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One hot Colorado evening in June 2007, 34-year-old mother Paige
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Bergfeld failed to return home to her three waiting children.
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My biggest fear was that she was missing by force.
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Someone had to have kidnapped her or, absolute worst case,
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murdered her.
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Nothing more was heard about Paige. There was no trace
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at all for another five years.
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An agony, a time of agony for her parents and
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her friends, and indeed for the three children that she bore.
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The investigation was complicated by the discovery of a side
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to Paige Bergfeld that few people knew about.
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She was running what we would describe as an escort business.
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One of Paige's clients was local mechanic Lester Jones, a
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man with a dark past.
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He kidnapped his wife at gunpoint and then threatened to
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kill her, almost in the same way as he ended
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up killing Paige.
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Lester Jones killed Paige Bergfeld after she refused to continue
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to provide him services that he wanted.
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Lester Jones's desire to dominate women had cemented his place
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as one of the world's most evil killers. The disappearance
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of 34-year-old soccer mom Paige Bergfeld sent shockwaves through the
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isolated city of Grand Junction, Colorado.
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Mesa County is rural Colorado at its roots. It's beautiful
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from canyons to rivers. It's wide open spaces. It's good
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folks that really care about each other and they're hardworking people.
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Local journalist Matt Croeschel began following the story in 2007
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and would still be covering the case at its conclusion
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almost a decade later.
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Stories about Paige Birkfeld and the disappearance were routinely on
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the local news. It was a story that everyone was
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talking about. And so not just the anniversaries of her
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birthday or when she was last seen, because they were
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uncovering possible sightings or there would be information that remains
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were being discovered throughout the years.
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The investigation is focusing on an escort business Birchfeld was
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involved in.
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As the news stories swirled, the man everyone believed had
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taken Paige Birchfeld continued to live alongside the friends and
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family of the woman he'd killed.
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Lester Jones worked in the community He was a quiet
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man that kept to himself and a bit mysterious.
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Prosecutors were certain Lester Jones had murdered Page, but they
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had to prove it, and that would take nine long years.
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This killer story begins on March the 4th, 1951, 200
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miles from Grand Junction.
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Lester Jones has very little known about him from his
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early years, but what we do know is that he
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was born in Westcliff, Colorado.
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He had a brother and sister.
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We know that he got married quite early in his
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early 20s, and he had two sons. And the marriage,
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that marriage, lasted for about 20 years.
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By 1996, Jones was running a car repair workshop in Hotchkiss, Colorado.
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That's where he first met a young woman called Lisa Nance.
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Jones first met Lisa when she stopped in his car
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shop and she was about 28 years old. He was 45.
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She was a single stay-at-home mother. She had two children
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of her own, and when she first met him, he
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was recently divorced. They had almost like a whirlwind romance.
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She was, I suppose, swept off her feet. This was
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an amiable, cheerful, handsome, tall, big man who represented a
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little security. And she called him gentle and funny and
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good with her kids.
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Within just six months of meeting him, Lisa married Jones.
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People like Lester Jones tend to try and speed things
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up when they first meet somebody. They want to get
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that commitment from them really quickly. They kind of tie
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them into that, and then they're trapped in it, and
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that's when the trouble starts.
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Lisa reported that Jones was asking her frequently who she
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was with, who she was talking to on the phone,
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looking at her mail and bank statements, checking her phone
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records and logs and asking her if she didn't report
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speaking to somebody that day. He was increasingly jealous and
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controlling and then angry at her if she didn't report
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the right thing to him.
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If you get into a relationship with somebody who is
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very jealous, there's the biggest red flag. You mustn't talk
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to other men. You mustn't dress like this. I don't
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even like it when you see your friends or you
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go out without me. These are massive, massive red flags.
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This person thinks they own you and they need to
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control you. And we definitely did see those behaviors in
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Lester Jones.
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As time went on, Jones was not just controlling, he
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also became more and more untrustworthy and dishonest.
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Jones was a private pilot.
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He had his own license and would use planes from
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time to time and he would just be.
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Gone without notice and without telling Lisa where he went.
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So he would disappear for days on end.
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Lisa reported that he was the pathological liar and would
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have an answer for everything whenever she asked him where
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he was, where money was going to.
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Her wedding ring went missing and she.
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Thought no one else could have possibly taken it and
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yet he was the only suspect and he denied it.
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So she was increasingly distrustful of him.
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Lisa began to suspect that Jones was stealing her money
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to pay for sex workers.
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What we don't know is how he was with those
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sex workers. He may have been controlling, abusive, violent. We
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don't know, but he was seeing them regularly. I think
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he was probably quite obsessive about that as well.
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So Lisa takes her courage in her hands and asks
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him to leave. But that doesn't put an end to
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his manipulation of his now. estranged wife. He starts to
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stalk her.
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Stalking is very, very common after a relationship breakdown. The
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worst thing is if the stalking moves on to what
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we call reconnaissance. So then they're looking for opportunities for
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an attack.
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One day in 1999, Jones took the opportunity he'd been
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waiting for.
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One night, Lisa decided to invite a male friend over
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and they were gonna watch movies together. They were inside
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all night, just watching TV, and at four in the morning,
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he had to leave and Lisa was gonna go with him.
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And at that point, when they were driving away, Jones followed.
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Lisa and her friend are in the car and they're
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being trailed by Jones in his truck. They must have
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been terrified. I mean, headlights in the rearview mirror, the
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whole scenario. It's dark, it's late at night, early in
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the morning.
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Crikey.
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And Jones increasingly gets closer to them, and he forces
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the car off the road.
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Lisa was actually trapped in the vehicle, and only her
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friend was able to get out. And so he tried
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to free himself and then get Lisa out. And as
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he was trying to do this, Jones pulls out a gun.
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Her friend starts to run off to get help. Jones
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fires two shots at him, one of which grazes his head.
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He then points the gun at Lisa and effectively demands
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she get out of the car on his side and
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get into his car. It's a full-scale abduction.
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Despite being in fear, Lisa somehow managed to calm Jones
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down and convinced him to pull over.
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As they were leaving, she said she didn't stop and
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ask for a tow or service of her vehicle. And
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instead of calling car repair shop, she called the police.
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And incredibly, police were able to respond quickly and rescue
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Lisa from Jones, who they arrested.
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But the stalking didn't stop. Jones was bailed the following day.
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And just a few weeks later, he returned to try
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and finish the job.
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Once and for all.
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Lisa is asleep and she wakes up to find Jones
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sitting on the sofa in her living room.
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He was staring at her with such a menacing frightening
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look that she thought she was going to die. At
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this point, Jones forced Lisa into his vehicle at gunpoint.
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For the second time in a month, Jones had pressured
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Lisa into a car against her will. But this time,
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he wouldn't be tricked into pulling over. Instead, Lester Jones
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brutally beat his estranged wife before driving her into the
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remote mountains, further and further from civilization and any chance
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of rescue for Lisa.
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This is him now in almost, we could call it
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a panic. I have got to get control back. I
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am not accepting this. I cannot take rejection.
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Lester Jones actually took her out into a very rural
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part of western Colorado and threatened.
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To kill her and bury her in a lake.
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She must literally have thought that her life was going
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to end that night. Imagine what it must have been like.
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You've been threatened with a gun. He's been arrested. He's
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turned up again. He's threatening you again. He's going to
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kill you. He's going to dump you in a lake.
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But yet again, Lisa demonstrates an extraordinary ability to survive,
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to get out of the situation.
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At this point, she said, but I still love you,
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essentially as a way to try to get him not
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to do this horrific thing to her. Jones responded, prove it,
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and wanted to essentially have her have sex with him
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to show that she still loved him. Lisa managed to
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convince Jones to go to a local motel. And as
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he went inside to get them a room, she again
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thought quickly and decided to jump in the front seat
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and take the car and speed off and basically save
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her own life.
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She was able to escape, And Lester Jones was actually
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charged and sent to prison for that event.
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Lisa heaves a sigh of relief because finally the nightmare
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of her stalker-stroke husband is gone. And she doesn't hear
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anything for some considerable time. In fact, Jones is released
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after serving half his 10-year sentence.
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By 2006, 55-year-old mechanic Lester Jones had been released from
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prison for the kidnap and assault of his ex-wife, Lisa Nance.
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Now 60 pounds heavier and sporting a full beard, Jones
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had remarried and was living in Grand Junction, Colorado, working
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as a mechanic at a local car dealership. On June
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the 30th, 2007, the city was stunned when local mother
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of three, Paige Bergfeld, was reported missing. Her friend of
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four years, Barbara Campbell, knew it was out of character.
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I was a good friend of Paige. Our kids were
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about the same ages and played together, so it made
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it easy for us to hang out, even though we
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were both busy all the time. Paige had a wonderful
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relationship with her kids. She just loved to be with
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her kids all the time, and she was just completely devoted.
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When Paige went missing, I was completely shocked.
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Saturday, June 28th, she had driven from Grand Junction into
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the mountains. about two hours into the mountains to meet
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her ex-husband.
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District Attorney Pete Houtsinger was central to the investigation into
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Paige's disappearance. She and ex-husband Ron Begler had recently rekindled
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their romance and had spent the day together just before
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she vanished.
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He was the last one to have seen her. She
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was last known to have been driving back from the
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Central Mountains towards Grand Junction when she disappeared.
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When Paige went missing, She'd left her children with a
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live-in nanny. And it was the nanny and, indeed, her
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8-year-old daughter who eventually reported her missing. They walked to
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the police station together. It must have been an extraordinary sight,
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the nanny and this little girl reporting to the police
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that Mummy had gone.
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Heartbreaking, really. Ron Beigler.
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Her first husband also rang 911 to report her missing.
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Dispatch, this is Clint.
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Yes, I need to talk to you about a missing
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person emergency. Something is definitely, definitely wrong. She either got
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abducted or an accident. I think she got abducted. She
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actually had to. There's just no way. So something is
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definitely wrong here. I'm just really starting to panic.
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Paige first went missing, the first thing that the police
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would consider is this normal behavior. Would we expect this
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person to go missing? And Paige did not fall into
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that bracket at all. She had never gone missing before.
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Paige would never leave without her kids. Like, she wouldn't
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just take off. So instantly I knew something had to
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have happened.
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Just one day later, Paige's friends and family were given
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even more reason to panic.
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Her car is found burning in a lot out west
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of town. I mean, what was pretty clearly right off
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the bat an arson situation where the car had been
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intentionally burned.
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Knowing that the car was burned was a really bad
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sign that she was probably not alive, that we weren't
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ever going to get her back.
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The most logical reason from a law enforcement perspective that
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someone would try to set fire to a vehicle is
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to destroy evidence, to eliminate the potential of DNA or
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hairs or other evidence being recovered from that vehicle.
248
00:16:25.460 --> 00:16:29.500
There are two interesting things about the car when it
249
00:16:29.539 --> 00:16:33.960
was discovered. One is that the driver's seat.
250
00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:36.179
Was pushed all the way back.
251
00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:41.159
She herself was only 5'4, so it would not have
252
00:16:41.179 --> 00:16:45.549
been her who had pushed that seat back. Secondly, in
253
00:16:45.570 --> 00:16:49.690
the boot of the burnt-out car, her day planner is found,
254
00:16:50.750 --> 00:16:55.049
with significant days torn out, including the day in which
255
00:16:55.090 --> 00:17:04.240
she disappeared. Clearly, with an attempt designed to conceal who
256
00:17:04.279 --> 00:17:06.579
she might or might not have been seeing.
