Byline: David Montero, Rocky Mountain News
GRAND JUNCTION -- Paige Birgfeld is missing, but it's her family who is lost.
Her parents wander her spacious house filled with reminders of their daughter - framed photos of her three young children, unopened boxes of Pampered Chef merchandise in an airy home office, and the still-unmade bed where she last slept with her children.
"It's the little things," said her father, Frank Birgfeld. "The other day, I got into her car and moved the seat back. A small thing, but I realized that the seat was fit for her."
Craig Birgfeld, her older brother by almost two years, flew in with his wife and young son from Seattle when word got out that Paige was missing the night of June 28. He doesn't know what to do. Sometimes, he just randomly goes out with the dog and starts looking for her.
He said he knows it's pointless, but he has to keep busy. Sometimes, he answers Paige's phone - each call peeling back another layer of the life he never knew his sister had.
He has learned she sold a lot of Pampered Chef merchandise. He also learned she worked as an escort and gave topless massages - a possible remnant from her life as a Denver stripper more than a decade ago. Sometimes, he does some research on the Internet, trying to uncover clues that might lead to his sister's whereabouts.
The research on the escort service has been especially troubling.
"You know that stuff is out there," Craig Birgfeld said. "But it's not a world I navigated, and you read about what some of the men want to do or what the women are willing to do and, well, it's scary."
Her mother, Suzanne Birgfeld, was able to distract herself by helping with Paige's three children - Jess, 8, Taft, 6 and Kohl, 3. But they're gone now - currently in Arizona with her ex-husband, Rob Dixon.
The house seems bigger. Quieter. "It's getting harder and harder by the day," she said. "I will fall apart later, but now I don't let myself consider the reality."
The reality is that Paige's red Ford Focus was found engulfed in flames on July 1, that there's been no outgoing calls on her cell phone since then, that nobody seems to know what happened to the 34-year-old. And while the Birgfelds cling to hope that she's alive, more and more - including some of those involved in the massive search planned for this morning - assume she's dead.
Friends came easy
Paige Birgfeld was born in April 1973 in Atlanta, where her father worked for the National Association of Securities Dealers. Craig remembered how many friends his sister had - even at a young age. When Frank Birgfeld told the family he was taking a job in Denver in 1981, his son fretted about the move and realized he'd miss his friends.
But Paige didn't seem worried.
"She took it better than I did," Craig said. "She made friends quicker than me."
Her mother remembered the one thing she really looked forward to in Denver was having a new identity. In Atlanta, the kids teased her about her name. Suzanne Birgfeld said whenever the teacher told the class to turn the page, the kids would snicker and make fun of her.
When they moved to Littleton, she told her mother she wanted to go by her middle name, Meredith, to avoid that problem. But the teacher called her Paige anyway.
"Fortunately, the kids here didn't tease her about it," she said. "And she made lots of friends anyway."
Not especially interested in school - though not disinterested, either - Paige gravitated toward dance. She began taking ballet in the third grade at a small studio in Littleton and continued to take lessons and perform in recitals through high school there. At one point, she thought of taking over the business from the owner so she could give lessons and teach.
But while at Heritage High School, her brother began researching colleges out of state. Craig had decided he wanted to be a doctor, and soon Paige was looking at out-of-state schools to study nursing.
"I always liked the science of medicine," said Craig, who is a plastic surgeon. "With her, that wasn't it. She liked the helping-people aspect of it."
He ended up at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. With her grandmother living in Florida, Paige figured the University of Florida would be a good place to go.
She was 18. It was a big moment for her. She was already dating Ron Biegler in Colorado, and he decided to move to Gainesville, Fla., to be near her.
They lived across the street from the University of Florida football stadium, and Biegler said after several months there, Paige considered herself married to him.
There was only one problem.
"She wanted to be a stripper in Florida and I just didn't want her to do it," Biegler said. "And she never did while we lived there."
'Married over my head'
Biegler was an odd match for Paige Birgfeld. With long, blond hair, tattoos and being the lead guitarist in a rock band, the Birgfelds weren't sure what to make of her boyfriend. Even Biegler acknowledged the mismatch.
"I married over my head," he said.
They had met without really knowing it years before their eventual marriage. But it was when Biegler saw her in a parking lot and offered to jump-start her car that he decided he wanted to go out with her. He was 19 and she was 16.
Within days, they went out to dinner and a movie. After the date, Biegler was too shy to make the first move. So Birgfeld leaned in to kiss him, and Biegler moved away.
"She took it as a rejection," Biegler said. "That wasn't the case at all. I was just nervous."
She never let him live it down.
After they moved back to Colorado, they got married in 1995 and lived in a small house in Aurora. Paige worked hard at decorating the house. She really loved the home, even if it was small. Biegler had his instruments in the basement and continued to work on his music while doing odd jobs.
And then the issue of stripping came up again again.
Biegler was still opposed but didn't want to tell her what to do. So a few nights a week, she'd go to the now-defunct Mile High Saloon strip club and dance under the stage name Madison. For about three years, she did it. Biegler didn't see her perform very often and said she didn't like him going there.
But she had her reasons for stripping.
"She wanted to pay for her breast augmentation," Biegler said. "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."
When they divorced in 1997, it wasn't because of the stripping. She said she was ready to have kids. He wasn't. She was 24.
A year later, she met Rob Dixon at the Mile High Saloon.
Opportunity for stability
Dixon lavished Paige with gifts - jewelry, cars and plenty of money. Dixon was wealthy and said he wanted to have children.
Her friend, Laura Ayers, said Paige saw Dixon as an opportunity for a stable life with kids. With his money came security. She confessed to Ayers later that was why she married him - love had nothing to do with it.
"Paige was one of those people who went out and got what she wanted," Ayers said. "She was very determined and very resourceful."
