Frank Birgfeld spends many of his days on rafts going down the rivers near Grand Junction, still desperately searching for any signs of his missing daughter.

It's been five weeks now since the initial burst of help from sympathetic friends and strangers in Grand Junction flocked to look for 34-year-old Paige Birgfeld — mother of three, highly-respected Pampered Chef saleswoman, dance instructor and self-employed escort.

"We come in at the end of the day and we're just drained," Frank Birgfeld said. "We come in and we've got no energy left."

But the case isn't dead yet, despite the scaled back operations.

Mesa County sheriff's spokeswoman Norma Mestas said the team of investigators from the department has been reduced from about 15 to three. She also said those three investigators are working other cases along with the Birgfeld search.

The sheriff's department did bring in a team of search dogs from Virginia this weekend to help track down Birgfeld. The Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association volunteered its services to the department, according to Mestas. The dogs, which specialize in picking up scents in contaminated scenes, were released to look at the RV business located across the street from where Paige Birgfeld's car was found burning.

The dogs also searched portions of the highway where some of Birgfeld's personal items were recovered shortly after she was declared missing. The dogs left Grand Junction on Sunday. Mestas said she could not say whether the dogs discovered anything or if those trails were now declared cold.

The reason investigators were interested in looking at Bob Scott's RV's, Inc. was because it is the place of employment for Lester Ralph Jones, a 56-year-old named as a person of interest in the case — though Mestas said they have "several" persons of interest in the case of the missing woman.

Mestas said the reason Jones — nor the other people who haven't been publicly identified yet — aren't suspects is because police still haven't determined if a crime has been committed.

But Frank Birgfeld thinks it's "a giant coincidence" that Jones works at an RV business across the street from where his daughter's red Ford Escort was found torched in the parking lot of an auto parts distribution center.

He also wanted to know more about Jones and went out and personally interviewed people who said they knew him. To a person, Frank Birgfeld said Jones was described as "unremarkable."

"He was just another guy in town," he said. "People who knew him said they don't have any recollection of him for sainthood, but nobody took him for the devil either."

Jones does have a criminal history, however.

According to court records, Jones has domestic violence in his background. He was arrested Jan. 6, 1999, in Delta County and charged with multiple offenses stemming from an incident with his then-wife. He also pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon stemming from kidnapping charges that same year.

Attempts by the Rocky to reach Jones at the RV business have been unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Frank Birgfeld continues to cling to hope.

"I'm right where I started. I haven't found her not alive, so maybe there's some bizarre circumstance and she will walk through the door in full health," he said. "Do I think my odds are good? No, but it's like the Powerball — somebody's got to win it."

monterod@RockyMountainNews.com

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