By Erica Stapleton and Andrew Hay
SANTA FE, New Mexico, April 27 (Reuters) - Authorities in New Mexico are trying to determine how many local women and girls were abused by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at his isolated Zorro Ranch compound.
Several individuals have said they were flown to the ranch and abused by Epstein and his associates. To date, only one - former Santa Fe massage therapist Rachel Benavidez - was known to be from New Mexico.
New Mexico Representative Marianna Anaya, who co-sponsored
the state's Truth Commission probe into Epstein, told Reuters that the group had been in contact with a number of New Mexico residents who say they were abused at the ranch.
"I can confirm that we have been reached out to by local alleged victims," Anaya told Reuters in a text message.
LOCAL WOMEN AND GIRLS
The Truth Commission is working with the New Mexico Department of Justice to help survivors who may have viable criminal cases bring charges against Epstein co-conspirators, Anaya added.
It was the first time the commission has acknowledged contact with local people who say they were abused at the ranch during the quarter-century Epstein owned the property.
The state reopened its investigation into alleged child sex trafficking at the ranch in February, citing the U.S. Department of Justice's release of millions of files on Epstein. They included an email from a person claiming to be a former ranch employee who alleged Epstein buried the bodies of two girls in hills outside the property.
Epstein and his associates are accused of grooming local teenage girls at his New York and Palm Beach residences, according to court testimony from criminal trials.
Maria Jose Rodriguez Cadiz, who heads Solace Sexual Assault Services in Santa Fe, the only such support center in the region, told Reuters in an interview that in 2019, the year Epstein was arrested and then found dead in a jail cell, around 45 people approached the center to seek information, therapy and other services in relation to alleged sexual abuse at the ranch.
She estimated that between a quarter and a half of those contacts were from women who said they had been abused at the ranch - although she added that the center did not keep detailed records.
“Dozens of people who were in need of information or direct services related to the Epstein-ring sex trafficking crimes were coming forward,” Rodriguez Cadiz said.
She attributed the increased contacts in 2019 to news of Epstein's arrest as well as the increased visibility of the #MeToo movement against powerful perpetrators of sexual abuse.
She said none of the women who approached the center in 2019 filed police complaints at that time. The center is co-housed with the Santa Fe Police Department Special Victims Unit.
Nationally, about 24% of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to police in 2024, the most recent year for which full data exists, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
(Reporting by Erica Stapleton and Andrew Hay in Santa Fe, New Mexico ; Editing by Donna Bryson and Suzanne Goldenberg)
