legacypc46
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Please read this article with caution....
Note: For a full update, read the various threads from last night (Chef's Lounge). The police are searching the local canal because of a POSSIBLE siting....not a conclusive one.
This morning's GJ Sentinal article:
Canal searched for possible body
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Authorities searched the Grand Valley Canal around 26 and F 1/2 roads Monday afternoon after a woman reported seeing a part of a body in the water.
Law enforcement personnel did not immediately find any visual evidence of a body, but raced to the scene quickly as the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department enters the third week of searching for missing Grand Junction woman Paige Birgfeld.
Mesa County Sheriff’s Department deputies placed traps to catch a body within two miles downstream of the sighting, which occurred between Seventh Street and 12th Street on the canal. Birgfeld’s home at 2512 Oleaster Court is about two miles downstream from the sighting.
“The reporting person saw something floating,” Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Heather Gierhart said. “Of course, you never know what you could be seeing.”
No evidence was found Monday confirming there was a body in the canal or that another object had been sighted, Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Norma Mestas said.
Meanwhile, about 20 miles southeast on U.S. Highway 50 near Whitewater, up to 40 volunteers searched and found “numerous” items belonging to Birgfeld on an 11-mile stretch of the highway, said director Connie Flukey of the Abby and Jennifer Recovery Foundation.
Searchers with the group based operations Monday out of the Lands End Fire Protection District station, abandoning areas searched over the weekend in a two-mile radius of where Birgfeld’s burned-out car was found in the 700 block of 23 Road.
Flukey, who heads the organization that searches for missing people, said searchers scanned about 20 miles Monday, but more help is needed. She said searchers will probably fan out today on the area’s arterial roads.
“Everything we’ve found is directly about her,” Flukey said. “On most searches we never find anything. This is amazing to be able to help find this stuff.”
Searchers in the mostly flat sagebrush areas flagged possible items of interest for authorities to investigate. Members were tight-lipped about specific items located during the searches.
Gierhart said searchers with the recovery foundation have helped locate evidence more quickly than what the Sheriff’s Department personnel could have done by themselves.
“I think eventually ... we would have made resources available, but it would have taken longer,” she said.
Searchers, some of whom were finishing their third day of searching in blistering heat, were both exhausted and relieved to be finding some of Birgfeld’s belongings along the roadway.
“I think a lot of people think someone else is taking care of everything,” said searcher Andrea Land, a friend of Birgfeld. “We really need more people, retired folks, students, people who work night shifts ...” she said.
“People can just come out and work one shift for one to two hours,” she added.
Searchers can meet at any time between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at Lands End Fire Protection District at mile marker 45 on U.S. Highway 50. For information, call Connie Flukey at 260-1821.
Amy Hamilton can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]
Note: For a full update, read the various threads from last night (Chef's Lounge). The police are searching the local canal because of a POSSIBLE siting....not a conclusive one.
This morning's GJ Sentinal article:
Canal searched for possible body
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Authorities searched the Grand Valley Canal around 26 and F 1/2 roads Monday afternoon after a woman reported seeing a part of a body in the water.
Law enforcement personnel did not immediately find any visual evidence of a body, but raced to the scene quickly as the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department enters the third week of searching for missing Grand Junction woman Paige Birgfeld.
Mesa County Sheriff’s Department deputies placed traps to catch a body within two miles downstream of the sighting, which occurred between Seventh Street and 12th Street on the canal. Birgfeld’s home at 2512 Oleaster Court is about two miles downstream from the sighting.
“The reporting person saw something floating,” Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Heather Gierhart said. “Of course, you never know what you could be seeing.”
No evidence was found Monday confirming there was a body in the canal or that another object had been sighted, Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Norma Mestas said.
Meanwhile, about 20 miles southeast on U.S. Highway 50 near Whitewater, up to 40 volunteers searched and found “numerous” items belonging to Birgfeld on an 11-mile stretch of the highway, said director Connie Flukey of the Abby and Jennifer Recovery Foundation.
Searchers with the group based operations Monday out of the Lands End Fire Protection District station, abandoning areas searched over the weekend in a two-mile radius of where Birgfeld’s burned-out car was found in the 700 block of 23 Road.
Flukey, who heads the organization that searches for missing people, said searchers scanned about 20 miles Monday, but more help is needed. She said searchers will probably fan out today on the area’s arterial roads.
“Everything we’ve found is directly about her,” Flukey said. “On most searches we never find anything. This is amazing to be able to help find this stuff.”
Searchers in the mostly flat sagebrush areas flagged possible items of interest for authorities to investigate. Members were tight-lipped about specific items located during the searches.
Gierhart said searchers with the recovery foundation have helped locate evidence more quickly than what the Sheriff’s Department personnel could have done by themselves.
“I think eventually ... we would have made resources available, but it would have taken longer,” she said.
Searchers, some of whom were finishing their third day of searching in blistering heat, were both exhausted and relieved to be finding some of Birgfeld’s belongings along the roadway.
“I think a lot of people think someone else is taking care of everything,” said searcher Andrea Land, a friend of Birgfeld. “We really need more people, retired folks, students, people who work night shifts ...” she said.
“People can just come out and work one shift for one to two hours,” she added.
Searchers can meet at any time between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at Lands End Fire Protection District at mile marker 45 on U.S. Highway 50. For information, call Connie Flukey at 260-1821.
Amy Hamilton can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]
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