Going West: True Crime - Paige Birgfeld // 308

Episode Date: May 27, 2023

In June of 2007, a newly single mother of three vanished from her Colorado home. Shortly after, her car was found burned out, but it would take years for her body to be uncovered. Once police learned she was living what they referred to as a double-life, many potential suspects added themselves to her story, with one person standing out among the rest. This is the story of Paige Birgfeld. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89397721/paige-meredith-birgfeld 2. CBS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-secret-life-of-paige-birgfeld/ 3. CBS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-an-arrest-7-years-in-the-making/ 4. ABC: https://abcnews.go.com/US/trials-killer-colorado-mom-secret-life-appeals-conviction/story?id=77812059#:~:text=Lester%20Jones%20is%20arrested%2C%20stands,nine%20years%20after%20her%20disappearance. 5. Paige's Obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/denverpost/name/paige-birgfeld-obituary?id=19482076 6. A Candy Rose blog: http://www.acandyrose.com/paige_birgfeld_photo5a.jpg 7. The Daily Sentinel: https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/friends-family-gather-in-memory-of-paige-birgfeld/article_4137e35d-d5c4-5a54-9300-89ffb5148465.html 8. Paige's House: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2512-Oleaster-Ct-Grand-Junction-CO-81505/13945131_zpid/? 9. KJCT8: https://www.kjct8.com/content/news/Hear-the-audio-and-the-transcript-389125841.html 10. Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89397721/paige-meredith-birgfeld 11. George's Obituary: https://ronefuneralservice.com/tribute/details/201/George-Coralluzzo/obituary.html 12. NJ.com: https://www.nj.com/cumberland/2011/08/man_visited_2_taverns_before_t.html 13. People: https://people.com/crime/lester-jones-guilty-paige-birgfeld-murder/ 14. The Daily Sentinel: https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/appeals-court-vacates-part-of-jones-conviction/article_e300b670-e292-11ec-9f82-2b7308fdde7e.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One is going on True Crime fans. I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. I'm a little less congested today So hopefully we won't have as annoying as a voice's last episode She's back up to 100 people getting better. Yes. Thank you so much to Julie for recommending today's case This one takes place in Colorado and it is a wild ride So without with further or two without further ado. Let's just dive into this one with some further ado in there somewhere Let's get into it. All right guys guys this is episode 308 of going west so let's get into it In June of 2007, a newly single mother of three vanished from her Colorado home. Shortly after, her car was found set ablaze, but it would take years for her body to be uncovered.

One's police learned that she was living what they referred to as a double life. Many potential suspects added themselves to her story, with one person standing out among the rest. Bergfeld. Hage Meredith Bergfeld was born on April 27, 1973 in Atlanta, Georgia to Suzanne and Frank Bergfeld, joining an older brother named Craig. When Paige was eight years old, the Bergfeld's relocated to Liddleton, Colorado, which is a suburb just a few miles south of downtown Denver. So growing up, Paige's parents were called a very warm and gregarious girl who could make

friends with anyone. Her obituary reads, quote, when she smiled, she was radiant to a degree that made the sun jealous. She was known for being kind and gentle and loved animals. Paige started dancing at a young age and became particularly fond of ballet. And she even thought of taking over her childhood dance studio when she got older and wanted to maybe become a career dance teacher. But back to her upbringing, so as a teenager, she grew into a very confident young woman remembered as fiercely loyal.

Her brother Craig shared the story that their father once got a call from her high school principal's office, and he was informed that she had stepped into the middle of a fight to help someone else out and wound up hitting someone in the face. Her brother Craig stated, quote, �Page promptly punched her in the nose even though the other girl was bigger than she was. She was just sticking up for somebody.� After graduating from heritage high school, Paige moved down to the southeastern United

States to live in Florida so she could attend the University of Florida in Gainesville. It's actually crazy because she would have started going to the University of Florida and probably the fall of 1991 just based on her age I could not find her graduation year. But that's exactly one year after the Gainesville Ripper murdered five students from that school. So, yes, Danny Rolling, right? Yes, exactly. And we covered that case. I think it was the very first bonus episode that you can find on Patreon or Apple subscriptions, but yeah, it's a horrific story. And Paige would have started going to that very school soon after that happened. Like I said, probably the year after, if my calculations

are correct. But anyway, so her brother had also gone out of state to attend college and was studying to become a plastic surgeon. And he recalled, quote, I always liked the science of medicine. With her that wasn't it, she liked the helping people aspect of it. So page enrolled in college to become a nurse. And while she was going to school in Florida to become a nurse, her high school boyfriend, who was Ron Beagler, moved with Paige to Gainesville to stay close to her.

