A MAN who lived on Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch as a teenager fears the financier could have gotten away with burying girls on the property, following a disturbing email claim in recent document dumps.
Ean Royal, 28, lived in a house away from the main mansion at the New Mexico estate with his father, who had worked as Epstein’s ranch hand for more than a decade.
Although he says they never witnessed any criminal activity, claiming some staff were “kept in the dark,” he feels the size and layout of the estate would make it an easy place to cover up a murder.
Royal recalls a “cold” interaction with the pedophile, who later banned him from bringing friends on the ranch, when he was “hiding out” at the property as he faced more scrutiny following his 2008 plea deal.
The deal allowed him to plead guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida instead of federal sex trafficking charges, resulting in just 13 months in county jail with work release.
Royal’s father eventually quit, overwhelmed by the workload, and he says they were left “sickened” when they learned the truth about his crimes.
This month, New Mexico authorities reopened a criminal investigation into Zorro Ranch, following the public release of previously sealed FBI files and other materials.
The state’s Attorney General, Raul Torrez, said investigators are reviewing documents and seeking survivor testimony to determine what illegal activity may have occurred on the sprawling property.
According to reports, key evidence and witnesses, including former ranch staff, were never fully interviewed.
The investigation comes after a disturbing claim surfaced in the Epstein files in a redacted 2019 email, which alleged that two “foreign girls” were buried on Epstein’s orders somewhere in the hills outside his Zorro Ranch after dying “by strangulation during rough, fetish sex.”
The message was sent to New Mexico radio host Eddy Aragon by someone claiming to be a former ranch employee.
Aragon believed the email was legitimate and reported it to the FBI, but the anonymous allegation has not been independently verified.
The New Mexico Department of Justice has requested an unredacted copy of the email as part of its renewed investigation into activities at the ranch.
In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, Royal expressed his horror at seeing the email after living on the ranch, which consists of roughly 7,000 acres of desert and rolling hills south of Santa Fe.
The lavish estate includes a main mansion, guest houses, a private airstrip, stables, and multiple smaller residences, as well as extensive roads and trails throughout the property.
Talking about the chilling claim of victims possibly being buried, Royal said, “I don’t know if people have actually looked at this ranch to really see the size of it.
“It’s a lot of acreage, with roads running through it.
“I’ve been around on the four-wheeler and taken my time driving around and seeing its vastness. The thing is huge.
“He could, just logically speaking, if he really wanted to [bury someone], he had the space and the ability. He could have done it, no problem.
“It is very sickening. It’s ridiculous to even think about that.”
But Royal feels investigators may never know the truth about the rumor, as it’s impossible to dig up the entire property.
“It is crazy that they never searched the place. The fact that they didn’t do anything soon enough is a problem.
“All of the investigative stuff happening now is long overdue.”
“All of the investigative stuff happening now is long overdue. We’re late to the party. They didn’t do their job the first time they were there.
“Now it seems like they’re trying to backpedal and do the right thing.
“It’s almost like they’re doing it for public opinion, not for justice, and that’s a problem.
“It’s a waste of money and time without an understanding of what actually went down.
“If they’re going to spend millions of dollars looking for something, they don’t even know what they’re looking for.
NEW INVESTIGATION
“They should be putting the money into investigations, finding the people, and holding them accountable. We need the people. We don’t need the property.”
New Mexico shelved its initial investigation into the ranch in 2019 upon request from federal prosecutors in New York.
Epstein, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019, faced no charges in the state.
Zorro Ranch is now the subject of a “truth commission” as politicians passed a law committing to a $2.5 million investigation into what went on at the paedophile’s property.
It is tasked with uncovering who knew what, and who may have taken part, in alleged abuse at the property.
But Royal feels it is not going to be easy for investigators – and they may never get the answers they’re looking for.
The so-called truth commission will talk to survivors of alleged sexual abuse at the sprawling property and is urging locals to come forward with any information.
It seeks to identify guests who stayed at the ranch who may know what happened, or who may have taken part in alleged sexual abuse there.
Epstein abused teenage girls and young women on the property for years, according to countless testimonies from victims.
The remote estate – bought in 1993 – has long been shrouded in mystery, with newly released files and photographs offering rare glimpses of life there.
Royal feels it’s important to fully interview everyone who worked at the ranch, including maids who cleaned up after guests left.
The U.S. Sun understands the main ranch managers, Brice and Karen Gordon, have returned to their native New Zealand, while other staff members have died or are hard to track down.
The Gordons worked on the ranch from around 2003 until at least 2020, when they were named in a police report following a break-in.
