[dramatic music playing]
[Natalie] She is the quintessential soccer mom.
[Lissah] This is a woman who has left
three children at home with a nanny
and has been gone for two full days.
[siren wailing]
[Daniel] We are realizing that this is not
just a missing person but actually
potentially a homicide.
People don't get divorced because they love each other.
[Wayne] The children have said that he was going to kill her.
[Daniel] This was a bombshell
to learn that a soccer mom had this secret life.
[Lissah] He's the only person that possibly
was in that area
both days and both times.
[Daniel] I don't care what business you're in,
nobody deserves to have this happen to them.
[Tish] Every day in North America,
dozens of people are murdered.
The key to solving the toughest of these homicides
lies in the final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case,
detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline.
The minutes and hours containing evidence
that can help unlock the mystery
and catch the killer.
[dramatic music playing]
[bird squealing]
[Tish] Grand Junction, Colorado,
a scenic and rugged outdoor paradise.
Grand Junction is a... is a beautiful place.
It's in the Grand Valley
surrounded by picturesque views.
You can do everything here.
You can ski, you can bike,
you can fish, you can hike.
It's typically very quiet
and it's just usually a very safe place.
[bird chirping]
[Wayne] Grand Junction is a small community.
The city itself is about 50,000 people.
The county is about a hundred eighty-five thousand.
[Lissah] We have violent crime.
Percentage-wise, it may not be as high
of violent crime rate has big cities by any means.
That doesn't mean we don't have our share.
[Tish] And with a vast wilderness to explore,
a person can easily disappear.
The case starts when Mr. Howard Beigler
calls the Mesa County Sheriff's Office
on a Saturday morning, June 30th,
and says his ex-wife,
who he has recently got back into
a relationship with, he hadn't heard from her.
He had seen her on the 28th of June
in person for a picnic
and had not been able to get a hold of her
since that time.
[bird chirps]
[Lissah] This is a woman who has left
three children at home with a nanny
and has been gone for two full days.
They're reporting that this is not
normal behavior for her,
that she often checks in
with both Mr. Beigler and her children routinely
and this is concerning.
[Tish] The missing woman is Paige Birgfeld,
a 34-year-old loving mother and entrepreneur.
[dramatic music playing]
[Wayne] Paige was divorced twice,
but a very devoted mother of three children.
She was involved in three different businesses.
She was highly respected and enjoyed
by a lot of the people that she dealt with.
[Natalie] She seemed, by all accounts,
to be the quintessential soccer mom.
She is caring.
She is always there for her kids, very present.
And she has a lot of friends
and a lot of family that loves her.
[Tish] Mesa County detectives, Lissah Norcross
and Wayne Weyler, are tasked with looking
into Paige Birgfeld's disappearance.
[Lissah] If you have a person who's missing
under highly unusual circumstances,
the quicker you can get information,
the better chances you are at solving the case.
[Wayne] The first thing we want to do is
obtain a timeline and try to determine
when the last time she was seen,
where did she go, who did he spend time with.
[Tish] Detectives begin by requesting
Paige's cell phone records
from June 28th until June 30th.
Howard Beigler told us he last spoke with Paige
at around 9:00 on the 20th of June.
Her phone records showed indeed
the last phone call we know she made
was around 9:00 to Mr. Beigler
and hat that phone call was here
in the Grand Junction area.
This is the last time anyone talked with her.
We have records for shortly thereafter
and she does not make any other future phone calls.
Ever.
So, we, as investigators, have to start wondering
if maybe she had met up with someone
and foul play had occurred
and something had happened to her.
[woman groaning]
[siren wailing]
[Tish] Then, at 10:00 PM on July 1st,
three days after Paige's last known whereabouts,
police and fire departments are dispatched
to a vehicle fire.
[Lissah] We get a call that there's a car on fire
at a local manufacturing plant,
Walker SMS,
and that the car is fully engulfed.
The fire department was able to extinguish the fire.
Not everything inside the interior burned.
[Wayne] The license plates were not on the vehicle,
which was a little bit suspicious.
In addition, there was a smell of an accelerant.
[Lissah] The VIN number, we checked that,
and it's found to be Paige's car,
the car that she had driven to Eagle
to meet up with Mr. Birgfeld.