Ron and Paige met when she was 16 and he was 19 and already at a high school. Admittedly, her family thought that it was a bit of an odd match because Paige was responsible and straight-laced, and Ron, with long blonde hair and a lot of tattoos, played in a rock band. Not that, you know, rockers can't be responsible, but from, you know, there are more traditional views it seemed like it was kind of an interesting match for them. But Ron was kind and doding to Paige, even reminiscing that she had leaned into Kiss him for the first time, and that he had shied away and inadvertently rejected it. Ron remembered QUOTE, she took it as rejection, that wasn't the case at all, I was just nervous.

Ron said that he put Paige on a pedestal and even admitted QUOTE, I married over my head. So in Florida, the couple moved in together and started laying the groundwork for their future life, and this is when Ron first remembered Paige opening up about a secret desire that she had, to put her years of training to good use and dance at a strip club to pull in extra money. Now Ron was originally very hesitant about this, mostly because he was just concerned for her safety, saying, quote, I just didn't want her to do it, and she never did while we lived there. After about a year at the University of Florida, Paige decided that it just wasn't for her, and the couple moved back to the Denver area.

Although they were both really young, they were enamored with each other, and Ron remembered that he, quote, loved everything about her. So, the couple became engaged and held a picture-perfect ceremony overlooking both the skyline of the city and the mountains at the Mount Vernon Canyon Club and Golden Colorado. Sounds gorgeous. So they moved into a small house in Aurora, Colorado, and Paige finally fulfilled her desire

to dance in a club a few nights a week. You know, this was just a really good way for her to bring in extra money and probably a lot of it. So she danced under the name Madison at a club in Denver called the Myel High Saloon. But Ron continued to be hesitant about this, but he didn't want to stop her from doing what she wanted to do. He apparently made his peace with it, saying quote, I also don't think she felt very pretty or attractive

and I think stripping made her feel better about herself and made her feel more powerful. Sadly, Ron and Paige's marriage lasted only three years until they decided to separate. So basically, Paige was excited to be a mom or at least excited to eventually be a mom and she just wanted to start that process soon.

But Ron had decided that he didn't want kids at all, which many of us know can totally make or break a relationship when you get to that stage. So ultimately, their marriage ended because of it, and they called it quits in 1997. But shortly after they separated, Ron was actually arrested for suspicion of harassment and domestic violence charges after showing up at Paige's house one night and he spent the night in jail because of this. So shortly after her divorce and while dancing at the mile high saloon, Paige men a man named Rob Dixon. Rob came from money and worked with his father at his father's company and in the early days of their relationship he showered page with affection and gifts including a $12,000 necklace.

They married quickly in a Las Vegas ceremony and settled in Grand Junction, Colorado, which is a beautiful area if you guys want to go look at pictures. Oh yeah, absolutely gorgeous. So pretty. And it's about four hours west of Denver. But most importantly, Rob also wanted kids. So they were already off to a great start. He purchased a sprawling 6,000 square foot property for their growing family boasting four

bedrooms and six bathrooms plus a movie theater and a gym. And Rob filled the massive garage with nine sports cars. So this house is now valued at 1.9 million. So just like they wanted, they filled this house with kids. And soon they had three who are Jesse, Taft, and their youngest who's nicknamed Trigger. And this filled Paige's heart because her greatest pride came from being a mom. Her dad said proudly, quote, my daughter, if she had two broken legs, she'd crawl on her elbows to get to her children.

Her brother Craig echoed this and said quote, I think as long as I can remember what she wanted to be was a mom, and she just couldn't wait to be that mom. Paige was a devoted parent who loved supporting her children in their endeavors, and she really relished the moments that she spent making friends with other moms in the area. But the manicured facade that Page and Rob had worked so hard to show to their community was beginning to crack. Rob's company investments were failing, and their finances were crumbling at this point. He had also been accused by some locals of fraud when he convinced the Grand Junction Rule Fire Protection District to invest in

a company in which he held stock. And when this stock began to plummet, the fire protection district tried to withdraw their funds, but they wound up losing a million dollars on this deal. But because he later filed for bankruptcy, Rob was not held accountable for this loss. But after this, the couple began to fight about money, and their relationship just really faltered. One night, while Paige was working late, he called and threatened her and the kids, and obviously panicked by his statements, she dialed 911 from work, saying, quote, my husband and I were in a fight and he said that I would come home and find them all murdered. So messed up.

