Going West: True Crime - Kelsie Schelling // 482

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

In February of 2013, a 21-year-old woman mysteriously disappeared during a visit to see her on-again, off-again boyfriend after he told her he had a “surprise gift” for her. A subsequent investigation uncovered strange text messages, perplexing surveillance footage, and an important insider tip from an unsuspecting witness. This is the story of Kelsie Schelling.

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host, T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going West. Hello everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Big shout out to Tanya, Stephanie, and Stacey who all recommended this case. Yes, this case takes place in Colorado today, and there are a ton of shady ass characters in this story. Many of which will surprise you guys honestly because there's so many like hidden agendas and horrible dark secrets here Absolutely, so it's very safe to say that there are gonna be a few pieces shit bombs incoming in today's episode

Oh, yeah, and there is a lot to get into a means of a timeline. So let's just dive right in Let's dive right in Without further ado All right guys, this is episode 482 of Going West. So let's get into it. The The mysterious disappearance of Kelsey Schelling. Justice for a pregnant Denver woman did not come quickly. Kelsey Schelling disappeared eight years ago. She's never been found.

On February 4th, 2013, Schelling drove from Denver to Pueblo. She was eight weeks pregnant. Her first doctor's appointment was earlier that day where she saw an ultrasound image of the baby. She made it to Pueblo, but what happened next remained a mystery. She was just so full of life and I just missed everything about her.

Now at arrest in a cold case that Denver 7 has been following from the start, this man here faces charges connected to Kelsey Schelling's disappearance and death. What we saw was Schelling's car being dropped off at a Walmart parking lot on February 5th, then picked up a day later. Schelling was never seen on that video. In the end, I didn't get Kelsey back. And that's what I wanted more than anything. In February of 2013, a 21 year old

woman mysteriously disappeared during a visit to see her on again off again boyfriend after he told her he had a surprise gift for her. A subsequent investigation uncovered strange text messages, perplexing surveillance footage, and she grew up alongside her brother Colby in Holyoke, Colorado. Holyoke is a small town in the northeastern corner of Colorado near the state line of Nebraska, and there her parents owned a small town grocery store.

As a kid, Kelsey loved spending time outdoors and driving the backcountry dirt roads of her small town on an ATV. She was just a ton of fun and her mom Laura described her as a firecracker with a big personality and a big laugh. Friends called her bubbly and personable. She loved the beach and even dreamed of moving out west and living in California someday. Kelsey had been a happy gogo-lucky little girl, but as a teenager, as it often goes,

her life got a little bit more complicated. Her parents eventually divorced, and Kelsey took it the hardest, falling into a depression when it happened. Meanwhile, Laura met and married Kelsey's stepdad, Neil, who brought with him her stepsisters Bailey and Sierra. And the three became very close-knit, so once things settled, it seemed like this change

brought some great things and people into Kelsey's life. As a teen, Kelsey was crowned Haxton High School's prom queen, and then she graduated in 2009 enrolling in Northeastern Junior College in nearby Sterling, Colorado. According to her mom, she wanted to get a degree in psychology and one day work with kids. And as she worked towards this goal at Northeastern University, she met a young man named Dante Lucas on campus, who would become her on-again, off-again boyfriend. who would become her on-again-off-again boyfriend.

Now, Dante was originally from Illinois, and was one of four children born to single mom Sarah Lucas. Dante attended Pueblo High School, and at six feet seven inches tall, he was just a natural athlete, so he played both football and basketball. But he was more gifted in the latter, so basketball. He was once a college athlete hopeful, but as a student, he kind of lacked drive and his grades were pretty poor. But still, he had dreams of one day playing in the NCAA, or the National Collegiate Athletic Association,

so in other words, he had dreams of playing college sports. But because of his lackluster academic performance, he wound up at North Eastern Junior College where he met Kelsey. And she actually approached him while he was playing in a basketball game, and they just really seemed to hit it off, well, at least at first, and they started dating. But this relationship honestly just seemed doomed from the start. Friends of Kelsey's described their relationship as tumultuous at best because, for example, Dante wasn't great with communication. He would sometimes go days without responding to Kelsey's