[Wayne] At this point, we're absolutely sure
that there's foul play involved.
Something's awry, that something's not right.
[Tish] Detectives meticulously search the car
for any remaining evidence.
[Lissah] In the trunk, there's a day planner there.
Interestingly, there are four pages missing
from the day planner, which was not burned.
And those pages are the 26th
through the 29th of June.
We're obviously very interested in the fact
that those four days specifically are missing
because one of those days is the day that Ms. Birgfeld
is reportedly last known to be alive.
We also find that the driver seat is pushed
all the way back to suit someone much taller
than Paige Birgfeld who is five foot four.
She didn't drive it. So that tells us
somebody much taller may have.
When you have a missing person under
really suspicious circumstances
and you have their car found on fire,
and you still don't know where they are,
and you're talking about a mom
of three small children, that's not normal.
[Daniel] And that was really the first time that we are
realizing that this is not just a missing person
but actually potentially homicide.
[Tish] Having established that Paige was likely murdered,
detectives need to piece together
her final 24 hours
in order to find her killer.
[Wayne] The first people we looked at are people
that are closest to the victim.
Mr. Beigler right away, obviously,
just by the fact that he was an ex-husband
and was the last person that spent time with them,
obviously he is a person that we would look at.
[Lissah] Howard Beigler explains to investigators
that he has known Paige for years.
They were high school sweethearts.
They got married. They had a short marriage
for a couple years.
He's telling us that they're back together
and they're in an intimate relationship.
So, we must delve into that to look to see
if there's been any problems there.
[Wayne] Why did he come back into her life at that point?
What were the reasons for the relationship ending?
What was his relationship with her second husband?
Was there any jealousy issues?
[Lissah] Mr. Beigler was asked about their marriage
and why they got divorced and he explained
that they got divorced specifically
because she met a gentleman named Rob Dixon
and he had more money
and she was interested in that.
When it comes to people who either currently
are in relationships or have previously
been in relationships,
high emotions can lead to violence.
It can lead to someone killing another human being.
We have to look at that as a possibility.
[Daniel] Oftentimes people think, "Oh, well,
he must not have done it. He reported her missing."
Well, of course, a lot of times people do that
to try and throw law enforcement off the scent.
[dramatic music playing]
[Tish] In the disappearance and presumed murder
of soccer mom Paige Birgfeld,
detectives have their sights on Howard Beigler,
Paige's ex-husband and current boyfriend.
[Lissah] We need to know where he was during that week
inclusive of June 28th and July 1st.
Mr. Beigler reports to us
that he and Paige had previously made arrangements
to both meet in Eagle, Colorado,
which is about halfway in between their homes,
about two to two and a half hour drive
for each of them.
Howard told us that on the 28th of June,
he and Paige were together from about
1:00 in the afternoon until 7:00 in the evening,
that they had a picnic date in the park
in Eagle, Colorado.
He remembers her leaving at about 7:00 PM
going westbound on I-70 back to Grand Junction.
[Tish] Beigler tells investigators
that he then gets into his vehicle
and drives home towards Denver
making a call to Paige at 8:57 PM while driving.
[Lissah] We look into Mr. Beigler's phone
to find out where that is.
The proliferation of cell phones next to DNA
has probably been the biggest game changer
in homicide investigations.
They're basically honing devices
whereby you can follow
an offender or a suspect's movements
by the way that their cell phone will ping off towers
and essentially plot a trail of their movements.
[Daniel] We were able to track his movements
back to the Denver area at the same time
she was traveling back to the Grand Junction area
after their little rendezvous on Thursday.
He had remained in Denver
both at the time that she went missing
and at the time that the car was set on fire.
So, we were able to rule him out because of that.
[Tish] With ex-husband Howard Beigler cleared,
investigators push for their next suspect.
[Lissah] Investigators receive a phone call
from a gentleman named Steven Heald.
He knows Paige. He has heard
that she is missing and he said
he wants to provide information to us.
Mr. Heald tells us Paige mentions to him
that her ex-husband, Rob Dixon,
is coming to town.
[Wayne] Paige had confided in him that she was scared
of Rob Dixon.