Yeah, pretty horrible thing to say. So in October of 2005, Rob was arrested for a salting page, allegedly punching her in the throat and slapping her. So obviously their marriage did not survive much longer after that. And good for Paige, a fantastic woman who didn't deserve that horrible treatment. Paige ultimately got the house in the divorce, but with a large estate that they had secured

when they were, you know, much more financially stable, and a $6,000 monthly mortgage to handle on her own, Paige at this point was really struggling. But she refused to let go of the house, because she wanted to maintain this stability for her children. So after they split, Rob actually moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for work, and Paige was on her own in grand junction. Yeah, he moved all the way across the country. So Paige was working a handful of jobs to string together some sort of a salary. Like she made in sold baby slings. She taught dance classes to preschool age kids.

And she also sold pampered chef, which is like a multi-level marketing scheme that sold cooking equipment. Now, according to her friends and family, she was stretched so thin, but she was dead set on doing anything that she could to provide for her kids.

So on the morning of June 28th, 2007, Paige headed out for the day and left her kids with their live in Nanny. And that would be the last time that the children would hear from their mother. Sadly, Paige's children called her over and over again, just begging her to call them back. In one voicemail, her eight-year-old daughter, Jessie, can be heard pleading, quote, "'You said you would be back quickly and you haven't been back, please call back quickly.' But Paige didn't return. So after not hearing back from her for two full days, Jessie and her nanny headed to the

police station to report 34-year-old Paige missing. The children's nanny apparently didn't speak very much English, so eight-year-old Jesse did much of the reporting herself, but luckily Paige's parents raced there from Denver to aid in the search for their daughter and helped the nanny. Paige's brother Craig, who's now a successful plastic surgeon in Seattle and his wife Callie, also uprooted themselves to move into Paige's house and take care of her three children. Three days after Paige was last seen, her car was found engulfed in flames. On the evening of July 1st, 2007, 911 received a call claiming that a car had caught fire

in an industrial area of northwest Grand Junction, which again is where Paige lived. Paige's red Ford Focus was immersed in flames in the parking lot of Walker Products Inc, which is an auto parts store at the corner of 23rd Road and Logos Drive. Her car was the only thing on fire which indicated that it was likely left there for the sole purpose of being burned. Yeah, which obviously looks really bad. She's been missing for three days and now her car is on fire seemingly on purpose as

it gets into confirmed on purpose as they're going to confirm to on purpose. So the caller claimed that there was no one else around at the time and police found no sign of anybody in the vicinity. So after dousing the flames and beginning to inspect the vehicle for signs of foul play in relation to Paige's disappearance, investigators discovered that an accelerant had been used to speed up the burn. So in addition to the accelerant, investigators found that the driver's seat of her car had been pushed back all the way. As if someone other than Paige, who was 5 feet 4 inches tall, had been driving it.

I mean, even you and I, like, I'm 5'10", you're, what are you, 6 feet? 6'1". And even we have different positions of the car. Driving it. I mean, even you and I, like, I'm 5'10, you're, what are you, six feet, six one? Yeah. And even we have different positions of the car. Exactly. So it's like to be that, like, significantly pushed back when she is on the shorter side, like that, that tells you something. Yeah, they knew that something was wrong just by that.

So miraculously, Paige's planner was recovered from inside the car, and it had mostly been spared from the flames. But oddly, the pages of June 26 through June 29 were torn out, indicating that she had likely made a note about the person she had been meeting with, and that he was likely the person responsible for her disappearance and the burning of her car. Which is such an eerie detail, because that would mean that maybe this person would have known that they would in her planner if they even were. They went through all the

trouble of finding the planner, finding the pages with possibly their name on it and then ripping those out. And that's, I mean, that's three full days. Or well, actually the 26 to 27, 28, 29, so technically four full days. Just such a crazy detail of this story. Yeah, especially because her friends remembered that Paige was like hyper organized. They claimed that she would have never gone anywhere without her planner, and that no event would have gone undocumented. So as Mesa County police began to question the people in Paige's life, one of her closest

friends, Andrea, remembered Paige having said recently that she had still felt threatened by Rob, even after they had divorced and he had moved all the way to Philadelphia, which is like 30 hours by car and 6 hours by plane. Paige was very connected with other mothers in the community as we mentioned, and she belonged to multiple groups for area moms, and she had so many close friends who were mothers. And on one online forum for community moms, she wrote a chilling post that read, quote, quote, My children would ask me if dad was going to kill me.

