Morning Update, June 28, 2009

The_Kitchen_Guy

Today marks exactly two years since our friend and fellow Cheffer, Paige Birgfeld, disappeared without a trace. There isn't really a lot to say here, because it's all been said at one time or another over the last twenty-four months. We can, most certainly, say again how our hearts go out to Paige's family, her children and the many friends that are left behind.

There were no new developments yesterday, either. There is really nothing new to report except to say, Paige, help us find you so we can bring you home.

In news of Candles for Paige we had 48 candles as of this post. Remember, candles go out after 48 hours so keep lighting candles for Paige, her family and her three children.

Instructions for lighting candles for Paige are in the Missing thread, in this post.

On This Day In History...

...in 2008, in honor of the 366 days that Paige had been missing, Chefann suggested that we light 366 Candles for Paige. The goal was accomplished early that evening, and when the update was posted on the 29th 419 candles were burning! ChefAnn posted the 366th candle that day, using the phrase that Paige's father, Frank Birgfeld, made famous on the CBS News report about her.



...in 2008, a woman who used to be employed as a babysitter for Paige, named Carol, told KJCT-TV that Rob Dixon, Paige's second ex husband and father of her children, did know Lester Jones, a claim that Dixon's lawyer has repeatedly denied. Carol says, "We don't know if Paige is in the state or not, who knows where she is. No one has a clue except for Rob Dixon and Lester Ralph Jones." No one, except law enforcement, knows if anything ever came of her report.

...in 1953, the first Corvette started down the assembly line. It was not very popular, only 300 Corvettes were made in that first year. Equipped with the famous Chevrolet Blue Flame Six, the car was hardly a performer but once the Corvette received a V8 engine, it became a performer and a fantasy for every car enthusiast. (A Corvette with Serial # 44 went up for auction at a collector car show yesterday. The results of the auction are unknown to me, but if you have to ask, you can't afford it, anyway.)


1953 Corvette - only 300 were produced, no one wanted one. Now everyone does!

...in 1894, The first Labor Day was celebrated. The day off was only for federal employees, though.

...in 1975, Rod Serling passed away after open heart surgery. He was only 50. Serling had been a prolific and well respected television writer when he launched his fondly remembered anthology series, The Twilight Zone. Before The Twilight Zone, Serling was best known for writing live drama for television in the 1950s, the so-called "Golden Age." He also wrote and produced Carol for Another Christmas, a modern and apocalyptic retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol in which a modern day Scrooge (Daniel Grudge) is taken to a bleak future of a world devastated by nuclear war. The all-star cast included Peter Sellers, Steve Lawrence, Pat Hingle, Peter Fonda, Robert Shaw and Sterling Hayden as the Scrooge character. It was the only television production ever directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and it aired only one time, December 28, 1964.




...in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death by a Bosnian Serb. Bosnia and Herzegovina bad been annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908 which angered Serbs, who believed the territories should be a part of Serbia. The assasinations set off a chain of events that led to World War I.


Archduke Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie
with two of their three children. Their deaths
are attributed as the cause of WW I.

...in 1919, ironically 5 years, to the day, that Archduke Franz and Sophie Ferdinand had been assassinated to start WW I, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The crippling treaty appalled English economist, John Maynard Keynes, who resigned his post from the British Treasury in protest of the treaty. He wrote a book about it, called The Economic Consequences of Peace, in which he predicted the financial collapse of Germany that would have world wide economic repercussions. The crash came in November of 1923, and by the time the treaty was modified, it was too late, Hitler had taken power and the path to World War II was already paved. Keynes died in 1946, but in the late '30s, he had outlined his opinions that became known as Keynesian Economics, which most Western powers subscribe to yet, today. Not everyone agrees with his theories, in fact, many reputable economists have rejected Keynesian Economics as unrealistic and damaging to the world economy. Many point to the current economic malaise as proof that Keynes was right about the Treaty of Versailles but wrong about governments spending money that they don't have.


John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946)
on the right, with Harry Dexter White
at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1946.

That's it.That's it. That's all we know as of 12:01 AM EDT.

raebates

Two years. Two years of wondering. Two years of mourning a loss without knowing if they're mourning the loss of a life. My heart is heavy for Paige's family and close friends.

The_Kitchen_Guy

Bone in murder probe 'unidentifiable,' cops say

By PAUL SHOCKLEY
Link: The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Nearly a year after a hiker in Utah stumbled upon it, a small piece of human skull that piqued the interest of investigators looking into Paige Birgfeld’s disappearance remains a mystery.

But while questions remain about the roughly silver-dollar-sized bone, Grand County (Utah) Sheriff James Nyland said he’s confident about one thing: who it didn’t belong to.

“It didn’t appear to be recent enough to be from any of these homicides,” said Nyland, referring to Birgfeld’s case and the murder of Leann Emry, a Washington woman whose partial remains were found in March near Moab. Today marks two years since Birgfeld was last seen alive.

The bone in question was returned to Grand County this past spring after it had been tested at the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, Va. Nyland said the FBI couldn’t extract DNA because of the bone’s age. He didn’t offer an age estimate.

“It’s not identifiable,” he said. “It was found at the bottom of a dry wash (in Bryson Canyon), so it could have come out of the Bookcliffs.”

No other bones submitted by Grand County were tested at the FBI lab, Nyland said.

Mesa County Sheriff’s Department investigators spent several days searching in Utah in late July 2008 after the bone was found by a hiker, who picked it up and brought it to Grand Junction. It was eventually handed over to the Utah Medical Examiner’s Office.

Authorities have said it’s illegal to move any suspected human remains.

Mesa County law enforcement officials still think about Birgfeld, a mother of three children, whenever news breaks about the recovery of human remains in the region. Most recently, the June 14 recovery of a dismembered body in a Glenwood Springs apple orchard had authorities wondering if it might be Birgfeld. Instead, it was a missing Aurora woman, 38-year-old Janine Ann Johler.

Birgfeld, 34, an escort known to clients as “Carrie,” was last heard from while driving back to her Grand Junction home the evening of June 28, 2007, after spending the day with her first husband, Howard Beigler of Aurora.

Beigler and Birgfeld’s second husband, Rob Dixon, were cleared in October 2007 of involvement in Birgfeld’s disappearance. At the same time, authorities named Pear Park mechanic Lester Ralph Jones as the lone suspect in the case.

No arrests have been made.

While Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said investigators are waiting to hear back on several items sent out for testing to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, there have been no recent new leads. District Attorney Pete Hautzinger last year raised the prospect of presenting the case to a Mesa County grand jury, but made no commitments.

The proceedings are secret under state law.

“That seems like a logical next step in the absence of new developments,” Hilkey said of a grand jury probe.

chefann

*sigh*

At least that article shows that law enforcement is still working on the case and hasn't totally pushed it to a back burner.

raebates

Bumping for the late-day crowd.

Jolie_Paradoxe

It's sad that so much time has passed, and that there is no progress. The family mourns and yet there has been no time for healing. Until some kind of closure and a sense of justice is felt, the family will continue to suffer. I did not get to meet Paige, but your descriptions of her are of someone I would have enjoyed calling friend.

I'm sorry that those who did know her have had to endure such a long and painful journey with her disappearance and the unknown.