Years of checking alibis in Paige Birgfeld probe cast light on valley’s seedy side
Murder suspect Lester Ralph Jones is escorted into District Judge
Brian Flynn’s courtroom. Jones’ wife, Elaine, told investigators Jones
left their home about 9 p.m. July 1, explaining he’d left lights on at
work, and returned home about 10 p.m. Paige Birgfeld’s Ford Focus was
reported to 911 as burning in the parking lot of 727 23 Road at 9:58
p.m.
Paige Birgfeld went by the name “Carrie” as part of escort service
At varying degrees, they all inhabited Carrie’s world.
Last month’s arrest of 63-year-old Lester Jones on suspicion of the 2007 death of Paige Birgfeld — the doting 34-year-old soccer mom known in the seedy backpages of the Grand Valley as “Carrie” of Models Inc. — has been billed as an exhaustive seven-year effort of alibi elimination at the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, discounting possibilities that men other than Jones were culpable.
In doing so, they shined a spotlight on Mesa County’s sordid underbelly.
Birgfeld started in the escort business working for others before launching Models Inc., about five years before she went missing on June 28, 2007. She advertised on Craigslist, among other locations, sometimes answering her business cellphone pretending to be a secretary in an attempt to convince men she had several women available.
She told her first husband, Howard Beigler of Aurora, her clients were harmless.
“He added that Paige knew something could happen, but she thought she could talk her way out it,” Beigler told authorities.
She was afraid, however, just a month before she went missing of a mysterious man in a white truck who tried blocking in her car as she was leaving the office she kept for Models Inc., at 2754 Compass Drive, Unit 301, labeled on its front door as “Acupuncture.”
“Paige put her car in reverse and got away,” a friend told investigators, rehashing Birgfeld’s account.
The 46-page arrest affidavit for Jones doesn’t clearly identify the truck driver.
Other men bothered her. Birgfeld noted the guy from the “weird” incident on June 27, when she met a client for sex. She knew that client from her son’s soccer team pool party.
“One of the dads who came to the party had asked her out on a date and Paige said no,” investigators were told.
Birgfeld, on June 27, said she didn’t at first recognize the soccer dad, according to Beigler. She remembered his expression changed when he recognized her.
“How about I just (expletive) you now,” the man reportedly told her.
He’s identified in the affidavit as Joseph Carruth, 43.
Carruth told investigators she asked him to consider “dancing for her at parties,” but he declined. Carruth told investigators he exchanged voicemails with Birgfeld on June 28, but didn’t see her again that night. Phone records showed six calls between the two on June 28, with the last from Carruth at 12:55 p.m.
“The investigation found no evidence that Joseph Carruth was involved in Paige’s disappearance or murder,” investigators wrote in the affidavit.
Phone records for Beigler and Birgfeld’s second husband, Pennsylvania resident Rob Dixon, suggest both were nowhere near Grand Junction on the night of June 28.
EX-HUSBANDS
Beigler, now 44, was married to Birgfeld from 1995 to 1997 and the couple lived in Denver, where she worked as a stripper with a stage name of “Madison” at Mile High Saloon. They had no children. Beigler and Birgfeld rekindled a relationship in the summer of 2007, and on June 28, they met for a picnic in Eagle from about 1 to 7 p.m. and stayed in phone contact with one another as they went separate ways.
Her phone had been ringing “all day,” he told investigators.
She told him before she went home she needed to see a client from her “adult entertainment” business, he said. Birgfeld carried a bag with clothes she wore before seeing a client, and would have changed again before returning to the $1 million home she maintained at 2512 Oleaster Court.
Beigler’s cellphone hit a tower at 4395 Oneida St. in Denver when she last called him at 8:57 p.m. June 28.
Beigler told investigators she was afraid of her second husband, Dixon.
Dixon, 45, married Birgfeld in 1998 and the ex-board member of the Grand Junction Rural Fire Protection District and ex-Hotchkiss firefighter was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence against Birgfeld in 2005. They had three children, Jess, Taft and Kohl. The couple separated in 2006 when he learned she had an escort business. Dixon said he “freaked out” upon learning about her activities but denied physical contact during the arrest.
