Epstein Files: Were Two Girls Who Died of Strangulation Buried at Zorro Ranch? This is what new documents reveal – The Times of India

The New Mexico Justice Department said Wednesday it was investigating an allegation, emerging from documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice, that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ordered the bodies of two foreign girls buried outside his remote New Mexico ranch.New Mexico Department of Justice spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez said it has requested an unredacted copy of a 2019 email containing the accusation from the U.S. Department of Justice, Reuters reported.

“We are actively investigating this allegation and are conducting a broader investigation in light of the latest release from the U.S. Department of Justice,” Rodriguez said in an emailed response to questions about the case.A day earlier, the New Mexico Legislature launched the first comprehensive investigation into allegations that Epstein sexually abused girls and women for more than two decades at the Zorro Ranch, 30 miles (48 km) south of Santa Fe. The push from Democratic lawmakers to expose Epstein’s crimes has become a major political challenge for President Donald Trump.The redacted 2019 email, included in the U.S. Justice Department’s latest release of Epstein-related documents, was sent a few months after Epstein’s death to Eddy Aragon, a radio show host from New Mexico who discussed the Zorro Ranch on his program.The sender, who claimed to be a former Zorro Ranch employee, requested payment of one bitcoin in exchange for videos that the email said came from Epstein’s home and showed the financier having sex with minors.Aragon said in a telephone interview that he believed the email was legitimate and immediately forwarded it to the FBI. He says he has not received payment from or had any further contact with the sender, although he recently tried to respond for the first time but the address no longer worked.The redacted email to Aragon stated that two foreign girls had been buried on Epstein’s orders “somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro” and that the two had died “from strangulation during rough fetish sex.”A 2021 FBI report, also included in the latest Epstein file release, said Aragon visited an FBI office to report the email, which offered seven videos of sexual abuse and the location of two foreign girls buried at Zorro Ranch in exchange for one bitcoin.A Reuters search of other documents among the Justice Department’s disclosures turned up no other references to the allegations in the redacted email or to what investigators made of the claims.The Justice Department warned last year that some of the files it made public from its investigation into Epstein “contained untrue and sensational claims,” ​​and included anonymous accusations that investigators did not corroborate, or in some cases determined to be false.In an interview Wednesday, New Mexico State Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said her office found the redacted email during a recent search for the latest release of Epstein files.Garcia Richard, in a Feb. 10 letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and a statement, called on federal and state law enforcement to fully investigate allegations of criminality at Epstein’s ranch and adjacent state lands.Epstein leased approximately 1,243 acres of state land surrounding the farm in 1993. Garcia canceled the leases in September 2019 after her office determined Epstein was not using the land for ranching or farming, but as a privacy buffer around his ranch.Epstein died in a New York prison in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.