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Serial Killer Documentary - The Sickening Crimes of Lester Jones · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: One hot Colorado evening in June 2007, 34-year-old mother Paige
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Bergfeld failed to return home to her three waiting children.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: My biggest fear was that she was missing by force.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Someone had to have kidnapped her or, absolute worst case,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: murdered her.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Nothing more was heard about Paige. There was no trace
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: at all for another five years.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: An agony, a time of agony for her parents and
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: her friends, and indeed for the three children that she bore.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: The investigation was complicated by the discovery of a side
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to Paige Bergfeld that few people knew about.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: She was running what we would describe as an escort business.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: One of Paige's clients was local mechanic Lester Jones, a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: man with a dark past.
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: He kidnapped his wife at gunpoint and then threatened to
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: kill her, almost in the same way as he ended
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: up killing Paige.
• 1:11
  Speaker 6: Lester Jones killed Paige Bergfeld after she refused to continue
• 1:18
  Speaker 6: to provide him services that he wanted.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Lester Jones's desire to dominate women had cemented his place
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: as one of the world's most evil killers. The disappearance
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of 34-year-old soccer mom Paige Bergfeld sent shockwaves through the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: isolated city of Grand Junction, Colorado.
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: Mesa County is rural Colorado at its roots. It's beautiful
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: from canyons to rivers. It's wide open spaces. It's good
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: folks that really care about each other and they're hardworking people.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Local journalist Matt Croeschel began following the story in 2007
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and would still be covering the case at its conclusion
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: almost a decade later.
• 2:33
  Speaker 6: Stories about Paige Birkfeld and the disappearance were routinely on
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: the local news. It was a story that everyone was
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: talking about. And so not just the anniversaries of her
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: birthday or when she was last seen, because they were
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: uncovering possible sightings or there would be information that remains
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: were being discovered throughout the years.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: The investigation is focusing on an escort business Birchfeld was
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: involved in.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: As the news stories swirled, the man everyone believed had
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: taken Paige Birchfeld continued to live alongside the friends and
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: family of the woman he'd killed.
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: Lester Jones worked in the community He was a quiet
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: man that kept to himself and a bit mysterious.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors were certain Lester Jones had murdered Page, but they
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: had to prove it, and that would take nine long years.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: This killer story begins on March the 4th, 1951, 200
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: miles from Grand Junction.
• 3:41
  Speaker 7: Lester Jones has very little known about him from his
• 3:44
  Speaker 7: early years, but what we do know is that he
• 3:47
  Speaker 7: was born in Westcliff, Colorado.
• 3:48
  Speaker 8: He had a brother and sister.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: We know that he got married quite early in his
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: early 20s, and he had two sons. And the marriage,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: that marriage, lasted for about 20 years.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: By 1996, Jones was running a car repair workshop in Hotchkiss, Colorado.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: That's where he first met a young woman called Lisa Nance.
• 4:15
  Speaker 7: Jones first met Lisa when she stopped in his car
• 4:18
  Speaker 7: shop and she was about 28 years old. He was 45.
• 4:23
  Speaker 7: She was a single stay-at-home mother. She had two children
• 4:26
  Speaker 7: of her own, and when she first met him, he
• 4:30
  Speaker 7: was recently divorced. They had almost like a whirlwind romance.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: She was, I suppose, swept off her feet. This was
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: an amiable, cheerful, handsome, tall, big man who represented a
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: little security. And she called him gentle and funny and
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: good with her kids.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Within just six months of meeting him, Lisa married Jones.
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: People like Lester Jones tend to try and speed things
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: up when they first meet somebody. They want to get
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: that commitment from them really quickly. They kind of tie
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: them into that, and then they're trapped in it, and
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: that's when the trouble starts.
• 5:17
  Speaker 7: Lisa reported that Jones was asking her frequently who she
• 5:21
  Speaker 7: was with, who she was talking to on the phone,
• 5:25
  Speaker 7: looking at her mail and bank statements, checking her phone
• 5:28
  Speaker 7: records and logs and asking her if she didn't report
• 5:31
  Speaker 7: speaking to somebody that day. He was increasingly jealous and
• 5:35
  Speaker 7: controlling and then angry at her if she didn't report
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: the right thing to him.