messages and the pair seemed to be fighting constantly. And actually, while attending Northeastern, one of her roommates actually moved out of their home because of the drama from this relationship. So it was clear to those around them that things really weren't working out. Kelsey eventually did cut things off with him though, and about a year before her disappearance when she was about 21 years old, she finally fulfilled her dream of moving out to California with a friend of hers. But the cost of living was so expensive that she struggled to make ends meet and she wound up back in Colorado in October of 2012, so just six months later. She hoped to return to the west coast when she was more financially stable, but for the time being she moved into an apartment in Denver that belonged

to her dad and got a job working at Floor & Decor, which is a flooring, tile, and home renovation retailer. And being back in Colorado, it was around this time that she reconnected with Dante, but their relationship didn't improve much at all. They continued to get into frequent fights and he would often ignore her for days at a time, just like he'd been doing before. A few months before her disappearance, Kelsey missed work one afternoon and confided in her good friend Allie, who also worked at Florin Decor, that she and her dad had gotten

into a physical altercation and that he had actually strangled her, leaving marks on her neck. But according to Kelsey's father, Doug, this is entirely false. Now the only fight that apparently took place between them at that time was far more tame than what Kelsey was alleging. And then on the weekend her brother, Colby, was getting married, their family had rented a house

for themselves in Colby's groomsmen. Her dad, Doug, explained that Kelsey had been tossing food at people as a joke, but that she was making a mess in the process and was warned by her dad to stop. As Doug described, Kelsey was being feisty and he, quote, chewed her out. In return, Kelsey got angry and shoved him, to which he responded by, quote, grabbing her hand as Doug recalled. But according to those who saw her in the aftermath of her calling into work that day, she did have strangulation marks on her neck.

However, it turned out that Kelsey hadn't actually seen her dad or been with her dad on the day that she was claiming that he attacked her. And it's now believed that the marks had come from another source, Dante Lucas, her boyfriend. A friend of Kelsey's remembers that Kelsey once called her and said that Dante had come over to her house and that they had gotten into a screaming match

in which she shoved her. And she left him alone in her apartment and walked out because she had been so afraid of this and of the fact that he had gotten physical with her. So we know that Dante had been physical with her in the past. So I don't know, this whole thing with her dad is kind of confusing.

I don't know why she would say her dad would do this to her, especially because they reportedly had such a great relationship. She was so close to everybody in her family. But something that my mind kind of goes to is maybe she was trying to cover for Dante at the time and didn't think that her dad would find out or that anything would come of it. Yeah, that's kind of my guess as well that she needed somebody to blame these marks on and she couldn't say Dante.

Yeah. And I think knowing that people had seen them get into an argument and this tiff at her brother's wedding weekend, maybe she felt like he was an easy scapegoat. Yeah, like that was the perfect thing to say at that time. Even though it still feels so weird, like why would you want to kind of make like vilify your dad who you love and make your dad look bad to your friend? You know, it's- it's very confusing, but we wanted to mention this because it does seem like she was most likely making excuses for Dante, and was either too afraid, or just didn't want people to know the real truth of what- what Dante was like and what he was doing to her. Absolutely agree.

While in February of 2013, a couple weeks shy of 22 years old, Kelsey received some pretty surprising and unexpected news. She was pregnant with Dante's baby. A few weeks prior to her disappearance, Kelsey confided in her mom that she thought that she was pregnant, which came as a shock to them both. And then, after multiple at-home pregnancy tests confirmed her suspicions, she began telling her friends and family about this new development. At 22, this was admittedly not Kelsey's plan. She had career aspirations that she wanted to tackle first, she wanted to move again back to California,

and then of course, her relationship with Dante was so rocky that the idea of connecting with him for life in at least some way because of the baby was just not really ideal. But according to Laura, Kelsey decided to lean into it, and her parents said that they would eagerly support her and tend to anything that she and the baby may need. So even though she was naturally apprehensive at first, in the weeks to come, Kelsey actually found herself excited for the baby. When asked how Dante felt about becoming a father, Kelsey's mom, Laura, said that he had some pretty mixed reactions. At times, he seemed to be angry and didn't feel ready for the change, and other times he just kind of seemed neutral. And that was probably the best that it got for Dante. Yeah, so going between neutral and angry,

