State Attorney General Reopens Epstein Ranch Probe After Tip

New Mexico's Justice Department is revisiting allegations of crimes tied to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's former ranch after an anonymous tip suggested two bodies might be buried nearby, state officials said Thursday. Attorney General Raúl Torrez ordered the renewed inquiry after reviewing documents in the final batch of US Justice Department files related to Epstein, according to a statement from his chief of staff, the Hill reports. The statement said special agents and prosecutors will work with other agencies, as well as with the truth commission set up by the state legislature this week, per the AP.

New Mexico had shut down its Epstein investigation in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. In a letter last week to US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the New Mexico Department of Justice asked for an unredacted version of a 2019 email from an anonymous source who claimed two foreign girls were buried in the hills near Zorro Ranch, about 30 miles from Santa Fe. The email, sent to a New Mexico radio host a few months after Epstein's death, said the writer had worked at the ranch and alleged the girls died by strangulation during sexual encounters and were buried on Epstein's orders, Reuters reported. The truth commission held its first meeting Tuesday.