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: If you get into a relationship with somebody who is
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: very jealous, there's the biggest red flag. You mustn't talk
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: to other men. You mustn't dress like this. I don't
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: even like it when you see your friends or you
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: go out without me. These are massive, massive red flags.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: This person thinks they own you and they need to
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: control you. And we definitely did see those behaviors in
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: Lester Jones.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: As time went on, Jones was not just controlling, he
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: also became more and more untrustworthy and dishonest.
• 6:14
  Speaker 8: Jones was a private pilot.
• 6:16
  Speaker 7: He had his own license and would use planes from
• 6:19
  Speaker 7: time to time and he would just be.
• 6:21
  Speaker 8: Gone without notice and without telling Lisa where he went.
• 6:26
  Speaker 8: So he would disappear for days on end.
• 6:29
  Speaker 7: Lisa reported that he was the pathological liar and would
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: have an answer for everything whenever she asked him where
• 6:35
  Speaker 7: he was, where money was going to.
• 6:38
  Speaker 8: Her wedding ring went missing and she.
• 6:41
  Speaker 7: Thought no one else could have possibly taken it and
• 6:44
  Speaker 7: yet he was the only suspect and he denied it.
• 6:47
  Speaker 8: So she was increasingly distrustful of him.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Lisa began to suspect that Jones was stealing her money
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to pay for sex workers.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: What we don't know is how he was with those
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: sex workers. He may have been controlling, abusive, violent. We
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: don't know, but he was seeing them regularly. I think
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: he was probably quite obsessive about that as well.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: So Lisa takes her courage in her hands and asks
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: him to leave. But that doesn't put an end to
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: his manipulation of his now. estranged wife. He starts to
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: stalk her.
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: Stalking is very, very common after a relationship breakdown. The
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: worst thing is if the stalking moves on to what
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: we call reconnaissance. So then they're looking for opportunities for
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: an attack.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: One day in 1999, Jones took the opportunity he'd been
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: waiting for.
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: One night, Lisa decided to invite a male friend over
• 7:58
  Speaker 7: and they were gonna watch movies together. They were inside
• 8:02
  Speaker 7: all night, just watching TV, and at four in the morning,
• 8:06
  Speaker 7: he had to leave and Lisa was gonna go with him.
• 8:09
  Speaker 7: And at that point, when they were driving away, Jones followed.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Lisa and her friend are in the car and they're
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: being trailed by Jones in his truck. They must have
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: been terrified. I mean, headlights in the rearview mirror, the
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: whole scenario. It's dark, it's late at night, early in
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: the morning.
• 8:31
  Speaker 9: Crikey.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: And Jones increasingly gets closer to them, and he forces
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: the car off the road.
• 8:37
  Speaker 7: Lisa was actually trapped in the vehicle, and only her
• 8:40
  Speaker 7: friend was able to get out. And so he tried
• 8:44
  Speaker 7: to free himself and then get Lisa out. And as
• 8:47
  Speaker 7: he was trying to do this, Jones pulls out a gun.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Her friend starts to run off to get help. Jones
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: fires two shots at him, one of which grazes his head.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: He then points the gun at Lisa and effectively demands
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: she get out of the car on his side and
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: get into his car. It's a full-scale abduction.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Despite being in fear, Lisa somehow managed to calm Jones
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: down and convinced him to pull over.
• 9:17
  Speaker 7: As they were leaving, she said she didn't stop and
• 9:19
  Speaker 7: ask for a tow or service of her vehicle. And
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: instead of calling car repair shop, she called the police.
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: And incredibly, police were able to respond quickly and rescue
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: Lisa from Jones, who they arrested.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: But the stalking didn't stop. Jones was bailed the following day.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: And just a few weeks later, he returned to try
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and finish the job.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: Once and for all.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Lisa is asleep and she wakes up to find Jones
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: sitting on the sofa in her living room.