Dixon and Paige were married in Las Vegas. No family from either side attended.
"Because of that, I still have trouble remembering their anniversary," Suzanne Birgfeld said.
The couple decided to move to Grand Junction and bought a large house with a sweeping view of dramatic cliffs and mesa tops. Dixon acquired a garage full of exotic cars. One Fourth of July, he put on a fireworks display that rivaled the city's.
But the couple's relationship was tempestuous. Court records indicate that in October 2005, Dixon allegedly slapped his wife on the shoulder and punched her in the throat as she held their baby after accusing her of giving topless massages.
He was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault and misdemeanor child abuse. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of harassment. The case against him was dismissed last month after he completed terms of a yearlong deferred sentence, his attorney said.
Frank Birgfeld said the couples' finances were shaky. And Dixon often found his name in the Daily Sentinel newspaper because of a questionable investment he recommended as an official of the Grand Junction Rural Fire District.
Paige's father said Dixon filed for bankruptcy and his daughter began trying to make money to keep a house that had been valued at $900,000. The mortgage payments were overwhelming, as were the expenses of maintaining the home.
The couple divorced in 2006.
Meanwhile, Paige was so busy working several jobs and raising her three young children, friends said she sometimes didn't even sleep at night.
Late-night activities
Jamie Silvernail, a 28-year-old mom, met Paige four years ago but really got to know her in late 2006, when they lived together in the big house. Silvernail said she would see how busy Paige was -- sometimes doing housecleaning in the middle of the night just to keep up.
She also noticed Paige leaving the house late at night after the kids were in bed. Those were the escort calls.
"I didn't ask about it, but you kind of knew," Silvernail said. "She was someone who just did what they had to do to survive. She was intent on keeping the house and family together and would do whatever it takes."
Silvernail also said Paige seemed to extend herself for everyone. She took on a leadership role in the Grand River Playgroup and was one of the most willing donors of time to the Grand Junction MOMS club. In addition, Paige was juggling Pampered Chef parties, teaching kids dance through a business she ran called Brain Dance and doing small jobs such as selling baby slings.
Motherhood seemed to be her primary focus. Throughout her house, the only magazines are about mother-child-related issues. Her bedroom, where the three kids slept with her - the 8-year-old in a small bed nearby - is littered with children's toys, including a small Elmo chair.
Barbara Campbell, who met Birgfeld four years ago, said they often got together with their children, and conversations almost always centered on child rearing or children's issues. She could be funny and always seemed to be smiling. Campbell never saw her cry.
"I don't think she thought that was productive," Campbell said. "She just looked at a problem and tried to figure a way over it."
Old flame rekindled
Paige Birgfeld met a problem the night of June 28. Earlier that Thursday, she drove to Eagle to meet Biegler - a rendezvous the two had been planning for a couple of months. Biegler said it was going well, but he didn't want to push it. Still, he said the spark between them had been rekindled.
He said she joked with him again that if she tried to kiss him, he'd probably reject her.
He didn't.
As she left Eagle, she told him she'd call him in a couple of hours to make sure he got back to Denver safely. When she called around 9 p.m., she wasn't home yet - deterred by roadwork in Grand Junction. He said the conversation was run of the mill because he knew they were supposed to talk again later that night.
They didn't.
Biegler called Paige's cell phone Friday and waited in anticipation of her voice.
Click. Straight to her voice mail.
He called her other phone.
Click. Straight to her voice mail.
He didn't leave any messages, figuring he would talk to her later. Never thinking he wouldn't. And now, weeks later, knowing he won't.
"I lost hope," Biegler said.
INFOBOX
Sheriff asks for volunteer searchers
Volunteers are expected to gather this morning at Grand Junction High School to begin searching for Paige Birgfeld.
The Mesa County Sheriff's Office asked for help from the Jennifer and Abbey Recovery Center, which formed after a community search in 2001 for Jennifer and Abbey Blagg.
"The areas that volunteer searchers can cover are more vast than what the Sheriff's Office can do alone," Sheriff Stan Hilkey said in a statement. "The support and human resources they provide are priceless."
All volunteers are required to register at the high school and present a state-issued photo ID. Registration will be available each morning prior to searching, but preregistration is encouraged. Each day of searching will be staged from the high school at 7 a.m.
CAPTION(S):
Photo (4)
Frank Birgfeld views the area where a red Ford Focus owned by his daughter, Paige, was found engulfed in flames July 1, just a few miles from her Grand Junction home. Paige's mother, Suzanne, said, "I will fall apart later, but now I don't let myself consider the reality." JAVIER MANZANO / THE ROCKY
CAPTION: Paige's home in Grand Junction. On June 28, Paige drove to Eagle to meet with her ex-husband, Ron Biegler, with whom she'd recently rekindled a relationship. After the rendezvous, Biegler headed back to Denver and Paige made her way back to Grand Junction. She was slowed by roadwork near her hometown, Biegler learned in a phone conversation with her that night. She hasn't been seen since. JAVIER MANZANO / THE ROCKY
CAPTION: Paige Birgfeld's family, from left, father Frank, brother Craig and mother Suzanne, learned of her secret activities - including escort services and topless messages - after she went missing. "You know that stuff is out there," Craig said. "But it's not a world I navigated . . . and, well, it's scary." JAVIER MANZANO / THE ROCKY
CAPTION: Signs from friends and neighbors offering words of encouragement arrive at the Birgfelds' home almost every day. Paige moved to Colorado with her parents in 1981, when her father took a job in Denver. Her brother,
Craig, had reservations about leaving Atlanta. His gregarious sister didn't share his concerns, however. "She took it better than I did," said Craig, who flew in from Seattle when he heard Paige was missing. JAVIER MANZANO / THE ROCKY
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий