An anti-human trafficking campaigner from Tennessee says he was found hogtied and blindfoldedon Epstein IslandSunday after he went there to investigate the dead pedophile’s crimes.
Benjamin Owen, the founder of Memphis-based nonprofit We Fight Monsters, was arrested and charged with trespassing when police in the US Virgin Island found that he had been trussed up by caretakers on the island,WREG reported.
A worker on Little Saint James — the legal name for Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious sex haven — told police Owen shoved him and his pregnant girlfriend to the ground when they tried to stop him from taking pictures, according to the outlet.
Owen said he was “attempting to do some research” on the island, but denied the claim that he shoved a pregnant woman, he said in a statement to WREG.
He said he was “kidnapped” by a woman who manages and lives on the island, and he thanked the Virgin Islands Police Department for “rescuing me from that debacle.”
Little Saint James has been a frequent stop for amateur sleuths and crime tourists since Epstein, a New York financier with ties to wealthy elites, was busted for running a high-end child sex trafficking ring.Epstein died in prison in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, allegedly by suicide.Owen ventured there with four other lookey-loos, including Ryan Dalton, cofounder of the group Closed Horizon.
“They hogtied Ben, they put his hands behind his back in flex cuffs, they bound his legs and they threw him into what they call the dungeon, which was an area where he spent a significant amount of time, starting to dehydrate before the police showed up,” Dalton told WREG.
As for why they wanted to explore the island: “We believe that Epstein isn’t dead,” he said.Billionaire Stephen Deckoffbought Little Saint Jamesand a neighboring island for $60 million in 2023, with plans to transform them into a glitzy new resort.