clearly, yeah, not a great sign here. Well, the day of Kelsey's disappearance was also the day of her first appointment with her OBGYN. At 10 a.m. on February 4th, appointment with her OBGYN. At 10 a.m. on February 4th, 2013, she headed into the group for women in Aurora, which is a suburb of Denver, for her first ultrasound. She confirmed that everything was progressing well and she and the baby were healthy, which she excitedly told her parents on the phone after her appointment. She was eight weeks along at this point and came home with the sonogram which she excitedly shared with her close family and friends. She was hoping for a baby girl and already had a name picked out, Kadri. But when she texted the sonogram picture to Dante, he replied, quote, what is that?

Why would I even want to see that? Such a rude thing to say. He's such a dick. And the reason why he's probably acting this way is because the night prior Kelsey Why would I even want to see that? Such a rude thing to say. He's such a dick. And the reason why he's probably acting this way is because the night prior, Kelsey and Dante had been fighting over the phone. He had asked that she come to Pueblo, but she told him that she had her doctor's appointment in the morning, so she then texted him, quote, Relationship with me you don't even have to marry me you don't have to have a happy little family with me You have no obligation to me. You're good. Don't worry. Good night, and He responded again like a dick. Oh, I know all of that Thanks for stating that for me though, which probably really didn't feel good You know she's going to her very first OBGYN appointment in the morning for their baby

He's being such a jerk. He's not present. He's not there with her and she's saying, you know, you know, we don't we don't have to do this. We don't have to be together. But I'm sure part of her wanted that to work, which is why she's even talking to him. Right. I mean, she's basically letting him off the hook and even though he's being let off the hook, but still that's that's no way to respond to a sonogram of your own baby. Yeah, and it's, I mean, it's so apparent how just immature and rude he is as a person. Yeah, it's so apparent just how much he doesn't give a shit.

Well after her appointment, you know, Kelsey cares very much, she's getting so much support from her friends and family who love her dearly, she's ready to do this on her own if she has to. So after the appointment, she headed to work at Florin Decor, where her shift began at 1pm. She clocked out nearly 9 hours later at 9.54pm and headed out to the parking lot to get in her black Chevy Cruze and make the 30 minute drive home to her apartment.

But she never made it home that night or after that night. The following day, Tuesday, February 5th, 2013, none of her friends nor her family were hearing from her at all, and she failed to show up for work. Multiple people asked her whereabouts until Kelsey allegedly texted a friend that she was in the emergency room and that she had suffered a miscarriage and was losing the baby. She refused to answer any phone calls though and simply told her parents that she wasn't feeling well, and would get back to them in a day or two.

So everybody else is kind of like, wait, you miscarried? And obviously everybody is so devastated for her, but they're not getting more details. They're not able to help her out and be by her side during this time. Yeah, I mean, this is huge news. I mean, she just miscarried and her parents are wondering

what the hell happened. Where are you? What's going on? But she's, again, not responding to any phone calls and giving very short responses. You know, and really in her responses, she was being unusually blunt, and I will add, both the grammar and punctuation were lacking from her

usually correct style so not only was this such strange information for her family and friends to receive but it doesn't even sound like her yeah exactly well by Saturday February 9th so four days later her family was really beginning to panic her parents parents, Laura and Doug, met up at her apartment to check on her, and when they found it empty and seemingly untouched for the last few days, they called the police to report their daughter missing.

Her parents did briefly consider the possibility that what Kelsey was saying was true and real, and that maybe she had left of her own accord after being too overwhelmed at this devastating news and maybe even headed back to her happy place which was California. You know it didn't seem like she would just go off and do that but she is an adult. They were trying not to think of the worst case scenario but it was hard to do this because it just did not seem like something Kelsey would do at all.