257
00:17:07.529 --> 00:17:11.089
Finding the missing mother's car was a breakthrough of sorts,
258
00:17:11.190 --> 00:17:14.579
but there was still no sign of Paige Bergfeld and
259
00:17:14.700 --> 00:17:17.460
no indication if she was dead or alive.
260
00:17:19.099 --> 00:17:22.759
There were search parties, both organized by the sheriff's office
261
00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:25.059
and with civilian volunteers.
262
00:17:26.789 --> 00:17:29.349
It was really hot in Grand Junction in the summer,
263
00:17:29.690 --> 00:17:34.450
going over 100 degrees. I volunteered to do the searches,
264
00:17:34.470 --> 00:17:41.329
as many wonderful people did, And we walked miles a
265
00:17:41.349 --> 00:17:45.950
day just looking for any clue. And day after day
266
00:17:46.029 --> 00:17:52.799
doing searches and we're not finding her. It just really
267
00:17:52.819 --> 00:17:57.220
kind of slowly trickled in that reality that we knew
268
00:17:57.279 --> 00:17:59.299
what we were looking for on the searches. We're looking
269
00:17:59.339 --> 00:18:00.049
for a dead body.
270
00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:06.799
If she was dead, Paige had seemingly tried to give
271
00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:10.680
detectives a clue about what had led to her tragic fate.
272
00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:18.859
Before long, a number of items were found along Highway 50,
273
00:18:18.859 --> 00:18:21.180
and it was sort of a trail of her belongings
274
00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:25.789
found more or less random places along the highway heading
275
00:18:25.900 --> 00:18:31.230
south towards Delta. Items from her checkbook and then items
276
00:18:31.329 --> 00:18:35.059
that seemed to be torn out of a notebook, business cards,
277
00:18:35.220 --> 00:18:39.819
which at least suggested that she had been actively trying
278
00:18:39.859 --> 00:18:43.240
to throw stuff out a window or something along those lines,
279
00:18:44.549 --> 00:18:46.849
maybe trying to leave a trail for people to be
280
00:18:46.910 --> 00:18:47.609
able to track.
281
00:18:48.910 --> 00:18:53.170
While the search continued, detectives compiled a list of all
282
00:18:53.210 --> 00:18:55.859
the people who might want to harm Paige.
283
00:18:57.130 --> 00:19:03.049
Investigators immediately zeroed in on Paige Bergfeld's ex-husband, Rob Dixon.
284
00:19:03.569 --> 00:19:05.130
He was the father of her kids.
285
00:19:07.130 --> 00:19:10.480
Statistically speaking, it is likely to be somebody she knows.
286
00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:14.299
And statistically speaking, it's likely to be a partner or
287
00:19:14.380 --> 00:19:19.339
an ex-partner. So those people would most definitely be in
288
00:19:19.380 --> 00:19:22.609
the lens of the police as they started their investigation.
289
00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:27.940
Paige had previously made allegations of violence against her second husband,
290
00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:32.220
but when Grand Junction detectives checked his alibi, he was
291
00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:37.160
quickly in the clear. Also under scrutiny was Paige's first husband,
292
00:19:37.500 --> 00:19:41.960
the man who dialed 911 to report her missing, Ron Bigler.
293
00:19:43.319 --> 00:19:48.309
Investigators were also looking into Ron Bigler because he and
294
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:51.990
Paige had met up hours before she was last seen.
295
00:19:54.289 --> 00:19:58.380
Those men were immediately questioned to figure out where they
296
00:19:58.430 --> 00:20:01.259
were and just how close they still.
297
00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:03.640
Were with Paige. Were their motives their.
298
00:20:05.559 --> 00:20:10.079
Investigators cleared Ron Bigler right away because they could see
299
00:20:10.220 --> 00:20:13.519
on the cell phone tracking data that he actually headed
300
00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:17.980
back towards Denver, the opposite direction from Grand Junction, while
301
00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:21.039
Page's cell phone was headed towards the Western Slope.
302
00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:28.940
Two suspects had immediately been ruled out. Then detectives uncovered
303
00:20:29.019 --> 00:20:32.359
a secret life that had brought many more men to
304
00:20:32.420 --> 00:20:33.740
Page Bergfeld's door.
305
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:36.220
Paige had a double life.
306
00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:41.640
She was, yes, a stay-at-home mother of three, a hard-working
307
00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:47.220
entrepreneur with little businesses, but she was also an escort.
308
00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:52.700
She ran an agency called Models Inc, and she rented
309
00:20:52.740 --> 00:20:56.480
herself out as well. She was known as Carrie to
310
00:20:56.509 --> 00:20:57.160
the agency.
311
00:20:57.660 --> 00:20:58.470
She was expensive.
312
00:20:58.490 --> 00:20:59.230
I mean, $ 2, 500 for a night.
313
00:21:03.789 --> 00:21:10.720
She had advertisements in papers and on the Internet offering
314
00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:15.700
massage services to people who wanted to hire her or
315
00:21:15.779 --> 00:21:20.599
her coworkers. And as the investigators dug into it, it
316
00:21:20.660 --> 00:21:23.980
turned out there were quite a few customers, and she
317
00:21:24.299 --> 00:21:29.480
was considered in that world to be highly desirable and
318
00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:34.849
successful as an escort. A very attractive young woman, well-groomed
319
00:21:35.410 --> 00:21:36.329
and pretty.
320
00:21:39.269 --> 00:21:41.349
She was just very scrappy. I mean, she would do
321
00:21:41.430 --> 00:21:46.319
whatever and just try to make ends meet any way
322
00:21:46.390 --> 00:21:50.200
she could. And it wasn't until much closer to when
323
00:21:50.259 --> 00:21:53.779
she disappeared the first time that I had a conversation
324
00:21:53.859 --> 00:21:58.039
with her and she revealed that, well, I'm also doing
325
00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:00.049
this escort service thing.
326
00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:02.900
Next message.
327
00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:04.160
Yeah, this is Jim.
328
00:22:04.299 --> 00:22:07.460
Just calling to see if Carrie was available tonight.
329
00:22:08.619 --> 00:22:09.089
Call me back.
330
00:22:10.170 --> 00:22:14.769
Once investigators started to figure out the other businesses, the
331
00:22:14.849 --> 00:22:18.710
side hustles that Paige Bergfeld had going, it complicated this
332
00:22:18.769 --> 00:22:23.769
entire case. Because now we know that Paige was having
333
00:22:24.029 --> 00:22:28.089
correspondence and messages and meeting with a lot of different
334
00:22:28.130 --> 00:22:31.549
guys that probably didn't want anyone to know they were meeting.
335
00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:35.740
Many of Paige's clients had left voice messages on a
336
00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:40.410
cell phone she used exclusively for business, including a man
337
00:22:40.490 --> 00:22:43.730
calling himself Jim.
338
00:22:44.210 --> 00:22:45.029
Next message.
339
00:22:45.809 --> 00:22:47.730
Then there were at least one, if not more, calls
340
00:22:48.470 --> 00:22:50.640
from an unidentified track.
341
00:22:52.099 --> 00:22:52.240
Phone.
342
00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:00.319
Next message. Yeah, this is Jim.
343
00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:03.779
Could you give me a call back? 719.
344
00:23:03.779 --> 00:23:06.680
Jim had been the last person to call Paige on
345
00:23:06.700 --> 00:23:10.349
the night she disappeared. When detectives got hold of her
346
00:23:10.420 --> 00:23:14.750
phone records, they discovered that Jim was not his real name.
347
00:23:15.390 --> 00:23:20.809
The investigators were able to identify that phone, identify when
348
00:23:20.849 --> 00:23:25.250
and where it had been purchased, and identify security film
349
00:23:25.309 --> 00:23:30.250
footage of Lester Jones purchasing that specific phone on that
350
00:23:30.349 --> 00:23:31.549
specific day.
351
00:23:31.990 --> 00:23:36.569
Standing tall at 6'4, local mechanic Lester Jones had not
352
00:23:36.650 --> 00:23:40.190
only been identified as the man on the footage, the
353
00:23:40.210 --> 00:23:43.650
56-year-old was also well acquainted with the part of town
354
00:23:43.710 --> 00:23:45.809
where Page's car was discovered.
355
00:23:46.930 --> 00:23:49.950
The place where Page's car had been found, having been
356
00:23:50.089 --> 00:23:54.670
set afire and burning... was within 100 and 150 yards
357
00:23:54.829 --> 00:23:58.069
from Lester's workshop there at Bob Scott RV.
358
00:23:59.650 --> 00:24:03.130
Jones, the man known to Paige as Jim, was suddenly
359
00:24:03.190 --> 00:24:07.210
the prime suspect in her disappearance. He was the last
360
00:24:07.299 --> 00:24:11.160
person known to have spoken to Paige Bergfeld, and Jones'
361
00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:13.460
home life was far from perfect.
362
00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:19.839
He was married and had, I guess, a somewhat interesting
363
00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:24.480
relationship with his wife, It wasn't all flowers and roses.
364
00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:28.099
They certainly seemed to go through good times and bad times.
365
00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:31.930
And his wife told investigators there were times when he
366
00:24:31.970 --> 00:24:34.009
would disappear and she didn't know where he was.
367
00:24:34.869 --> 00:24:38.509
Just as he had with his ex-wife, Lisa Nance, Lester
368
00:24:38.569 --> 00:24:42.930
Jones was disappearing to spend time with sex workers and escorts.
369
00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:47.039
One of the escorts he'd been seeing regularly was missing
370
00:24:47.130 --> 00:24:50.960
mother of three, Paige Bergfeld. Jones had used the name
371
00:24:51.099 --> 00:24:53.900
Jim when contacting the 34-year-old.
372
00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:55.579
Next message.
373
00:24:55.859 --> 00:24:56.440
This is Jim.
374
00:24:56.500 --> 00:24:57.660
I tried calling you last night.
375
00:24:58.819 --> 00:25:00.839
Maybe I left a wrong impression on you. I do
376
00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:03.380
want you to call me, but it's been like since
377
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:03.900
last night.
378
00:25:04.809 --> 00:25:05.609
End of message.
379
00:25:06.549 --> 00:25:11.880
Jones had developed an obsessive interest in Page. Before her disappearance,
380
00:25:12.220 --> 00:25:15.099
she'd become concerned about his behavior.
381
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:21.200
One of her co-workers or friends had told the investigators
382
00:25:21.309 --> 00:25:25.049
that she was kind of creeped out or worried about
383
00:25:25.569 --> 00:25:27.549
this particular one of her clients.
384
00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:31.279
Paige had told her friend of a white truck that
385
00:25:31.319 --> 00:25:34.140
would show up late at night when she was leaving work,
386
00:25:34.529 --> 00:25:38.630
circling the car park. On one occasion, the driver had
387
00:25:38.710 --> 00:25:40.349
even tried to block her in.
388
00:25:42.170 --> 00:25:46.289
There are things about escort work that are inherently dangerous.
389
00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:51.000
You know, if somebody wants to kill a woman, they've
390
00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:54.650
got to get that woman involved. on her own with
391
00:25:54.730 --> 00:25:58.309
them somewhere where there's no witnesses. That is an incredibly
392
00:25:58.430 --> 00:26:02.819
difficult thing to do. But if you go and see
393
00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:06.980
an escort, that is what they do. They have to
394
00:26:07.019 --> 00:26:12.269
do that. These people, these predators, have instant access to them.
