Investigators today combed the Gunnison River and a nearby commercial sewage facility in the search for a Grand Junction woman who has been missing for weeks.
Highly-trained dogs brought in from out of state led investigators to the two locations over the weekend, according to a Mesa County sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Mother-of-three Paige Birgfeld, 34, disappeared June 28 and is thought to be the victim of foul play.
Sheriff’s officials have not named any suspects but say they are investigating multiple persons of interest.
Divers from metro Denver and Mesa County are looking for any sign of Birgfeld along a stretch of the river south of Grand Junction.
“We’re looking for anything,” said sheriff’s spokeswoman Norma Mestas. “But worst-case scenario, we’re looking for Paige Birgfeld.”
Volunteer searchers, including Birgfeld’s family members, used rafts last week to look along miles of the river and its banks.
They were led to the river after finding a 15-mile trail of Birgfeld’s personal belongings, scattered along U.S. 50 south of the city and ending at roads that cross the river, said her father, Frank Birgfeld.
Frank Birgfeld was among the volunteers who floated the river last week without finding her.
“What they’re saying is, well, if Paige is in the river, she’s hung up on the bottom,” Frank Birgfeld said today. “I want to find her, but I’m not sure I want to find her there.”
For the divers working today, searching the Gunnison means they have to fight strong currents.
Earlier today, investigators were also searching inside a sewage facility near U.S. 50 and Bridgeport Road, but Mestas said that search was called off at about 11:30 a.m.
“I don’t know if anything was found,” Mestas said.
Sheriff’s investigators believe the key to finding Birgfeld may be in her secret role as an escort who sometimes went by the name “Carrie.”
On top of selling kitchenware and teaching dance lessons to preschoolers, authorities have said she also worked for an escort agency called “Models Inc.” in Grand Junction.
The sheriff’s office has said its investigators were in touch with people who may have had contact with “Carrie” in the days before she disappeared.
Search warrants have been executed in recent weeks at several locations throughout Mesa County, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said recently.
But most of those warrants have been sealed to the public.
The only such searches to be made public were on the Grand Junction-area home of Ralph and Elaine Jones, which was searched twice.
Ralph Jones, 56, has been named a person of interest in the case.
Jones is an RV mechanic who served time in prison for assault and attempted kidnapping, according to records from the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.
Birgfeld’s car was found days after her disappearance, engulfed in flames a few dozen feet from an RV repair shop.
Staff writer Nick Martin can be reached at 303-954-1698 or nmartin@denverpost.com.
