Betrayed spotlights the murder of Paige Birgfeld who led a double life as an escort

This week Betrayed examine the murder of hard working mother Paige Birgfeld, who led a double life as an escort.

Paige went missing on June 28, 2007, leaving behind her three children, and the life she loved. Detectives were immediately suspicious and ruled out the explanation that she’d simply abandoned her jobs and kids. As her father put it at the time: “”My daughter, if she had two broken legs, she’d crawl over–she’d crawl on her elbows to get to her children.”

The investigation focussed on the men in her life, including her two ex-husbands. She’d recently began seeing her first husband again, the pair had been high school sweethearts and had been dating after ten years. Ron Beigler became of interest to the police when they realised he had been with Paige on the day she went missing.

However, those close to Paige thought it was unlikely that Ron had anything to do with her death. He’d seen her that day for a date and had followed up several times when she later failed to answer her phone. Instead they thought police should focus on her second ex-husband Rob Dixon.

Dixon was the father of Paige’s three children and the pair were said to have a very explosive relationship.

On July 1 Paige’s Ford Focus was found burning in an empty parking lot and police were pretty sure it had been burnt to hide evidence. A huge search was mounted and the police investigation also revealed that Paige had a bit of a double life.

The hard working mother not only taught dance and sold kitchenware, she was also working as an escort online. Lester Ralph Jones, one of her client, soon became a suspect in the case and detectives began to investigate him and his movements.

However, the case went a little cold without a body until 2012 when a hiker found some bones and a skull. Police were able to identify Paige from dental records and although they could not tell the cause of death, damage to the cheekbone indicated she had been beaten.

In November 2014 Lester Ralph Jones was arrested and charged with kidnapping and murdering Paige. After two trials he was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without any chance of parole.

This episode of Betrayed airs at 2:00 PM on Investigation Discovery.