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: He was staring at her with such a menacing frightening
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: look that she thought she was going to die. At
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: this point, Jones forced Lisa into his vehicle at gunpoint.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: For the second time in a month, Jones had pressured
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Lisa into a car against her will. But this time,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't be tricked into pulling over. Instead, Lester Jones
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: brutally beat his estranged wife before driving her into the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: remote mountains, further and further from civilization and any chance
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: of rescue for Lisa.
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: This is him now in almost, we could call it
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: a panic. I have got to get control back. I
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: am not accepting this. I cannot take rejection.
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: Lester Jones actually took her out into a very rural
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: part of western Colorado and threatened.
• 10:50
  Speaker 9: To kill her and bury her in a lake.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: She must literally have thought that her life was going
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: to end that night. Imagine what it must have been like.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: You've been threatened with a gun. He's been arrested. He's
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: turned up again. He's threatening you again. He's going to
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: kill you. He's going to dump you in a lake.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: But yet again, Lisa demonstrates an extraordinary ability to survive,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: to get out of the situation.
• 11:30
  Speaker 7: At this point, she said, but I still love you,
• 11:33
  Speaker 7: essentially as a way to try to get him not
• 11:36
  Speaker 7: to do this horrific thing to her. Jones responded, prove it,
• 11:41
  Speaker 7: and wanted to essentially have her have sex with him
• 11:45
  Speaker 7: to show that she still loved him. Lisa managed to
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: convince Jones to go to a local motel. And as
• 11:51
  Speaker 7: he went inside to get them a room, she again
• 11:54
  Speaker 7: thought quickly and decided to jump in the front seat
• 11:57
  Speaker 7: and take the car and speed off and basically save
• 12:01
  Speaker 7: her own life.
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: She was able to escape, And Lester Jones was actually
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: charged and sent to prison for that event.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Lisa heaves a sigh of relief because finally the nightmare
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: of her stalker-stroke husband is gone. And she doesn't hear
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: anything for some considerable time. In fact, Jones is released
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: after serving half his 10-year sentence.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: By 2006, 55-year-old mechanic Lester Jones had been released from
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: prison for the kidnap and assault of his ex-wife, Lisa Nance.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Now 60 pounds heavier and sporting a full beard, Jones
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: had remarried and was living in Grand Junction, Colorado, working
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: as a mechanic at a local car dealership. On June
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the 30th, 2007, the city was stunned when local mother
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of three, Paige Bergfeld, was reported missing. Her friend of
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: four years, Barbara Campbell, knew it was out of character.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: I was a good friend of Paige. Our kids were
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: about the same ages and played together, so it made
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: it easy for us to hang out, even though we
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: were both busy all the time. Paige had a wonderful
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: relationship with her kids. She just loved to be with
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: her kids all the time, and she was just completely devoted.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: When Paige went missing, I was completely shocked.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: Saturday, June 28th, she had driven from Grand Junction into
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: the mountains. about two hours into the mountains to meet
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: her ex-husband.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: District Attorney Pete Houtsinger was central to the investigation into
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Paige's disappearance. She and ex-husband Ron Begler had recently rekindled
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: their romance and had spent the day together just before
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: she vanished.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: He was the last one to have seen her. She
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: was last known to have been driving back from the
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: Central Mountains towards Grand Junction when she disappeared.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: When Paige went missing, She'd left her children with a
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: live-in nanny. And it was the nanny and, indeed, her
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: 8-year-old daughter who eventually reported her missing. They walked to
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: the police station together. It must have been an extraordinary sight,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: the nanny and this little girl reporting to the police
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: that Mummy had gone.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: Heartbreaking, really. Ron Beigler.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Her first husband also rang 911 to report her missing.
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: Dispatch, this is Clint.