He had concerns that Rob Dixon might have
harmed on Paige.
[Lissah] Rob Dixon is a natural person
we have to question.
People don't get divorced because they love each other.
[Tish] Looking for a motive, investigators dig into Rob
and Paige's marriage.
[Daniel] He became Paige's second husband, second love,
and all of her kids were with Rob.
They were together for a long time.
And then as the relationship started to fall apart,
he, I believe, moved to Durango first
and ultimately moved to Pennsylvania.
[Lissah] Frank Birgfeld, who is Paige's father,
advised us that Rob and Paige
ran into a bunch of financial problems
and that broke up their relationship.
Frank told us that Rob,
at first, was a good guy
and seemed to be a nice husband.
Near the end of the relationship,
he said he wasn't so nice
and it wasn't a good relationship,
and there were kind of two sides to Rob.
[Keira] We know money makes the world go round
and money also causes tremendous
conflict in these relationships.
So, left over time, this continues to build
into something that really can create
a motive for murder.
[Tish] Detectives discover there's more to Paige
and Rob's troubled history
than just financial issues.
[Wayne] Close friends of Paige had disclosed to us
that the children had overheard threats
made by Rob Dixon.
Paige had told a friend that the children said
that he was going to kill her.
We checked our records
and there had been numerous calls of disturbances
between Mr. Dixon and Paige Dixon at that time.
Mr. Dixon had been arrested for
domestic violence in the past.
Paige had been fearful and concerned that,
her ex-husband was moving back into the area,
so obviously, he became higher
in the list of suspects.
[Tish] With Paige's ex-husband, Rob Dixon,
in their crosshairs,
investigators haul him into the station
for questioning.
[Lissah] He denies that they had prior violence
between the two.
He does discuss that they argued.
He also talks about they disagreed
on some things with the children.
[Wayne] But when talking about his past with Paige,
he seemed to be deceptive,
he seemed to deflective of some of the questions
that we asked.
It raises suspicions as to why is he not
being forth coming.
[Police speaking]
[Tish] Detectives want to know where Dixon was
between June 28th and July 1st.
The window of time they believe Paige was killed.
Rob Dixon provides us an alibi
and says that he was in Pennsylvania
working as an EMT over several of those days
and says when he wasn't working,
he had several friends helping him pack up his home
to move down to the Durango, Colorado area
to work there.
We look into Rob Dixon's alibi
and we find that indeed he was working in Pennsylvania
long 12-hour shifts during the timeframe
of her disappearance.
We confirmed that he was indeed with
friends on the day of the car fire.
He could not have come to Colorado
in the time in between.
[Tish] Before investigators let Dixon walk out the door,
they ask him if he could think of anyone
who might have held any ill will towards Paige.
[Lissah] Rob Dixon tells us he's concerned that
Paige may have met foul play by someone involved
in the escort business that she was running.
[Daniel] This was a bombshell to learn that
a soccer mom that was so involved
in the community had this secret life.
No one could believe it.
In terms of Grand Junction, it's pretty scandalous.
No one was expecting it, not from Paige Birgfeld.
[Lissah] As investigators were acutely aware
that being involved in the escort business
puts you at a much higher risk
for violence, serious assaults, or even death.
[Daniel] Anytime you're dealing with a secret life
that involves illegal activity,
you're gonna deal with people
who don't wanna tell you the truth.
[Roots] She collected a lot of information
about a lot of individuals.
The fear of information getting out
about their own personal lives is so pronounced
that the only way out
is to get rid of the individual
who's holding this over their head.
There could be so many people who had
a motive to kill Paige.
[Tish] Armed with the revelation that
Paige Birgfeld, mother of three,
had been moonlighting as an escort.
Investigators track down her client list
and began an exhaustive search for suspects.
[Wayne] Paige, the number of clients that she had seen
just recently blew up the suspect list
to about 10 to 15 people and that became difficult
and we had to include every one of those people.
[Tish] In hopes of narrowing down their suspect pool,
investigators look into who Paige had contact with
on June 28th, the day she disappeared.
[Lissah] So we start looking at her phone records
and we see that there's a number
that's called multiple times, many times
over the evening of the 27th to the 28th
and we track that number back
to a person named George Coralluzo.
