Mom and 6-Year-Old Daughter Vanished, Leaving Husband ‘Inconsolable.’ When a Body Was Found in the Trash, the Case Took a Dramatic Turn

The case of a missing 34-year-old mom and her 6-year-old daughter had an entire Colorado community on edge.

As a 2001 story in PEOPLE’s print edition explained, Jennifer Blagg and her daughter Abby had seemingly been taken from their Grand Junction, Colo. home after Jennifer’s husband, Michael, headed to work.

Nov. 13, 2001, began as any other day, Michael would explain, with him leaving the home at around 6 a.m. while his family was still there. But he tried calling home throughout the day (five times, he would say) and got no answer. Growing concerned, he left work early, only to find a large pool of blood in the couple’s bedroom and Abby’s clothes still laid out for school.

His wife and daughter, however, were nowhere to be found.

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The paramedics who responded to Michael’s 911 call found him “distraught and inconsolable,” PEOPLE reported at the time, with Mike himself offering, “I was shaking and trembling and crying horribly.”

The investigation that took place soon after was one of the most puzzling in the state since another some years earlier: the much-publicized 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey.

Neighbors of the Blagg family grew concerned, with one telling PEOPLE the crime “makes us all vulnerable.”

Of course, there were doubts that Blagg was telling the truth about what happened the day his wife and daughter disappeared. But in those early days, he did not hire an attorney and cooperated fully with authorities.

Speaking at a Nov. 16 press conference, Blagg said, “I don’t have any idea what happened to them. I want to know what happened to them.”

There were suspicions someone else had taken them, with one neighbor telling investigators she heard “what she thought were two or three men’s voices coming from the vicinity of the Blaggs’ back fence,” that morning, per PEOPLE’s earlier reporting.

Blagg, she said, “looked happy” when she saw him before he left for work that morning.

A Georgia Tech grad, he had a degree in nuclear engineering and had joined the Navy and trained as a helicopter pilot after college, going on to serve for 10 years and do two tours during Desert Storm.

He met Jennifer while stationed in San Diego in 1988, and the two married three years later.

As Jennifer’s mother, Marilyn Conway, described to PEOPLE, “He’s a very compassionate man.”

He was seemingly just as devoted to his daughter Abby, with a co-worker telling PEOPLE, “He was crazy about his little girl. If something happened at home he would be the first to leave. He was definitely a family man.”

But the case — and Michael’s reputation — would turn on its head weeks later.

More than six months later, Jennifer’s decomposing body, with the retainer she wore to bed still in her mouth, was found mixed with trash from Michael’s employer, Ametek Dixon, at the Mesa County landfill.

Michael was arrested two days later, per Denver TV station KUSA, and charged with first-degree murder, use of a weapon in a violent crime, theft of $100 to $500, and abuse of a corpse.

In 2004, the case went to trial, and Michael was convicted. But that conviction was dismissed after the revelation that a juror in the trial had not disclosed a domestic violence incident in her own background in order to win a seat on the panel, The Denver Post reports.

In 2018, he was found guilty once more following a five-week trial and three days of deliberation, KUSA reports, and sentenced to life in prison.

Abby’s whereabouts remain unknown, and Michael was never charged in relation to her disappearance due to her never being located.