They have never spoken out publicly, and attempts to contact them have proved unsuccessful.
Royal says he and his father, who we have chosen not to name, were kept in the dark about the abuse that went on at the main house, but they have never been contacted by authorities.
The Gordons, along with other staff, were interviewed by the FBI in late 2006 and early 2007 as part of an investigation into allegations involving Epstein’s “masseuses.”
One document, released by the US Justice Department, shows Brice told the FBI that there were five to six full-time staff at the ranch, as well as some seasonal employees.
He claimed Epstein only spent around 50 days a year there, mostly in the summer.
The names given for the staff who sourced the masseuses are redacted, but Brice claimed, “the masseuses are all checked out and that they are professionals who are licensed massage therapists.”
FBI DENIED ACCESS
Per the notes in the document, he said the FBI would need to visit “the office” to meet another employee, whose name is also redacted, to obtain the records.
However, investigators soon hit a dead end when they drove to the ranch.
“Upon arriving at the office and greeting [redacted], [redacted] received a phone call from the ‘main office’ that told him they were no longer allowed to speak with us. The interview was immediately ended.”
Nobody has ever claimed to have seen the Gordons involved in any criminal activity.
A 2019 tip from a retired officer, featured in the Epstein files, warned that a suspicious barn on the property with a chimney might also conceal an incinerator used to destroy evidence – concerns reportedly raised to the FBI around the time of Epstein’s arrest.
Although Royal and his father are unaware of the barn, he believes Epstein, his “madam” Ghislaine Maxwell and co-conspirators could have destroyed evidence.
Various high-profile individuals were reported to have visited the ranch when Epstein owned it, including Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
The former prince was released under investigation after 11 hours in custody on suspicion of misconduct in a public office this week.
He has always denied any wrongdoing, while King Charles vowed to wholeheartedly cooperate with cops.
An ex-housekeeper at the property, Deidre Stratton, previously said she served him and a mystery woman at the ranch.
She told the podcast, EPSTEIN: Devil in the Darkness, that the royal was kept company by the woman who asked for herbal tea to make the prince “horny.”
Royal also recalls his meeting with Epstein at the property, who questioned who he was after stumbling across him and a friend on the grounds.
He said, “I had my friend Chris with me, had him out to the ranch, behind the house that my father and I were living in.
“We’d skateboard on these concrete slabs, and we were walking to one when we bumped into him randomly. He asked who I was. I had no idea who he was at the time.
“It was like, ‘Hey, how are you? Who are you?’ just trying to figure out who I was in relation to who was on the ranch.
“His disposition was pretty cold. It wasn’t like a happy dude talking to me.
“I later had a conversation with my dad about the interaction and what was going on, and I think this was when the first things were coming out about Epstein.
“He was showing signs of being paranoid because he was like, ‘Who’s on this ranch right now?’ A lot of stuff was starting to build up on him.”
He recalls a day or so after his interaction with Epstein, his dad told him the billionaire had banned him from bringing friends onto the property.
“My dad’s like, ‘Only when he’s here, though, I don’t really care. It’s not a big deal for you to bring your friends. But when he’s here, just do it, because obviously I want to keep my job.’”
He described Epstein as intelligent and secretive, with rumors swirling locally for years about who even owned Zorro Ranch.
Royal said it was around 2012 when they moved off the ranch after his dad quit amid work pressure and the situation with Epstein facing further scrutiny.
He recalled, “Epstein was basically on the ranch for extended periods of time.
“He was basically on the ranch for, like, 30 days plus, which is not something he would ever do, right? Because of all of the things that were going on.
“So, I guess you could say, for lack of better words, maybe he was hiding out, just trying to keep his space from reporters.
“It’s an easy place to go, and you’re just in his position, ‘I need to get away from this.’
“He can’t even go out and fly away from New Mexico, because people know what’s going on. He was basically almost, in a way, trapped there.
“But during that time, my dad was actually tasked with more work than he is used to. He was getting upset.”
Royal said his dad also lived on the ranch with his partner, and they decided to leave.
“It just steamrolled into this whole thing, and then add in all of the external pressure of everything that was happening, and they just eventually said, ‘No, we’re gonna quit, we’re done with this.’
“Brice and Karen were actually afraid that my dad and [his partner] were gonna sue the ranch, even though they had no particular care about that. They just wanted to leave. They wanted to separate themselves because it was blowing up.”
The lavish property is now owned by Texas businessman Don Huffines and his family, who renamed it San Rafael Ranch.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15974772/epstein-zorro-ranch-girls-killed-buried-investigation/