395
00:26:13.930 --> 00:26:20.240
Sometimes people feel empowered to treat women horribly because they
396
00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:22.420
think they'll never go to the police and report it.
397
00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:27.299
And unfortunately, that does make sex work a riskier endeavor
398
00:26:27.339 --> 00:26:29.200
than other types of professions.
399
00:26:30.099 --> 00:26:33.420
It was work that brought women like Paige into close
400
00:26:33.509 --> 00:26:36.130
contact with men like Lester Jones.
401
00:26:36.710 --> 00:26:39.910
I think he was obsessed with Paige Bergfeld. I think
402
00:26:40.009 --> 00:26:44.230
Paige was by far the most desirable or an attractive
403
00:26:44.250 --> 00:26:48.109
woman escort he'd ever been lucky enough to hire.
404
00:26:48.130 --> 00:26:51.950
The feeling was not mutual.
405
00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:56.650
One of the times that he had tried to hire
406
00:26:56.779 --> 00:27:00.519
her not long before her disappearance, she had tried to send,
407
00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:04.200
direct that business in another direction to one of her
408
00:27:04.339 --> 00:27:07.779
co-workers because she didn't want to have anything more to
409
00:27:07.819 --> 00:27:09.720
do with the person who was driving that white truck.
410
00:27:10.410 --> 00:27:15.759
As investigators uncovered Jones' criminal history of abducting and assaulting women,
411
00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:22.460
they began to wonder if history was repeating itself. They
412
00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:25.539
needed to find out if Jones had arranged to meet
413
00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:28.480
Paige Bergfeld the night she disappeared.
414
00:27:30.049 --> 00:27:34.630
Jones is arrested and interrogated. He simply says, yes, of course,
415
00:27:35.349 --> 00:27:39.009
help yourself. Here's my DNA, I'm happy to give you fingerprints,
416
00:27:39.130 --> 00:27:39.529
not a problem.
417
00:27:40.349 --> 00:27:42.430
He did not deny that he'd been a client of
418
00:27:42.509 --> 00:27:46.009
Page's and had contact with her, knew who she was
419
00:27:46.349 --> 00:27:48.819
and used escort services.
420
00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:53.539
Lester Jones confirmed to investigators that on the night Page vanished,
421
00:27:53.779 --> 00:27:56.140
he was in the Grand Junction area.
422
00:27:57.180 --> 00:27:59.359
He was in town and his wife was out of town,
423
00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:03.039
as I recall at the time. He was in the area.
424
00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:07.069
He didn't have an alibi. He couldn't established that he
425
00:28:07.109 --> 00:28:10.690
was out of the vicinity or couldn't have committed the crime.
426
00:28:14.410 --> 00:28:16.869
When investigators got a search warrant, they went to Lester
427
00:28:16.910 --> 00:28:21.529
Jones' workplace. And at his workstation, they found some really
428
00:28:21.609 --> 00:28:25.410
weird stuff. They found some wigs. They found a wrapper
429
00:28:25.970 --> 00:28:27.390
for a track phone.
430
00:28:28.490 --> 00:28:31.369
Track phone or these other types of burner phones are
431
00:28:31.470 --> 00:28:35.119
ones where you can purchase it with cash There's no
432
00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:38.529
long-term plan associated with it, and so you can have
433
00:28:38.589 --> 00:28:41.710
it and not have any details of who owns it,
434
00:28:41.769 --> 00:28:42.869
who's paying for it.
435
00:28:43.450 --> 00:28:47.900
As the search at Lester Jones' workplace continued, more evidence
436
00:28:47.980 --> 00:28:51.000
linking him to Paige's disappearance was discovered.
437
00:28:52.549 --> 00:28:55.670
Some accelerants, some things that could have been used in
438
00:28:55.690 --> 00:28:59.769
a kidnapping or could have been used in potentially burning
439
00:28:59.829 --> 00:29:00.329
the car.
440
00:29:00.630 --> 00:29:04.549
Detectives also found a notebook detailing all of the escorts
441
00:29:04.650 --> 00:29:08.910
Jones had met with, describing them by height, weight, and
442
00:29:09.009 --> 00:29:09.690
cup size.
443
00:29:10.450 --> 00:29:16.279
In other words, they reveal that this apparently normal, superficially
444
00:29:16.420 --> 00:29:21.000
charming man is actually obsessed with sex workers.
445
00:29:22.660 --> 00:29:28.380
Lester had an active interest in pornography. His wife told
446
00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:31.279
us about that. He had a lot of pornography on
447
00:29:31.319 --> 00:29:33.869
his computer at work, as I recall, but also on
448
00:29:33.890 --> 00:29:38.109
their home computer. It's one more thing that makes you think, geez,
449
00:29:38.130 --> 00:29:40.589
this is somebody who could have done it. commit a
450
00:29:40.630 --> 00:29:41.430
crime like this.
451
00:29:42.069 --> 00:29:46.170
Jones denied meeting Page the night she disappeared, but the
452
00:29:46.230 --> 00:29:48.960
last calls to her cell were from the phone he'd
453
00:29:48.980 --> 00:29:52.539
been seen buying, and he had left messages under his
454
00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:53.319
fake name.
455
00:29:54.079 --> 00:29:54.900
Next message.
456
00:29:55.099 --> 00:29:56.279
Hello, yeah, this is Jim.
457
00:29:56.299 --> 00:29:58.160
Yeah, this is Jim, just being impatient, I just.
458
00:30:05.579 --> 00:30:08.880
Investigators were convinced that Jones had tricked the young mother
459
00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:12.779
into meeting him before Page had vanished. But armed with
460
00:30:12.859 --> 00:30:17.480
only circumstantial evidence, getting justice for Page was not going
461
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:18.180
to be easy.
462
00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:22.349
There was a ton of pressure on investigators in Mesa
463
00:30:22.410 --> 00:30:24.829
County to press charges.
464
00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:32.339
Within, I want to say, months of Paige's disappearance, we
465
00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:37.369
had largely honed in on Lester Jones as the most
466
00:30:37.509 --> 00:30:43.130
likely person to be responsible for her disappearance. The problem
467
00:30:43.890 --> 00:30:48.130
that I saw from that time right up through the
468
00:30:48.250 --> 00:30:52.299
end of the investigation was the fact that, A, there
469
00:30:52.380 --> 00:30:56.700
were other clients of hers who It was hard to
470
00:30:57.099 --> 00:31:03.180
absolutely eliminate as potential suspects in her disappearance, and B,
471
00:31:04.069 --> 00:31:05.160
we didn't have a body.
472
00:31:05.970 --> 00:31:08.750
A defense attorney can argue, at least to a reasonable
473
00:31:08.789 --> 00:31:12.329
doubt level, that there wasn't even a murder that took place.
474
00:31:13.230 --> 00:31:16.569
Because of her double life, because of the fact that
475
00:31:17.390 --> 00:31:19.670
all the people who loved her and knew her well
476
00:31:19.779 --> 00:31:24.420
knew nothing about this double life and her secret business
477
00:31:24.519 --> 00:31:27.480
as an escort, I thought that was just too big
478
00:31:27.549 --> 00:31:29.789
a hole in the case to ever be able to
479
00:31:29.869 --> 00:31:34.450
prove Lester Jones' guilt or anyone else's beyond a reasonable doubt.
480
00:31:34.670 --> 00:31:38.849
Paige Bergfeld remained missing, and investigators had no evidence to
481
00:31:38.930 --> 00:31:42.289
prove she had been murdered. No suspect will be charged
482
00:31:42.309 --> 00:31:45.430
with any crime relating to her. The news was a
483
00:31:45.490 --> 00:31:48.619
bitter pill to swallow for Paige's friends and family.
484
00:31:50.220 --> 00:31:54.579
I was devastated. after finding out that she was missing
485
00:31:54.700 --> 00:31:58.460
and realizing as much as I wanted to believe maybe
486
00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:01.819
she could be found alive, that the reality was she
487
00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:04.779
probably wouldn't be. There's a lot of numbness to it
488
00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:09.240
because there was no answer. We didn't know that she
489
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:12.680
was murdered and that's a really difficult place to be in.
490
00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:20.440
It was long, it was drawn out, And the family
491
00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:24.740
must have suffered dreadfully over those years. They must have
492
00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:28.720
felt at times that they were never, ever going to
493
00:32:28.759 --> 00:32:32.650
get the answers that they needed, that they wanted. And
494
00:32:32.690 --> 00:32:34.930
it was very difficult for the police, I think, who
495
00:32:35.569 --> 00:32:37.849
would be wanting to give them those answers.
496
00:32:40.609 --> 00:32:45.400
Paige's father, Frank Burkefield, had made regular, repeated trips to
497
00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:48.720
Grand Junction in an effort to find the missing daughter,
498
00:32:48.819 --> 00:32:52.119
but without any success. It's every father and mother's worst
499
00:32:52.180 --> 00:32:55.440
nightmare that their daughter should disappear into thin air and
500
00:32:55.480 --> 00:32:58.559
no body be found. It is heartbreaking.
501
00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:04.029
Five long years passed with no closure for Paige's loved ones.
502
00:33:04.650 --> 00:33:08.009
And all the time, Lester Jones continued to live and
503
00:33:08.109 --> 00:33:11.750
work alongside the innocent people of Grand Junction.
504
00:33:13.019 --> 00:33:21.089
By probably 2011, 2010, 2011, the investigation had somewhat ground
505
00:33:21.150 --> 00:33:25.750
to a halt. Much of the frustration of Paige's family
506
00:33:25.809 --> 00:33:29.140
and loved ones, particularly her father, Frank Bergfeld.
507
00:33:30.420 --> 00:33:35.240
Frank Bergfeld was just a really great guy. He was
508
00:33:35.380 --> 00:33:40.059
positive and always seemed to believe that the truth would
509
00:33:40.099 --> 00:33:44.700
come out, whatever that was. He wanted closure for their family.
510
00:33:45.309 --> 00:33:49.990
When closure came, it was in the most heartbreaking of circumstances.
511
00:33:50.529 --> 00:33:54.970
In March of 2012, a hiker in kind of a
512
00:33:55.569 --> 00:33:59.470
canyon area out in the desert stumbles across what the
513
00:33:59.509 --> 00:34:05.259
hiker believes to be human remains. And within a couple
514
00:34:05.299 --> 00:34:09.039
of hours, there were dozens of investigators from the state
515
00:34:09.059 --> 00:34:13.989
of Colorado and local jurisdictions investigating scouring this desert area
516
00:34:14.110 --> 00:34:17.170
in remote parts of Western Colorado.
517
00:34:18.130 --> 00:34:20.289
I remember to this day getting the call from the
518
00:34:20.329 --> 00:34:23.889
sheriff's office saying we found skeletal remains in the desert
519
00:34:24.190 --> 00:34:27.030
out by Delta. We think it may be pages and
520
00:34:27.110 --> 00:34:29.340
thinking that could be the break that the case needed.
521
00:34:31.820 --> 00:34:35.079
A skull was found at first. Then as crime scene
522
00:34:35.179 --> 00:34:38.599
officers investigated further, they unearthed.
523
00:34:38.280 --> 00:34:43.980
More and more bones. Forensic analysis established, yes, that was
524
00:34:44.039 --> 00:34:45.989
in fact Paige Bergfeldt's remains.
