Paige Birgfeld, a hard-working single mother-of-three, was living a secret double life as an escort when she disappeared from Grand Junction, Colorado.
Paige Birgfeld was working several jobs, and still showed up at parent-teacher association meetings and playgroups. However, there was something else that Birgeld was involved in that no one knew about.
Her family was completely unaware of her secret job as an escort.
Paige Birgfeld disappeared on June 28, 2007, leaving her kids with her live-in nanny. Her 8-year-old daughter, Jess Dixon, left desperate voicemails asking for her mom to come home.
After not hearing from her mom for two full days, Jess and the nanny went to the police station to let police know that Birgfeld had disappeared.
The authorities tried to figure out where the woman might be.
Authorities said that Paige’s ex-husband, Rob Dixon, quickly came under suspicion. He was charged with third-degree assault against her before their divorce. However, police found that he wasn’t nearby at the time of the disappearance.
Paige Birgfeld’s friend, Barbra Campbell, said her financial situation played a role in the escort business. Investigators soon learned that Paige Birgfeld had a separate cell phone for her escort business, and honed in on the clients who called her on the night she vanished. They focused on Lester Ralph Jones, a client that called her that night.
Investigators discovered Paige Birgfeld’s burning car three days after she was reported missing. The driver’s side front seat of Paige Birgfeld’s car had been pushed all the way back, indicating someone very tall had been behind the wheel.
Investigators found that Lester Ralph Jones, her client, was tall enough to have pushed the driver’s side front seat backward before it was set on fire.
Investigators contacted Jones at work on July 5, 2007 and took his fingerprints, DNA and keys to his truck. Paige Birgfeld’s family waited for updates in the case for five agonizing years, during which the case went cold. But in March 2012, a hiker found Paige’s remains in a gulch amid rocks, weeds and brush.
Jones was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and kidnapping in relation to Paige Birgfeld’s death.