I can't imagine what life would be like for them after he killed me. I would gladly sacrifice every penny of child support if he would just stay away." Thus, suspicions fell on Rob. In fact, multiple friends and family, when asked who in Paige's life they suspected of involvement, answered Rob. One friend even left her a voicemail after she had gone missing, pleading, quote, One friend even left her a voicemail after she had gone missing, pleading, quote, "'I hope this isn't Rob, oh my god. However, Rob had been in Philadelphia at the time of Paige's disappearance, all the way across the country.

Both he and his phone were confirmed to have been there on the day that Paige was last seen, but Rob did reveal a new piece of information for investigators. Paige had been living a bit of a double life. And I know it feels so corny to refer to this as a double life when this is just part of what she was doing for work. So I just want to say that. But everybody kind of refers to this section of her story that I'm about to tell you as her having a double life.

But I think mostly it's considered that because she kept it more of a secret to most of the people in her life, only a few people knew about this. So, after leaving her job dancing at the mile high saloon when she and Rob moved to Grand Junction, Paige had started a side hustle to bring in more money for the family while their finances kind of floundered. So she had secretly been working as an escort on the side and had become so successful at it that she even started her own company.

She rented out an office space in a local building and went by the inauthpicious name of Models Inc under the guise of a modeling agency. But what she really offered was herself and she was the only employee. Paige would post on Craigslist and other online forums advertising her escort services under the name Carrie and her posting red quote, Beautiful body and face, nice hair and teeth,

sensual mannerisms with a fun attitude. Tired of chop meat showing up when you ordered filet mignon? Affluent clients are delighting in sessions with models in colletties. So it seemed like she was kind of making it seem like there were more people around this when it really was mostly just her. So according to her friends, she offered companion ship,

dates, and massages, but nothing further. She told very few people about her new endeavor, like I said, which she had started in 2005, but her ex-husband Rob was furious when he found out and claims that that is what led to the fight in which she assaulted her. It's kind of shitty because he blames that on, oh, you know, we fought and I assaulted her because I learned about this job Like as if that's an excuse to hit your wife. Yeah, no excuse not at all But this is why Paige told so few people about this part of her life because she wanted to avoid judgment from within her family And her community but at the same time it's just what she felt she needed to do

Receiving just $500 a month in child support from her ex-husband Rob her community, but at the same time, it's just what she felt she needed to do. Receiving just $500 a month in child support from her ex-husband Rob, she was desperate to keep her children in their beloved home, believing the divorce had been enough change for them already. Like, she was an amazing mom, she was doing everything that she could. So model's ink was this way to supplement her other endeavors discreetly to keep the family afloat. Her brother Craig explained, quote, she found herself in a position of being the breadwinner and trying to make ends meet. Craig's wife, Kali, added that back when

Paige had been dancing, she had earned $400,000 a year. so the leap to being an escort was just an obvious one. Her friends who were aware of what she was doing knew that she was doing it for her children, and they didn't take any issue with it. One friend said, quote, I knew she did exotic dancing and maybe she had some dancers that she booked jobs for, but that didn't matter to me. Her actions as a mother spoke much louder than anything else. Another claimed quote, there's a very clear line between legal and illegal, and she made sure that that line was never crossed.

She knew that if she crossed that line, she could jeopardize her kids. But the job was not without its inherent risks. One night, shortly before her disappearance, Paige's friend Andrea remembered her being frightened by a man in a white pickup truck. She had been waiting in her office for a client, but when he didn't show, she left and got into her minivan, which was parked in the parking lot outside. But before she could pull out of the parking spot, the pickup truck drove up behind her, blocking her in and idling there.

Paige told Andrea that she was so terrified that she was readying herself to back up into the truck to scare him off, but that he finally gave up and drove away. music Before that quick break, we learned that the suspicion was removed from Paige's ex-husband Rob, but that Paige, shortly before she went missing, had a really scary incident with a man in a white pickup truck, which we're going to get into here in a bit. But first let's talk about police turning to Paige's first husband, Ron. Now coincidentally it turned out that she and Ron had reconnected since her divorce from Rob and the two had been seeing each other again. So we've got Ron and Rob. Yes, Rob is the...