525
00:34:47.789 --> 00:34:51.150
The bones buried in a creek bed for years before
526
00:34:51.210 --> 00:34:55.230
being washed out by the rain told a horrifying story.
527
00:34:55.949 --> 00:35:00.929
The skull had duct tape wrapped around it, clearly as
528
00:35:00.989 --> 00:35:04.739
though her mouth had been taped shut.
529
00:35:07.219 --> 00:35:10.530
I don't think the coroner was able to determine absolutely
530
00:35:10.570 --> 00:35:15.309
determine a cause of death. Simply cause of death was homicide.
531
00:35:15.329 --> 00:35:19.110
And the most significant findings from her remains that I
532
00:35:19.170 --> 00:35:21.179
recall were the fact that there was a fracture to
533
00:35:21.219 --> 00:35:24.840
her skull that appeared to be contemporaneous with the time
534
00:35:24.900 --> 00:35:28.920
of death and some duct tape remains that appeared to
535
00:35:28.980 --> 00:35:32.179
be consistent with her having been restrained, which is consistent
536
00:35:32.219 --> 00:35:33.360
with having been kidnapped.
537
00:35:34.019 --> 00:35:38.199
The news was a devastating blow to Paige's family and friends.
538
00:35:38.579 --> 00:35:46.610
Finding her remains really was an element of sadness. It
539
00:35:46.670 --> 00:35:52.329
just crushed all hope that she could come back. You know,
540
00:35:52.349 --> 00:35:55.969
it just brought it all back up, all of that devastation.
541
00:35:56.349 --> 00:35:58.630
But this time it was, she really is dead. There
542
00:35:58.730 --> 00:35:59.840
is no hope now.
543
00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:04.840
Though incredibly tragic, the discovery of Paige's remains brought District
544
00:36:04.920 --> 00:36:09.320
Attorney Pete Houtsinger one step closer to charging Lester Jones
545
00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:10.199
with her murder.
546
00:36:11.539 --> 00:36:16.300
Of particular interest in Lester Jones' case were the facts
547
00:36:16.360 --> 00:36:22.110
surrounding his prior conviction for having kidnapped his wife, Second wife,
548
00:36:22.130 --> 00:36:25.780
I think. The fact that Mr. Jones went to the
549
00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:29.579
time in trouble to buy a track phone, that Paige,
550
00:36:29.639 --> 00:36:31.820
when she got a call from that track phone, wouldn't
551
00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:34.719
know that it was the same client that she'd been
552
00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:38.880
troubled by in the past, shows the level of premeditation
553
00:36:38.940 --> 00:36:43.340
and planning. The fact that when Paige's remains were found,
554
00:36:43.409 --> 00:36:46.730
there were traces of duct tape attached to the skeletal
555
00:36:46.769 --> 00:36:52.030
remains also is evidence of premeditation and planning. because he
556
00:36:52.110 --> 00:36:55.809
came equipped with what he needed to tie her up
557
00:36:55.989 --> 00:36:58.909
and restrain her and enable him to take her away.
558
00:37:00.510 --> 00:37:05.900
In November 2014, Grand Junction detectives were finally ready to
559
00:37:05.980 --> 00:37:06.820
make an arrest.
560
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:13.119
It was breaking huge news in western Colorado and really
561
00:37:13.179 --> 00:37:16.079
across the country. So many people were following this story.
562
00:37:16.659 --> 00:37:19.480
When investigators finally made an arrest.
563
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:23.820
and they arrested Lester Jones and charged him with murder.
564
00:37:25.599 --> 00:37:30.940
In July 2016, nine years after Paige Bergfeld went missing,
565
00:37:31.420 --> 00:37:35.119
Lester Jones went on trial for her murder at Mesa
566
00:37:35.179 --> 00:37:36.500
County District Court.
567
00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:41.960
Lester Jones entered a plea of not guilty, meaning that
568
00:37:42.380 --> 00:37:44.639
the obligation of the district attorney is to prove the
569
00:37:44.659 --> 00:37:48.360
case to 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt. It was
570
00:37:48.420 --> 00:37:52.139
a circumstantial case where layer upon layer upon layer had
571
00:37:52.179 --> 00:37:56.090
to be proven to the jury, including the track phone evidence,
572
00:37:56.210 --> 00:38:00.849
the evidence from the burned vehicle, the evidence from Paige's
573
00:38:00.949 --> 00:38:05.210
belongings being found along the highway headed down south towards Delta,
574
00:38:05.690 --> 00:38:10.099
towards the site where she was actually found buried years later.
575
00:38:10.539 --> 00:38:15.099
Despite the evidence against him, Jones appeared stoic in the courtroom.
576
00:38:16.070 --> 00:38:19.730
Lester Jones didn't show much emotion. He sat on the
577
00:38:19.769 --> 00:38:22.289
defense side. He would look straight ahead.
578
00:38:23.750 --> 00:38:28.269
The courtroom was the first time I actually set eyes
579
00:38:28.349 --> 00:38:32.050
on Lester Jones, and it was staggering to know that
580
00:38:32.130 --> 00:38:37.030
there was a very high likelihood that he killed one
581
00:38:37.050 --> 00:38:42.030
of my best friends. I've watched courtroom shows, and... There
582
00:38:42.050 --> 00:38:46.340
was just nothing like sitting there knowing that this man
583
00:38:46.639 --> 00:38:51.300
that I'm in the same room with is someone capable
584
00:38:51.460 --> 00:38:52.920
of such a terrible thing.
585
00:38:53.619 --> 00:38:57.579
Jones may have seemed confident, but investigators had an ace
586
00:38:57.900 --> 00:38:58.780
up their sleeve.
587
00:38:59.400 --> 00:39:04.420
The prosecution's star witness in this case against Lester Jones
588
00:39:04.900 --> 00:39:07.480
is actually Lester Jones' ex-wife, Lisa Nance.
589
00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:10.699
You know, she was scared of Lester Jones and testifying
590
00:39:10.739 --> 00:39:12.780
against him had to have been difficult for her.
591
00:39:14.619 --> 00:39:19.590
It was really sobering to think that a person who
592
00:39:19.730 --> 00:39:23.449
killed my best friend was married and, you know, had
593
00:39:23.489 --> 00:39:27.610
been married before. It seemed that at least at some
594
00:39:27.650 --> 00:39:29.949
points in the relationships, he was a pretty awful person.
595
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:30.760
Husband.
596
00:39:32.500 --> 00:39:35.139
He just seemed to not be a very nice guy.
597
00:39:35.619 --> 00:39:39.599
Despite the brave testimony of Lisa Nance and the compelling
598
00:39:39.699 --> 00:39:42.820
evidence against him, there was still a chance Jones could
599
00:39:42.880 --> 00:39:44.179
get away with murder.
600
00:39:45.280 --> 00:39:48.099
After dozens of witnesses.
601
00:39:48.829 --> 00:39:52.289
The jury got this case, but they could not come
602
00:39:52.329 --> 00:39:58.210
back with a verdict. They were deadlocked at 11 to 1.
603
00:39:58.210 --> 00:40:02.110
According to the people that were in the room, they
604
00:40:02.150 --> 00:40:05.900
were just unable to convince one member of the jury
605
00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:10.579
to find Lester Jones guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
606
00:40:11.320 --> 00:40:13.320
So the judge had to call a mistrial.
607
00:40:15.300 --> 00:40:22.090
It was just really devastating that he could potentially walk free. Like,
608
00:40:22.130 --> 00:40:26.530
that was, it was really scary to know that we
609
00:40:26.570 --> 00:40:28.829
have a killer on the stand. And so when he
610
00:40:28.889 --> 00:40:31.070
got off, it was like a gut punch.
611
00:40:32.429 --> 00:40:36.860
Just three months later, prosecutors had the opportunity to make
612
00:40:36.940 --> 00:40:39.780
their case against Lester Jones once again.
613
00:40:39.800 --> 00:40:47.760
I 100% feared death. that he was going to get
614
00:40:47.920 --> 00:40:51.340
off with no punishment. And he would get to walk
615
00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:56.360
the streets while my friend, who was a fabulous, vibrant,
616
00:40:57.199 --> 00:41:02.469
positive contribution to the society, who bent over backwards to
617
00:41:02.510 --> 00:41:06.190
do things for her kids and her friends, she was dead.
618
00:41:07.050 --> 00:41:10.050
And he would get to continue. And I know life's
619
00:41:10.090 --> 00:41:15.869
not fair, but... that I completely feared that that was
620
00:41:15.909 --> 00:41:16.880
going to be the outcome.
621
00:41:17.639 --> 00:41:20.440
You know, I've been doing this for 35 years and
622
00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:23.179
I will never guarantee anybody what a jury is going
623
00:41:23.219 --> 00:41:27.199
to do. So I was certainly relieved and gratified when
624
00:41:27.219 --> 00:41:31.679
the second jury came back guilty beyond reasonable doubt and unanimous.
625
00:41:32.219 --> 00:41:37.070
On the 27th of December 2016, District Judge Brian Flynn
626
00:41:37.409 --> 00:41:40.949
sentenced Lester Jones to life in prison without parole.
627
00:41:42.119 --> 00:41:46.099
It's like you're just holding your breath for years, waiting
628
00:41:46.119 --> 00:41:51.280
to find out, like, is somebody going to be punished
629
00:41:51.340 --> 00:41:56.920
for this? Because it doesn't bring Paige back, and that's
630
00:41:57.059 --> 00:41:57.780
the worst thing.
631
00:41:58.559 --> 00:41:58.940
But, you.
632
00:42:00.449 --> 00:42:04.949
Know, a killer was punished. You know, there's just got
633
00:42:04.969 --> 00:42:06.110
to be something good in that.
634
00:42:07.639 --> 00:42:10.920
It took nine years for the family of Paige Bergfeld
635
00:42:11.199 --> 00:42:16.900
to finally get justice for her murder. All the while,
636
00:42:17.219 --> 00:42:19.260
Lester Jones remained silent.
637
00:42:20.179 --> 00:42:25.610
I'm not sure if we'll ever figure out exactly what
638
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:30.510
happened to Paige Bergfeld. It would take the person convicted
639
00:42:30.570 --> 00:42:34.750
in her death to decide to start talking before we
640
00:42:34.769 --> 00:42:37.170
get any more information about what happened that night.
641
00:42:42.929 --> 00:42:48.389
I remember Paige for how just profoundly kind and energetic
642
00:42:48.889 --> 00:42:52.340
and fun she was. She just, she was always laughing,
643
00:42:52.469 --> 00:42:56.239
always having a good time, like tried to always see
644
00:42:56.280 --> 00:43:00.619
the bright side of things. And I just hope everyone
645
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:01.719
can know her for that.
646
00:43:02.659 --> 00:43:06.820
The disappearance of Paige Bergfeld shocked and terrified the people
647
00:43:06.860 --> 00:43:12.139
of Western Colorado for nine long years. The tragic mystery
648
00:43:12.199 --> 00:43:16.480
was finally solved when Lester Jones was convicted of her murder.
649
00:43:17.420 --> 00:43:20.380
But his brutal actions would have come as no surprise
650
00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:23.400
to the other women who had the misfortune to cross
651
00:43:23.500 --> 00:43:27.849
paths with Lester Jones, a man who violently refused to
652
00:43:27.929 --> 00:43:31.309
take no for an answer, and one of the world's
653
00:43:31.389 --> 00:43:32.869
most evil killers.
