Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the former Zorro Ranch near Santa Fe on International Women’s Day, pressing state officials for answers about allegations tied to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Among those at the rally was Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers. Giuffre, who said she was sexually abused at the ranch, died by suicide in 2025.
The Zorro Ranch, a remote property Epstein once owned that included a mansion, an airstrip and roughly 10,000 acres of high desert, has long been the subject of rumors and suspicion. For years, talk and court documents have linked some of the earliest accusations of abuse to the property, and allegations have circulated about other crimes at the site.
This year New Mexico officials have opened two formal efforts to examine what happened there. In February the state attorney general’s office announced it was reopening an investigation that had been closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York. State investigators later conducted a search of the ranch using search-and-rescue dogs.
Also in February, the New Mexico House unanimously created a bipartisan Truth Commission to study the ranch and broader questions about how the state may have been involved, or failed to act. The commission is chaired by Democratic state Representative Andrea Romero, who says its goal is to identify systemic issues that may have made the area a target and to determine whether officials or others helped conceal wrongdoing.
“We don’t know. If that wasn’t the case, then what was the case? What happened here?” Romero said in an interview, noting there are survivors on the record who reported abuse but whose cases did not advance through state or federal channels. She said the commission has already received a flood of tips and is compiling lists of former ranch employees, possible co-conspirators and residents of Stanley, the nearby town.
Romero said the commission has $2 million in funding from settlements New Mexico reached with a bank that did business with Epstein. She said the panel will have subpoena power and can compel testimony if necessary.
Republican state Representative Andrea Reeb, a member of the commission, said there is bipartisan will to pursue the truth. “I think everybody wants to know what happened, and everyone, of course, has sympathy for the survivors,” she said.
Sky Roberts, who addressed the crowd in March, called the state’s efforts an important step and said he hopes the investigations will uncover “the tragedies suffered” and lead to justice for survivors.
The Truth Commission is expected to issue an initial report on July 31. Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office continues its reopened investigation and any resulting searches or interviews.
Officials and community members say the rural setting means many neighbors and former employees could hold information about who visited the ranch and what took place there. Romero stressed the commission aims to collect those accounts and examine whether patterns of behavior or local complicity allowed abuse to occur unchecked.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to connect with a counselor.
Reporting in this piece draws on statements from New Mexico officials and participants at public events surrounding the Zorro Ranch investigations.