So as police began their investigation, Laura immediately thought of Dante. When she first contacted him, he claimed that he had actually seen Kelsey on the evening of February 4th and that she had driven up to see him late that evening after she finished working, making Dante the last person to see her. According to Dante, they met up late that night in Pueblo where he lived, which is about two hours south of where she lived. But he claimed that she left between 2 and 3 a.m. and that he hadn't seen or heard from her since.

Later, he contacted Laura back and said that he received a phone call from Kelsey, but that it had been from a blocked number and that Kelsey said she no longer had her phone. So of course this is weird because she has a very rocky relationship with Dante, but for some reason he's the only person that she's reaching out to. For another reason, she doesn't have her phone. And he's the last person to have seen her. Yeah, and she's calling from a blocked number.

It's not, it's just not making any sense. So Kelsey allegedly told Dante that, or told Dante to tell her parents that she would get in touch with them soon. And that was that. But obviously, Laura was so confused by this, so she begged Dante to pass along this blocked phone number or at least try to figure out where Kelsey was calling from and Dante promised that he would.

But of course, he did not follow through. So after all this BS with Dante, Laura, Doug, and Colby were all questioned intently by police, but detectives were especially interested in talking to Doug after having been made aware of the altercation that they had recently gotten into. But Doug had been hours away from Kelsey at the time and maintained that he would never and has never hurt his daughter. the time, and maintained that he would never, and has never, hurt his daughter. Then, a week after she disappeared, a disturbing development came in the form of Kelsey's Chevy Cruze.

Found on surveillance footage in the parking lot of a Walmart in Pueblo, again, where Dante lived. Officers scoured the security footage to help piece the puzzle together of how the car had gotten there and when it had been abandoned. And they found video of Kelsey's car driving into the parking lot on February 5th, 2013, so the day after she was last seen. A man could be seen parking the car, exiting, and then walking to the backside of Walmart where he was picked up in a silver car. So this was clearly somebody dumping her vehicle. Then, the morning of February 6th, the next day, at around 7am, a man who is believed to be the same man from the day before

returned to the parking lot to pick the car up, and then he got in, and he drove it away. This location seemed all too convenient given that Dante Lucas lived not that far away. So, this naturally centered the search for Kelsey and Pueblo. Though there were some leads trickling in, none of them brought investigators to Kelsey. But then, another bombshell discovery came along when Kelsey's car was spotted parked at a nearby hospital, eight days after it was seen being driven out of the Walmart parking lot. So, of course, her family was momentarily hopeful, wondering if she had an emergency and was maybe receiving

treatment at this hospital. But as you guys could probably guess, there was no record of Kelsey ever having been there. Which is so suspicious because the texts that were being sent from Kelsey's phone stated that she had a miscarriage and was at the hospital, so the car being there lines up with that narrative, or at least the narrative someone is trying to create. Yeah, it seems at this point like somebody is trying to pull a little ruse here. And finding out that Kelsey wasn't in the hospital really exposed her family to this faux story. Because Kelsey's mom Laura said with resignation, quote,

The day that her car was found, that was the day that I knew she was deceased, because I knew there was no way. She was very attached to her things and I just knew that there was no way that she would abandon her car. So that's the day that I knew for sure. I never ever thought any other thing after that. Just Just like when the car was abandoned at Walmart, a mysterious man, whom police believed was the same man from the Walmart video, could be seen driving Kelsey Chevy Cruze into the hospital parking lot and walking away from it. And this was on February 7th at 5.30 a.m. So almost 24 hours after it was seen being driven

out of the Walmart parking lot. So now we have her vehicle being abandoned twice and both miraculously caught on surveillance footage. And both in Pueblo, Colorado, where Dante lives. And the same mystery man abandoning the vehicle both times. And this discovery, by the way, of when they found the car, when they found her car in the hospital parking lot, they found it on Valentine's Day, February 14th. And by the next day, Friday, February 15th, the Denver Police Department had turned the

investigation over to the Pueblo Police Department because they were so sure that that had to be where Kelsey disappeared from and most likely that Dante was involved. Following her cell phone location data, Kelsey or someone in possession of her phone, visited an ATM on February 5th, the day after she vanished, and withdrew $400. But get this, on surveillance footage from the bank, Dante could be seen driving Kelsey's car up to Cannon National Bank and using her debit card to pull cash out. Detectives actually came to believe that she had been taking out loans for him before and doling out money when she could for what he told her was his continued college education.