1
00:00:06.219 --> 00:00:12.259
One hot Colorado evening in June 2007, 34-year-old mother Paige
2
00:00:12.339 --> 00:00:16.300
Bergfeld failed to return home to her three waiting children.
3
00:00:17.609 --> 00:00:21.670
My biggest fear was that she was missing by force.
4
00:00:22.250 --> 00:00:26.170
Someone had to have kidnapped her or, absolute worst case,
5
00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:26.829
murdered her.
6
00:00:27.570 --> 00:00:30.850
Nothing more was heard about Paige. There was no trace
7
00:00:30.910 --> 00:00:33.149
at all for another five years.
8
00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:37.520
An agony, a time of agony for her parents and
9
00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:41.079
her friends, and indeed for the three children that she bore.
10
00:00:41.899 --> 00:00:45.670
The investigation was complicated by the discovery of a side
11
00:00:45.710 --> 00:00:48.890
to Paige Bergfeld that few people knew about.
12
00:00:48.909 --> 00:00:53.130
She was running what we would describe as an escort business.
13
00:00:53.710 --> 00:00:57.909
One of Paige's clients was local mechanic Lester Jones, a
14
00:00:57.969 --> 00:00:59.530
man with a dark past.
15
00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:05.560
He kidnapped his wife at gunpoint and then threatened to
16
00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:09.019
kill her, almost in the same way as he ended
17
00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:09.900
up killing Paige.
18
00:01:11.500 --> 00:01:18.560
Lester Jones killed Paige Bergfeld after she refused to continue
19
00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:20.909
to provide him services that he wanted.
20
00:01:21.829 --> 00:01:26.530
Lester Jones's desire to dominate women had cemented his place
21
00:01:26.849 --> 00:01:54.280
as one of the world's most evil killers. The disappearance
22
00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:59.540
of 34-year-old soccer mom Paige Bergfeld sent shockwaves through the
23
00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:03.140
isolated city of Grand Junction, Colorado.
24
00:02:03.730 --> 00:02:08.949
Mesa County is rural Colorado at its roots. It's beautiful
25
00:02:09.030 --> 00:02:13.830
from canyons to rivers. It's wide open spaces. It's good
26
00:02:13.930 --> 00:02:17.689
folks that really care about each other and they're hardworking people.
27
00:02:18.889 --> 00:02:23.659
Local journalist Matt Croeschel began following the story in 2007
28
00:02:23.659 --> 00:02:27.819
and would still be covering the case at its conclusion
29
00:02:28.219 --> 00:02:29.860
almost a decade later.
30
00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:39.539
Stories about Paige Birkfeld and the disappearance were routinely on
31
00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:42.330
the local news. It was a story that everyone was
32
00:02:42.389 --> 00:02:46.449
talking about. And so not just the anniversaries of her
33
00:02:46.490 --> 00:02:50.219
birthday or when she was last seen, because they were
34
00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:55.689
uncovering possible sightings or there would be information that remains
35
00:02:55.750 --> 00:02:57.710
were being discovered throughout the years.
36
00:02:57.810 --> 00:03:01.150
The investigation is focusing on an escort business Birchfeld was
37
00:03:01.210 --> 00:03:01.759
involved in.
38
00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:05.969
As the news stories swirled, the man everyone believed had
39
00:03:06.050 --> 00:03:10.129
taken Paige Birchfeld continued to live alongside the friends and
40
00:03:10.210 --> 00:03:11.930
family of the woman he'd killed.
41
00:03:13.370 --> 00:03:18.219
Lester Jones worked in the community He was a quiet
42
00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:21.419
man that kept to himself and a bit mysterious.
43
00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:27.629
Prosecutors were certain Lester Jones had murdered Page, but they
44
00:03:27.689 --> 00:03:31.729
had to prove it, and that would take nine long years.
45
00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:35.830
This killer story begins on March the 4th, 1951, 200
46
00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:36.689
miles from Grand Junction.
47
00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.879
Lester Jones has very little known about him from his
48
00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:47.120
early years, but what we do know is that he
49
00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:48.780
was born in Westcliff, Colorado.
50
00:03:48.810 --> 00:03:50.750
He had a brother and sister.
51
00:03:52.050 --> 00:03:56.270
We know that he got married quite early in his
52
00:03:56.409 --> 00:03:59.960
early 20s, and he had two sons. And the marriage,
53
00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:02.219
that marriage, lasted for about 20 years.
54
00:04:03.750 --> 00:04:09.870
By 1996, Jones was running a car repair workshop in Hotchkiss, Colorado.
55
00:04:10.530 --> 00:04:14.389
That's where he first met a young woman called Lisa Nance.
56
00:04:15.229 --> 00:04:18.750
Jones first met Lisa when she stopped in his car
57
00:04:18.769 --> 00:04:23.649
shop and she was about 28 years old. He was 45.
58
00:04:23.649 --> 00:04:26.949
She was a single stay-at-home mother. She had two children
59
00:04:26.990 --> 00:04:30.009
of her own, and when she first met him, he
60
00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:33.610
was recently divorced. They had almost like a whirlwind romance.
61
00:04:34.629 --> 00:04:37.959
She was, I suppose, swept off her feet. This was
62
00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:44.540
an amiable, cheerful, handsome, tall, big man who represented a
63
00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:50.120
little security. And she called him gentle and funny and
64
00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:51.120
good with her kids.
65
00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:56.529
Within just six months of meeting him, Lisa married Jones.
66
00:05:01.410 --> 00:05:05.990
People like Lester Jones tend to try and speed things
67
00:05:06.110 --> 00:05:08.410
up when they first meet somebody. They want to get
68
00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:11.519
that commitment from them really quickly. They kind of tie
69
00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:14.480
them into that, and then they're trapped in it, and
70
00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:15.639
that's when the trouble starts.
71
00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:21.319
Lisa reported that Jones was asking her frequently who she
72
00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:24.160
was with, who she was talking to on the phone,
73
00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:28.199
looking at her mail and bank statements, checking her phone
74
00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:30.680
records and logs and asking her if she didn't report
75
00:05:31.079 --> 00:05:35.310
speaking to somebody that day. He was increasingly jealous and
76
00:05:35.350 --> 00:05:38.470
controlling and then angry at her if she didn't report
77
00:05:38.490 --> 00:05:39.250
the right thing to him.
78
00:05:41.370 --> 00:05:43.670
If you get into a relationship with somebody who is
79
00:05:43.790 --> 00:05:47.759
very jealous, there's the biggest red flag. You mustn't talk
80
00:05:47.819 --> 00:05:50.720
to other men. You mustn't dress like this. I don't
81
00:05:50.779 --> 00:05:52.839
even like it when you see your friends or you
82
00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:56.189
go out without me. These are massive, massive red flags.
83
00:05:56.209 --> 00:05:59.670
This person thinks they own you and they need to
84
00:05:59.730 --> 00:06:02.949
control you. And we definitely did see those behaviors in
85
00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:03.569
Lester Jones.
86
00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.879
As time went on, Jones was not just controlling, he
87
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also became more and more untrustworthy and dishonest.
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Jones was a private pilot.
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He had his own license and would use planes from
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time to time and he would just be.
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Gone without notice and without telling Lisa where he went.
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So he would disappear for days on end.
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Lisa reported that he was the pathological liar and would
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have an answer for everything whenever she asked him where
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he was, where money was going to.
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Her wedding ring went missing and she.
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Thought no one else could have possibly taken it and
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yet he was the only suspect and he denied it.
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So she was increasingly distrustful of him.
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Lisa began to suspect that Jones was stealing her money
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to pay for sex workers.
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What we don't know is how he was with those
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sex workers. He may have been controlling, abusive, violent. We
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don't know, but he was seeing them regularly. I think
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he was probably quite obsessive about that as well.
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So Lisa takes her courage in her hands and asks
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him to leave. But that doesn't put an end to
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his manipulation of his now. estranged wife. He starts to
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stalk her.
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Stalking is very, very common after a relationship breakdown. The
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worst thing is if the stalking moves on to what
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we call reconnaissance. So then they're looking for opportunities for
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an attack.
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One day in 1999, Jones took the opportunity he'd been
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waiting for.
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One night, Lisa decided to invite a male friend over
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and they were gonna watch movies together. They were inside
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all night, just watching TV, and at four in the morning,
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he had to leave and Lisa was gonna go with him.
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And at that point, when they were driving away, Jones followed.
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Lisa and her friend are in the car and they're
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being trailed by Jones in his truck. They must have
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been terrified. I mean, headlights in the rearview mirror, the
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whole scenario. It's dark, it's late at night, early in
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the morning.
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Crikey.
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And Jones increasingly gets closer to them, and he forces
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the car off the road.
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Lisa was actually trapped in the vehicle, and only her
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friend was able to get out. And so he tried
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to free himself and then get Lisa out. And as
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he was trying to do this, Jones pulls out a gun.
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Her friend starts to run off to get help. Jones
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fires two shots at him, one of which grazes his head.
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He then points the gun at Lisa and effectively demands
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she get out of the car on his side and
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get into his car. It's a full-scale abduction.
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Despite being in fear, Lisa somehow managed to calm Jones
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down and convinced him to pull over.
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As they were leaving, she said she didn't stop and
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ask for a tow or service of her vehicle. And
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instead of calling car repair shop, she called the police.
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And incredibly, police were able to respond quickly and rescue
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Lisa from Jones, who they arrested.
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But the stalking didn't stop. Jones was bailed the following day.
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And just a few weeks later, he returned to try
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and finish the job.
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Once and for all.
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Lisa is asleep and she wakes up to find Jones
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sitting on the sofa in her living room.
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He was staring at her with such a menacing frightening
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look that she thought she was going to die. At
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this point, Jones forced Lisa into his vehicle at gunpoint.
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For the second time in a month, Jones had pressured
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Lisa into a car against her will. But this time,
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he wouldn't be tricked into pulling over. Instead, Lester Jones
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brutally beat his estranged wife before driving her into the
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remote mountains, further and further from civilization and any chance
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of rescue for Lisa.
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This is him now in almost, we could call it
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a panic. I have got to get control back. I
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am not accepting this. I cannot take rejection.
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Lester Jones actually took her out into a very rural
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part of western Colorado and threatened.
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To kill her and bury her in a lake.
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She must literally have thought that her life was going
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to end that night. Imagine what it must have been like.
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You've been threatened with a gun. He's been arrested. He's
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turned up again. He's threatening you again. He's going to
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kill you. He's going to dump you in a lake.
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But yet again, Lisa demonstrates an extraordinary ability to survive,
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to get out of the situation.
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At this point, she said, but I still love you,
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essentially as a way to try to get him not
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to do this horrific thing to her. Jones responded, prove it,
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and wanted to essentially have her have sex with him
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to show that she still loved him. Lisa managed to
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convince Jones to go to a local motel. And as
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he went inside to get them a room, she again
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thought quickly and decided to jump in the front seat
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and take the car and speed off and basically save
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her own life.
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She was able to escape, And Lester Jones was actually
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charged and sent to prison for that event.
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Lisa heaves a sigh of relief because finally the nightmare
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of her stalker-stroke husband is gone. And she doesn't hear
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anything for some considerable time. In fact, Jones is released
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after serving half his 10-year sentence.