The couple’s then-8-year-old daughter, Jess, ended up filing the missing-person report on her mother on June 30, 2007, at the front counter of the Sheriff’s Office. Birgfeld left home about 10:30 a.m. June 28, telling her children she was working in Glenwood Springs. They last heard from her about 8:30 p.m., hearing she was “leaving” and on her way home.
One work colleague recalled Dixon would have “heated battles” with his ex-wife over the phone. Dixon had been scheduled to move back to Colorado to start work July 5, 2007, with Tri-State Care Flight in Durango.
Two of Dixon’s colleagues told investigators they were helping Dixon move belongings at his home in Pennsylvania around June 28. Phone records placed him in the area around that same time. Dixon’s employer, Crozer-Keystone Medical Center in Philadelphia, had records showing he worked until 7:30 p.m. on June 28 and was back at work at 7 a.m. the next morning.
BLACKMAIL CLAIMS
Steven Heald, 56 at the time and manager at the construction firm Blue Star Industries, told authorities Dixon was on Birgfeld’s mind during conversation over lunch on June 26. Heald, who came forward to deputies on July 2, was asked if Birgfeld expressed fear of any escort client.
“No more than I’m afraid of my ex-husband,” she replied, Heald told a deputy.
Heald said Birgfeld had proposed a deal in which she would give the construction company Pampered Chef kitchen supply products to new buyers while she performed various cleaning work for payment. Heald told investigators he didn’t know about Birgfeld’s escort business until the spring of 2007. He denied being a client.
Interviewed a second time, Heald said he met Birgfeld and became sexually involved with her, while he was serving a five-year prison sentence ending with a community corrections stint in Durango in 1999. Heald said Birgfeld contacted him again about 004 or 2005 when she read in the newspaper he was facing criminal charges, and they started having sex again.
Heald eventually told investigators Birgfeld claimed she had taken pictures of them having sex in 2005, and if he didn’t pay her $50,000, she’d show the pictures to Heald’s wife. He said he first gave her $1,500, with the intent to pay $50,000.
“Heald said over a 14 month period, he paid Paige about $16,000 and only about $3,500 was for Pampered Chef products,” investigators said. “He said Paige would submit an invoice and he would authorize a payment. The invoices ranged from $250 up to $2,700.”
Heald told investigators of Birgfeld’s disappearance, “I have a motive and that scared me.”
Confronted with doubt about the blackmail claims, Heald said he’d been paying her for sex. Heald said they met about 10 times for sex and he paid her between $250 and $2,700 for one session, with their last encounter happening June 20.
Phone records confirmed Heald didn’t contact Birgfeld on June 28. Heald’s then-wife said he was home with her that evening, before they left on a trip the next morning.
He was ultimately cleared.
Authorities also discounted involvement of 30-year-old George Coralluzzo, a cocaine user in 2007 with a history of violent crime and new client of Models Inc., when Birgfeld went missing. Coralluzzo, who had a criminal history in several states for theft, burglary, drunken driving and kidnapping, died in August 2011.
Coralluzzo placed some 13 phone calls to Birgfeld on June 28, but friends interviewed by investigators offered him an alibi. He was confirmed as being in New Jersey on the evening of July 1, when Birgfeld’s car was found burning.
‘JOHN AT MOTEL 6’
Voicemail for a phone used by Models Inc. — the outgoing female voice identified the number as the “Colorado premier gentleman’s club” — had 36 unheard messages when reviewed by an investigator. One of them was left June 28, by “John at Motel 6, room number 237.”
“I was just checking to see if you had somebody coming out or not. Thank you,” the message said.
John Livingston, 43 at the time, admitted meeting June 21 with an escort named “Samantha.” Livingston said she looked something like Birgfeld but didn’t think it was the same person. Authorities believe he met instead with Crystal Tabor, then 28. Phone records showed Livingston and Birgfeld exchanged phones messages on June 28, with the last call at 10:24 p.m., accounting for the voicemail about Motel 6.
