During a time when questions linger, families of missing persons find some stability on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol. Friday morning, hundreds of names of people who haven't been found were read aloud on the Capitol's steps for the third annual Missing Persons Day.
The morning's event was organized by Laura Saxton, the mother of Kelsie Schelling who vanished in February 2013.
Last December, Pueblo police announced 25-year-old Donthe Lucas, Schelling's then-boyfriend, was arrested in connection with her disappearance. He is facing charges of first-degree murder and is being held without bond.
Schelling was pregnant at the time and sent her boyfriend an ultrasound photo and traveled to Pueblo to meet him before she vanished.
Despite the progress made in the case, Saxton said the arrest had no effect on her emotionally.
"We don't have Kelsie back still and that's the main thing I always wanted," Saxton said. "So, as far as did it bring me peace? No, not really."
Saxton, along with her family, donned pins with Schelling's face on them during the morning's event. After the reading of the names, she and the other grieving families blew hundreds of bubbles in the air.
"It was like blowing kisses in the air to be honest," Precious Hobson, whose father disappeared in 2015, said. "That's how I kind of envisioned it, blowing kisses to your angels and your loved ones."
The families all have more questions than answers with their biggest one being what happened to their loved ones.
"We don't have closure," Saxton said. "We don't get to have a funeral. We don't get to visit the cemetery. We don't get to take flowers, you know, we don't have any of that."
What the families do have is each other and people who understand their pain.
Colorado's Missing Persons Day is actually on February 4. Because it falls on a Sunday this year, Saxton said they decided to organize it a couple of days early.
