No words!!
Family of Kelsie Schelling asked for thousands of dollars to see her again, part of apparent scam
GERRY WAGSCHAL, JOSEPH RHEE, MIGUEL SANCHO, ERIC JOHNSON via ABC News
11:16 PM, May 13, 2016
"But last October, as Saxton began to come to terms with her worst-case scenario, there was a startling development: a mysterious message of hope came through the family's*"Help Find Kelsie"*Facebook page.
"It was from a woman who I'm not familiar with," said Saxton. "She just approached originally by saying, 'If I have information about Kelsie, can I remain anonymous?'"
Anonymous tipper comes forward
The woman said her name was Jenna McClain and that it was risky for her to come forward because her life was in danger. She passed the conversation on to a male associate, who wrote: "Ma'am, please, your daughter is not dead. She will be back home alive."
The man knew all sorts of details of the case and offered a troubling account of what he said had really befallen Schelling, claiming Donthe Lucas, Schelling's boyfriend, 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."
Saxton was devastated by the mysterious emails and the possible break in the case.
"It made me sick," she said. "I mean, I could barely function. It tore me up so much and I just thought, [what] if she's been out there and I could've found her, and we haven't and she's suffered all this time."
A similar case miles away*
That same month in Portsmouth, Ohio, a nearly identical development occurred in the disappearance of Megan Lancaster. One "Jenna McLain" reached out to Megan Lancaster's family through Facebook, said she had news about the case, then passed the conversation on to a male associate who seemed well-versed in the details of the case.
"And then out of nowhere, he pops up," Kadie Lancaster, Megan Lancaster's sister, told "20/20." "He says I know where Megan is. And I can get her back. [He] tells me how she was tortured and that she was in sex trafficking. And he told me that they kept her on chains in a room."
Then, the situation became even more ominous. Both families received a nearly identical, highly bizarre proposition: Each missing woman could be brought home alive, but it would take money -- lots of it. The emailer told Kadie Lancaster to bring $25,000 dollars in cash to a Vancouver, Washington, McDonald's and deliver it to a man named "Marcus," who would be wearing a red hat.
"The exchange was that if I would come to Washington [that] I could have Megan and we could just leave and go on our way," said Kadie Lancaster.
Saxton received an almost identical offer.
"If we sent someone with money to this McDonald's in Vancouver, Washington, once the money was exchanged this courier person would go and get Kelsie and bring her back to the McDonald's," she said.
And while the whole scenario appeared suspect from the start, these desperate mothers found it impossible to ignore.
"I just thought you know what if she's been out there and we could've found her," said Saxton.
Despite her skepticism, Saxton decided to play ball, letting the messenger know she was ready to make a deal.
Concerned about possible criminal involvement, Schelling's family asked the Vancouver police to meet the courier undercover.
"We didn't know if this actually was a sex trafficking issue or if it was extortion," said Saxton. "And so I felt like, you know, law enforcement from Vancouver should have been involved in this situation."
Tippers were nothing more than cruel scammers"