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: Yes, I need to talk to you about a missing
• 14:53
  Speaker 10: person emergency. Something is definitely, definitely wrong. She either got
• 14:58
  Speaker 10: abducted or an accident. I think she got abducted. She
• 15:01
  Speaker 10: actually had to. There's just no way. So something is
• 15:05
  Speaker 10: definitely wrong here. I'm just really starting to panic.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: Paige first went missing, the first thing that the police
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: would consider is this normal behavior. Would we expect this
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: person to go missing? And Paige did not fall into
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: that bracket at all. She had never gone missing before.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Paige would never leave without her kids. Like, she wouldn't
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: just take off. So instantly I knew something had to
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: have happened.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Just one day later, Paige's friends and family were given
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: even more reason to panic.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: Her car is found burning in a lot out west
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: of town. I mean, what was pretty clearly right off
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: the bat an arson situation where the car had been
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: intentionally burned.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Knowing that the car was burned was a really bad
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: sign that she was probably not alive, that we weren't
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: ever going to get her back.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: The most logical reason from a law enforcement perspective that
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: someone would try to set fire to a vehicle is
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: to destroy evidence, to eliminate the potential of DNA or
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: hairs or other evidence being recovered from that vehicle.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: There are two interesting things about the car when it
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: was discovered. One is that the driver's seat.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: Was pushed all the way back.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: She herself was only 5'4, so it would not have
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: been her who had pushed that seat back. Secondly, in
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: the boot of the burnt-out car, her day planner is found,
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: with significant days torn out, including the day in which
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: she disappeared. Clearly, with an attempt designed to conceal who
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: she might or might not have been seeing.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Finding the missing mother's car was a breakthrough of sorts,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: but there was still no sign of Paige Bergfeld and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: no indication if she was dead or alive.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: There were search parties, both organized by the sheriff's office
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: and with civilian volunteers.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: It was really hot in Grand Junction in the summer,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: going over 100 degrees. I volunteered to do the searches,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: as many wonderful people did, And we walked miles a
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: day just looking for any clue. And day after day
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: doing searches and we're not finding her. It just really
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: kind of slowly trickled in that reality that we knew
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: what we were looking for on the searches. We're looking
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: for a dead body.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: If she was dead, Paige had seemingly tried to give
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: detectives a clue about what had led to her tragic fate.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: Before long, a number of items were found along Highway 50,
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: and it was sort of a trail of her belongings
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: found more or less random places along the highway heading
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: south towards Delta. Items from her checkbook and then items
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: that seemed to be torn out of a notebook, business cards,
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: which at least suggested that she had been actively trying
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: to throw stuff out a window or something along those lines,
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: maybe trying to leave a trail for people to be
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: able to track.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: While the search continued, detectives compiled a list of all
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the people who might want to harm Paige.
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: Investigators immediately zeroed in on Paige Bergfeld's ex-husband, Rob Dixon.
• 19:03
  Speaker 9: He was the father of her kids.
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: Statistically speaking, it is likely to be somebody she knows.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: And statistically speaking, it's likely to be a partner or
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: an ex-partner. So those people would most definitely be in
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: the lens of the police as they started their investigation.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Paige had previously made allegations of violence against her second husband,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: but when Grand Junction detectives checked his alibi, he was
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: quickly in the clear. Also under scrutiny was Paige's first husband,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: the man who dialed 911 to report her missing, Ron Bigler.
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: Investigators were also looking into Ron Bigler because he and
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: Paige had met up hours before she was last seen.
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: Those men were immediately questioned to figure out where they
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: were and just how close they still.
• 20:01
  Speaker 9: Were with Paige. Were their motives their.
• 20:05
  Speaker 6: Investigators cleared Ron Bigler right away because they could see
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: on the cell phone tracking data that he actually headed
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: back towards Denver, the opposite direction from Grand Junction, while
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: Page's cell phone was headed towards the Western Slope.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Two suspects had immediately been ruled out. Then detectives uncovered
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a secret life that had brought many more men to
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Page Bergfeld's door.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: Paige had a double life.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: She was, yes, a stay-at-home mother of three, a hard-working
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: entrepreneur with little businesses, but she was also an escort.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: She ran an agency called Models Inc, and she rented
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: herself out as well. She was known as Carrie to
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: the agency.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: She was expensive.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, $ 2, 500 for a night.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: She had advertisements in papers and on the Internet offering
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: massage services to people who wanted to hire her or
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: her coworkers. And as the investigators dug into it, it
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: turned out there were quite a few customers, and she
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: was considered in that world to be highly desirable and
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: successful as an escort. A very attractive young woman, well-groomed
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: and pretty.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: She was just very scrappy. I mean, she would do
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: whatever and just try to make ends meet any way
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: she could. And it wasn't until much closer to when
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: she disappeared the first time that I had a conversation
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: with her and she revealed that, well, I'm also doing
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: this escort service thing.
