In the wake of deeply disturbing claims surrounding the New Mexico ranch owned by Jeffrey Epstein from 1993 until his death in 2019, there are growing calls now for a real investigation into those claims by state and federal authorities, and answers as to why they were never addressed previously. From KQRE Albuquerque:
Shrouded in mystery, no one knows all that may have happened at convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico. But the release of files about Epstein’s case reveals disturbing claims.
“So there’s a lot of unanswered questions about Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, what went down there, why it was not fully investigated, why people were not held accountable, and frankly, as a New Mexican… You know, to anyone who was hurt there, I just, my heart goes out to you,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-New Mexico), in a recorded video. “The miscarriage of justice in this case is just stunning, appalling, disgusting.”
A newly released email claims a former Zorro Ranch staffer has information about two women who were killed and buried at the ranch. “I’m horrified when I learned something new, especially when I learned that state land could have been used, could have been involved in some of these monstrous activities,” said Stephanie Garcia Richard, New Mexico Land Commissioner.
In 2019, she publicly ripped up the state’s leases with Epstein and offered the state land to law enforcement for investigation. She said nothing happened to her knowledge. She is now demanding action, writing a letter calling for both the United States Department of Justice and the New Mexico Department of Justice to investigate the claim of women buried at Zorro Ranch.
Unfortunately, the response from those authorities has been pathetically predictable so far:
“As we understand it, the allegations appear to be unsubstantiated and stem from an anonymous individual referencing events that purportedly occurred more than six years ago. We will work to obtain the original, unredacted emails and any underlying files, as access to complete and authentic materials is critical to our assessment and planning. These circumstances raise significant concerns regarding the reliability, authenticity, and credibility of the claims.
Notwithstanding those concerns, we are prepared to review and assess any verifiable information should it be provided through appropriate and lawful means. To meaningfully evaluate these allegations, we would need access to the complete, unaltered communications and any associated materials. Once such information is obtained, our office will review it to determine whether any further action is warranted,” James Grayson, Chief Deputy Attorney General for the New Mexico Department of Justice, wrote in part in a response.
“I’m a little bit frustrated by it,” said Garcia Richard. “Here we are seven years later, after cancellation of the leases, after opening up state land for access to law enforcement for an investigation to my knowledge, none has taken place. I’m kind of curious to know why.
More details from the Albuquerque Journal:
Zorro Ranch was sold in 2023, but surrounding state land, including the parcel where the girls are allegedly buried, has not been occupied since 2019, Garcia Richard said. According to a map provided by NMSLO, the alleged burial site resides directly west of Zorro Ranch.As of Monday, Zorro Ranch has been mentioned in the Epstein files over 4,200 times, with emails ranging between 2012 and 2018. Many of the emails have Zorro Ranch as a sender or receiver of emails, have the ranch mentioned in email signatures as "Zorro Management LLC" or listed in the subject lines of emails.
And KUNM:
The allegations are contained in an anonymous email that conservative talk show host and former Albuquerque mayoral candidate Eddy Aragon received in November 2019, several months after Epstein died in federal custody, and are part of the trove of recently released Epstein documents.
The email came from an encrypted account from someone who claims to have been a former staff member at Zorro Ranch, the 7,500-acre property Epstein purchased from former New Mexico Gov. Bruce King in 1993, who had “been there and seen it all.”
The letter’s author says two “foreign girls” died of strangulation during “rough, fetish sex” and were later buried on “orders of Jeffrey and Madam G,” a potential reference to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and former business partner currently serving a two-decade federal prison sentence for sex trafficking.
The letter does not say when the girls might have died or when or where they were buried, except that the burial site is “somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro.” The author also claims to have taken seven videos from Epstein’s home, including ones depicting sex with minors, as “insurance in case of future litigation against Epstein.”
…
Aragon told Source New Mexico in a phone interview Tuesday that he forwarded the letter to the FBI right after receiving it and that he did not respond to the author or pay for the videos.
“It felt very legitimate to me,” he said of the letter. “That’s why I forwarded it.”
He said he received assurances from the FBI at the time that investigators would tell him whether they investigated and what they found, but he never heard anything back.
At the time of the letter, Aragon said he was repeatedly bringing up Epstein’s local ties and concerns about Zorro Ranch on his radio show, and that he’d been speaking regularly to current and former Zorro Ranch staff members.
