Judge to decide if Donthe Lucas will go to trial next Thursday

Day Two of the preliminary hearing of Donthe Lucas wrapped up on Friday afternoon. Lucas is the prime suspect in the disappearance and suspected murder of Kelsie Schelling, last seen more than five years ago. 

At the end of the day, after hearing from all witnesses, the judge asked for time to review all evidence. He will take closing arguments and make his decision on if this case will go to trial next Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

They had a lot of evidence to get to from two more investigators in addition to the four we heard from on Thursday. 

This included text messages between Kelsie and Lucas in the days before she went missing, Kelsie’s medical records proving she was eight weeks pregnant along with an ultrasound shared with family and cell phone data showing both of their locations based on cell phone towers.

Investigators say it proved there was never a time when Lucas and Kelsie’s phones were not overlapping in the same cell phone areas. 

The FBI agent presenting this data also said there was a four hour window of time that both phones were unaccounted for and didn’t ping any cell phone towers, meaning they have no idea where both phones went for that window of time.

Kelsie’s mother believes that is when she was killed. 

"How far could she have been driven away from Pueblo in a four hour period, you know, that’s always in the back of my mind as far as that quiet time where there was no cell phone activity, no pings being recorded, four hours is a long time," Laura Saxton, Kelsie’s mother said.

Also in court on Friday, Agent Kevin Torres, the lead investigator of this case from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation openly said he believes Donthe Lucas lured Kelsie down to Pueblo after finding out she was pregnant and murdered her by strangulation. 

He didn’t have any DNA evidence or the body to prove it just yet. 

He believes she was killed by strangulation based on statements given to her by Kelsie’s former co-workers who said she has shown up to work before with marks around her neck. She apparently told them her father tried to strangle her but Lucas was seen dropping her off at work. 

They did submit new text messages between Kelsie and Lucas from the days before she went missing along with their locations based on cell phone data from nearby cell towers.

Kelsie’s mother said even though they haven’t found her daughter’s body, she believes there is enough evidence for this case to go to trial. 

"You can’t just let him go, you can’t just put the message out there that if you dispose of a body, if you hide it well enough, you’re going to get away with murder so I mean something is going to have to change in the way that the system handles cases like Kelsie’s," Saxton said.

A subpoena has also been issued for Lucas’ grandmother to give her deposition under oath on June 12th. 

Lucas will appear back in court on May 31st at 2:30 p.m.