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: Next message.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, this is Jim.
• 22:04
  Speaker 10: Just calling to see if Carrie was available tonight.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Call me back.
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: Once investigators started to figure out the other businesses, the
• 22:14
  Speaker 6: side hustles that Paige Bergfeld had going, it complicated this
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: entire case. Because now we know that Paige was having
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: correspondence and messages and meeting with a lot of different
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: guys that probably didn't want anyone to know they were meeting.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Many of Paige's clients had left voice messages on a
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: cell phone she used exclusively for business, including a man
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: calling himself Jim.
• 22:44
  Speaker 9: Next message.
• 22:45
  Speaker 10: Then there were at least one, if not more, calls
• 22:48
  Speaker 10: from an unidentified track.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: Phone.
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: Next message. Yeah, this is Jim.
• 23:00
  Speaker 10: Could you give me a call back? 719.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Jim had been the last person to call Paige on
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the night she disappeared. When detectives got hold of her
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: phone records, they discovered that Jim was not his real name.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: The investigators were able to identify that phone, identify when
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: and where it had been purchased, and identify security film
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: footage of Lester Jones purchasing that specific phone on that
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: specific day.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Standing tall at 6'4, local mechanic Lester Jones had not
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: only been identified as the man on the footage, the
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: 56-year-old was also well acquainted with the part of town
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: where Page's car was discovered.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: The place where Page's car had been found, having been
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: set afire and burning... was within 100 and 150 yards
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: from Lester's workshop there at Bob Scott RV.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Jones, the man known to Paige as Jim, was suddenly
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the prime suspect in her disappearance. He was the last
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: person known to have spoken to Paige Bergfeld, and Jones'
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: home life was far from perfect.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: He was married and had, I guess, a somewhat interesting
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: relationship with his wife, It wasn't all flowers and roses.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: They certainly seemed to go through good times and bad times.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: And his wife told investigators there were times when he
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: would disappear and she didn't know where he was.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Just as he had with his ex-wife, Lisa Nance, Lester
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Jones was disappearing to spend time with sex workers and escorts.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: One of the escorts he'd been seeing regularly was missing
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: mother of three, Paige Bergfeld. Jones had used the name
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Jim when contacting the 34-year-old.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Next message.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: This is Jim.
• 24:56
  Speaker 9: I tried calling you last night.
• 24:58
  Speaker 10: Maybe I left a wrong impression on you. I do
• 25:00
  Speaker 10: want you to call me, but it's been like since
• 25:03
  Speaker 10: last night.
• 25:04
  Speaker 9: End of message.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Jones had developed an obsessive interest in Page. Before her disappearance,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: she'd become concerned about his behavior.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: One of her co-workers or friends had told the investigators
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: that she was kind of creeped out or worried about
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: this particular one of her clients.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Paige had told her friend of a white truck that
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: would show up late at night when she was leaving work,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: circling the car park. On one occasion, the driver had
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: even tried to block her in.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: There are things about escort work that are inherently dangerous.
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: You know, if somebody wants to kill a woman, they've
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: got to get that woman involved. on her own with
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: them somewhere where there's no witnesses. That is an incredibly
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: difficult thing to do. But if you go and see
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: an escort, that is what they do. They have to
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: do that. These people, these predators, have instant access to them.
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: Sometimes people feel empowered to treat women horribly because they
• 26:20
  Speaker 7: think they'll never go to the police and report it.
