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Family of Kelsie Schelling offers $100k reward for information on her whereabouts

Posted at 11:47 PM, Feb 02, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-03 02:02:04-05

DENVER – The family of a young pregnant woman who was last seen in February 2013 is asking for the public’s help nearly four years after her disappearance, hoping to get new clues about her whereabouts.

Kelsie Schelling was eight weeks pregnant when she left Denver to drive to Pueblo to see her boyfriend. The only trace left behind was her abandoned car, found four days later at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital.

Now, her family is hoping a bigger monetary reward will lead to information that will help them find her.

“For the month of February, 2017, the reward for the direct return of location of Kelsie Schelling is $100,000. Please have a heart. Let us bring our girl and baby home,” a message posted on the Help Find Kelsie page states.

Anonymous tipper turns out to be scammer

During the May 2016 broadcast of ABC’s 20/20 special report on the case, “What if?” it was revealed that on October 2015, Laura Saxton, Schelling’s mother, received a mysterious message on the missing woman’s Facebook page from a man who remained anonymous.

"Ma'am, please, your daughter is not dead. She will be back home alive,” wrote an anonymous tipper who knew all sorts of details about the case, including a troubling story of what he said had happened to Schelling.

The man claimed Donthe Lucas, Schelling’s boyfriend, had hired a friend to kill her: “Donthe has no idea she is alive," the mystery man wrote. "He thinks she is dead. Cliff who was ordered to kill her, opted to keep her and sell her."

"[He says] that the friend did not kill her. He sold her into sex trafficking," said Saxton. "And he had a fake grave dug and showed that to Donthe as proof that he had killed Kelsie -- that the baby had been aborted, that there was a video of it being done, of Kelsie screaming for help."

But after doing some digging, police found the claims were nothing more than scammers playing on a family’s tragedy to benefit monetarily.

An FBI analysis found the person on the other side of the computer had used an IP address tracing back to Russia, according to the 20/20 report.

No suspects have been arrested and no new leads that could help crack this missing person’s case have come to light.

Schelling’s family will be at the Colorado State Capitol Friday to raise awareness of her disappearance on Missing Person’s Day. 

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