Well let me go in the other order. Ron is the first husband, Rob is the, well, let me go in the other order. Ron is the first husband, Rob is the second. The only thing that would make this more confusing is if you threw in a bob. Well, we should have just been calling him by his real name because Ron, the first husband, his real name is Howard. So we should have just been calling him Howard. Yeah, definitely.

But we're too deep now. So, okay, anyway. So, basically, the exact nature of page and Ron's relationship was pretty unclear. They were just kind of figuring things out and they were enjoying meeting up again. So, page and Ron would meet in Eagle, Colorado, which is halfway between them

and about a two-hour drive from where page lived in Grand Junction. They started meeting for lunch there, having picnics, and enjoying each other's company, and on the day she disappeared, that's precisely what Paige had been doing. But after they had parted ways that day, Ron didn't hear from her for two more days, and this just started to worry him. So on that second day, which is the same day that Jesse and the nanny went to go report page missing, he called 911 himself.

And here is the 911 call. Again, Ron's real name is Howard. He just goes by Ron for whatever reason. So when he says in this recording that his name is Howard, remember it is Ron. of family of three children and then kind of non-Elish speaking workers show up at all. No, we're not. Okay. Well, there's somebody that was in your comments and you've seen and it's emergency because I know something happened

because her three children, I just talked to them and they live in Grand Junction. They were about to either call the police or go to the police department but the people that are looking after them don't speak English. Okay. What they have to speak for people are missing from? Okay. It's 2512 OLEAS. OLEAS. F-T-E-R. Court. Okay.

Who's it goes on 815-05? Okay. And it go to 8155? Okay. And who is missing? Her name is Paige Dixon. Is she the only one? She's the only one. And I saw her all day on Thursday, and then I talked to her when she got back to town. I lived in Denver, and she had at least two people that she was going to go meet. She worked with me at the adult entertainment field.

Okay. Doing body rubbed and things like that. She had two people she was going to meet. And I talked to the daughter, which is eight, and she said that she talked to her. And then while she was talking to her, the phone kind of broke up. So she got into an accident somewhere in Grand Junction.

But when I talked to her, she was already pretty much back in grand junction. How old is the age? She's 33. And she's definitely missing because she would never leave her children, her children or less that this all pair. And so are the children safe at this time? The children are safe and then last time I talked to them about a half hour ago, they were going to either go, they were beating those doors of police department, but I can't talk to the adults because they don't speak English. So I'm trying to talk to

this eight-year-old girl and she didn't realize the magnitude yet, but Paige would never, she was headed home that night. And she hasn't been home. See, that means she hasn't been home. All night Thursday night, all day yesterday and today. So she definitely missing something that definitely wrongs you to got a ducked or an accident. I think she got a ducked. She has no way. So something that is definitely wrong here. It comes to really starting to panic. Okay. What is your name, please? My name is Howard.

What's your last name, Howard? It's the regular BDI GLER number X-L-V-N. I don't know where Katerburg is. Okay. What is your call back number that we had? Has somebody call you at? Okay. I'll have that share step.

You can give me a phone call here as soon as I can. Okay. Okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Bye. So yeah, that was just an opportunity to hear from him and hear kind of some of the details surrounding her initial disappearance. Exactly.

So knowing that Paige had made it back to grand junction that evening and that Ron was fully cooperating with authorities, it seemed likely that the person responsible for Paige's disappearance was not either of her exes, but instead a client that she was meeting up with on the evening that she was last seen. Now according to Paige's cell phone records, in the time it took her to drive home to Grand Junction from Eagle where she had met up with Ron, she had taken multiple calls from potential clients, including multiple men who had known criminal records. Police discovered that Paige had a backup burner cell phone that she used specifically for her model's ink clients. But they didn't have the physical phone.

However, police were able to track down her cell phone records, and it appeared that Paige's last activity on the second cell phone was at 8.57pm on the evening of June 26th. And among these clients who made contact with her that afternoon, there were a few men who stuck out most to investigators. John Livingston was a truck driver whose route went through Grand Junction and he lived either in his truck or in CD motels. He had called and actually booked an appointment with Paige that evening, but claimed that she had never shown up. He called multiple times and left voicemails while waiting for her at a local motel and he could be heard on her voicemail asking her if she was still coming.

