Searchers found a 15-mile trail of clues Sunday along a highway leading out of Grand Junction that may point the way to a local mother missing for more than two weeks.
About two dozen items that “very clearly” or “most likely” belong to Paige Birgfeld, 34, were found scattered along U.S. 50 south of the city, said Mesa County sheriff’s spokeswoman Heather Gierhart.
Among them were Birgfeld’s Blockbuster movie-rental card and her checkbook, said Connie Flukey, who helped coordinate the weekend search.
“We have found things that I think will help the sheriff’s department,” Flukey said. “We’re very excited about the day.”
When Sunday began, searchers were told to focus on the median and edges of the highway.
They began about 10 miles south of Grand Junction, where investigators found some of Birgfeld’s belongings a week and a half ago, said Gierhart.
The items will be examined and held as evidence, she said.
Investigators believe Birgfeld, a mother of three who vanished June 28, is probably the victim of foul play.
Sunday’s discoveries gave hope to her father, Frank Birgfeld.
“As a dad, I love the bread- crumb theory,” he said.
“I don’t know what they found. I believe that I heard it was ‘documents.”‘
Police and up to 100 volunteers searched in 100-degree heat Saturday and Sunday, tromping through fields and brush and stopping only for short breaks every couple of hours.
The weekend search was coordinated by the Sheriff’s Office and a group called the Abby & Jennifer Recovery Foundation, which was founded in the wake of a Grand Junction missing-person case in 2002.
That case, the disappearance of a mother and daughter, ended with the body of mother Jennifer Blagg being found in a landfill.Her daughter Abby is still missing and presumed dead.
Michael Blagg was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for his wife’s murder.
Frank Birgfeld thinks about stories like these when he’s looking for his own daughter.
“I’m no fool as to what the odds look like,” Frank Birgfeld said. “If this were a horse race, my odds would be long, but my horse can still come in.”
Staff writer Nick Martin can be reached at 303-954-1698 or nmartin@denverpost.com.
