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It was the little things that got to Frank Birgfeld on Monday.
His daughter’s left-behind reading glasses.
Photos hanging from a living room wall at Paige Birgfeld’s sprawling north Grand Junction home at 2512 Oleaster Ct.
Paige Birgfeld’s boy and two girls — ages 3, 5 and 8 — and the questions grandpa and grandma couldn’t answer.
Nobody could.
“If Paige was 10 miles from here with two broken legs, she’d crawl on her elbows to get home for her children,” Frank Birgfeld, a Denver resident who said he rushed to Grand Junction on Saturday after authorities called with news of his 34-year-old daughter’s disappearance.
Paige, whom authorities say also uses the names Paige Dixon and Paige Beigler, was the focus of a missing person case on Monday that dominated the investigative resources of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
“At this point, it’s a missing person case with unusual circumstances,” Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Fogg said.
“Almost all our investigators are on this right now.”
Birgfeld’s 2005 Ford Focus was found ablaze Sunday night shortly before 10 p.m.
A sheriff’s office news release announcing Birgfeld’s disappearance had been distributed to media outlets about an hour and half before the burning car was reported.
“It certainly piques our interest, but what it means we don’t know yet,” Fogg said of the timing of the fire so close to the night’s television news broadcasts in Grand Junction.
“There’s nothing at this point indicating we have a homicide.”
The car burned just two miles southwest of Birgfeld’s home in a parking lot owned by Walker Products SMS, 727 23 Road. Technicians with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation spent most of Monday at the scene collecting evidence.
Fogg said “a series” of family members reported her missing since Thursday evening. Frank Birgfeld said sheriff’s investigators called him around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Frank Birgfeld said he was told the last known contact with his daughter happened around 9 p.m. Thursday. She had traveled to Eagle earlier that day to meet her first husband, Rob Beigler of Denver, he said.
He called her on her cellular phone — it’s unknown whether she was at her home, but she was in Grand Junction.
“He called to see if she made it back OK, and everything was fine,” Frank Birgfeld said.
His daughter’s cellular phone now directs calls straight to voice mail.
“She charged that (cell phone) regularly ... it’s very unlike her to turn it off.”
Twice married and divorced, Birgfeld’s second husband is former Grand Junction resident Rob Dixon.
Frank Birgfeld’s said he’d spoken with Dixon frequently via Dixon’s cellular phone, who as of Monday afternoon was still driving from his home in Philadelphia to Grand Junction.
“He’s coming to be with his children,” Birgfeld said. “He’s devastated.”
Dixon was at the heart of a controversy surrounding the finances of the Grand Junction Rural Fire Protection District.
From 2002 to 2004, fire district board members Tery Dixon (no relation to Rob Dixon), Steve Ward, Steve Gsell and Rob Dixon invested $3.24 million in taxpayer funds in a New York-based Internet firm.
The bulk of that money hasn’t been recovered. A Mesa County grand jury last year declined to indict anyone.
His daughter’s left-behind reading glasses.
Photos hanging from a living room wall at Paige Birgfeld’s sprawling north Grand Junction home at 2512 Oleaster Ct.
Paige Birgfeld’s boy and two girls — ages 3, 5 and 8 — and the questions grandpa and grandma couldn’t answer.
Nobody could.
“If Paige was 10 miles from here with two broken legs, she’d crawl on her elbows to get home for her children,” Frank Birgfeld, a Denver resident who said he rushed to Grand Junction on Saturday after authorities called with news of his 34-year-old daughter’s disappearance.
Paige, whom authorities say also uses the names Paige Dixon and Paige Beigler, was the focus of a missing person case on Monday that dominated the investigative resources of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
“At this point, it’s a missing person case with unusual circumstances,” Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Fogg said.
“Almost all our investigators are on this right now.”
Birgfeld’s 2005 Ford Focus was found ablaze Sunday night shortly before 10 p.m.
A sheriff’s office news release announcing Birgfeld’s disappearance had been distributed to media outlets about an hour and half before the burning car was reported.
“It certainly piques our interest, but what it means we don’t know yet,” Fogg said of the timing of the fire so close to the night’s television news broadcasts in Grand Junction.
“There’s nothing at this point indicating we have a homicide.”
The car burned just two miles southwest of Birgfeld’s home in a parking lot owned by Walker Products SMS, 727 23 Road. Technicians with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation spent most of Monday at the scene collecting evidence.
Fogg said “a series” of family members reported her missing since Thursday evening. Frank Birgfeld said sheriff’s investigators called him around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Frank Birgfeld said he was told the last known contact with his daughter happened around 9 p.m. Thursday. She had traveled to Eagle earlier that day to meet her first husband, Rob Beigler of Denver, he said.
He called her on her cellular phone — it’s unknown whether she was at her home, but she was in Grand Junction.
“He called to see if she made it back OK, and everything was fine,” Frank Birgfeld said.
His daughter’s cellular phone now directs calls straight to voice mail.
“She charged that (cell phone) regularly ... it’s very unlike her to turn it off.”
Twice married and divorced, Birgfeld’s second husband is former Grand Junction resident Rob Dixon.
Frank Birgfeld’s said he’d spoken with Dixon frequently via Dixon’s cellular phone, who as of Monday afternoon was still driving from his home in Philadelphia to Grand Junction.
“He’s coming to be with his children,” Birgfeld said. “He’s devastated.”
Dixon was at the heart of a controversy surrounding the finances of the Grand Junction Rural Fire Protection District.
From 2002 to 2004, fire district board members Tery Dixon (no relation to Rob Dixon), Steve Ward, Steve Gsell and Rob Dixon invested $3.24 million in taxpayer funds in a New York-based Internet firm.
The bulk of that money hasn’t been recovered. A Mesa County grand jury last year declined to indict anyone.
‘A very busy woman’
Paige Birgfeld in 2003 became the second member of the Grand Junction chapter of MOMS Club International — one of several activities or entrepreneurial endeavors that took up her time, friends say.“Never a dull moment and she did what she had to do to keep the house,” said Jamie Silvernail of Pear Park.
Paige Dixon is listed as the sole owner of the 2512 Oleaster Ct. property, which has an estimated 2007 total value of $909,330, according to records from the Mesa County Assessor.
“A very busy woman ... but she managed to stay home and make the kids a priority.”
Silvernail and fellow MOMS club members gathered for a candlelight vigil Monday at Strawberry Park in Fruitvale.
Friends and family said she’s a paid consultant with The Pampered Chef Ltd., who loves to dance.
“She’s loving and patient ... the kind of person who made everybody feel like her best friend,” Silvernail said.
“I find myself talking about her in the past tense and that upsets me.”
Reach Paul Shockley at pshockley@gjfreepress.com