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By 2006, 55-year-old mechanic Lester Jones had been released from
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prison for the kidnap and assault of his ex-wife, Lisa Nance.
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Now 60 pounds heavier and sporting a full beard, Jones
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had remarried and was living in Grand Junction, Colorado, working
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as a mechanic at a local car dealership. On June
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the 30th, 2007, the city was stunned when local mother
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of three, Paige Bergfeld, was reported missing. Her friend of
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four years, Barbara Campbell, knew it was out of character.
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I was a good friend of Paige. Our kids were
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about the same ages and played together, so it made
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it easy for us to hang out, even though we
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were both busy all the time. Paige had a wonderful
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relationship with her kids. She just loved to be with
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her kids all the time, and she was just completely devoted.
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When Paige went missing, I was completely shocked.
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Saturday, June 28th, she had driven from Grand Junction into
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the mountains. about two hours into the mountains to meet
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her ex-husband.
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District Attorney Pete Houtsinger was central to the investigation into
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Paige's disappearance. She and ex-husband Ron Begler had recently rekindled
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their romance and had spent the day together just before
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she vanished.
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He was the last one to have seen her. She
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was last known to have been driving back from the
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Central Mountains towards Grand Junction when she disappeared.
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When Paige went missing, She'd left her children with a
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live-in nanny. And it was the nanny and, indeed, her
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8-year-old daughter who eventually reported her missing. They walked to
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the police station together. It must have been an extraordinary sight,
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the nanny and this little girl reporting to the police
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that Mummy had gone.
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Heartbreaking, really. Ron Beigler.
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Her first husband also rang 911 to report her missing.
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Dispatch, this is Clint.
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Yes, I need to talk to you about a missing
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person emergency. Something is definitely, definitely wrong. She either got
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abducted or an accident. I think she got abducted. She
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actually had to. There's just no way. So something is
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definitely wrong here. I'm just really starting to panic.
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Paige first went missing, the first thing that the police
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would consider is this normal behavior. Would we expect this
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person to go missing? And Paige did not fall into
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that bracket at all. She had never gone missing before.
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Paige would never leave without her kids. Like, she wouldn't
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just take off. So instantly I knew something had to
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have happened.
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Just one day later, Paige's friends and family were given
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even more reason to panic.
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Her car is found burning in a lot out west
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of town. I mean, what was pretty clearly right off
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the bat an arson situation where the car had been
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intentionally burned.
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Knowing that the car was burned was a really bad
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sign that she was probably not alive, that we weren't
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ever going to get her back.
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The most logical reason from a law enforcement perspective that
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someone would try to set fire to a vehicle is
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to destroy evidence, to eliminate the potential of DNA or
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hairs or other evidence being recovered from that vehicle.
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There are two interesting things about the car when it
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was discovered. One is that the driver's seat.
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Was pushed all the way back.
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She herself was only 5'4, so it would not have
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been her who had pushed that seat back. Secondly, in
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the boot of the burnt-out car, her day planner is found,
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with significant days torn out, including the day in which
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she disappeared. Clearly, with an attempt designed to conceal who
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she might or might not have been seeing.
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Finding the missing mother's car was a breakthrough of sorts,
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but there was still no sign of Paige Bergfeld and
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no indication if she was dead or alive.
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There were search parties, both organized by the sheriff's office
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and with civilian volunteers.
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It was really hot in Grand Junction in the summer,
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going over 100 degrees. I volunteered to do the searches,
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as many wonderful people did, And we walked miles a
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day just looking for any clue. And day after day
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doing searches and we're not finding her. It just really
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kind of slowly trickled in that reality that we knew
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what we were looking for on the searches. We're looking
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for a dead body.
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If she was dead, Paige had seemingly tried to give
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detectives a clue about what had led to her tragic fate.
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Before long, a number of items were found along Highway 50,
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and it was sort of a trail of her belongings
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found more or less random places along the highway heading
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south towards Delta. Items from her checkbook and then items
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that seemed to be torn out of a notebook, business cards,
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which at least suggested that she had been actively trying
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to throw stuff out a window or something along those lines,
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maybe trying to leave a trail for people to be
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able to track.
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While the search continued, detectives compiled a list of all
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the people who might want to harm Paige.
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Investigators immediately zeroed in on Paige Bergfeld's ex-husband, Rob Dixon.
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He was the father of her kids.
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Statistically speaking, it is likely to be somebody she knows.
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And statistically speaking, it's likely to be a partner or
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an ex-partner. So those people would most definitely be in
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the lens of the police as they started their investigation.
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Paige had previously made allegations of violence against her second husband,
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but when Grand Junction detectives checked his alibi, he was
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quickly in the clear. Also under scrutiny was Paige's first husband,
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the man who dialed 911 to report her missing, Ron Bigler.
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Investigators were also looking into Ron Bigler because he and
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Paige had met up hours before she was last seen.
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Those men were immediately questioned to figure out where they
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were and just how close they still.
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Were with Paige. Were their motives their.
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Investigators cleared Ron Bigler right away because they could see
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on the cell phone tracking data that he actually headed
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back towards Denver, the opposite direction from Grand Junction, while
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Page's cell phone was headed towards the Western Slope.
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Two suspects had immediately been ruled out. Then detectives uncovered
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a secret life that had brought many more men to
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Page Bergfeld's door.
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Paige had a double life.
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She was, yes, a stay-at-home mother of three, a hard-working
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entrepreneur with little businesses, but she was also an escort.
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She ran an agency called Models Inc, and she rented
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herself out as well. She was known as Carrie to
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the agency.
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She was expensive.
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I mean, $ 2, 500 for a night.
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She had advertisements in papers and on the Internet offering
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massage services to people who wanted to hire her or
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her coworkers. And as the investigators dug into it, it
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00:21:20.660 --> 00:21:23.980
turned out there were quite a few customers, and she
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was considered in that world to be highly desirable and
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successful as an escort. A very attractive young woman, well-groomed
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and pretty.
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She was just very scrappy. I mean, she would do
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whatever and just try to make ends meet any way
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she could. And it wasn't until much closer to when
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she disappeared the first time that I had a conversation
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with her and she revealed that, well, I'm also doing
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this escort service thing.
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Next message.
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Yeah, this is Jim.
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Just calling to see if Carrie was available tonight.
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Call me back.
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Once investigators started to figure out the other businesses, the
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side hustles that Paige Bergfeld had going, it complicated this
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entire case. Because now we know that Paige was having
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correspondence and messages and meeting with a lot of different
334
00:22:28.130 --> 00:22:31.549
guys that probably didn't want anyone to know they were meeting.
335
00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:35.740
Many of Paige's clients had left voice messages on a
336
00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:40.410
cell phone she used exclusively for business, including a man
337
00:22:40.490 --> 00:22:43.730
calling himself Jim.
338
00:22:44.210 --> 00:22:45.029
Next message.
339
00:22:45.809 --> 00:22:47.730
Then there were at least one, if not more, calls
340
00:22:48.470 --> 00:22:50.640
from an unidentified track.
341
00:22:52.099 --> 00:22:52.240
Phone.
342
00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:00.319
Next message. Yeah, this is Jim.
343
00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:03.779
Could you give me a call back? 719.
344
00:23:03.779 --> 00:23:06.680
Jim had been the last person to call Paige on
345
00:23:06.700 --> 00:23:10.349
the night she disappeared. When detectives got hold of her
346
00:23:10.420 --> 00:23:14.750
phone records, they discovered that Jim was not his real name.
347
00:23:15.390 --> 00:23:20.809
The investigators were able to identify that phone, identify when
348
00:23:20.849 --> 00:23:25.250
and where it had been purchased, and identify security film
349
00:23:25.309 --> 00:23:30.250
footage of Lester Jones purchasing that specific phone on that
350
00:23:30.349 --> 00:23:31.549
specific day.
351
00:23:31.990 --> 00:23:36.569
Standing tall at 6'4, local mechanic Lester Jones had not
352
00:23:36.650 --> 00:23:40.190
only been identified as the man on the footage, the
353
00:23:40.210 --> 00:23:43.650
56-year-old was also well acquainted with the part of town
354
00:23:43.710 --> 00:23:45.809
where Page's car was discovered.
355
00:23:46.930 --> 00:23:49.950
The place where Page's car had been found, having been
356
00:23:50.089 --> 00:23:54.670
set afire and burning... was within 100 and 150 yards
357
00:23:54.829 --> 00:23:58.069
from Lester's workshop there at Bob Scott RV.
358
00:23:59.650 --> 00:24:03.130
Jones, the man known to Paige as Jim, was suddenly
359
00:24:03.190 --> 00:24:07.210
the prime suspect in her disappearance. He was the last
360
00:24:07.299 --> 00:24:11.160
person known to have spoken to Paige Bergfeld, and Jones'
361
00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:13.460
home life was far from perfect.
362
00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:19.839
He was married and had, I guess, a somewhat interesting
363
00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:24.480
relationship with his wife, It wasn't all flowers and roses.
364
00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:28.099
They certainly seemed to go through good times and bad times.
365
00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:31.930
And his wife told investigators there were times when he
366
00:24:31.970 --> 00:24:34.009
would disappear and she didn't know where he was.
367
00:24:34.869 --> 00:24:38.509
Just as he had with his ex-wife, Lisa Nance, Lester
368
00:24:38.569 --> 00:24:42.930
Jones was disappearing to spend time with sex workers and escorts.
369
00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:47.039
One of the escorts he'd been seeing regularly was missing
370
00:24:47.130 --> 00:24:50.960
mother of three, Paige Bergfeld. Jones had used the name
371
00:24:51.099 --> 00:24:53.900
Jim when contacting the 34-year-old.
372
00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:55.579
Next message.
373
00:24:55.859 --> 00:24:56.440
This is Jim.
374
00:24:56.500 --> 00:24:57.660
I tried calling you last night.
375
00:24:58.819 --> 00:25:00.839
Maybe I left a wrong impression on you. I do
376
00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:03.380
want you to call me, but it's been like since
377
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:03.900
last night.
378
00:25:04.809 --> 00:25:05.609
End of message.
379
00:25:06.549 --> 00:25:11.880
Jones had developed an obsessive interest in Page. Before her disappearance,
380
00:25:12.220 --> 00:25:15.099
she'd become concerned about his behavior.
381
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:21.200
One of her co-workers or friends had told the investigators
382
00:25:21.309 --> 00:25:25.049
that she was kind of creeped out or worried about
383
00:25:25.569 --> 00:25:27.549
this particular one of her clients.
384
00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:31.279
Paige had told her friend of a white truck that
385
00:25:31.319 --> 00:25:34.140
would show up late at night when she was leaving work,
386
00:25:34.529 --> 00:25:38.630
circling the car park. On one occasion, the driver had
387
00:25:38.710 --> 00:25:40.349
even tried to block her in.
388
00:25:42.170 --> 00:25:46.289
There are things about escort work that are inherently dangerous.
389
00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:51.000
You know, if somebody wants to kill a woman, they've
390
00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:54.650
got to get that woman involved. on her own with
391
00:25:54.730 --> 00:25:58.309
them somewhere where there's no witnesses. That is an incredibly
392
00:25:58.430 --> 00:26:02.819
difficult thing to do. But if you go and see
393
00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:06.980
an escort, that is what they do. They have to
394
00:26:07.019 --> 00:26:12.269
do that. These people, these predators, have instant access to them.