Nobody showed up that night, he lamented.
“The investigation found no evidence that John Livingston was involved in Paige’s disappearance or murder,” authorities said.
Timothy Zotto, 27, who was serving probation at the time and wearing an ankle monitor, was cleared as well by authorities thanks partly to his ankle monitor. While acknowledging he called Models Inc. on June 28 “out of curiosity,” he denied meeting any escort.
Zotto’s probation officer said ankle monitor data showed Zotto never left his apartment on June 28 and no earlier than 1:40 p.m. the next day.
Authorities also looked at Mark Holkum, 56, whom Birgfeld panned as “Mr. Ego.” He also worked for her at bachelorette parties.
“Paige and Mr. Ego had a complicated arrangement as she would hire him, then date him, then charge him as an escort,” one woman told investigators.
Holkum described using Birgfeld’s services three times, including a fourth failed attempt to get a nude massage. Birgfeld had raised her prices, and he wasn’t willing to pay. Holkum said he wasn’t mad and denied any involvement in her disappearance. Authorities found two calls from Holkum’s phone to Birgfeld on June 9 and June 30.
“The investigation found no evidence that Mark Holkum was involved in Paige’s disappearance or murder,” investigators concluded.
‘I DIDN’T DO IT’
Birgfeld’s first call on June 28 after meeting Beigler in Eagle was made to a Tracfone, a prepaid wireless phone, believed to have been purchased by Lester Jones. Records show just five calls made or received on the phone, all involving Models Inc.
Carol Linderholm, now 64, told investigators Birgfeld called her June 27 and asked her to go by a home in Pear Park because she “did not have a good feeling” about the client or call. The name on the mailbox at the house was “Jones” but the client went by Jim. Authorities believe his wife was out of town.
“Carol stated that Jim told her he met Paige about 6 months prior on an appointment, and how awkward the situation was because he recognized her as Rob Dixon’s ex-wife,” investigators noted. “Jim told Carol he knew Rob Dixon from their involvement with the Hotchkiss Fire Department.”
Linderholm says Jim explained he’d earlier seen Birgfeld walking up his driveway and called to cancel an appointment after recognizing her. On June 27, Carol surmised, Jim, or Jones, was asking for someone other than “Carrie.”
Linderholm said she refused a request for sex that night from Jones, who “did not push the issue” or make threats.
Jones’ wife, Elaine, told investigators Jones left their home around 9 p.m. July 1, explaining he’d left lights on at work, and returned home around 10 p.m. Birgfeld’s Ford Focus was reported to 911 as burning in the parking lot of 727 23 Road at 9:58 p.m.
An accelerant, gasoline, was used in the fire. Birgfeld’s day planner, waterlogged but surviving the blaze, had pages missing covering June 26 to June 29.
A trained dog later tracked Jones’ scent south from the car fire to nearby Bob Scott’s RV service facility, 2302 Grand Park Drive, where Jones worked at the time.
Investigators found a partial package for a Tracfone in Jones’ work space, which was near a gas can. A locked tool box held a black bra, handwritten phone numbers, women’s names and bra sizes and “yes” or “no” references concerning sex, a condom, Viagra and two male wigs.
Bob Scott employees claimed no knowledge of the phone or the gas can, which didn’t belong to the company. A food scale with a “Pampered Chef” logo on it was inside a locked cabinet accessed only by Jones.
He was also seen on video surveillance at Walmart, 2881 North Ave., buying a Tracfone on the night of June 26. While acknowledging it “looks like me” when shown the video, Jones denied buying a phone or calling or meeting Birgfeld.
Jones appeared nervous in his first interview with investigators in 2007.
“I didn’t do it,” he said, shaking his head.
Under police surveillance after Birgfeld’s disappearance, authorities say Jones continued to hire prostitutes to come to his home.
No comments:
Post a Comment