Education Reporter
Ronnie Ray installs a cross honoring victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday outside Epstein’s former ranch near Stanley. Roughly 100 people gathered at the rally to demand accountability.
STANLEY — When the roadside memorial honoring the victims and survivors of infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein disappeared from the outside of his former estate, Lou Gibney — who had hammered roughly 4-foot high crosses into the soil beside the ranch’s gate last month — knew what to do.
“ I thought I’d make bigger ones,” he said as he pounded 8-foot-tall crosses into the ground at another vigil Saturday. “ If they take them down again, I’ll do it again.”
The crosses, along with the flowers and other articles to honor the memory of Epstein’s victims, were mysteriously removed from the roadside earlier this month. A spokesperson from the state Department of Transportation toldThe New Mexicanthe agency wasn’t responsible — but the property manager of the former Zorro Ranch, bought in 2023 by Texas Republican comptroller candidate Don Huffines, did ask if it could be removed.
“ I’m a lifelong New Mexican,” said Gibney, a 65-year-old construction worker. “I’m used to Texans thinking they own New Mexico. And I’m always happy to school them that they don’t.”
Protests at the sprawling ranch south of Santa Fe have by now become a regular occurrence, letting New Mexicans vent their outrage and disgust at the sex crimes alleged to have been committed there. Like former rallies, Saturday’s roughly 100 attendees gathered to both demand further accountability from state and federal leaders and to pay respects to the victims and survivors of the disgraced late financier.
A few things have changed over the last month. A loudspeaker on the Huffines property now blares music reminiscent of 17th century Gregorian chants, the kind of music found in churches or perhaps at a Christian retreat like the one Huffines has stated he plans for the property. The desert ground outside has grown more densely covered with crosses, flowers, stuffed animals — and other items, including a young girl’s dress draped on a post beside the gate.
Skylar Gonzales, a 13-year-old from Albuquerque, was among the crowd. She scribbled messages like “We see you” on Gibney’s crosses before he raised them.
She came, she said, “to see what girls my age had to go through.”
The response from the masked security guards standing watch on the other side of the gate has been largely unchanged. Like at the last two vigils, the guards watched the protesters through binoculars and recorded them with their cellphones, while they endured the jeers of those paying homage.
Roughly one hundred people gather to rally outside Epstein’s former ranch to show support for Epstein survivors and demand accountability Saturday near Stanley.
