Paige Birgfeld - BODY FOUND

[LadyBlue]

Frank Birgfeld of Centennial has searched for the body of his 34-year-old daughter on the Western Slope for 4½ years, but Wednesday's news that her remains were found by a hiker in a creek bed in Delta County brought cold comfort.

"I don't know about closure," he said on his cellphone as he neared Grand Junction on Wednesday afternoon, on his way to talk to investigators. "I think of my daughter at least three or four times a day every day. The fact that we found out where she is, I don't know that this is going to change that.

Whatever closure is, darned if I know," he said.

Dental records led investigators from several agencies to determine the remains were those of Paige Birgfeld, the 34-year-old mother of three young children whose burned car was found in Grand Junction on July 1, 2007. She had been missing for three days at that point.

A hiker found skeletal remains of a woman at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday off U.S. 50 in the Wells Gulch area in Delta County, about 30 miles southeast of Grand Junction and about 15 miles west of Delta.

Frank Birgfeld said the area where the body was found had been searched thoroughly in 2007 after a man with a flat tire found Paige Birgfeld's checkbook, still in good condition, on the pavement, as though it recently had been tossed out a car window.

"It's bittersweet," said Connie Flukey, executive director of the Western Slope's Abby and Jennifer Recovery Foundation, which searches for missing persons in memory of Abby and Jennifer Blagg, who went missing from their Grand Junction home in 2001.

Jennifer Blagg was 34 years old when her body was found in a Mesa County landfill. Her husband, Michael, was convicted in her death in 2004. Their 6-year-old daughter has never been found.

"I always knew she would be found someday," said Flukey, reached on her cellphone en route to the site where Paige Birgfeld's body was found. "Today was that day. At the same time, it's heartbreaking to see what the family is going through.

"At least they can bring her home."

The case was propelled into national attention by what appeared to be Birgfeld's double life — a committed mother who sold Pampered Chef products while also running a modeling and escort business.

DNA will be used to confirm the identity of the remains. The missing-person case now becomes a homicide, the Mesa County Sheriff's Department said.

While the discovery revives the cold case, investigators hope her remains and unspecified personal items will lead to her killer.

Frank Birgfeld said the family's emotions could not be described as happy.

"I'm not a man who's lived an emotional life, but I've cried many tears today. I hope no one ever has to go through this," he said.
www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20126354/body-found-mesa-county-woman-missing-since-2007

[LadyBlue]

Vanished

"I've decided that the only thing I miss about having a husband is someone to pick up the dead mice!" So read part of a post Paige Birgfeld, alias Paige Dixon, made on May 25, 2007, to a message board at ChefSuccess.com. In total, Paige made 1,013 posts—just under one post a day—to the board, since joining in August of 2004. Paige's last post, in which she discussed proper attire for an upcoming Pampered Chef conference, was made on June 25, 2007, at 4:39 a.m. Paige vanished three days later, and she has not been seen or heard from since.

On June 30, 2007, Paige was reported missing to the Mesa County Sheriff's Department. According to family members, it was out of character for her to disappear for several days in a row, and certainly to do so without notifying her children, ages 8, 5 and 3, or their live-in nanny. Investigators initiated a K-9 search of Paige's property, but were unable to find any clues.

The next day, firefighters were dispatched to a motor vehicle fire at the employee parking lot at Walker Products SMS, at 727 23 Road, at approximately 10 p.m. The location is approximately two miles from Paige's house. After controlling the blaze, investigators determined the car, a red 2005 Ford Focus, was registered to Paige Birgfeld. A bloodhound was brought in to help search for evidence in the vicinity of the lot. Due to the condition of the vehicle, it was not immediately clear whether or not the fire had been an act of vandalism or an attempt to cover up a more sinister crime.

On July 2, 2007, members of MOMS Club of Grand Junction held a candlelight vigil for Paige, a woman they knew as a single mother raising three beautiful children in a million-dollar home while dividing her free time between club meetings and school bake sales.

"She's probably the most patient mother," Andrea Land, club president, told GJSentinel.com. "She's not doing one of those mom things and freaking out and leaving. There's definitely something seriously wrong."

Friends and family members alike believed that Paige supported her comfortable lifestyle through her business, Grand River Acupuncture, and part-time work as a consultant for the Pampered Chef, a company that sells kitchen tools and food products. However, as investigators dug deeper into Paige's background, they discovered she had been living a seedy double life.

Much More Here
www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/paige_birgfeld/1_index.html

[LadyBlue]

DNA confirms body found is Grand Junction mom missing since 2007
DNA has confirmed that human remains found near a dry stream in Delta County earlier this month belong to Paige Birgfeld, a Grand Junction woman who went missing in June 2007.

Sgt. Matt Lewis said the DNA match last week was a formality because dental records all but confirmed the remains were those of 34-year-old Birgfeld, a mother of three young children who worked as an escort. Her charred car was found in a Grand Junction parking lot a few days after her disappearance.

Lewis said investigators are awaiting the results of tests by an forensic anthropologist this week or early next. The detailed study of the remains "could help our coroner determine a cause and manner of death, which at this point would be huge."

He said those results might not be made public, however, if releasing them would benefit whoever might be responsible for Birgfeld's death or otherwise jeopardize the investigation.

Frank Birgfeld of Centennial said the area around the dry creek bed where his daughter's remains were found March 7 had been searched thoroughly in 2007. Her checkbook and other items from her purse were found along U.S. 50 not far away after her disappearance.
www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20278476/dna-confirms-body-found-is-grand-junction-mom