Kiwi couple who managed Epstein ranch also worked at his notorious island, documents show
Monday, 2 February 2026
A Kiwi couple who managed Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling New Mexico ranch also travelled across his other properties, including his notorious island in the Caribbean, documents released by the US Justice Department show.
Brice and Karen Gordon managed Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico from the early 2000s, a former colleague told Stuff. The pair cooked for Epstein, making sure that fine details such as the table settings were completed to the disgraced financier’s specifications.
“They were very organised, very organised people,” the man said. “They were probably the best thing that ever happened to the ranch,” and made changes as soon as they started there.
The man said that Epstein often relied on the Gordons to prepare his other residences at Palm Beach and Little St James, travelling ahead of him to ensure the site was ready for his arrival.
“They were the people that would go before he would show up at the place or whatever place it may be, set it all up, or be there shortly after.”
Little St James, Epstein’s small private island in the US Virgin Islands, was owned by the convicted sex offender until his death in 2019, and was used as a location for the alleged abuse and trafficking of children.
Brice Gordon is listed as the Little St James “island manager” in one of the released documents - one of more than 11,000 files available when searching his name. None of the documents seen by Stuff allege the couple was involved in any offending.
In a November 2016 message, sent to an email address that has been redacted by the US Justice Department, Brice says he and Karen will be returning to their “new home” in LSJ, thought to mean Little St James.
In an earlier email exchange, in 2010, Epstein tells Brice that they should both go to his property in Palm Beach, Florida, noting “the house needs a go through”.
Brice responds: “So zorro lsj pb [Zorro Ranch, Little St James, Palm Beach] what more do you want Jeffrey I think really need to have discussion.”
“That’s OK,” Epstein emails back. “I thought our understanding was for you to over see all the houses… the priority is where i am, always.”
Other emails discuss the Gordons travelling to New Zealand for holidays and to visit family.
The former colleague told Stuff most of his work was on the large estate and his trips inside the main house, which he described as “a palace”, were restricted to when Epstein wasn’t present, but he frequently had to talk to Epstein about practical matters on the ranch.
He said the Gordons were in the house much more frequently: “They were in the same building the majority of the time that Jeffrey was there.”
The man said the Gordons did not talk about New Zealand much but he understood that Brice was building a house that he intended to run as a bed and breakfast in their retirement.
Asked if the Gordons ever showed outward displays of their nationality, he replied: “I think the only thing they wore was their accent”.
Many of the visitors to the ranch, as the worker recalled, were scientists, professors, and “older men”.
He said he never saw anyone at the ranch in distress and said the scale of Epstein’s alleged offending came as a shock, as did the nature of his death, ruled a suicide, in 2019.
“I never got that impression that he would end his life like that.”
An earlier version of this story said the Gordons worked at Zorro Ranch for seventeen years from 1996. The Gordons started at the ranch in the early 2000s and were still working for Epstein when he was arrested in 2019. The former employee spoken to for this story worked at the ranch for the seventeen years from 1996. (Amended at 1pm on February 3, 2026)