Steve in Heald was a repeat customer who had had an appointment with Paige just a week before she went missing. When investigators spoke with him, Steven claimed that he and Paige had not met up that evening, but that they had a history spanning back to 1999. And I guess Steven hired a lot of escorts in general and he was so desperate to fund this habit of meeting with escorts that he was arrested for embezzling funds from his office in order to pay for them. Another man in her call log was George Coraluso, who was a 30 year old house painter who

called page 20 times on the day she disappeared. Damn, 20 phone calls. That's like her borderline harassment. Yeah, chill out my man. Yeah, so he also left town hurriedly two days after her disappearance, which, as we always say, never looks good. Never looks good. George was a known alcohol and cocaine addict and he had prior criminal charges for

burglary and kidnapping. On the evening that pages believed to have disappeared, he was according to witnesses on a bit of a bender and had been drinking and using drugs. And then there was Mark Holcomb, who was another repeat customer of pages and recently had a dispute with her over money because he was unable to pay for their lasting counter, which investigators flagged as suspicious because her disappearance may have been fueled by this altercation. Yeah, so it seems like at this point there are so many players, there's a lot of people in her call logs, and a lot of just a lot of very dangerous, it seems, individuals.

Which is so sad and so scary that these are the guys that she was meeting up with, like whether she knew their backgrounds in any way or not, whether she felt unsafe or not. Like, these are the dudes that she's offering her services to, which is really scary. These are the guys that are willing to pay so then except for Except for Mark Holcomb mark. Yeah, exactly

So now let's get to one of the last people that they found in her call log and that was Lester Jones who is a local RV mechanic now Lester was the 56-year-old father of two grown sons, and had apparently also been a repeat client of pages. But Pages friend Carol, who occasionally stepped in to help Paige with models ink, and its clients, remembered that Paige felt uneasy with him. Lester had hired Paige for an erotic massage, but when she had shown up, he asked her to have sex with him, which she obviously declined telling him that she didn't want to do that with clients. So the day before she went missing, Paige had another appointment booked with Lester.

Aprehensive based on their last interaction, Paige actually sent her friend Carol in her place. Carol remembered later that upon her arrival, Lester had immediately demanded, I want sex, which Carol refused. She recalled that Lester had spent their entire appointment talking about Paige and that he seemed obsessed with her. So Lester Jones was brought in for questioning, declined a lawyer, and spoke candidly with police, even offering to give them a DNA sample.

Attempting to connect Pages run in with the white pickup truck that had blocked her in when she was trying to leave her office, police asked Leicester what kind of car he drove, and his response? A white pickup truck. One of the numbers that had been calling Paige's business phone on the day that she disappeared was discovered to be a pay-as-you-go track phone brand cell phone, you know, like the kind that you would like pick up from a drug store or a department store. So police also asked if Lester had purchased one of those, but he said that he had not.

While police scrambled with the amount of men who were potentially involved in Pages Disappearance, the searches on foot of the areas surrounding Grand Junction continued. For weeks, Pages friends, family, and community combed the rugged Colorado countryside, looking for any clue that could be connected to Pages. And yeah, I mean, just while we're talking about all these different potential suspects, all these persons of interest who have criminal records, you know, who didn't have the best rap with page, you know, just based on their own behavior. One doesn't pay her. One is crazy obsessed with her and scares her. You know, this is a lot of people to interview and to piece into this puzzle. Yeah, you got to sort through all these guys. But then we also know that just based on the fact that she kept a planner, surely in her planner,

she had her client appointments written in there, then this really does play back to the planner pages being ripped out around the time when she disappeared because we're all of these men, probably, all of their names were in her planner in the pages that were ripped out. Oh, absolutely. So as they're looking into these guys,

a motorist spotted something out of their window on the side of the road that was a huge piece to this investigation. And that was Paige's checkbook and business cards, just discarded half-hazardly out the side of a car. One check and one card had been thrown out at a time as if Paige had been maybe trying to leave a trail of breadcrumbs like attempting to lead people to her location.

