Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch sat untouched for six years while survivors begged anyone in power to look.
Now New Mexico is finally investigating – and what they're pulling out of that desert compound explains exactly why the FBI told the state to stand down.
What they just found on that property is why Epstein's staff called a lawyer instead of the police.
Epstein Files Revealed the FBI Sat on a Murder Tip for Six Years
In 2019, an anonymous tip reached the FBI claiming two foreign girls had been strangled to death during "rough fetish sex" at Zorro Ranch – and buried in the hills surrounding the property.
The FBI's response was to call the New Mexico Attorney General and tell him there was no "probable cause" to search.
Former AG Hector Balderas says federal prosecutors in New York ordered him to "stand down."
The 7,500-acre ranch was never searched.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell that same year, and the case was declared closed.
It wasn't until the Trump DOJ released more than three million documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act that the full picture of what the FBI sat on started coming out.
New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez reopened the investigation in February.
Investigators are now imaging every acre of that property and running technical analysis on what the scans reveal.
They've already recovered handwritten letters, documents, and books still sitting at the ranch – years after Epstein's death.
Survivors Describe What Ghislaine Maxwell Was Running at Zorro Ranch
Survivor Chauntae Davies – trafficked by Epstein across his properties in the Caribbean, New York, Paris, and St. Tropez – told 60 Minutes Australia that Zorro Ranch was the most terrifying of all.
She described spending time in her room "like a mouse in a trap" waiting for the knock on the door.
"Jeffrey is ready for his massage now" meant one thing.
"Rape," she said. "Full on, forced on sexual rape."
Davies recalled accounts of girls waking up in dark rooms with a female doctor standing over them – no idea what had been done to their bodies.
She recounted hearing of a baby born at the ranch, with Maxwell taking the infant.
"I remember overhearing conversations about creating the perfect baby from the perfect gene pool," she said.
A 2018 email between Epstein and Bitcoin developer Bryan Bishop – released in the Epstein Files – shows Epstein discussing funding for a designer-baby and human cloning project, with one condition: his name stays off it.
Democrat Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury added a claim that had never surfaced publicly before: men were also raped at Zorro Ranch.
"A man actually claims that he met Jeffrey Epstein, was brought to the ranch, he was drugged, and he describes in detail a scene in which multiple young men were raped at the ranch in front of him after he was drugged," Stansbury told 60 Minutes Australia.
"Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were serial abusers – they really were super predators."
The Armed Compound a Convicted Felon Built While the FBI Looked Away
New Mexico State Police records obtained by the Santa Fe New Mexican show that 32 guns were stolen from Zorro Ranch in August 2018 – rifles, handguns, and antique weapons pulled from a large safe in a garage, with additional weapons taken from two other buildings on the grounds.
When police tried to investigate, Epstein's staff stonewalled them for weeks until the case was closed after a month.
Epstein's response when told about the break-in: "Wild."
He then directed his ranch manager to his lawyer rather than cooperate with police.
The reason for that refusal becomes clear fast: Epstein was legally barred from owning guns for 10 years following his 2008 felony conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
He ignored that ban completely – Zorro Ranch had a full shooting range, armed staff in property trucks, and gun cabinets insured as "fine art" valued at $57,500 by 2013.
Young women were photographed firing high-powered weapons on the property.
The FBI knew Epstein was a convicted sex offender who had built an armed compound in the New Mexico desert, received a murder tip about that compound, and still told New Mexico to stand down.
Now the scans are running on 7,500 acres of desert, and Congresswoman Stansbury has one stated goal: turn "Epstein files into Epstein trials."
Whatever is in those hills – the FBI had six years to make sure it stayed there.
Sources:
- Alex Oliveira, "More than 30 guns stolen from Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico Zorro Ranch — but staff stonewalled police probe," New York Post, April 28, 2026.
- Alex Oliveira, "'Multiple young men' were allegedly drugged, raped at Epstein's Zorro Ranch, where 'super predators' roamed: report," New York Post, April 27, 2026.
- Emma Parry, "First claims of men being gang raped at Epstein's Zorro ranch revealed in bombshell doc – amid probe over 'buried girls'," The Sun, April 27, 2026.
- Natasha Anderson, "Sickening new claims about men being gang raped and women killed in 'sex games' at Epstein's Zorro ranch come to light in new documentary," Daily Mail, April 27, 2026.