And now here he is taking it out himself with Kelsey nowhere in sight and half a day into being missing. After dropping out of Northeastern, Dante told Kelsey that he was taking classes at Emporia State University, which is based in Kansas, but he had been lying to her about this and was very likely just pocketing her hard-earned money. So now investigators had reason to detain him for questioning.

Dante was held on suspicion of identity theft, but he had a simple explanation, of course. Dante said casually that Kelsey would often let him borrow her car or give him money, and he would also travel to Denver to stay with her when he wanted to get away from his family. When detectives asked about the status of their relationship, he claimed that they had never even been officially together. When he was questioned about Kelsey's whereabouts, he walked back his original story

that she had gone home after their hangout at around 2 or 3 AM, and instead said that Kelsey had actually stayed overnight in Pueblo. Not sure how you mix those up. Yeah, how do you not remember that? Well after they met up he says that they went or sorry he went home to his grandma's house and Kelsey spent the night in her car says Dante.

The next morning he claimed that he took her to the hospital that was on the 5th when she was sending those You know suspicious text messages over concerns about the pregnancy. Oh, he's such a nice guy. I'm sure that's exactly what he was doing, right? Yeah, and also, by the way, she slept in her car, not with me. But then the next day, I took her to the hospital. What? Yeah. Well, he said that they had gone to the emergency room at Parkview Medical Center, and that when she emerged from her visit, she told him that she had suffered a miscarriage.

However, again, the Parkview Medical Center, where her car was later found, confirmed that she had never been a patient, so it was immediately obvious that Dante was lying. But in order to stay consistent with the Walmart surveillance footage, he claimed that after they went to the hospital, they drove to Walmart and talked in her parked car for a bit, before he left her there and was picked up by his mom. He says that that was the last time he ever saw Kelsey. Right, but then that's why it's so weird that he told her mom that she left at two or three in the morning and he didn't see

her again, but now here's this whole other side of the story that he's with her at the hospital, he's with her at Walmart. Bro. Yeah, he can't keep his story straight. Well, after being caught in a very easily verifiable lie, Dante grew flustered and said softly quote I can't even remember like I feel like I'm just gonna keep like saying stuff wrong so at that point he requested a lawyer and their line of questioning was over and sadly without enough evidence that identity theft or murder had taken place police were forced to release him despite their suspicions that he was involved. The Pueblo Police Department even brought in Dante's mom, Sarah Lucas,

in hopes that maybe she could shed some light on the situation, but she maintained that her son was a gentle soul who would never hurt anyone. Of course. Yeah, of course, and she even offered up an alibi for the time when Dante was believed to have dropped Kelsey's car at Walmart, saying that he had been with her. And because there was no sign of Kelsey anywhere, her case hit a standstill. Kelsey's family secured a private investigator, organized ground searches, they put out flyers, and even started a Facebook group pleading for information, but nothing seemed to help. Even though, of course, the answer seemed pretty obvious.

Investigators even dug up the yard of Dante's grandmother. And though a cadaver dog did indicate to one area of the yard, detectives found no evidence of remains. Kelsey's family even filed lawsuits against both Dante and the Pueblo Police Department, but both of those were dismissed. And my grandparents on my mom's side went through something so similar with my Aunt Carol's disappearance, just knowing that the boyfriend did something, you know, having the car, having these suspicious clues, but with the police being able to do nothing because the suspect is lying and being uncooperative.