• 26:22
  Speaker 7: And unfortunately, that does make sex work a riskier endeavor
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: than other types of professions.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: It was work that brought women like Paige into close
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: contact with men like Lester Jones.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: I think he was obsessed with Paige Bergfeld. I think
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: Paige was by far the most desirable or an attractive
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: woman escort he'd ever been lucky enough to hire.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: The feeling was not mutual.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: One of the times that he had tried to hire
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: her not long before her disappearance, she had tried to send,
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: direct that business in another direction to one of her
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: co-workers because she didn't want to have anything more to
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: do with the person who was driving that white truck.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: As investigators uncovered Jones' criminal history of abducting and assaulting women,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: they began to wonder if history was repeating itself. They
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: needed to find out if Jones had arranged to meet
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Paige Bergfeld the night she disappeared.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Jones is arrested and interrogated. He simply says, yes, of course,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: help yourself. Here's my DNA, I'm happy to give you fingerprints,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: not a problem.
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: He did not deny that he'd been a client of
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: Page's and had contact with her, knew who she was
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: and used escort services.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Lester Jones confirmed to investigators that on the night Page vanished,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: he was in the Grand Junction area.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: He was in town and his wife was out of town,
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: as I recall at the time. He was in the area.
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: He didn't have an alibi. He couldn't established that he
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: was out of the vicinity or couldn't have committed the crime.
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: When investigators got a search warrant, they went to Lester
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: Jones' workplace. And at his workstation, they found some really
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: weird stuff. They found some wigs. They found a wrapper
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: for a track phone.
• 28:28
  Speaker 7: Track phone or these other types of burner phones are
• 28:31
  Speaker 7: ones where you can purchase it with cash There's no
• 28:35
  Speaker 7: long-term plan associated with it, and so you can have
• 28:38
  Speaker 7: it and not have any details of who owns it,
• 28:41
  Speaker 7: who's paying for it.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: As the search at Lester Jones' workplace continued, more evidence
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: linking him to Paige's disappearance was discovered.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: Some accelerants, some things that could have been used in
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: a kidnapping or could have been used in potentially burning
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: the car.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Detectives also found a notebook detailing all of the escorts
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Jones had met with, describing them by height, weight, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: cup size.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: In other words, they reveal that this apparently normal, superficially
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: charming man is actually obsessed with sex workers.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: Lester had an active interest in pornography. His wife told
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: us about that. He had a lot of pornography on
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: his computer at work, as I recall, but also on
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: their home computer. It's one more thing that makes you think, geez,
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: this is somebody who could have done it. commit a
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: crime like this.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Jones denied meeting Page the night she disappeared, but the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: last calls to her cell were from the phone he'd
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: been seen buying, and he had left messages under his
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: fake name.
• 29:54
  Speaker 8: Next message.
• 29:55
  Speaker 9: Hello, yeah, this is Jim.
• 29:56
  Speaker 10: Yeah, this is Jim, just being impatient, I just.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Investigators were convinced that Jones had tricked the young mother
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: into meeting him before Page had vanished. But armed with
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: only circumstantial evidence, getting justice for Page was not going
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to be easy.
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: There was a ton of pressure on investigators in Mesa
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: County to press charges.
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: Within, I want to say, months of Paige's disappearance, we
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: had largely honed in on Lester Jones as the most
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: likely person to be responsible for her disappearance. The problem
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: that I saw from that time right up through the
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: end of the investigation was the fact that, A, there
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: were other clients of hers who It was hard to
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: absolutely eliminate as potential suspects in her disappearance, and B,
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: we didn't have a body.
• 31:05
  Speaker 7: A defense attorney can argue, at least to a reasonable
• 31:08
  Speaker 7: doubt level, that there wasn't even a murder that took place.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: Because of her double life, because of the fact that
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: all the people who loved her and knew her well
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: knew nothing about this double life and her secret business
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: as an escort, I thought that was just too big
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: a hole in the case to ever be able to
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: prove Lester Jones' guilt or anyone else's beyond a reasonable doubt.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Paige Bergfeld remained missing, and investigators had no evidence to
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: prove she had been murdered. No suspect will be charged
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: with any crime relating to her. The news was a
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: bitter pill to swallow for Paige's friends and family.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: I was devastated. after finding out that she was missing
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: and realizing as much as I wanted to believe maybe
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: she could be found alive, that the reality was she
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: probably wouldn't be. There's a lot of numbness to it
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: because there was no answer. We didn't know that she
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: was murdered and that's a really difficult place to be in.
