A mother of three provided crucial information to the police after being abducted, leading to a significant revelation.
Paige Birgfield, a 34-year-old single mother, worked tirelessly at multiple jobs to support her children, engaging in activities with them and ensuring their safety by sharing her bed at night.
Following her second divorce, Paige found herself raising her daughter Jess, aged eight, and two sons, aged six and three, while dealing with debts from her marriage and a mortgage. Despite these challenges, she managed her preschool dance business along with other jobs to make ends meet.
On June 28, 2007, Paige met with her first husband, whom she had reconnected with after a decade of divorce. He was the last known person to hear from her before she went missing, contacting him a few miles from her residence around 9 pm.
When Paige failed to return home, her live-in nanny contacted the police, sparking a search operation in Colorado that initially yielded no leads. Three days later, authorities were alerted to a car on fire in an empty parking lot, later identified as Paige’s vehicle, located two miles from her home. Subsequently, some of her personal belongings were found 15 miles away on a highway.
Forensic examinations revealed that the car had been intentionally set on fire using an accelerant, and the driver’s seat had been adjusted for a taller individual. Initially, both of Paige’s ex-husbands were considered suspects but were later cleared, leading investigators to uncover her involvement in an escort service.
Upon learning about Paige’s secret life, the police shifted their focus to potential clients, eventually honing in on Lester Ralph Jones, a 56-year-old married mechanic working near where Paige’s burnt car was discovered. Surveillance footage showed Lester purchasing a disposable phone, and he owned a kitchen scale from the same brand Paige sold.
Despite Lester’s history of violence and a lack of concrete evidence, the case remained unsolved for five years until skeletal remains were found 30 miles from Paige’s home in 2012, positively identified as hers through dental records.
In November 2014, Lester Ralph Jones was charged with murder and kidnapping, with bail set at £1.6 million. Following a mistrial in September 2016, a second trial in December led to Lester’s conviction for murder and kidnapping, resulting in a life sentence without the possibility of parole.