Models Inc.

Paige Birgfeld was a mother of three in Grand Junction, Colorado. Alongside her public businesses, she privately ran an escort service called Models Inc. On June 28, 2007, she left home and did not return. Three days later her red Ford Focus was found burning in an empty lot a couple of miles from her house, with the driver’s seat pushed far back. Paige was 5 feet 4.

Phone records showed calls to Paige’s escort line from a disposable TracFone. Walmart security video showed Lester Ralph Jones buying one. Jones was 6 feet 5, worked at an RV business about 500 feet from where her car was found, and had prior convictions for assault and attempted kidnapping. In March 2012, Paige’s remains were found in Wells Gulch in Delta County and identified by dental records. Jones was arrested in November 2014.

His first trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial in 2016. At a second trial, on December 27, 2016, a jury found him guilty of murder and kidnapping, and he was sentenced to life without parole. In June 2022, the Colorado Court of Appeals vacated the kidnapping conviction because it merged with felony murder but upheld the rest, and his life sentence stood.