This is actually really smart. It's incredible. Incredible. If that is what happened, incredible. So Chief Deputy District Attorney Dan Rubenstein remembered, quote, checks business cards, drivers, license, other documents that had pages or her kids names on them that were strewn about the highway, about five miles eight kilometers before the area where her remains were eventually found. That, I think, is indicative of somebody who is kidnapped

throwing those items out. So this, along with the discovery of Pages burned out car, were harrowing developments for Pages' family, like this just did not lead to a positive conclusion no matter how you looked at it. Her brother Craig and his wife, Kali, settled in grand junction temporarily, continuing to take care of Paige's kids.

Craig said, quote, Kali and I decided at that time that our role was to be there for the kids and try to take care of them. Be family there for them. Just help them." Kali said, sadly, quote, I just remembered just remembered you know the little girl just going, so do you know what happened to my mom? Do you know where she is? And I was like, what do I say?

So I said, wherever she is, she wants to be with you right now. Police continued to take suspects from Paige's client list off of their list of persons of interest, and one by one they were cleared, with one exception, of course, Lester Jones. Investigators employed search dogs to try to track the path that Paige may have taken

that night, and the dogs led them from her car to an RV shop across the street from where the car was found, which happened to be where Lester worked. The Mesa County District Attorney said quote, the fact that her car was burning so close to his place of employment is at least one significant fact. Common sense certainly would indicate that it's something more than a coincidence. So police obtained a search warrant

for the home that Lester shared with his third wife. Now initially police declined to speak openly about what they found, even with her family, but we now know that they had found, among other things, condoms, Viagra, a Black Victoria's Secret Brand bra that did not belong to his wife, a used gas can, which he actually claimed was for work,

and the packaging for a disposable track phone brand cell phone. Didn't he say he didn't buy one of those? Exactly. Investigators traced this phone to a Walmart where Lester could be seen on surveillance footage purchasing the phone, catching him and alive that he told police in his initial interview. So the phone had actually only made five calls since it had been activated. And guess what? All of them were to page.

They then searched Pages Car with cadaver dogs, who indicated to the scent of decomposition in Pages trunk. According to the dogs, the scent of a man hung in the driver's seat, and when shown lester's scent, the dog again indicated to the driver's seat, meaning that the sense were likely a match. But infuriatingly, with no direct evidence linking Paige to Lester and without Paige's body, the case went cold for five long years. Then, amid the brush of a dry creek bed in the desert surrounding Grand Junction, human remains

were recovered. A hiker actually came across the remains and right near the perimeter of the search area for page. By that time, the remains were just boned, but there were also fragments of duct tape wrapped around the skull, indicating that, as they suspected, an abduction had taken place. Verified by her dental records, the remains were, in fact, those of 34-year-old Paige Bergfeld. And because of the amount of decay, investigators could not determine a cause of death, but her cheekbone had been fractured, so it appeared that she

had likely been beaten prior to her death, or that was her cause of death. So police began piecing together the details of what they believed had happened to page that night, and here is what they thought. So she met with a client, most likely Lester Jones, then she was bound and gagged and taken out to the desert, dropping her business cards and checks on the way, as I said, in an attempt to be traced back to wherever he left her. She was then beaten, killed, and kept in the trunk of her own car while he figured out what

to do with her body. Then she was buried and her car was set on fire. So obviously, police circled right on back to Leicester Jones. One police sergeant who spoke with him on the phone remembers Leicester saying, unprompted, quote, you asked me where I would hide a body? To which the sergeant responded, when did I ask you that? And Leicester didn't have an answer for the question.

Though it took two years after Paige's body was found and seven after she disappeared, an arrest warrant was finally issued for Lester Jones in November of 2014. According to the chief deputy district attorney quote, Lester did not react at all. When we told him there was an arrest warrant for him, he didn't ask what it was for. He just turned around and put his hands behind his back. Though there was still no DNA evidence tying Lester to page his body, the prosecutors felt that they had a strong enough case to convict. But shockingly, it turned out that they actually didn't. In Leicester's trial, which began in July of 2016 and went on for six weeks, the jury was split.

They agreed that they believed Leicester was guilty, but they also agreed that there was reasonable doubt, so the judge declared a mistrial. As the trial wrapped up, one of the jurors addressed the Bergfeldfelt and they said, quote, I'm sorry, we wanted this and we saw you during the trial. I can see the agony. I'm sorry. Thankfully though, the prosecution team went back to work and Lester was tried again later that year. Both Lester's wife and ex-wife testified against him, and during, his wife claimed that she remembered a specific night the summer that Paige disappeared, that Lester claimed that he had to go back into work because he remembered, quote, I left the lights on.