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: It was long, it was drawn out, And the family
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: must have suffered dreadfully over those years. They must have
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: felt at times that they were never, ever going to
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: get the answers that they needed, that they wanted. And
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: it was very difficult for the police, I think, who
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: would be wanting to give them those answers.
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: Paige's father, Frank Burkefield, had made regular, repeated trips to
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Grand Junction in an effort to find the missing daughter,
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: but without any success. It's every father and mother's worst
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: nightmare that their daughter should disappear into thin air and
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: no body be found. It is heartbreaking.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Five long years passed with no closure for Paige's loved ones.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: And all the time, Lester Jones continued to live and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: work alongside the innocent people of Grand Junction.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: By probably 2011, 2010, 2011, the investigation had somewhat ground
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: to a halt. Much of the frustration of Paige's family
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: and loved ones, particularly her father, Frank Bergfeld.
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: Frank Bergfeld was just a really great guy. He was
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: positive and always seemed to believe that the truth would
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: come out, whatever that was. He wanted closure for their family.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: When closure came, it was in the most heartbreaking of circumstances.
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: In March of 2012, a hiker in kind of a
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: canyon area out in the desert stumbles across what the
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: hiker believes to be human remains. And within a couple
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: of hours, there were dozens of investigators from the state
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: of Colorado and local jurisdictions investigating scouring this desert area
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: in remote parts of Western Colorado.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: I remember to this day getting the call from the
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: sheriff's office saying we found skeletal remains in the desert
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: out by Delta. We think it may be pages and
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: thinking that could be the break that the case needed.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: A skull was found at first. Then as crime scene
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: officers investigated further, they unearthed.
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: More and more bones. Forensic analysis established, yes, that was
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: in fact Paige Bergfeldt's remains.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: The bones buried in a creek bed for years before
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: being washed out by the rain told a horrifying story.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: The skull had duct tape wrapped around it, clearly as
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: though her mouth had been taped shut.
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: I don't think the coroner was able to determine absolutely
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: determine a cause of death. Simply cause of death was homicide.
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: And the most significant findings from her remains that I
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: recall were the fact that there was a fracture to
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: her skull that appeared to be contemporaneous with the time
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: of death and some duct tape remains that appeared to
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: be consistent with her having been restrained, which is consistent
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: with having been kidnapped.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: The news was a devastating blow to Paige's family and friends.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Finding her remains really was an element of sadness. It
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: just crushed all hope that she could come back. You know,
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: it just brought it all back up, all of that devastation.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: But this time it was, she really is dead. There
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: is no hope now.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Though incredibly tragic, the discovery of Paige's remains brought District
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Attorney Pete Houtsinger one step closer to charging Lester Jones
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: with her murder.
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: Of particular interest in Lester Jones' case were the facts
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: surrounding his prior conviction for having kidnapped his wife, Second wife,
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: I think. The fact that Mr. Jones went to the
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: time in trouble to buy a track phone, that Paige,
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: when she got a call from that track phone, wouldn't
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: know that it was the same client that she'd been
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: troubled by in the past, shows the level of premeditation
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: and planning. The fact that when Paige's remains were found,
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: there were traces of duct tape attached to the skeletal
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: remains also is evidence of premeditation and planning. because he
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: came equipped with what he needed to tie her up
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: and restrain her and enable him to take her away.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: In November 2014, Grand Junction detectives were finally ready to
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: make an arrest.
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: It was breaking huge news in western Colorado and really
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: across the country. So many people were following this story.
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: When investigators finally made an arrest.
• 37:20
  Speaker 9: and they arrested Lester Jones and charged him with murder.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: In July 2016, nine years after Paige Bergfeld went missing,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Lester Jones went on trial for her murder at Mesa
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: County District Court.
