Original subtitles

She is the quintessential soccer mom.

This is a woman who has left

three children at home with a nanny

and has been gone for two full days.

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.

The children have said that he was going to kill her.

This was a bombshell

to learn that a soccer mom had this secret life.

He's the only person that possibly

was in that area

both days and both times.

I don't care what business you're in,

nobody deserves to have this happen to them.

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.

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.

Grand Junction is a small community.

The city itself is about 50,000 people.

The county is about a hundred eighty-five thousand.

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.

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.

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.

The missing woman is Paige Birgfeld,

a 34-year-old loving mother and entrepreneur.

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.

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.

Mesa County detectives, Lissah Norcross

and Wayne Weyler, are tasked with looking

into Paige Birgfeld's disappearance.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The license plates were not on the vehicle,

which was a little bit suspicious.

In addition, there was a smell of an accelerant.

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.

At this point, we're absolutely sure

that there's foul play involved.

Something's awry, that something's not right.

Detectives meticulously search the car

for any remaining evidence.

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.

And that was really the first time that we are

realizing that this is not just a missing person

but actually potentially homicide.

Having established that Paige was likely murdered,

detectives need to piece together

her final 24 hours

in order to find her killer.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

With ex-husband Howard Beigler cleared,

investigators push for their next suspect.

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.

Paige had confided in him that she was scared

of Rob Dixon.

He had concerns that Rob Dixon might have

harmed on Paige.

Rob Dixon is a natural person

we have to question.

People don't get divorced because they love each other.

Looking for a motive, investigators dig into Rob

and Paige's marriage.

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.

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.

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.

Detectives discover there's more to Paige

and Rob's troubled history

than just financial issues.

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.

With Paige's ex-husband, Rob Dixon,

in their crosshairs,

investigators haul him into the station

for questioning.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In hopes of narrowing down their suspect pool,

investigators look into who Paige had contact with

on June 28th, the day she disappeared.

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.

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.

Investigators travel to New Jersey

to interview George Coralluzo.

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.

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.

With Coralluzo's alibi checking out,

he's eliminated as a suspect.

Investigators find themselves at a crossroads.

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.

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.

A chance occurrence revitalizes the case.

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.

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.

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.

I think everybody thought,

- "- This is it. - She's leaving us a trail.

She's signaling us to her."

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.

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.

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.

Investigators learned that Jim Jones

is Lester Ralph Jones, a mechanic at Bob Scott RV

which is near Walker SMS Manufacturing.

He works across the street

from where the car was burned so we find that interesting.

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.

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.

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.

Detectives question Jones about his whereabouts

on June 28th, the day Paige disappeared.

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.

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.

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.

When detectives look

into Lester Jones's background,

they discover a history

of domestic abuse and assault.

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.

Having uncovered a pattern of violence

against women,

detectives put Jones' alibi to the test.

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.

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.

We were in consultation

with the District Attorney's Office

throughout this investigation,

and we believed we had the primary suspect

in Lester Jones.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Investigations obtain records

for the prepaid cell phone purchased by Lester Jones.

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.

With the evidence

against Lester Jones mounting,

investigators obtain another search warrant

for his two computers.

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.

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.

He was a creature of habit

and everyday looked exactly the same,

except for the day that Paige went missing.

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.

But without a body,

detectives can't arrest or charge Lester Jones

with the crime.

You get one shot at prosecuting on a homicide,

so the decision was made to not arrest at the time.

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.

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.

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.

We were left with waiting

and trying to follow up

with any other lead that came up.

Obviously, the family was grieved.

The community was concerned

that there was this killer out there,

or alleged killer out there.

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?"

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.

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.

We all knew as soon as we heard

whose bones they were gonna be.

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.

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.

Having identified the remains

as Paige Birgfeld, investigators work

to determine a cause of death.

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.

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.

With this final piece of the puzzle,

detectives are now able to reconstruct

Paige's final 24 hours.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He knew that she had information

about her clients in there and needed that evidence gone.

This is by definition of a sexual homicide.

He has pursued the victim for a sexual purpose.

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.

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.

Justice was done, justice was due,

and justice was delivered.

You have to be in this for the long haul.

It took a little over seven years

to resolve this case.

I don't care what business you're in,

nobody deserves to have this happen to them.

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.