New Mexico authorities are investigating an anonymous claim that two girls were buried in the hills surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's former ranch outside Santa Fe, a probe triggered by newly unsealed FBI documents that state officials say demand a second look.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez ordered the investigation reopened after reviewing documents from the final tranche of files released by the U.S. Department of Justice, The Hill reported. His office has already sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting unredacted copies of a 2019 email from an anonymous sender who claimed to be a former employee at Zorro Ranch, the sprawling property Epstein owned roughly 30 miles from Santa Fe.

The email, sent to a New Mexico radio show host a few months after Epstein's death, alleged that two foreign girls died by strangulation during sexual activity and were buried near the property at Epstein's direction.

Lauren Rodriguez, chief of staff in the New Mexico Department of Justice, confirmed the reopening on Thursday:

"Although the State of New Mexico's prior investigation was closed in 2019 at the request of the U.S Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination."

That sentence alone raises a question worth sitting with. The original investigation wasn't closed because New Mexico ran out of leads. It was closed because federal prosecutors in New York told them to stand down. And then Epstein died in federal custody.

What New Mexico Is Asking For

The letter to Blanche doesn't ask for a narrow slice of information. The state wants everything connected to the anonymous email:

• The unredacted email itself
• The sender's full identifying details
• Recipient information
• Transmission data and routing information
• Time stamps
• Unredacted copies of all other records referencing Zorro Ranch

That's a broad request, and it signals that New Mexico isn't treating this as a courtesy review. Rodriguez made the posture clear:

"As with any potential criminal matter, we will follow the facts wherever they lead, carefully evaluate jurisdictional considerations, and take appropriate investigative action, including the collection and preservation of any relevant evidence that remains available."

The DOJ referred a request for comment to the FBI, which declined to say anything.

A Unanimous Legislature, for Once

The investigation isn't just an executive branch effort. On Monday, the New Mexico Legislature unanimously approved a measure to form a bipartisan special committee of state representatives to probe Zorro Ranch and the related allegations of criminal activity.

Unanimously. In a state legislature. On a matter connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

That level of consensus is almost unheard of in modern state politics, and it tells you something about where the public mood sits on this issue. Whatever divides New Mexico's legislators on taxes, immigration, or water rights, the Epstein question unites them. The demand for accountability crosses every partisan line because the underlying crime, the industrial-scale abuse of girls by a connected predator shielded by powerful institutions, offends something more fundamental than politics.

New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard also pushed for the investigation, telling Reuters that her office uncovered the email during a recent search of the Epstein files. The fact that a state land commissioner is digging through sealed federal documents about a sex trafficking operation on a ranch within her jurisdiction says something about how many officials feel the federal government handled this the first time around.

The Property's New Chapter

Zorro Ranch hasn't belonged to the Epstein estate for some time. Former Texas state Sen. Don Huffines purchased the property in 2023, and proceeds from the sale reportedly went to Epstein's victims. This week, Huffines said he plans to turn the ranch into a Christian retreat.

There's a certain symbolic weight to that transformation, assuming investigators don't find what the anonymous emailer claimed is buried in those hills.

The Real Question

The anonymous email's claims remain unverified. An unnamed former employee making allegations through a radio host is not evidence. But the question was never really about the email. The question is why the original investigation was shut down at federal request, why the FBI sat on sealed files that state officials now say contain information warranting a new probe, and why it took the release of those files under a new administration to get New Mexico back in the game.

For years, the Epstein case has followed a grim pattern. Institutions that should have acted didn't. Investigations that should have expanded were narrowed. People who should have been named were redacted. Every time a new tranche of documents surfaces, the picture gets worse, not better.

Rodriguez promised updates "as appropriate." New Mexico's bipartisan committee will begin its own work. The DOJ has the letter. The FBI won't talk.

Somewhere outside Santa Fe, the hills around Zorro Ranch hold whatever they hold. New Mexico, at least, has decided it's finally time to look.