. He was also filmed driving her car to the Walmart parking lot; on Feb. 7, a hooded figure drove off in the car, which was ultimately found at a hospital. Lucas says he did meet Schelling, that she accompanied him to the bank (surveillance video doesn't back this up) and that he left her at Walmart. Police say Lucas remains a person of interest, and the Help Find Kelsie site shares a January 2014 press release from the Pueblo PD that says they will "continue to look at every lead," but adds that they "do not use unlawful methods to solve a case." (This pregnant woman's disappearance proved more mysterious once she was found.)

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