[Tish] When police look into George Coralluzo,
they discover he's a local house painter.
We try to contact him and we don't get
any answers on that phone number,
but the business partners tell us that,
George failed to show up for work on June 28th,
the same day that Paige disappeared
and that's the same day that he was calling her phone
routinely and repeatedly throughout the whole day.
He tells family and friends
there's been a death in the family
and he buys a last-minute plane ticket
and leaves Colorado and goes to New Jersey.
Cops don't like coincidences,
and the timing of his leaving
is concerning, very concerning.
We're thinking that possibly they met up
and things went sour, we don't know that.
What we do know is that we need to find
George Coralluzo and talk with him as soon as possible.
[Tish] Investigators travel to New Jersey
to interview George Coralluzo.
[Lissah] George tells us that he was,
looking to get a escort service,
a massage service
and that he couldn't find the business
and that he denies he ever met up with anyone.
He pursues to discuss, spending the evening
getting very, very drunk with friends
and then his girlfriend came and picked him up
at about midnight
and then the next day left Grand Junction
to drive over to Denver.
He says he parked his car at the Denver Airport
and flew into New Jersey,
which would be prior to the car fire.
He does admit that he lied to his business partners
about leaving town
and that no one was killed in his family,
but that he just wants a vacation
and doesn't wanna tell his business partners
is what he tells us.
That's a pretty big lie.
[Tish] Investigators work to verify
Coralluzo's whereabouts
between June 28th when Paige went missing,
and July 1st when her car was found on fire.
We confirmed the information that George has given us
that he was indeed out of town.
Investigators find that his car is parked
in long-term parking and they see a parking receipt
for where he entered the parking
at about 11:00 in the evening on June 30th.
He flew to New Jersey and arrived there
at about 1:00 in the afternoon
which is about eight or nine hours
before the car fire.
[Tish] With Coralluzo's alibi checking out,
he's eliminated as a suspect.
Investigators find themselves at a crossroads.
[Daniel] Everybody in the community
knew in their hearts that she had been killed
and our ability to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt
was still hampered by that double life
that she had and the fact that we hadn't found the body yet.
[Natalie] Paige going missing really woke up
Grand Junction to say,
"Wow, we didn't think this could happen
in our backyard, but here it is."
Something has happened to Paige
and we have to keep working and we have to keep trying
and we don't give up just because time
isn't on our side.
[Tish] A chance occurrence revitalizes the case.
[Natalie] It just so happened that somebody driving down
highway 50 in the middle of nowhere
had pulled over to check his tires and had noticed,
I think it was one of Paige's checks
and started to see that,
hey, there's more scattered items out here.
[Daniel] All sorts of items that you would not expect
a person to throw out unless they are trying
to potentially leave a trail of breadcrumbs.
[Wayne] It was our belief that Paige had been put
in the trunk of a vehicle and was trying to leave us
a sign of where she was going.
[Natalie] I think everybody thought,
"This is it. She's leaving us a trail.
She's signaling us to her."
[Tish] After a trail of Paige Birgfeld's
belongings are found on the side of a highway,
police and volunteers scour the area
hoping to find more evidence and perhaps, Paige's body.
Highway 50 is a long stretch.
It's extremely rugged and rural.
They searched and searched knowing that
they could possibly be looking
for a needle in a haystack.
We had a large community search team
that went out and found
close to 75 pieces of evidence.
But unfortunately, even though
all of those personal belongings were found,
it didn't lead to our body.
[dramatic music playing]
[Daniel] There are murder cases
that a prosecuted without a body,
but in this particular situation,
we're talking about a woman who has a double life.
We're talking about a woman who has such a secret life
that some of her best friends had no idea
that she was doing all of these other things.
Our office continued to look at any possible leads.
We had people coming forward with information
about the escort business.
[Tish] When investigators take a closer look
into Paige's business,
they discover she wasn't working alone.
One of the interesting people that came forward
was a woman named Carolyn Linderholm.
She was aware of Paige's Model's Inc. business
and she had actually participated
in some of the calls.
Carol told us that Paige had called her
on the 27th of June and asked her to take a client
by the name of Jim Jones,
because Paige had recognized him
from a previous visit.