Like it is so infuriating, this poor family just knowing that he's involved and he's allowed to just stay silent because there's no actual evidence yet. The circumstantial evidence here is telling. And get ready to be more pissed off because years passed with absolutely no movement. No word from Kelsey, no nothing about a baby being born, just radio silence and no new evidence. Over the years, Laura received a fraudulent tip that Dante had hired someone to kill Kelsey, but that the killer had spared her and sold her into sex trafficking instead,

which must have only made her family panic more, you know, not knowing what the truth really was, because even with this information, it's still like, well, then where is she? Is she alive? Is she in a different country? And on top of that, this anonymous Facebook user who contacted her requested that the $50,000 reward be put into cash and brought to a McDonald's multiple states away in Vancouver, Washington, where it would be given to their liaison, a man in a red hat named Marcus. Laura reported this to the Vancouver police, but finding it to be a scam, they declined

to get involved. Then a few weeks later, the same scammers attempted the same routine on the family of another missing woman, 25-year-old Megan Lancaster from Ohio. So these people were just a bunch of assholes who know nothing about anything. I can't believe that people like this exist. They're such pieces of shit to toy with families of missing people. Like, what is wrong with these people? It's so sad and actually a news team was able to apprehend this mysterious man named Marcus and he claimed that he was involved in a highly profitable jewelry business and that he had no knowledge about the missing women

and that he was simply the middleman. So, you know, proving even more that this is a scam. And actually also, police trace the IP address of these messages to Russia. So they are not in America. They are not, you know, actually aware of what's going on with these missing women. They're just using it as a horrible opportunity to get some money. Yeah, they're just trying to extort the family. It is just sick.

Well, another shocking development came when a Pueblo woman offered to help the family by going undercover. Now basically, this woman named Lauren Sur said that she would befriend Dante in hopes of gleaning pertinent information. And as they grew closer, he began to let his guard down around her. But even then, Lauren recalls that he rarely spoke of the case and found it impossible

to talk about. Though she did report that on the anniversary of Kelsey's disappearance, he became so belligerent that he passed out. He also eventually revealed to Lauren that he had been the one to drive the car to and from Walmart and then to the hospital, though he did not admit to her that he murdered Kelsey. He also confessed that he had lied to the police, as had his mother. While Lauren compiled evidence against him,

they began engaging in a romantic relationship and he fell very hard for Lauren and actually proposed. So this is, I mean, this is so weird, the way that this happened. But at this point, as it was starting to turn romantic, Lauren dipped out, you know, she knew she needed to cut things off, so she did. And eventually, after years, detectives finally obtained warrant to search the contents of Dante's phone,

which at that point had been sitting untouched in an evidence locker due to red tape in the way of the investigation. Just a day before the texts were due to expire, they managed to gain permission to access the phone, and found its contents to lean into the conclusion that they had already come to. A few hours after Dante snubbed the sonogram that Kelsey sent him, he seemed to come to his senses when he texted her telling her that he had a surprise for her, and asked her if she would be willing to drive down to Pueblo to see him, saying that he wanted to give her something in person. When Kelsey asked what it was, he told her that she wouldn't believe it even if he told

her. So after a long day at work, Kelsey got into her car to drive south to Pueblo for this big surprise. And according to a friend that she talked to that day, she thought she may have been getting a proposal. At 1120 PM, Kelsey arrived at the Puebla Walmart where Dante asked her to meet up. Through continuous requests for his estimated time of arrival, Dante made her wait nearly an hour for him.

Finally, at 1214 AM, he told her to leave the Walmart and meet him quote where you usually do so Kelsey headed to his grandmother's neighborhood parking on a street near her home she waited in her car until 12 32 a.m. and texted him again saying that she had been waiting for him for over an hour and asked him where he was, but there was no response. Law enforcement believes that he arrived, brought her into his grandmother's house, where they fought over the pregnancy, and he killed her in a fit of rage. Then at 2.40am, Kelsey's phone made a call to a romantic interest of Dante's, whom Kelsey

didn't even know. According to Deputy District Attorney Michelle Chossner, quote, Kelsey has never seen, heard or talked to this woman. The last activity from Kelsey on her phone was the text to Dante asking where he was as it seems like Dante was the one to call this romantic interest of his on Kelsey's phone for whatever reason. At this point in the investigation, the Pueblo Police Department was getting so close to an arrest that they tapped Dante's phone and discovered that he was planning on leaving

the state of Colorado. They listened intently as he made plans to head to Arizona and then continue on to Mexico to meet up with friends. Adding to their urgency was the fact that he was also wanted for aggravated robbery charges along with his brother and his mom. So police acted swiftly needing to detain him before he left the state. And on November 13th, 2017, so four and a half years, over four and a half years after Kelsey went missing, he was arrested at the Denver International Airport on the robbery charges, pending murder charges down the line. Back on September 1st of 2017, so a couple months earlier, police officers were called to a home on Madison Drive in Pueblo for a report of an armed robbery.

A man had sustained injuries to his face and head after stopping by to visit a friend in the neighborhood and getting ambushed by a group of people who rushed towards him from the very house he was planning on visiting. Dante himself held the gun to the man's head and pistol whipped him, while the woman, later confirmed to be Dante's frickin' mom, Sarah Lucas, stole a thousand dollars in cash from the vehicle. So they were like tandem robbing somebody's house. from the vehicle. So they were like tandem robbing somebody's house. Yeah, it's just a whole piece of shit family. Well, even more so actually of the piece of shittery in the family. Dante and his brother, Deshaun, were plucked from a lineup. So his brother Deshaun was also a part of this.

And Deshaun was arrested the day after his brother on November 14th, 2017. And Sarah was arrested on December 1st. She was eventually sentenced to three years in prison for this, and then three days after her arrest, on December 4th, Dante's sister Desiree was arrested on unrelated charges after chasing someone with a knife. So yeah, his whole family is totally messed up.

And the same day his mom was arrested December 1st, 2017, while already in custody for the armed robbery, Dante was officially charged with the first degree murder of Kelsey Schelling. And when police interrogated him this time, Dante had less wiggle room to lie. When detectives asked him about who moved the car at Walmart, he said, quote, All right, it was me. I lied about that from the jump. I moved the car a second time. I freaked out.

I didn't know what to do. However, he still refused to admit to Kelsey's murder, despite standing up in the interrogation room telling them, quote, Come on, where's the cuffs at, buddy? So he's like trying to intimidate them and say you know you you don't have anything on me I didn't do this but also then why did you move her car if you didn't kill her why are you even messing with her car yeah you're in no answer for that and you're just in no place to be acting like a tough guy here yeah

then while in prison he allegedly also confessed to a fellow inmate named Ryan Rivera, who would become a star witness for the prosecution. Dante and Ryan became friends in jail, and during a card game, Dante confided in Ryan that he was in fact responsible for Kelsey's murder, but that no one would ever find her body. Though it was a long road to get to trial, about four years, the court proceedings moved along quickly once they got underway in early 2021. The prosecution revealed to the court that both Dante's and his mom Sarah's DNA had

been found in Kelsey's car, though they claimed that this was because they had both borrowed it with Kelsey's permission. Yeah right. Now, suspiciously, one of the witnesses for the prosecution was killed by her boyfriend just days before she was set to testify against Dante. A woman named Roxanne Martinez, who claimed to have dated Dante, reached out to Kelsey's parents and told them that Dante had admitted everything to her, and that she was ready to share the information that she had. She was subpoenaed as a witness, but shortly before she was set to meet the parents and before she could testify against Dante at his murder trial, she herself was murdered.

On February 25th, 2021, her body was found in a gutter, having been shot in the head. Her boyfriend, Emanuel Chandler, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. So although originally the crime was thought to be a hit to silence her testimony, police just couldn't find any sort of connection there. As his defense, Dante's attorney, Carl Tamlerler was degrading, painting Dante as a criminally lazy and underperforming young man who would never have been the mastermind of such a complex and nefarious scheme.

I hate when defense attorneys do this. Like, they almost shit on their clients. See, this guy's too stupid to do something so crazy smart and intelligent. Yeah. Like, cause if it's, you know, because it's this angle of like, oh, I'm not defending this piece of shit, but like you are, but you actually are though. It's almost more annoying than the opposite. But he also claimed that Dante was known to be late to ignore texts and to keep people waiting.

