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Bones found along the Utah-Colorado border have given Colorado investigators hope they will finally be able to solve the case of a young mother who has been missing for more than a year.
One of the bones, a piece of human skull, was found in Utah and now is being tested at the medical examiner's office in Salt Lake. Colorado investigators are anxiously awaiting results. They want to know if it belongs to a victim in an unsolved murder case.
Paige Birgfeld of Colorado, a mother of three, was last seen in June of 2007. Investigators say the piece of bone could be from her.
A Mesa County Sheriff's Department spokesperson said, "This could be anyone, really. It gives hope to families and to us. It could solve one of our cases."
Though investigators are waiting to confirm if the bone belongs to Birgfeld, they've contacted her father, Frank Birgfeld.
"To some degree I want to find her," he said, "but on the other hand I don't want to find her not alive."
Last week, as Utah was celebrating Pioneer Day, hikers in the Bryson Canyon area of the Bookcliffs, near the Utah-Colorado line, spotted a bone and took it to the Mesa County Sheriff's Office in Grand Junction, Colo. Then investigators brought the bone to Salt Lake for testing.
Ten people are searching a five-mile area of the Bookcliffs in Bryson Canyon for more evidence. Any bone found is being bagged and labeled.
Steve White, with the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, said, "We're working with some doctors out of Salt Lake with anything, any bone, to confirm whether it's animal or human."
One woman, Connie Flukie, has searched for Birgfeld before. "I feel sickened this is it. The family deserves some peace. This could be her," she said.
White said, "It would be nice to put some closure. If there's a family or something missing someone, it would be nice to put some closure to that."
Though Paige's father wants closure, he doesn't know if he wants the bone to be his daughter's.
"My situation is to wait and see if this has anything to do with Paige," he said.
It will be some time before the medical examiner's office releases results from tests on the bone.
Paige Birgfeld was a mother of three, last seen with her ex-husband the night of her disappearance. She also worked at an online escort service.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