She said that Paige was not comfortable
because he had recognized her as being Paige Dixon
and related to Rob Dixon.
She agreed to take the client.
She went to Mr. Jones's home on the 27th of June
between 10:00 and 10:30 in the evening.
She provided a topless massage.
He did ask for additional sexual activity
and she said no.
[Tish] Investigators learned that Jim Jones
is Lester Ralph Jones, a mechanic at Bob Scott RV
which is near Walker SMS Manufacturing.
[Lissah] He works across the street
from where the car was burned so we find that interesting.
[Daniel] Paige's last phone call to anybody
was just outside the Walker SMS
and just outside Bob Scott RV.
We didn't know much about him and we didn't know much
about what his involvement was,
but as we started to look into him
there was a lot of very serious coincidences.
[Tish] Detectives take a second look
at Paige's work phone records and discovers
she received multiple calls from Lester Jones
after he met with Carol on June 27th.
Armed with this information,
they bring Jones into the station for questioning.
[Lissah] Mr. Jones initially denies knowing Ms. Birgfeld
and eventually admits that he does know her
and admits to having service on June 27th with Carol.
[Tish] Detectives question Jones about his whereabouts
on June 28th, the day Paige disappeared.
[Lissah] Mr. Jones tell us all week,
including the 28th of June,
that his same routine is right after work
he goes to the Alano Club socializes with people,
drinks coffee for a little bit,
then gets some dinner and heads home.
[Wayne speaking]
[Lester speaking]
[Wayne speaking]
[Lester speaking]
[Wayne speaking]
[Lester speaking]
[Lissah] Mr. Jones says that
no one can corroborate he was home by himself
because he was alone.
However, he states his wife returned to town on June 30th
during the afternoon.
While some investigators are talking with Mr. Jones
at the sheriff's office,
other investigators go out to Mrs. Jones's workplace
and contact her.
And during that conversation, Mrs. Jones said that
Mr. Jones was gone Sunday evening on July 1st
between about 9:00 and 10:15.
[Wayne] He states that he had to drive to Bob Scott's RV
and turn off the lights.
He puts himself right there at the time of the fire.
[Tish] When detectives look
into Lester Jones's background,
they discover a history
of domestic abuse and assault.
[Wayne] He has a prior arrest for assault
and sexual assault, and kidnapping,
and that he had been prisoned for three years.
As we dig further into him, we find that,
uh, with two of his first ex-wives,
he had propensity for violence,
domestic violence, sexual violence
towards both of them.
[Tish] Having uncovered a pattern of violence
against women,
detectives put Jones' alibi to the test.
[Daniel] When we confronted Lester about his alibi,
he wasn't able to give us any names.
We were able to verify that he did in fact go to work
that day, but of significance,
nobody remembered him being at the club that night
on June 28th.
[Lissah] We have nothing to alibi where he is
on the evening of the 28th,
and he puts himself in the area
of the evening of the car fire,
and he's the only person so far that we've run into
that possibly was in that area both days and both times.
[Wayne] We were in consultation
with the District Attorney's Office
throughout this investigation,
and we believed we had the primary suspect
in Lester Jones.
[Tish] Having zeroed in on Lester Jones,
police obtain search warrants for his house,
vehicles, and place of work.
No body homicides are rather obviously
very difficult investigations and are seldom prosecuted.
What you have to do is collect what you call
the corpus delicti or the body of evidence
through other means, and assemble basically
a circumstantial case that is rock solid.
[dramatic music playing]
[Wayne] As we search his desks and the work area
at Bob Scott's, the first thing of note
is the gas can that's sitting there.
Obviously, with our information
that there was accelerants used,
um, in the vehicle fire,
none of the other employees claim that
that is their gas can,
that they have not seen that there before.
[Lissah] We find a list with names
of, um, escort ladies.
We find wigs, men's wigs.
We find a package of condoms and some Viagra pills,
all of these in his closed locker area
that is used only by him.
We know Mr. Jones and Paige knew each other
and she didn't wanna see him for that.
There's a concern was he maybe trying
to meet up with her and disguise who he was.
[Wayne] We saw that there was our package
for a track phone in the trashcan
next to his desk.
