A homeless victim, bank transfers and Aspen ski trips: What the Epstein files say about Colorado

At least two of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims had ties to Colorado, including one woman who was living in a tent with her dog in Durango when Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019.

“She is currently refusing any housin (sic). She has a dog and she is unwilling to leave him for any reason. She is living in a tent near the river in (redacted). As of right now, that is where she wants to be,” a member of the FBI’s Victim Services Division wrote in a Sept. 13, 2019, email included in a trove of documents newly released by the U.S. Department of Justice.

That woman would be escorted the following month by a caseworker to the Durango airport so she could fly to Miami, where she was scheduled to attend an FBI briefing for Epstein’s victims after he died. The FBI employees exchanging emails about her were concerned about her well-being, saying the woman had no money, had been sober for a year and was traveling with a temporary paper identification card from Colorado that did not include a picture.

“I’m slightly concerned that Florida will be a trigger for her although she’s been working through that fairly well and seems determined,” an FBI employee wrote on Oct. 12, 2019.

The woman, identified only by the initials ML, appears to be one of many victims who were sexually assaulted and trafficked — often as teenagers — by Epstein.

Original reporting from The Denver Post