The Secrets We Keep
The case of a missing mom/escort service madam raises questions about secrets.
July 10, 2007 — -- Those close to Paige Birgfeld knew her as a loving mother of three young children and an energetic small business woman. But police revealed last weekend that Birgfeld, a Colorado mother of three, allegedly led another life, one kept secret from her friends and family: She ran a local escort service.
Birgfeld disappeared June 28. Her burned-out Ford Focus was found three nights later, on the side of a road two miles from her upscale home. Police appear to have few clues about the case.
But if the conclusions drawn by local police are correct, the 34-year-old Colorado resident appears to have joined the ranks of many seemingly ordinary Americans who lead hidden lives. News reports abound with stories of men with multiple families, married teachers who have illicit affairs with their students, or otherwise upstanding men and women who struggle with hidden drug problems or visit, or work for, escort services.
The details of the Birgfeld case are still emerging and it's too soon to know what drove her to allegedly work in the escort business.
But forensic psychologists say that people who lead dual lives are often driven by many of the same factors, including easy money, possible personality disorders and the thrill of illicit and sometimes dangerous activities.
"There's no one profile," said Gregg McCrary, a retired criminal profiler with the FBI. "It's usually a combination of things -- money, emotional needs, the need to have a secret life, the need to be risk taking."
That duality can lead to dangerous consequences. "If the secret life is more rewarding than the normal life, then you may get addicted to the secret life," said forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland. "The two lives are going to clash one way or the other."
Experts who spoke with ABC News discussed some of the common factors that can lead otherwise average people to participate in illicit activity such as escort services. Those factors may or may not be in play in the Birgfeld case, and none of the experts was intimately familiar with the details of her case. Some forensic psychologists pointed to significant differences between running an escort service and some other types of secret activity, like an affair with a student.
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