That raises our suspicions and we believe now
we're on the right trail.
[Roots] Criminals, or people who are about
to commit crime, are getting savvy.
They understand that their cell phone
will be used to track them.
A track phone is often used because you don't have
to provide your name or your address,
so there's no paper trail.
[Lissah] We tracked that back to being purchased
at a specific date and time at a local Walmart store.
We go there, we get surveillance video,
and lo and behold, it is Lester Jones
purchasing that phone.
[Tish] Investigations obtain records
for the prepaid cell phone purchased by Lester Jones.
[Lissah] When we get the phone records,
the only calls made using that phone
are to Paige Birgfeld's Model's, Inc. Cell phone.
There were five calls to and from that phone
on the day of her disappearance,
and the last call on that phone
was at about 7:55 on June 28th
when Paige called Mr. Jones back.
It was clear to us that his efforts to call
from his personal cell phone were unsuccessful,
so we assumed that is why he got the prepaid phone
was to disguise who he was and try and convince Paige
to meet up with this person she doesn't know.
[Tish] With the evidence
against Lester Jones mounting,
investigators obtain another search warrant
for his two computers.
[dramatic music playing]
[Daniel] Every evening,
when he would get home from work,
he would get back on his computer,
and you're able to see the computer usage.
[Wayne] He was involved with a lot of pornography
and checking other escorts
and prostitution type services
on June 26th, 27th,
while his wife was out of town.
On June 28th, during the evening hours,
there was no activity, and then again on June 29th
and June 30th, there was a lot of activity.
[Daniel] He was a creature of habit
and everyday looked exactly the same,
except for the day that Paige went missing.
[Tish] With the search warrants complete,
a patrol officer calls Jones's home to arrange
for the return of his two cars
that were seized and searched.
A sergeant in the investigation unit
called Mr. Jones and realizes that Mr. Jones sounds
almost like he's intoxicated or, uh, sounds off-kilter.
Mr. Jones says something to the effect
of "You ask me where I would bury a body?"
And the sergeant is pretty surprised
by that statement,
because he never asked him that question.
Right after that statement was made,
Mrs. Jones took the phone
and said her husband wasn't feeling well,
and ended the conversation.
That was pretty significant fact to us
because Mr. Jones actually had a history.
He had been convicted of kidnapping his prior wife
and he had actually told her,
"I'm going to kill you and bury you on a lake
where nobody will ever find your body."
And so we knew he was capable of this type of behavior.
- [woman grunts] - [Tish] But without a body,
detectives can't arrest or charge Lester Jones
with the crime.
[Lissah] You get one shot at prosecuting on a homicide,
so the decision was made to not arrest at the time.
[woman grunting]
We believe she's dead.
We don't know where the body is.
We don't know how Lester Jones killed her.
We had already decided he was our guy
but it was just not realistic
to prosecute without the body.
[ominous music playing]
[Tish] In the murder of Paige Birgfeld,
detectives have zeroed in on Lester Jones.
A former client
of the soccer mom turned escort.
But without a body or any physical evidence
connecting him to the crime, he remains at large.
[car door closes]
[Wayne] Finding a body is important.
It's not absolute but became difficult
trying to prosecute without the body,
because Paige was involved in this double life,
so it was very frustrating.
[Daniel] We were left with waiting
and trying to follow up
with any other lead that came up.
[birds chirping]
[Wayne] Obviously, the family was grieved.
The community was concerned
that there was this killer out there,
or alleged killer out there.
[Natalie] It was really hard for Grand Junction.
Everybody wanted answers.
People that didn't even know her
were calling the news station every day saying,
"What's the update on Paige?
Where is she? Have we found her?"
[Tish] Months turn into years, and eventually
the investigation into Paige Birgfeld's disappearance
and presumed murder goes cold.
And then we get a phone call.
[Tish] On the morning of March 6th, 2012,
two hikers stumble onto a key piece of evidence
approximately 45 minutes south of Grand Junction.
Two hikers are down hiking the Wells Gulch area
which is one of our adjacent counties
and they come across some human remains.
Investigators from Mesa County
and Delta County head down there,
do some searching and find
almost a full skeleton of a adult.
