Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas put it plainly in an email to Source NM this year. His office had investigated activity at Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch that was "still viable for prosecution," including contact with multiple victims.
Then federal prosecutors in New York asked New Mexico to pause. They said they were running a multi-jurisdictional prosecution of their own.
New Mexico stopped. Epstein died in 2019. Nobody has been charged for what happened at the ranch.
The ranch
Epstein bought roughly 7,600 acres near Stanley, in Santa Fe County, on March 1, 1993, from the family of the sitting governor, Bruce King. Employees and contractors at the ranch signed nondisclosure agreements. The property sold in 2023.
Records reviewed by the Santa Fe New Mexican show Epstein met more often than previously known with former Gov. Bill Richardson, among other powerful New Mexicans. Meeting Epstein is not a crime, and Richardson, who died in 2023, was never charged with one.
What the commission found
In February, the state House voted unanimously to create a Truth Commission on Zorro Ranch: Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, as chair, with Reps. Marianna Anaya, D-Albuquerque, Andrea Reeb, a Republican, and Bill Hall, R-Aztec, a former FBI agent. It runs on $2 million from settlements New Mexico reached with a bank that did business with Epstein.
In June it approved 14 subpoenas, including to the FBI, the New Mexico Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico and the Santa Fe Institute.
Its interim report on Aug. 5 concluded the evidence so far shows Epstein abused at least five women and girls at Zorro Ranch between 1996 and 2012. One has since died. The commission counted at least 30 other people who were potentially abused in New Mexico.
One survivor, Rachel Benavidez, has testified before the commission in person.
The second track
Attorney General Raúl Torrez reopened the state's criminal investigation in February and searched the property. In August he sued to force the federal Justice Department to hand over its Epstein records, writing that federal inaction prolongs and compounds the suffering of survivors.
The state land commissioner separately urged state and federal investigators to look into an anonymous claim that two girls were buried near the ranch. Law enforcement looked into it. No finding has been made public.
A state was told to wait for Washington. It waited. Now it is suing Washington for the file.
The questions
For the Truth Commission: Which of the 14 subpoenaed entities have produced records, and which have refused or not answered? When will the final report be released?
For the New Mexico Department of Justice: What is the status of the lawsuit for federal Epstein records? Is any living person under investigation for conduct at Zorro Ranch?
For the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York: Who asked New Mexico to pause its investigation, when, and what happened to the multi-jurisdictional prosecution it was told to wait for?
Those answers belong in the public record. Right now they are not there.
This story is built from public reporting and records through Oct. 20, 2026: Source NM, the Santa Fe New Mexican, NPR, CNN, The Hill, PBS's New Mexico In Focus, and statements from the commission and the New Mexico Department of Justice. Victim counts are the commission's interim findings, not court findings. Survivors are named only where they have spoken publicly under their own names. Questions were sent Oct. 20 to commission chair Rep. Andrea Romero, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico and the New Mexico Department of Justice. The Southern District of New York is being contacted. Responses will be added with a dated update. Disclosure: Pesach Lattin also publishes ADOTAT and The Arizona Inquirer and is principal of ANIA, a privately held, independent intelligence firm that is not a government agency; nothing from ANIA work is used in this story. The New Mexico Inquirer is reader-supported. No paid placement in editorial. Tips and corrections: [email protected] or 505-932-9060.