The arched gate to Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro ranch, the former home of the sex trafficker on the high plains of northern New Mexico, were firmly closed and guarded last week.
But state investigators were combing the imposing home that locals call “the biggest Motel 6 in the West” and its 10,000 acres of rolling desert grasses and scrub. This is the first time it has been searched; it was not included in investigations after Epstein’s arrest in 2019, when Epstein’s homes in New York and the Caribbean were raided.
What may have taken place at the 26,700 sq ft ranch is the focus of New Mexico investigators, who are acting under a newly established “truth commission” and a formal state criminal investigation into allegations ofillegal activity.
FBI information released in January’sEpstein filesby the US Department of Justice included an anonymous tip to Albuquerque radio host Eddy Aragon. “Somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G,” the anonymous sender wrote, referring to Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I don’t know if there are bodies buried out there, but good luck,” said Sean, a local whose stepfather had leased Epstein’s land for cattle until ordered off because the billionaire was concerned about them straying onto his private jet runway.
Sean declined to give his first name. “That ranch is so big, with so many caves and arroyos.”
Others recalled being told that Victoria’s Secret models were coming and they should avoid visiting the ranch.
“He had this whole Zorro theme going, with little cabooses to have lunch in,” said a woman, who declined to be identified. Maxwell rode horses at the ranch, she said, “and did the house beautifully — the linen, the dishes, a whole room full of Evian water bottles. But she was also part of the evil.”
Locals estimate that Epstein kept as many as 40 quarter horses for show and jumping at Zorro, but say they rarely saw him. People who worked on the ranch are now being asked by investigators to come forward.
Residents of nearby Galisteo gripe that Epstein and Maxwell did nothing for the local community. Caterers and other ranch staff were made to sign non-disclosure agreements. Jim Sloan, an artist, said he refused. “It signaled fishy business to me,” he said. “An NDA just to work on a building?”
Tom Ford, the former creative director of Gucci, once had the adjacent ranch, and now the proprietor is the owner of the Slack messaging app. Ted Turner, the TV mogul, owns three nearby, totalling more than a million acres. Last year, Stanley Kroenke, the owner of Arsenal and the Los Angeles Rams, is believed to have purchased the nearby 1.1 million acre Singleton Ranches in the largest land transaction in US history.
“It’s a very secretive place, a disappear place, in a state that’s very secretive overall,” said Sean, who doubts anything with criminal implications will be found at the ranch.
Last week, as part of Epstein-focused demonstrations for International Women’s Day, about 60 women gathered at the gates to call for accountability for Epstein’s co-conspirators, leaving in their wake placards, crosses and stuffed toys.
Several women have previously said that they were abused as teens or young adults at the property, including Jane, who testified at Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial that she was escorted to see him at Zorro. “I just, as usual, felt, like, my heart sink into my stomach,” she said.
Another accuser, Annie Farmer, said she was ordered by Maxwell to perform a nude massage on Epstein at Zorro ranch when she was 16 years old. The lateVirginia Giuffresaid that Epstein trafficked her to have sex with high-profile men there.
