Authorities on Friday arrested a man in the presumed death of a pregnant Denver woman who disappeared under suspicious circumstances in 2013.
Donthe Isiah Lucas, 25, was arrested in connection with the homicide investigation of Kelsie Jean Schelling, according to the Pueblo Police Department. Her body still has not been found.
ARREST MADE IN KELSIE SCHELLING HOMICIDE
For Details: https://t.co/Iy5gE1BS4J#ppdnews #pueblonews pic.twitter.com/jxSnrWoG4M— Pueblo Police Dept (@PuebloPolice1) December 1, 2017
Schelling, 21 at the time she disappeared, was the ex-girlfriend of Lucas. She was pregnant with his child.
Lucas was taken into custody Nov. 14 in Denver as a suspect in a Pueblo robbery in September, Pueblo police said. On Friday, Pueblo detectives and Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents served him with an arrest warrant on suspicion of first-degree murder, according to a Pueblo police news release. He is now being held without bond in Pueblo.
Police did not say what led to the arrest of Lucas. Searches for evidence in November in the southwest Pueblo area, near where Schelling was last known to be, were carried out.
“It’s been a work in progress for several years,” said Pueblo police Capt. Kenny Rider, adding that police and prosecutors decided the time was right now to arrest Lucas.
Lucas has long been considered a person of interest in the case. In April, investigators executed search warrants on properties and homes where Lucas lived and had lived. The searches included digging on the properties.
The couple met in 2010 when they were students at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. She disappeared Feb. 4, 2013, after arranging to meet with Lucas by text messages.
Schelling’s car, a black 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, was recorded by video surveillance in a Pueblo Walmart parking lot. The video shows an unknown man — wearing a hoodie, sunglasses and gloves — get into the car and drive off. On Feb. 14, her car was found abandoned in the parking lot of St. Mary-Corwin Hospital in Pueblo.
Pueblo detectives interviewed Lucas on Feb. 15, 2013. Lucas told detectives he and Schelling got together in Pueblo during her visit, they drove around to several locations and then drove to the Walmart where they got into an argument. Lucas told police she needed to go back to Denver so she could go to work the next day. Lucas denied having knowledge of how, or why, Schelling disappeared.
In 2015, Schelling’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against Lucas and Pueblo police officers for failing to properly investigate her alleged murder.