Far from the headlines of Manhattan courtrooms, the silence around Zorro Ranch has become its own kind of accusation. State lawmakers from both parties are now pressing for a deeper, more transparent probe into what federal investigators did — and did not — do on those 7,600 acres. Their concern is not built on confirmed graves or secret archives, but on the troubling possibility that a hurried, incomplete search left crucial answers in the ground.

While Washington chases paper trails and shell companies, New Mexico’s questions are physical, almost painfully simple: Was every room searched, every hard drive imaged, every inch of soil tested? For survivors and their advocates, reopening the ranch investigation is less about conspiracy than closure. It is a demand that institutions finally match the persistence of the victims, and that no corner of Epstein’s world remains protected by distance, money, or neglect.