SECLUDED in a remote area of New Mexico, a sprawling ranch once owned by Jeffrey Epstein hides sickening secrets of the paedo’s warped past.
Having largely flown under the radar for decades, Zorro Ranch is now the subject of a criminal investigation – but the true scale of horrors that unfolded at the site may never be exposed.
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Hector Balderas, the state’s ex-attorney general whose 2019 probe into the ranch was halted, told The Sun: “There will be missed opportunities for accountability where victims will have ultimately paid the price.
“Prosecutors are barely learning to understand today how heinous and how much violence and exploitation took place throughout decades.”
Bodies of young women being buried on the grounds, sex abuse and concealing evidence are among the allegations plaguing the shady ranch.
Curiously, two renowned lawyers for victims of the twisted paedophile had no information on the farm when asked by The Sun.
Known to locals as Playboy Ranch, victims have previously told how the ranch has been overlooked throughout the scandal.
Testimonies from several women detail how Epstein was able to abuse teenage girls and young women at the ranch – without any consequence.
Despite Epstein’s properties in Palm Beach and New York being combed by investigators, Zorro Ranch has never been formally searched.
Bombshell claims uncovered in the latest drop of Epstein files from the US government have thrust the huge 7,500-acre estate firmly into the spotlight.
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It is feared the shamed financier used the isolated ranch, which he bought in 1993, as a hub for his depraved sex trafficking ring – away from prying eyes.
“I believe Epstein selected that location because of its seclusion,” Balderas said.
Criminal defence attorney John Day, a former prosecutor in New Mexico, told The Sun attention on the ranch has long been eclipsed by other Epstein bombshells.
He said: “Documents show that Epstein did have lists of apparently local woman’s names with ‘massage’ listed next to them.
“But we know that he also victimised so any young women at his various properties that we have to assume Zorro Ranch was one of the abuse locations.
“Epstein seemed to like the remoteness of Zorro Ranch and the ranch has ben overshadowed by the claims about the Lolita Express jet, and the ‘Rape Island’ facts.
“Clearly people in New Mexico who worked on the ranch and visited as staff or contractors or employees saw something – but what did they see and did they report their observations to anyone?
“More questions arise about Epstein’s ties to New Mexico local politicians and prominent people — did he treat them the same way he treated the elite of New York’s finance, entertainment and political worlds?”
For years, Epstein took respite at the ranch in the desert scrub outside Santa Fe – with the disgraced millionaire spending around 50 days a year there, according to documents.
One file detailed how he spent “two to three weeks at a time” at the site during the summer – but how “very little notice” was given before he flew in.
Epstein would bring “his personal assistance, bodyguard, friends, personal trainer, masseuses” to the ranch, which had five to six “full-time” employees, according to the paper.
As well as a vast Spanish-style mansion, the ranch had an airstrip, hangar, helipad and its own mini village labelled Ranch Central where guests stayed.
There are more than 7,000 references to the ranch in the documents released by federal authorities this year.
A disturbing document unearthed by The Sun in the millions of files released earlier this months paints a harrowing picture of what went on there.
In a complaint made to the FBI’s department in Albuquerque, there are claims that cabins are the ranch were used “for sex and giving victims of rape sexually transmitted diseases”.
According to the witness, whose name has been redacted, “sex and STDs were then used as blackmail against rape victims from the ranch”.
The haunting complaint added: “The STDs then turned the victim’s brains to mush so they could not tell their story.
“One female victim was raped multiple times and became pregnant.”
One of the most disturbing allegations found in the files claims two girls were killed and their bodies buried under Epstein’s orders.
The sender of an email containing the allegations claimed to be a former Zorro Ranch employee.
It said two foreign girls who died “by strangulation during rough, fetish sex” had been buried near the property at Epstein’s direction.
Meanwhile, The Sun yesterday told how a former police officer told the FBI Epstein built a “suspicious” barn feared to be concealing an incinerator at the ranch.
New Mexico’s attorney general Raúl Torrez, who this week ordered a criminal investigation into the ranch, told The Sun: “Revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination.”
Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, was one of several victims who visited Zorro Ranch.
She told how she had seen high-profile guests at the site, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The ex-royal – who was arrested this week suspicion of misconduct in a public office – has never acknowledged going there.
Virginia, who shared photos of herself at the ranch in a 2015 court document, said Epstein trafficked her to powerful men who stayed on the estate.
Epstein survivor Annie Farmer, meanwhile, previously testified that she was abused by the paedo and his jailed madam Ghislaine Maxwell when she was 16.
Epstein's 'incinerator at ranch'
Exclusive by Katie Davis, Deputy Foreign Editor
JEFFREY Epstein built a “suspicious” barn feared to be concealing an incinerator at his secluded ranch, a former police officer told the FBI.
The ex-cop – who patrolled the area around Zorro Ranch for 15 years – said he was worried evidence was being destroyed by the paedo.
Now a document uncovered in the latest drop of files has revealed an ex-police officer’s chilling fears about a barn constructed at the high-desert site.
Dated July 19, 2019 – just days after Epstein’s arrest – an FBI report log details a call taken from a retired New Mexico State police officer, whose name has been redacted.
The former cop said he noticed the barn had a chimney and a “sally port” – a secure entryway designed with multiple doors, set up in a way to allow only one to be opened at any time.
A report of the call reads: “The property which is on Zorro Ranch Road, Stanley, NM, his recently had a large barn constructed.
“The barn is suspicious as there is a garage door that appears to be a sally port, and there is a chimney.
“[Redacted name] is concerned the property could potentially have an incinerator concealed within the barn.
“An old 1970s mobile home was recently put right behind the barn, which believes does not follow Santa Fe County regulations.
“[Redacted name] explained that there is a lot of security for the properties including cameras, sally ports, and other security measures.
“[Redacted name] explained that the barn that was constructed doesn’t look like a barn you would use for ranching.
“[Redacted name] wanted to report the information to the FBI because he is concerned evidence could be destroyed here.”
Th ex-officer also told the FBI there had been “a lot of high-profile people seen frequently” at the ranch.
According to the report, the retired policeman said he had heard “rumours” about Epstein using the property for “recruited girls to visit”.
His call to the FBI came just days after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019, and weeks before the paedo’s death on August 10.
Another anonymous victim told a New York court in 2019 how she was “molested for many hours” by Epstein after being flown to the ranch on his private jet when she was just 15 in 2004.
The victim told how she felt “so small and powerless” and how Epstein “positioned me by laying me on his floor so that I was confronted by all the framed photographs on his dresser of him smiling with wealthy celebrities and politicians”.
Shocking testimonies and fresh revelations prompted Torrez to this week reopen an investigation into what role the ranch played in the sexual abuse and sex trafficking of underage girls and young women.
Although New Mexico’s initial case – opened by Balderas – was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, state prosecutors say that revelations in the previously sealed FBI files need examining.
Torrez said: “As with any potential criminal matter, we will follow the facts wherever they lead, carefully evaluate jurisdictional considerations, and take appropriate investigative action, including the collection and preservation of any relevant evidence that remains available.
“We are moving quickly and deliberately on this issue and will provide updates as appropriate.”
State prosecutors said they will be pushing for full access to unredacted files relating to the ranch, which are held by federal prosecutors in Washington DC.
They have also pledged to work with a so-called Epstein truth commission set up separately in New Mexico this week.
Epstein owned the ranch until his death in jail in August 10, 2019, having bought it from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King 26 years earlier.
The ranch is now owned by former Texas state Senator Don Huffines, who purchased the property from the Epstein estate in 2023.