Paige Birgfeld (DMV Photo)
Heartbreak: Frank Birgfeld, 68, said today he knew nothing of his late daughter's double life
- but now recognised that the clues were there all along
Warning sign: Three days after Birgfeld went missing in 2007, her car was found burnt out and abandoned
Mesa County offiicals at the scene Wednesday where the body of Paige Birgfeld was found (9News)
Body found of Paige Birgfeld, Mesa County woman missing since 2007
By Joey Bunch
The Denver Postdenverpost.com / Posted: 03/08/2012
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, damned 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."
READ: ASTOUNDING UPDATE ON MISSING COLORADO WOMAN, PAIGE BIRGFELD....
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20126354/body-found-mesa-county-woman-missing-since-2007