So none of what he did to Kelsey on the night she disappeared was out of the ordinary or pointed to any criminal activity in particular. The prosecution's assessment that he was angry at Kelsey's decision to keep and raise the baby because it would get in the way of his lofty professional basketball aspirations was also dismissed by the defense. Carl Tamler said disparagingly, quote, his career in basketball is long over by this time. He's flunked out of college, is sitting at home,

might play the occasional four on four matchup down at the Slabs with his homeboys. And he was in junior college playing basketball out of Sterling, Colorado. Not a single person from that college has made it to the NBA. So he's once again doing this saying, oh yeah, it had nothing to do with his, you know, basketball aspirations because this guy fucking sucks.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's really funny. I love that he's saying it, but it's also it is a tactic for sure. Now, despite the defense's protest that the prosecution had no body and should not be holding Dante accountable under the circumstances, they chose not to call a single witness. The trial lasted just two weeks and at its conclusion, Dante was found guilty of Kelsey's murder, though he still refused to tell them where she was or what exactly he had done. You know, he's saying still that he didn't do it even though we all know that he did. Then on March 8th, 2021, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. After the announcement of the verdict, Kelsey's mom, Laura said through tears, quote, in the end, I didn't get Kelsey back and that's what I wanted more than anything.

But despite her heartbreak at the situation, Laura claims that she still felt empathy for the other side. Since the murder eight years prior, Dante had a child with another woman. And Laura watched as she cried in court about losing the father of her baby. Laura reflected quote, honestly my heart hurt for her, hurt for their child because it didn't have to end up this way.

To this day, Kelsey's remains are still missing. Based on cell phone pings from the night that she was killed, Pueblo police believe that she was brought to the landfill, but without a body, her family can never be sure. Laura remains an active participant in the search for Kelsey and attempts to bring her daughter's remains home. She was even instrumental in starting a Colorado Missing Persons Day. On February 4th of this year, she held a rally at the state capitol in Denver honoring the hundreds of missing people in the state. The city of Pueblo erected a bench in City Park in Kelsey's honor, and accompanied with

the unveiling of the bench, the Pueblo police issued a statement that said, quote, the loss of Kelsey's shelling had a tremendous impact on the Pueblo community. Although Kelsey was not from the Pueblo area, Puebloans connected with her. The community felt the pain of the loss of such a beautiful young woman. From the time of her initial disappearance to the reading of the verdict, community members supported efforts to locate Kelsey and to bring her killer to justice. Understanding that connection, it is our hope that the park bench will provide her family and our community with a peaceful setting to honor Kelsey and reflect upon.

Her family is still organizing searches to look for her to this day. Missing along with her are a few items stolen from her car, including her car keys, a tied-eyed teddy bear, and black rosary beads. Her purse, wallet, an army backpack, and possibly a pair of Uggs are missing from her car as well. Her family is still offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to Kelsey's whereabouts. If you have any information, please reach out to the Help Find Kelsey Facebook page, the family's email which is helpfindkelsey at gmail.com, or the Pueblo Cold Case hotline at 303-239-4244. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and even though we do have some resolution in this case,

Kelsey's family is still looking for her remains. so please make sure that you share this episode. Yeah, it's honestly wild. It's always wild to me when somebody is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and they still don't say anything. So we're really just holding out hope that he does the right thing and tells the police and her family what he did to Kelsey, what he did with her remains and their baby because they deserve

that and they're spending all this time on their own just trying to find her themselves so hopefully he can make it a little easier on them finally after over 12 years. Yeah I mean if you're going to be in prison for the rest of your life what's the harm in letting them know where she is? It just goes to show you that he is a horrible person. Absolutely, definitely a piece of shit. Well, thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode. If you guys want to see photos from this case and every other case we cover, head on over to our socials.

We are on Instagram at goingwestpodcasts, and we're also on Facebook. Again, big shout out to Tanya, Stephanie, and Stacey for sending this in. If you have a case that you want us to share, discuss on the show, please email us. That is the way that we're going to see it. We're super behind right now. We have so many cases lined up, but if you have one, please just send us an email going westpodcast at gmail.com. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. I'm still going