Zorro Ranch was a large property owned by Jeffrey Epstein near Stanley, New Mexico, one of several residences he maintained alongside his Manhattan townhouse, his Palm Beach estate, properties in Paris, and his private islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands[13].
The ranch was the setting for an incident described in detail by Annie Farmer, who was sixteen years old at the time. Epstein proposed sending Farmer whom he had met and was cultivating as a potential victim on educational trips to Thailand and Vietnam to build up her resume and improve her appeal to universities, and offered to pay for the trips. He suggested she first come to the ranch to meet him and Ghislaine Maxwell, telling her mother the visit would be an opportunity to meet other students who would be going on similar trips[8].
When Farmer arrived she found she was the only guest. Epstein and Maxwell showed her around the property, which she described as part of establishing his wealth and status a deliberate effort to impress her and build her sense of obligation to him. Maxwell, who was very interested in whether Farmer had ever had a professional massage, told her to undress and conducted a massage during which she pulled the sheet down to expose Farmer's chest. Because of the layout of the house and open doors, Farmer was aware that Epstein could see her[8].
The most frightening moment of the visit, in Farmer's account, came when Epstein entered her bedroom in the morning, said he would like to cuddle, and crawled into bed with her. He touched her before she made an excuse to leave the room. She described checking out mentally during the encounter out of fear, and did not tell anyone about what had happened for some time afterward[8].
Farmer separately noted that during her sister Maria Farmer's earlier stay with Epstein during which Maria had been painting works depicting puberty in young girls and had used photographs of her sisters as reference, three of the photographs were stolen the morning after Epstein and Maxwell abused her. Epstein subsequently offered Maria anything she wanted in exchange for her silence[8].