395
00:26:13.930 --> 00:26:20.240
Sometimes people feel empowered to treat women horribly because they
396
00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:22.420
think they'll never go to the police and report it.
397
00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:27.299
And unfortunately, that does make sex work a riskier endeavor
398
00:26:27.339 --> 00:26:29.200
than other types of professions.
399
00:26:30.099 --> 00:26:33.420
It was work that brought women like Paige into close
400
00:26:33.509 --> 00:26:36.130
contact with men like Lester Jones.
401
00:26:36.710 --> 00:26:39.910
I think he was obsessed with Paige Bergfeld. I think
402
00:26:40.009 --> 00:26:44.230
Paige was by far the most desirable or an attractive
403
00:26:44.250 --> 00:26:48.109
woman escort he'd ever been lucky enough to hire.
404
00:26:48.130 --> 00:26:51.950
The feeling was not mutual.
405
00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:56.650
One of the times that he had tried to hire
406
00:26:56.779 --> 00:27:00.519
her not long before her disappearance, she had tried to send,
407
00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:04.200
direct that business in another direction to one of her
408
00:27:04.339 --> 00:27:07.779
co-workers because she didn't want to have anything more to
409
00:27:07.819 --> 00:27:09.720
do with the person who was driving that white truck.
410
00:27:10.410 --> 00:27:15.759
As investigators uncovered Jones' criminal history of abducting and assaulting women,
411
00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:22.460
they began to wonder if history was repeating itself. They
412
00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:25.539
needed to find out if Jones had arranged to meet
413
00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:28.480
Paige Bergfeld the night she disappeared.
414
00:27:30.049 --> 00:27:34.630
Jones is arrested and interrogated. He simply says, yes, of course,
415
00:27:35.349 --> 00:27:39.009
help yourself. Here's my DNA, I'm happy to give you fingerprints,
416
00:27:39.130 --> 00:27:39.529
not a problem.
417
00:27:40.349 --> 00:27:42.430
He did not deny that he'd been a client of
418
00:27:42.509 --> 00:27:46.009
Page's and had contact with her, knew who she was
419
00:27:46.349 --> 00:27:48.819
and used escort services.
420
00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:53.539
Lester Jones confirmed to investigators that on the night Page vanished,
421
00:27:53.779 --> 00:27:56.140
he was in the Grand Junction area.
422
00:27:57.180 --> 00:27:59.359
He was in town and his wife was out of town,
423
00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:03.039
as I recall at the time. He was in the area.
424
00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:07.069
He didn't have an alibi. He couldn't established that he
425
00:28:07.109 --> 00:28:10.690
was out of the vicinity or couldn't have committed the crime.
426
00:28:14.410 --> 00:28:16.869
When investigators got a search warrant, they went to Lester
427
00:28:16.910 --> 00:28:21.529
Jones' workplace. And at his workstation, they found some really
428
00:28:21.609 --> 00:28:25.410
weird stuff. They found some wigs. They found a wrapper
429
00:28:25.970 --> 00:28:27.390
for a track phone.
430
00:28:28.490 --> 00:28:31.369
Track phone or these other types of burner phones are
431
00:28:31.470 --> 00:28:35.119
ones where you can purchase it with cash There's no
432
00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:38.529
long-term plan associated with it, and so you can have
433
00:28:38.589 --> 00:28:41.710
it and not have any details of who owns it,
434
00:28:41.769 --> 00:28:42.869
who's paying for it.
435
00:28:43.450 --> 00:28:47.900
As the search at Lester Jones' workplace continued, more evidence
436
00:28:47.980 --> 00:28:51.000
linking him to Paige's disappearance was discovered.
437
00:28:52.549 --> 00:28:55.670
Some accelerants, some things that could have been used in
438
00:28:55.690 --> 00:28:59.769
a kidnapping or could have been used in potentially burning
439
00:28:59.829 --> 00:29:00.329
the car.
440
00:29:00.630 --> 00:29:04.549
Detectives also found a notebook detailing all of the escorts
441
00:29:04.650 --> 00:29:08.910
Jones had met with, describing them by height, weight, and
442
00:29:09.009 --> 00:29:09.690
cup size.
443
00:29:10.450 --> 00:29:16.279
In other words, they reveal that this apparently normal, superficially
444
00:29:16.420 --> 00:29:21.000
charming man is actually obsessed with sex workers.
445
00:29:22.660 --> 00:29:28.380
Lester had an active interest in pornography. His wife told
446
00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:31.279
us about that. He had a lot of pornography on
447
00:29:31.319 --> 00:29:33.869
his computer at work, as I recall, but also on
448
00:29:33.890 --> 00:29:38.109
their home computer. It's one more thing that makes you think, geez,
449
00:29:38.130 --> 00:29:40.589
this is somebody who could have done it. commit a
450
00:29:40.630 --> 00:29:41.430
crime like this.
451
00:29:42.069 --> 00:29:46.170
Jones denied meeting Page the night she disappeared, but the
452
00:29:46.230 --> 00:29:48.960
last calls to her cell were from the phone he'd
453
00:29:48.980 --> 00:29:52.539
been seen buying, and he had left messages under his
454
00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:53.319
fake name.
455
00:29:54.079 --> 00:29:54.900
Next message.
456
00:29:55.099 --> 00:29:56.279
Hello, yeah, this is Jim.
457
00:29:56.299 --> 00:29:58.160
Yeah, this is Jim, just being impatient, I just.
458
00:30:05.579 --> 00:30:08.880
Investigators were convinced that Jones had tricked the young mother
459
00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:12.779
into meeting him before Page had vanished. But armed with
460
00:30:12.859 --> 00:30:17.480
only circumstantial evidence, getting justice for Page was not going
461
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:18.180
to be easy.
462
00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:22.349
There was a ton of pressure on investigators in Mesa
463
00:30:22.410 --> 00:30:24.829
County to press charges.
464
00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:32.339
Within, I want to say, months of Paige's disappearance, we
465
00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:37.369
had largely honed in on Lester Jones as the most
466
00:30:37.509 --> 00:30:43.130
likely person to be responsible for her disappearance. The problem
467
00:30:43.890 --> 00:30:48.130
that I saw from that time right up through the
468
00:30:48.250 --> 00:30:52.299
end of the investigation was the fact that, A, there
469
00:30:52.380 --> 00:30:56.700
were other clients of hers who It was hard to
470
00:30:57.099 --> 00:31:03.180
absolutely eliminate as potential suspects in her disappearance, and B,
471
00:31:04.069 --> 00:31:05.160
we didn't have a body.
472
00:31:05.970 --> 00:31:08.750
A defense attorney can argue, at least to a reasonable
473
00:31:08.789 --> 00:31:12.329
doubt level, that there wasn't even a murder that took place.
474
00:31:13.230 --> 00:31:16.569
Because of her double life, because of the fact that
475
00:31:17.390 --> 00:31:19.670
all the people who loved her and knew her well
476
00:31:19.779 --> 00:31:24.420
knew nothing about this double life and her secret business
477
00:31:24.519 --> 00:31:27.480
as an escort, I thought that was just too big
478
00:31:27.549 --> 00:31:29.789
a hole in the case to ever be able to
479
00:31:29.869 --> 00:31:34.450
prove Lester Jones' guilt or anyone else's beyond a reasonable doubt.
480
00:31:34.670 --> 00:31:38.849
Paige Bergfeld remained missing, and investigators had no evidence to
481
00:31:38.930 --> 00:31:42.289
prove she had been murdered. No suspect will be charged
482
00:31:42.309 --> 00:31:45.430
with any crime relating to her. The news was a
483
00:31:45.490 --> 00:31:48.619
bitter pill to swallow for Paige's friends and family.
484
00:31:50.220 --> 00:31:54.579
I was devastated. after finding out that she was missing
485
00:31:54.700 --> 00:31:58.460
and realizing as much as I wanted to believe maybe
486
00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:01.819
she could be found alive, that the reality was she
487
00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:04.779
probably wouldn't be. There's a lot of numbness to it
488
00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:09.240
because there was no answer. We didn't know that she
489
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:12.680
was murdered and that's a really difficult place to be in.
490
00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:20.440
It was long, it was drawn out, And the family
491
00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:24.740
must have suffered dreadfully over those years. They must have
492
00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:28.720
felt at times that they were never, ever going to
493
00:32:28.759 --> 00:32:32.650
get the answers that they needed, that they wanted. And
494
00:32:32.690 --> 00:32:34.930
it was very difficult for the police, I think, who
495
00:32:35.569 --> 00:32:37.849
would be wanting to give them those answers.
496
00:32:40.609 --> 00:32:45.400
Paige's father, Frank Burkefield, had made regular, repeated trips to
497
00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:48.720
Grand Junction in an effort to find the missing daughter,
498
00:32:48.819 --> 00:32:52.119
but without any success. It's every father and mother's worst
499
00:32:52.180 --> 00:32:55.440
nightmare that their daughter should disappear into thin air and
500
00:32:55.480 --> 00:32:58.559
no body be found. It is heartbreaking.
501
00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:04.029
Five long years passed with no closure for Paige's loved ones.
502
00:33:04.650 --> 00:33:08.009
And all the time, Lester Jones continued to live and
503
00:33:08.109 --> 00:33:11.750
work alongside the innocent people of Grand Junction.
504
00:33:13.019 --> 00:33:21.089
By probably 2011, 2010, 2011, the investigation had somewhat ground
505
00:33:21.150 --> 00:33:25.750
to a halt. Much of the frustration of Paige's family
506
00:33:25.809 --> 00:33:29.140
and loved ones, particularly her father, Frank Bergfeld.
507
00:33:30.420 --> 00:33:35.240
Frank Bergfeld was just a really great guy. He was
508
00:33:35.380 --> 00:33:40.059
positive and always seemed to believe that the truth would
509
00:33:40.099 --> 00:33:44.700
come out, whatever that was. He wanted closure for their family.
510
00:33:45.309 --> 00:33:49.990
When closure came, it was in the most heartbreaking of circumstances.
511
00:33:50.529 --> 00:33:54.970
In March of 2012, a hiker in kind of a
512
00:33:55.569 --> 00:33:59.470
canyon area out in the desert stumbles across what the
513
00:33:59.509 --> 00:34:05.259
hiker believes to be human remains. And within a couple
514
00:34:05.299 --> 00:34:09.039
of hours, there were dozens of investigators from the state
515
00:34:09.059 --> 00:34:13.989
of Colorado and local jurisdictions investigating scouring this desert area
516
00:34:14.110 --> 00:34:17.170
in remote parts of Western Colorado.
517
00:34:18.130 --> 00:34:20.289
I remember to this day getting the call from the
518
00:34:20.329 --> 00:34:23.889
sheriff's office saying we found skeletal remains in the desert
519
00:34:24.190 --> 00:34:27.030
out by Delta. We think it may be pages and
520
00:34:27.110 --> 00:34:29.340
thinking that could be the break that the case needed.
521
00:34:31.820 --> 00:34:35.079
A skull was found at first. Then as crime scene
522
00:34:35.179 --> 00:34:38.599
officers investigated further, they unearthed.
523
00:34:38.280 --> 00:34:43.980
More and more bones. Forensic analysis established, yes, that was
524
00:34:44.039 --> 00:34:45.989
in fact Paige Bergfeldt's remains.
