they make that determination. he had to fight that battle constantly for years. i think he hit it right on. meaning they were ready to pick up jones, but da thought sfwlinger was not. why didn t you decide to pull the pin on lester ralph jones? we didn t have a body. and that was deet fining absolutely. that was really i mean, there are lots of no body cases that go to trial. not a lot of no body cases where the victim has a double life and has been lying to her family an friends. because of her double life.the possibility that defense attorney could throw out there that she ran off with some rich client and is living on a beach in brazil or something. as the years passed paige s story went from the front of the paper to being filed away on microfiche. where was she? coming up, they were about to find out and it would transform the case. now we need to make a
are you? and i just hung up and i called 911 and they took me to a safe house. and did they catch him? what? no, they didn t know where to look. a few days later somebody broke into lee is a s mother s house in oklahoma. she called me later that day and said when she was leaving work that she noticed this car was following her and she said it was ralph. she had called the sheriff s department and she s like, he s here, he s following me. and they arrested him. my mom said she asked him what was he doing and he said looking for your daughter. lester ralph jones was convicted of assault and kidnapping and served three years, but now he was out and remarried and by the fall of 2007 a pile of circumstantial evidence connected him to paige birgfeld s disappearance. why didn t you just go arrest him? my job is to gather the facts and then present it to the district attorney s office and
happened. i said, he murdered that woman. it just it hit me. reporter: then of course she had to know, was that wild story about a decapitating accident in new jersey just coralluzzo s excuse to run from what he had done, to get out of town? i scoured the internet and made phone calls. reporter: scoured the internet looking for evidence of a big traffic accident. didn t find uh-huh. nothing there. reporter: so who did you phone? i called their local gazette newspaper, talked to a reporter. nothing happened. i called the coroner. nothing. so newspaper, coroner, hospitals. nothing. reporter: but meagan was able to locate coralluzzo and passed that tip on to lead investigator beverly jarrell, who would end up playing a key role. you ll hear more about her later. jarrell caught up with coralluzzo in new jersey. grilled him for five hours. but coralluzzo denied everything. more important, he was in new jersey when paige s car was set
he d failed to show up for work. and later that night he offered a truly bizarre reason why. that his family had been in an accident. and we said, what kind of accident? oh, well, my brother and my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew were beheaded on the turnpike in new jersey. he had to go to new jersey. he had to solidify funeral arrangements. he was sobbing and hands were flying and he was just like, i don t know what i m going to do. and just very upset. and we believed him. reporter: as she told the detectives, coralluzzo took the first available flight back to new jersey. and that was that. the detectives thanked her and left. didn t mention a thing about paige birgfeld. and then the very next day meagan was watching the news on tv and saw the story about the burned out car. her car was found ablaze in this parking lot, off 23 road. and then i saw the paige s face come across the news. and i looked at my ex-husband tim and i said, that s what
daughter. reporter: lester ralph jones was convicted of assault and kidnapping and served three years. but now he was out and remarried and the by the fall of 2007 a pile of circumstantial evidence connected him to paige birgfeld s disappearance. why didn t you just go arrest him? our job is to gather the facts and then present it to the district attorney s office and they make that determination. you wanna add cause he had to fight that battle constantly for years. oh, i think you hit it hit it right on. reporter: meaning they were ready to pick up jones, but d.a. hautzinger was not. why didn t you decide to pull the pin on lester ralph jones? i didn t have a body. and that was the defining absolutely, that was really i mean, there are lots of no body cases that go to trial. not a lot of no body cases where the victim has a double life and has been lying to her family and friends. because of her double life the possibility that a defense attorney could thro