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: Lester Jones entered a plea of not guilty, meaning that
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: the obligation of the district attorney is to prove the
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: case to 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt. It was
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: a circumstantial case where layer upon layer upon layer had
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: to be proven to the jury, including the track phone evidence,
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: the evidence from the burned vehicle, the evidence from Paige's
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: belongings being found along the highway headed down south towards Delta,
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: towards the site where she was actually found buried years later.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Despite the evidence against him, Jones appeared stoic in the courtroom.
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: Lester Jones didn't show much emotion. He sat on the
• 38:19
  Speaker 6: defense side. He would look straight ahead.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: The courtroom was the first time I actually set eyes
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: on Lester Jones, and it was staggering to know that
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: there was a very high likelihood that he killed one
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: of my best friends. I've watched courtroom shows, and... There
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: was just nothing like sitting there knowing that this man
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: that I'm in the same room with is someone capable
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: of such a terrible thing.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Jones may have seemed confident, but investigators had an ace
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: up their sleeve.
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: The prosecution's star witness in this case against Lester Jones
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: is actually Lester Jones' ex-wife, Lisa Nance.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: You know, she was scared of Lester Jones and testifying
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: against him had to have been difficult for her.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: It was really sobering to think that a person who
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: killed my best friend was married and, you know, had
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: been married before. It seemed that at least at some
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: points in the relationships, he was a pretty awful person.
• 39:30
  Speaker 6: Husband.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: He just seemed to not be a very nice guy.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Despite the brave testimony of Lisa Nance and the compelling
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: evidence against him, there was still a chance Jones could
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: get away with murder.
• 39:45
  Speaker 9: After dozens of witnesses.
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: The jury got this case, but they could not come
• 39:52
  Speaker 6: back with a verdict. They were deadlocked at 11 to 1.
• 39:58
  Speaker 6: According to the people that were in the room, they
• 40:02
  Speaker 6: were just unable to convince one member of the jury
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: to find Lester Jones guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
• 40:11
  Speaker 9: So the judge had to call a mistrial.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: It was just really devastating that he could potentially walk free. Like,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: that was, it was really scary to know that we
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: have a killer on the stand. And so when he
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: got off, it was like a gut punch.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Just three months later, prosecutors had the opportunity to make
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: their case against Lester Jones once again.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: I 100% feared death. that he was going to get
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: off with no punishment. And he would get to walk
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: the streets while my friend, who was a fabulous, vibrant,
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: positive contribution to the society, who bent over backwards to
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: do things for her kids and her friends, she was dead.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: And he would get to continue. And I know life's
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: not fair, but... that I completely feared that that was
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: going to be the outcome.
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: You know, I've been doing this for 35 years and
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: I will never guarantee anybody what a jury is going
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: to do. So I was certainly relieved and gratified when
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: the second jury came back guilty beyond reasonable doubt and unanimous.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: On the 27th of December 2016, District Judge Brian Flynn
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: sentenced Lester Jones to life in prison without parole.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: It's like you're just holding your breath for years, waiting
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: to find out, like, is somebody going to be punished
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: for this? Because it doesn't bring Paige back, and that's
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: the worst thing.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: But, you.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Know, a killer was punished. You know, there's just got
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: to be something good in that.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: It took nine years for the family of Paige Bergfeld
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: to finally get justice for her murder. All the while,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Lester Jones remained silent.
• 42:20
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure if we'll ever figure out exactly what
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: happened to Paige Bergfeld. It would take the person convicted
• 42:30
  Speaker 6: in her death to decide to start talking before we
• 42:34
  Speaker 6: get any more information about what happened that night.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: I remember Paige for how just profoundly kind and energetic
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: and fun she was. She just, she was always laughing,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: always having a good time, like tried to always see
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: the bright side of things. And I just hope everyone
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: can know her for that.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: The disappearance of Paige Bergfeld shocked and terrified the people
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: of Western Colorado for nine long years. The tragic mystery
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: was finally solved when Lester Jones was convicted of her murder.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: But his brutal actions would have come as no surprise
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: to the other women who had the misfortune to cross
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: paths with Lester Jones, a man who violently refused to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: take no for an answer, and one of the world's
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: most evil killers.