And she now believes that this is when he disposed of Paige's body and then burned her car. I mean, this is his wife saying that. Yeah, exactly. So for his wife to say, I think that's mean, this is his wife saying that. Yeah, exactly. So for his wife to say, I think that's what he was doing that night, that means that she believes that he is capable of doing something like that. Oh, yeah, both of his ex-wife's, or I guess his wife and his ex-wife, believed that he was basically a piece of shit.

So Lester's ex-wife stated that he had a violent nature and a history of domestic abuse. While they were married, he had even kidnapped her at gunpoint, a crime for which he served five years in prison. The defense, however, turned the blame around on Paige's other clients. One defense attorney claimed, quote, �These are men who the Sheriff's Department let slip through their fingers while they were busy fixating on Mr. Jones. The defense mainly placed the blame on George Coraluzzo, who again was a known alcohol

and drug addict, who had called her 20 times on the day she disappeared, and according to locals who knew him, had been acting erratically in the days before and after page disappeared. He also, like I said earlier, fled town in the days shortly after page vanished, telling in acquaintance that his family had been killed in a car crash, which is a statement that was found to be untrue. The acquaintance of George's who told the police this story, a woman named Megan Williams, actually testified on Lester's behalf against George. Describing quote, he was emotional, he was sad, he was frantic,

he was just like, you know, I gotta do things, I gotta go, I gotta go, I can't be here. I do think he killed Paige Bergfeld, and I've stuck with that since day one. But the defense was unable to try him because he died in 2011 after falling into the Maurice River in New Jersey, where he hailed from. Police themselves dismissed the possibility of this as he had already been investigated in connection to Paige's disappearance.

And they didn't really find any clear connection there like they had with Lester. Well yeah, because George was found to be a new jersey at the time that her car was set on fire and he actually had an alibi for the evening that she went missing. Exactly. And video evidence of this was even confirmed by the police so he had long since been cleared of suspicion. So the only plausible suspect remaining was Lester Jones. And this time, the jury agreed. On December 27, 2016, Lester Jones was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Paige

Bergfeld, and he was sentenced to life in prison where he remains today. In the aftermath of the nine years of questions and fighting that the family endured, Paige's children moved to the East Coast to be with their dad. Who remember is Rob? Now despite the media frenzy and the heartbreaking setbacks that they incurred while seeking justice for their sister and daughter, what the Bergfelds remember most about her as the kind of mother she was, and how her whole life revolved around her children. Frank said fondly, quote, motherhood was central to her life.

The kids meant everything. As far as the legacy, I remember Paige's smile. I would call it radiant. In her obituary, it was said that she was so radiant it made the sun jealous. And I think that would be at least for me, what sticks with me the most about page. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. We don't cover a ton of cases where there are like multiple people who it feels like it

could be. I mean, I know we do sometimes, but this case, in particular, just felt like there was, there were so many persons of interest just because of her line of work and the fact that she happened to have such CD clients. And including Lester Jones. Including Lester Jones.

And thankfully, he was convicted. I mean, he didn't even, he didn't even fight it. Like, he was arrested and he wasn't like, what are you doing? Yeah, that's because he knew he was caught. I mean, at that point, it's like, I mean, you're going down. Exactly.

So, our hearts really go out to Paige and her family and her children. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this one, and we will see you next week. Also, if you guys want to see photos from this case and every other case that we've covered, head on over to our Instagram at GoingWestPodcast, our Twitter, at GoingWestPod, and then we have a discussion group on Facebook. Oh, and we are about to finally release the bonus episodes for this month. They're going to kind of come out at the same time, Ish. I'm sorry about that.

I lost like a whole week from being sick because when you're a podcaster and you're sick and you can't talk. And you got no voice. What do you do? Youcaster and you're sick and you can't talk, and you got no beliefs. Like what do you do? Yeah, you just suffer. So sorry that you guys had to suffer with me and those will be out very soon for you for Apple subscriptions and Patreon. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world,

don't be a stranger. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbcc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbcc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbcc 1 tbc 1 tbcc 1 tbcc 1 tbcc 1 tbcc 1 tbc 1 tbccc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbcccc 1 tbc 1 tbccc 1 tbcc 1 tbccc 1 tbcc 1 tbccc 1 tbc Thank you. you