525
00:34:47.789 --> 00:34:51.150
The bones buried in a creek bed for years before
526
00:34:51.210 --> 00:34:55.230
being washed out by the rain told a horrifying story.
527
00:34:55.949 --> 00:35:00.929
The skull had duct tape wrapped around it, clearly as
528
00:35:00.989 --> 00:35:04.739
though her mouth had been taped shut.
529
00:35:07.219 --> 00:35:10.530
I don't think the coroner was able to determine absolutely
530
00:35:10.570 --> 00:35:15.309
determine a cause of death. Simply cause of death was homicide.
531
00:35:15.329 --> 00:35:19.110
And the most significant findings from her remains that I
532
00:35:19.170 --> 00:35:21.179
recall were the fact that there was a fracture to
533
00:35:21.219 --> 00:35:24.840
her skull that appeared to be contemporaneous with the time
534
00:35:24.900 --> 00:35:28.920
of death and some duct tape remains that appeared to
535
00:35:28.980 --> 00:35:32.179
be consistent with her having been restrained, which is consistent
536
00:35:32.219 --> 00:35:33.360
with having been kidnapped.
537
00:35:34.019 --> 00:35:38.199
The news was a devastating blow to Paige's family and friends.
538
00:35:38.579 --> 00:35:46.610
Finding her remains really was an element of sadness. It
539
00:35:46.670 --> 00:35:52.329
just crushed all hope that she could come back. You know,
540
00:35:52.349 --> 00:35:55.969
it just brought it all back up, all of that devastation.
541
00:35:56.349 --> 00:35:58.630
But this time it was, she really is dead. There
542
00:35:58.730 --> 00:35:59.840
is no hope now.
543
00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:04.840
Though incredibly tragic, the discovery of Paige's remains brought District
544
00:36:04.920 --> 00:36:09.320
Attorney Pete Houtsinger one step closer to charging Lester Jones
545
00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:10.199
with her murder.
546
00:36:11.539 --> 00:36:16.300
Of particular interest in Lester Jones' case were the facts
547
00:36:16.360 --> 00:36:22.110
surrounding his prior conviction for having kidnapped his wife, Second wife,
548
00:36:22.130 --> 00:36:25.780
I think. The fact that Mr. Jones went to the
549
00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:29.579
time in trouble to buy a track phone, that Paige,
550
00:36:29.639 --> 00:36:31.820
when she got a call from that track phone, wouldn't
551
00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:34.719
know that it was the same client that she'd been
552
00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:38.880
troubled by in the past, shows the level of premeditation
553
00:36:38.940 --> 00:36:43.340
and planning. The fact that when Paige's remains were found,
554
00:36:43.409 --> 00:36:46.730
there were traces of duct tape attached to the skeletal
555
00:36:46.769 --> 00:36:52.030
remains also is evidence of premeditation and planning. because he
556
00:36:52.110 --> 00:36:55.809
came equipped with what he needed to tie her up
557
00:36:55.989 --> 00:36:58.909
and restrain her and enable him to take her away.
558
00:37:00.510 --> 00:37:05.900
In November 2014, Grand Junction detectives were finally ready to
559
00:37:05.980 --> 00:37:06.820
make an arrest.
560
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:13.119
It was breaking huge news in western Colorado and really
561
00:37:13.179 --> 00:37:16.079
across the country. So many people were following this story.
562
00:37:16.659 --> 00:37:19.480
When investigators finally made an arrest.
563
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:23.820
and they arrested Lester Jones and charged him with murder.
564
00:37:25.599 --> 00:37:30.940
In July 2016, nine years after Paige Bergfeld went missing,
565
00:37:31.420 --> 00:37:35.119
Lester Jones went on trial for her murder at Mesa
566
00:37:35.179 --> 00:37:36.500
County District Court.
567
00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:41.960
Lester Jones entered a plea of not guilty, meaning that
568
00:37:42.380 --> 00:37:44.639
the obligation of the district attorney is to prove the
569
00:37:44.659 --> 00:37:48.360
case to 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt. It was
570
00:37:48.420 --> 00:37:52.139
a circumstantial case where layer upon layer upon layer had
571
00:37:52.179 --> 00:37:56.090
to be proven to the jury, including the track phone evidence,
572
00:37:56.210 --> 00:38:00.849
the evidence from the burned vehicle, the evidence from Paige's
573
00:38:00.949 --> 00:38:05.210
belongings being found along the highway headed down south towards Delta,
574
00:38:05.690 --> 00:38:10.099
towards the site where she was actually found buried years later.
575
00:38:10.539 --> 00:38:15.099
Despite the evidence against him, Jones appeared stoic in the courtroom.
576
00:38:16.070 --> 00:38:19.730
Lester Jones didn't show much emotion. He sat on the
577
00:38:19.769 --> 00:38:22.289
defense side. He would look straight ahead.
578
00:38:23.750 --> 00:38:28.269
The courtroom was the first time I actually set eyes
579
00:38:28.349 --> 00:38:32.050
on Lester Jones, and it was staggering to know that
580
00:38:32.130 --> 00:38:37.030
there was a very high likelihood that he killed one
581
00:38:37.050 --> 00:38:42.030
of my best friends. I've watched courtroom shows, and... There
582
00:38:42.050 --> 00:38:46.340
was just nothing like sitting there knowing that this man
583
00:38:46.639 --> 00:38:51.300
that I'm in the same room with is someone capable
584
00:38:51.460 --> 00:38:52.920
of such a terrible thing.
585
00:38:53.619 --> 00:38:57.579
Jones may have seemed confident, but investigators had an ace
586
00:38:57.900 --> 00:38:58.780
up their sleeve.
587
00:38:59.400 --> 00:39:04.420
The prosecution's star witness in this case against Lester Jones
588
00:39:04.900 --> 00:39:07.480
is actually Lester Jones' ex-wife, Lisa Nance.
589
00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:10.699
You know, she was scared of Lester Jones and testifying
590
00:39:10.739 --> 00:39:12.780
against him had to have been difficult for her.
591
00:39:14.619 --> 00:39:19.590
It was really sobering to think that a person who
592
00:39:19.730 --> 00:39:23.449
killed my best friend was married and, you know, had
593
00:39:23.489 --> 00:39:27.610
been married before. It seemed that at least at some
594
00:39:27.650 --> 00:39:29.949
points in the relationships, he was a pretty awful person.
595
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:30.760
Husband.
596
00:39:32.500 --> 00:39:35.139
He just seemed to not be a very nice guy.
597
00:39:35.619 --> 00:39:39.599
Despite the brave testimony of Lisa Nance and the compelling
598
00:39:39.699 --> 00:39:42.820
evidence against him, there was still a chance Jones could
599
00:39:42.880 --> 00:39:44.179
get away with murder.
600
00:39:45.280 --> 00:39:48.099
After dozens of witnesses.
601
00:39:48.829 --> 00:39:52.289
The jury got this case, but they could not come
602
00:39:52.329 --> 00:39:58.210
back with a verdict. They were deadlocked at 11 to 1.
603
00:39:58.210 --> 00:40:02.110
According to the people that were in the room, they
604
00:40:02.150 --> 00:40:05.900
were just unable to convince one member of the jury
605
00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:10.579
to find Lester Jones guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
606
00:40:11.320 --> 00:40:13.320
So the judge had to call a mistrial.
607
00:40:15.300 --> 00:40:22.090
It was just really devastating that he could potentially walk free. Like,
608
00:40:22.130 --> 00:40:26.530
that was, it was really scary to know that we
609
00:40:26.570 --> 00:40:28.829
have a killer on the stand. And so when he
610
00:40:28.889 --> 00:40:31.070
got off, it was like a gut punch.
611
00:40:32.429 --> 00:40:36.860
Just three months later, prosecutors had the opportunity to make
612
00:40:36.940 --> 00:40:39.780
their case against Lester Jones once again.
613
00:40:39.800 --> 00:40:47.760
I 100% feared death. that he was going to get
614
00:40:47.920 --> 00:40:51.340
off with no punishment. And he would get to walk
615
00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:56.360
the streets while my friend, who was a fabulous, vibrant,
616
00:40:57.199 --> 00:41:02.469
positive contribution to the society, who bent over backwards to
617
00:41:02.510 --> 00:41:06.190
do things for her kids and her friends, she was dead.
618
00:41:07.050 --> 00:41:10.050
And he would get to continue. And I know life's
619
00:41:10.090 --> 00:41:15.869
not fair, but... that I completely feared that that was
620
00:41:15.909 --> 00:41:16.880
going to be the outcome.
621
00:41:17.639 --> 00:41:20.440
You know, I've been doing this for 35 years and
622
00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:23.179
I will never guarantee anybody what a jury is going
623
00:41:23.219 --> 00:41:27.199
to do. So I was certainly relieved and gratified when
624
00:41:27.219 --> 00:41:31.679
the second jury came back guilty beyond reasonable doubt and unanimous.
625
00:41:32.219 --> 00:41:37.070
On the 27th of December 2016, District Judge Brian Flynn
626
00:41:37.409 --> 00:41:40.949
sentenced Lester Jones to life in prison without parole.
627
00:41:42.119 --> 00:41:46.099
It's like you're just holding your breath for years, waiting
628
00:41:46.119 --> 00:41:51.280
to find out, like, is somebody going to be punished
629
00:41:51.340 --> 00:41:56.920
for this? Because it doesn't bring Paige back, and that's
630
00:41:57.059 --> 00:41:57.780
the worst thing.
631
00:41:58.559 --> 00:41:58.940
But, you.
632
00:42:00.449 --> 00:42:04.949
Know, a killer was punished. You know, there's just got
633
00:42:04.969 --> 00:42:06.110
to be something good in that.
634
00:42:07.639 --> 00:42:10.920
It took nine years for the family of Paige Bergfeld
635
00:42:11.199 --> 00:42:16.900
to finally get justice for her murder. All the while,
636
00:42:17.219 --> 00:42:19.260
Lester Jones remained silent.
637
00:42:20.179 --> 00:42:25.610
I'm not sure if we'll ever figure out exactly what
638
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:30.510
happened to Paige Bergfeld. It would take the person convicted
639
00:42:30.570 --> 00:42:34.750
in her death to decide to start talking before we
640
00:42:34.769 --> 00:42:37.170
get any more information about what happened that night.
641
00:42:42.929 --> 00:42:48.389
I remember Paige for how just profoundly kind and energetic
642
00:42:48.889 --> 00:42:52.340
and fun she was. She just, she was always laughing,
643
00:42:52.469 --> 00:42:56.239
always having a good time, like tried to always see
644
00:42:56.280 --> 00:43:00.619
the bright side of things. And I just hope everyone
645
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:01.719
can know her for that.
646
00:43:02.659 --> 00:43:06.820
The disappearance of Paige Bergfeld shocked and terrified the people
647
00:43:06.860 --> 00:43:12.139
of Western Colorado for nine long years. The tragic mystery
648
00:43:12.199 --> 00:43:16.480
was finally solved when Lester Jones was convicted of her murder.
649
00:43:17.420 --> 00:43:20.380
But his brutal actions would have come as no surprise
650
00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:23.400
to the other women who had the misfortune to cross
651
00:43:23.500 --> 00:43:27.849
paths with Lester Jones, a man who violently refused to
652
00:43:27.929 --> 00:43:31.309
take no for an answer, and one of the world's
653
00:43:31.389 --> 00:43:32.869
most evil killers.
