Prosecutors are seeking a search warrant for Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico ranch, hoping to find details that could corroborate victim testimony in their ongoing investigation.
While the chances of finding relevant information at the Zorro Ranch in New Mexico may be slim, prosecutors are hopeful that small details, which could be pieced together with the property layout, can corroborate victim testimony. Zorro Ranch did not, at the time of Epstein's death, receive the same level of scrutiny as the homes he owned in Manhattan or Palm Beach, nor as much focus as Little Saint James, the island in the US Virgin Islands.
New Mexico officials are pushing for a search of the property, with defense attorney and former prosecutor John Day saying that, although there may not be much in the way of vital information, there could be details that give credence to the current victim statements.
Speaking to The Guardian, Day explained, "A search warrant would have to be based on information that’s not stale. Somebody couldn’t come in and say: ‘Hey, seven years ago, something happened, and I just got around to telling you.'
"Now, it would have to be: ‘Well, we just uncovered something about a crime that occurred seven years ago that we didn’t know about until now.” One of the major issues in obtaining the search warrant is proving to a judge that an adequate reason to search the property has been found.
Day suggested "the value of anything that they can find would be minimal." He added, "You don’t know what has happened between the time Epstein was last there and the time the new people bought it, so that’s a problem."
Zorro Ranch has changed ownership in the years between Epstein's death and now, though some are hopeful of small details still maintained at the property being of help to the prosecution's case.
Kate Mangels, a partner with firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir, says Zorro Ranch is a non-starter for "forensic evidence" but there could be some help to be found in the house blueprints and layout.
She said, "If the layout of the house hasn’t changed, and they’re saying: ‘I have a recollection of someone coming through the bathroom door on the left side of the room,’ and the search demonstrates that that’s where it is, it gives more credence to that testimony of that victim.
"It may be hard to use those things other than maybe a structural description of the house. Those details are not evidence of a crime, but when you’re dealing with a victim’s testimony and there isn’t other evidence, any corroboration can be helpful to prove that."