Ideal Mom
To the people who knew her, Paige Birgfeld seemed to be an amazing person. She was a loving mother, a reliable friend, and a smart businesswoman, beloved by all in her small Colorado town. That’s why the world seemed to stop when one day she suddenly failed to come home. All contact with her was lost. Why would this sweet woman seemingly abandon her family at random? As it turns out, the reason she was hiding was because she was living bizarre double life.
Paige Birgfeld lived a seemingly normal, comfortable life in the town of Grand Junction, Colorado. To her neighbors, she was the spitting image of a perfect mother and hard-working woman. She was beloved by all in her beautiful mountain town, tucked away in the Grand Valley. She and her three children lived a peaceful life, although she had recently gone through a divorce from her husband Rob, who had allegedly been violent with her in the past. After she separated from Rob, Paige picked up the pieces and kept everything together.
Life After The Divorce
After Paige and her husband Rob finalized their divorced, she had to figure out how to raise three kids without her husband's additional income. She refused to live paycheck to paycheck, so she got industrious. Her goal was to give her beloved children the most comfortable life that she could provide.
Her work endeavors involved everything from selling nursing slings, cooking supplies and running a cluster of dance studios for kids. She managed several businesses until finally deciding to try her hand at love again and move on from her divorce.
New Love, New Life
Before Rob, Paige was married to a man she had dated in high school, Howard Ron Biegler, and Rob was not a fan. Despite being high school sweethearts, their marriage ultimately did not last. That was not the end of their connection, though.
After the divorce, and even once Paige remarried, the two still remained in touch and stayed friends. After getting divorced from her second husband, Paige and Howard’s correspondences started turning romantic once again. They soon started dating...again.
The Reunion
The two wanted their reunion and first date in years to be something more special than a typical date night.
They came up with a cute plan for a picnic at the most scenic spot in town.They decided to meet in the town of Eagle, which was a two-hour drive from Paige’s home in Grand Junction.
The Ride Back
Paige set off back home, hoping to arrive early enough to see her children before they went to bed. Despite the long days of summer, dusk came quickly. Howard called her to make sure her drive was going well and she said it was. In fact, she said that she was almost home, but little did he know, that would be the last time he heard from her.
Back in Grand Junction, her children anxiously awaited their mother’s arrival, knowing that it would be well after dark by the time she got home. They had a nanny with them but soon one hour turned into more and more. Where could she be?
Waiting For Mommy
By 11:00 PM, Paige was still not in the driveway and her children grew more and more worried. When she spoke with Howard and said she was almost home, that was at 9:00 PM. This was not like their mother, whatsoever.
Her daughter called her mother’s cellphone. She left a long, distressing voicemail for her mother, in an attempt to get some sort of confirmation from her. She was unsuccessful.
Something's Not Right
Paige had gone missing after her date on a Thursday, but by Saturday, she was still nowhere to be seen. It became clear that something was very wrong. At this point, Howard had also left countless frantic voicemails.
Even her second ex-husband Rob, now residing in Pennsylvania, reached out desperately to make contact with his ex-wife. There was no choice but to report the mother as missing to the police.
Her Family
Soon enough, police got to work investigating the interesting disappearance. How could this loving mother simply vanish out of the blue?
It didn't make sense to Paige's family that she would abandon her three lovely children and fail to make contact with anyone.
Parking Lot Mystery
On July 1, 2007, police made a terrifying discovery in a parking lot only three miles away from Paige’s home. A red Ford Focus was found burning in an empty parking lot.
The car belonged to Paige and was the car she was driving when she left from her date with Howard. This was the first lead in a complicated case.
Inside The Car
The police searched the burnt car, possibly expecting to see Paige’s body inside. What they found, however, just confused them more and deepened the case.
Paige was nowhere to found in or near the vehicle and many of her belongings were gone as well, which was eerie to police.
Some Clues In The Case
Police turned up more than a few illuminating clues even though her purse and phone were missing. The investigators found a planner in which Paige carefully wrote out her schedule for the next several days.
The state of the planner raised a couple eyebrows for a startling reason and helped them understand where she had been and where she intended to go for those next few days.
The Mysterious Planner
The police paid special attention to this planner.
They thought for surviving a car fire, the planner was very intact, except for one interesting detail: the last four pages were torn out.
Strange Seat
After analyzing the contents of the car, police decided to place their attention on the state of the car. Although the vehicle was in bad shape because of the fire, there was one big thing amiss inside, particularly that driver’s seat was situated far from the steering wheel, as far as it could go, reaching the back seats.
Paige's feet clearly couldn't reach the pedals from that far back.
Where Could She Be?
The terrain surrounding the area is can be very rough.The nearby Gunnison River was among the first places search crews looked for Paige after expanding the search. This river is no more predictable than the desert landscape surrounding it.
Swift and craggy, it winds through the canyons. Police thought maybe she had drowned in the river.
Search Party
The family had a large search party of 100 people who hiked across the intense terrain to find Paige.
They didn't know what they would find, but any answers were welcome at this point, for the sake of the searcher and the family.
Weird Phone Calls
As the search was coming up empty, police were left with tiny clues but had no idea how they could link together and explain Paige’s strange disappearance. Next, police turned to search Paige’s phone records because she was using her phone during the drive home.
Both of Paige’s ex-husbands had already been ruled out as suspects in her disappearance, but one mysterious number remained unknown. Paige had called that number right before went missing.
Jim and Carie?
When police contacted the mysterious last number, they discovered something that surprised them all. It turned out that while Paige was taking care of her beautiful family and living a peaceful life in Grand Junction, she was also living a double life.
Police soon tracked the mysterious phone number that Paige had called to a man named “Jim.” To make matters even more perplexing, Jim did not know Paige as Paige. He only knew her as Carrie.
Not-So-Normal Life
Finding Jim became something of a challenge because he had been contacting Paige via a prepaid phone, so it was not linked to any credit card or even a real name. As it turned out, she was the only person Jim contacted with the phone.
A total of five calls were made over several days until the phone eventually went dead. Soon, police went to work to find out who this "Jim" was.
'Jim' Revealed
police eventually learned that Jim was not named Jim at all. His real name was actually Lester Jones.
They also found out that his place of employment was situated right across from the parking lot in which Paige’s car was found burning.
Lester Jones
police looked over Jones' record and found out that he had served time in jail for crimes ranging from sexual assault to an attempted kidnapping. Police eventually raided Lester’s work, which was an R.V.
shop. There, they uncovered the secret life of “Jim.” In his office, he kept meticulous lists about various escorts, which included details about their appearances, their personalities, even their bra sizes.
Secret Life Of Paige
While searching through Jones' things, police discovered Paige's dark secret. She was an escort.
Her strange phone calls were regarding the business she ran called Models Inc., in which she was the only employee named "Carrie".
Family Is Stunned
Paige’s family was stunned to learn about her secret life as an escort. Her parents processed this unbelievable news as her siblings tried to make sense of all the news.
One thing they did determine, however, was that Paige didn't take on this job for the enjoyment. They were convinced it was all done to provide a better life for her children.
Hiker Finds A Body
Five years after Paige vanished, in 2012, a hiker was out enjoying the scenic beauty of Wells Gulch, a 40-minute drive from Grand Junction. As the hiker crossed a dry riverbed, he spotted a human skull.
Once the skull was properly taken in for examination, another grisly discovery was made: duct tape was around the mouth. After a forensic analysis, it was determined that the remains were Paige's.