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When pregnant Kelsie Schelling, 21, went missing in February 2013, she seemingly vanished without a trace, and the case eventually ended up going cold.
But years later, one woman named Lauren Suhr decided to take matters into her own hands, sought out the main suspect in the case and started dating him in an attempt to uncover the truth once and for all.
The astonishing story has resurfaced in recent weeks after popular true crime podcast Audiochuck Investigates featured it in an episode.
Schelling disappeared shortly after she told her family that she was expecting a baby with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Donthe Lucas.
Her friends described their relationship as 'tumultuous' and it was said that they'd often break up and get back together, according to a 20/20 special on ABC about the case, which aired in 2021.
On February 3, 2013, Lucas had texted Schelling asking her to drive from where she lived in Denver to his hometown of Pueblo, Colorado, as he had a 'surprise' gift to give her.
Records show that Schelling did make the nearly two-hour trip to Pueblo, and texted him that she was at the location he had asked her to meet.
But she was never seen again, and to this day, her body still hasn't been found.
His Story Kept Changing
Lucas told police that the morning after they met, he took Schelling to the Parkview Medical Center, implying that she had a miscarriage there - but the hospital had no record of her being there.
He also claimed that he and Schelling had stopped at Walmart to get snacks before driving back to Denver, but security footage proved otherwise; only one person was seen getting out of the car, who police believe was Lucas.
18 hours later, the car was seen again on security footage, with an unknown man - police couldn't say for sure that it was Lucas - getting in and driving away.
Schelling's car was found abandoned a week and a half after her disappearance at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital, a completely different medical center than the one Lucas had mentioned.
Lucas was questioned after her disappearance, and though his story kept changing, he wasn't charged.
But just a few years later, in 2016, Suhr learned about the case, which had since gone cold, and wanted to try to get to the bottom of things herself.
Suhr, a single mother, contacted Lucas on Facebook and said that she was new to the Pueblo area and looking to meet people, according to ABC.
Friendship Turned Romantic
The two started messaging back and forth, and she claimed that immediately, he spoke openly about Schelling's disappearance.
'[He said], he had no involvement. [He said] that [she] was his best friend and he had nothing to do with it,' Suhr said during an interview on 20/20. 'And then he would just shut down and start crying hysterically and get upset.'
Initially, the relationship started off as friendly but it soon turned into a romance. They dated for about a year.
'I felt like he did genuinely develop feelings for me and did genuinely fall in love with me. I felt like I got to see a side of him that maybe most people didn't,' Suhr said.
'He has this way about him that makes you feel so sorry for him. He comes off so lost and hurt. [But] in the back of my mind, I always kept [thinking] that he is potentially a murderer.'
Suhr insisted that she never fell in love with Lucas.
About a year later, he proposed to her, but she didn't accept and they ended the relationship. After their split, she never saw him again.
'At that point I was kind of done,' Suhr said on 20/20 of the proposal.
'I felt like I was [in] pretty deep. Deeper than I think I ever wanted to be... I didn't want to get in any deeper than I had already gotten into.'
Suhr Became Key to the Investigation
Suhr later became a key player in the investigation into Schelling's disappearance.
Suhr told police that based on her conversations with Lucas, she believed he had lied about where he was on the evening of February 4.
Lucas previously had claimed to law enforcement that he was with Schelling in her car, but Suhr said that he told her that he had moved the car himself.
In 2017, amid the investigation, he was taken into custody for an alleged robbery, and it was then that he confessed to police that he had picked up Schelling's car and left it at the hospital.
He was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder and his trial began in February 2021. Suhr opted not to testify.
Ultimately, after 13 days of trial and testimony, the jury unanimously found Lucas guilty of first-degree murder 'in connection to the death or disappearance of Schelling.' He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Suhr for comment.
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