[Daniel] We all knew as soon as we heard
whose bones they were gonna be.
[Lissah] The remains were examined by
both the Mesa County coroner
and also a forensic anthropologist
here in Colorado.
There was DNA extracted that was found
to match that of Paige Birgfeld.
[dramatic music playing]
[Lissah] Investigators were glad
the remains are finally found.
This gives some kind of
a small portion of closure to the family,
even though this was really hard news to deliver.
And that gets us to where we know
we're going to be able to close the case.
[Tish] Having identified the remains
as Paige Birgfeld, investigators work
to determine a cause of death.
[Lissah] Unfortunately, the, uh,
forensic anthropologist nor the coroner
are able to determine an exact cause of death.
There were two fractures on the face,
both which would somewhat suggest
that there was some kind of a fight.
These were determined to be perimortem
which is at about the time of death.
[Wayne] There was duct tape, as well as some black tape
along her mouth area
and around the bones of the body,
so it clearly shows that she had been bound
either while going into that area
or at the area at the time.
[Tish] With this final piece of the puzzle,
detectives are now able to reconstruct
Paige's final 24 hours.
[Lissah] Howard Beigler says that they saw each other
and he saw her, uh, in her car driving
towards Grand Junction at about 7:00 on June 28th.
[Wayne] At approximately 7:39, we know that Lester Jones
called Paige Birgfeld on her work phone for Models, Inc.,
and this was from Lester Jones' track phone
that he had bought.
During this time, we know
that she's still driving home.
After 8:57 PM, we know that Paige Birgfeld met up
with Lester Jones at either Bob Scott RV or Walker SMS
which is across the street where her vehicle was found.
[woman gasps]
[Daniel] Then he kidnapped her and he duct taped
around her skull, around her head,
which would indicate that she was alive at that point
that that happened and likely being driven somewhere.
The seat was pushed back in the car
which would indicate that Mr. Jones was driving it.
[Wayne] He drives her to Wells Gulch area
of the Delta County.
Paige Birgfeld, who's in the trunk of her vehicle,
was throwing out cards and checkbooks
to lead a trail to where she would be at.
[Lissah] We don't know exactly what the last moments
of Paige's life were,
but due to information that Mr. Jones
had previously threatened other ex-wives
and choked them, you can wonder
if that's how she met her demise.
[Daniel] Paige was killed at some point
and buried deep enough that we didn't find her remains
for five years.
And that vehicle was brought back up to Grand Junction
and dropped off.
[Wayne] On July 1st, about 9:00 PM,
Lester Jones realizes that their vehicle
was parked across from the street.
There could be possibly evidence inside that vehicle
so he drives to Bob Scott RV's
under the pretense of turning off the lights
in his office, goes across the street.
He takes four pages of the calendar
out of the calendar book,
uses accelerants, gasoline,
or some type of gasoline accelerant,
start the fire,
and arrives back home where his wife sees him.
[Lissah] He knew that she had information
about her clients in there and needed that evidence gone.
[suspenseful music playing]
This is by definition of a sexual homicide.
He has pursued the victim for a sexual purpose.
[Roots] She was avoiding his phone calls.
She was denying him the opportunity to see her,
passing him off to another colleague
was probably the last straw for him.
[Tish] On November 21st, 2014, more than seven years
after Paige Birgfeld's disappearance,
Lester Jones is arrested and charged
with first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping.
He is eventually convicted and sentenced
to life in prison without parole.
[Wayne] Justice was done, justice was due,
and justice was delivered.
[dramatic music playing]
[Lissah] You have to be in this for the long haul.
It took a little over seven years
to resolve this case.
[Daniel] I don't care what business you're in,
nobody deserves to have this happen to them.
[Tish] Despite Lester Jones' sentence,
Paige Birgfeld's family is still left reeling
from their loss.
When Paige's body was found,
I think the stories resurfaced
about her double life and her escort service.
But I think it was tremendously overshadowed
by what a great mom she was.
I think at the end of the day,
we can all sympathize with somebody
that is really just trying to do their best
and provide for their family.
Did she have other options?
We don't know, but she did what she felt
she had to do for her family.
[dramatic music playing]