Life on the ranch: Workers at Epstein estate run by Kiwi couple speak about their fears, regrets

Friday, 6 February 2026

**The involvement of New Zealanders Brice and Karen Gordon in running disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s lavish properties was recently revealed in an avalanche of documents released by the US *Justice* Department. Two of the men who worked with the couple at Epstein’s estate in New Mexico tell Chris Marriner what they saw, what they knew and what they regret about life on the ranch.**

A former IT contractor at the Zorro Ranch, who worked at the property in the 2000s, said experiences he had at the property caused him to fear for his life.

The man told Stuff that Kiwi couple Brice and Karen Gordon were effective managers, and he had positive experiences working with them, but what he saw elsewhere left him frightened and looking for a way out.

The contractor left before Epstein was charged in 2008 with soliciting sex from and underage girl, and said he never saw any criminal behaviour taking place at the ranch.

“I know he was up to a bunch of s…, but I didn’t see anything like that there,” he said of Epstein.

But what he did see was enough to cause him to leave. He said there were nude paintings around the property, alongside strange decor, such as mounted buffalo heads and suits of armour.

Where family photos might be displayed, on desks and mantelpieces, there were instead multiple photos of Epstein with politicians, celebrities and young women.

“The worst of it was on Ghislaine’s computer,” he said. “And of course she said, ‘Well, that’s just modelling shots’ and I don’t think, you know, young girls having sex is modelling shots.”

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Asked if he believed the girls to be underage, he replied: “We’re talking about underage girls, in their development and such, you know.”

The former IT professional said that what he saw pushed him to leave, as did the knowledge that he would be required to travel to Little Saint James, Epstein’s small private island in the US Virgin Islands, which was used as a location for the alleged abuse and trafficking of children.

The contractor said there “absolutely” was a network of cameras at Zorro Ranch, but admits he never saw them inside the property. He said he helped install other, visible security cameras around the property and was familiar with those systems.

But under the house were a serious of cables leading to hard drives and computer equipment, which were “receiving inputs from cables coming from the house, from multiple places” and he assumed the other cameras were hidden within the home.

“That’s one of the reasons I got out of there… noticing what was going on and then being told that I was gonna have to go to Little Saint James… I really panicked and I didn’t want to go there, you know what I mean?

“Fortunately or unfortunately, my wife at the time, who’s passed away, was very ill and they knew it, and she was in the hospital a lot so I kind of had an excuse not to go,” he explained.

“This was soon after I figured out kind of what was going on, you know? Not everything, but the fact that they had hidden cameras and there was these pictures of young girls.

“It just didn’t seem right to me. I kind of got freaked out thinking, ‘Well, maybe they think I know too much and I won’t come back from there’.”

He said he did not report what he saw on Maxwell’s computer because he feared that Epstein and his circle would know who had spoken out, citing the power and influence they had.

‘It bothers me I stayed as long as I did’

Another worker, who was working on the ranch before the Gordons’ arrival, said the pair were highly organised and credited their military background - both were former members of the New Zealand Defence Force - for the positive impact on the day-to-day running of the large property.

“They were very organised, very organised people,” he told Stuff, saying the couple were “probably the best thing that ever happened to the ranch,” and made changes as soon as they started there.

The former colleague 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.”

He said he was not aware of the existence of any hidden cameras and believed that the only cabling in the basement was for the satellite TV. He also said he saw no criminal activity take place on the ranch.

The man, who stuck around at the ranch after Epstein was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for sex in 2008, but left years before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges, said he initially thought his boss had mistakenly believed the girl was of legal age. Now he thinks otherwise.

Looking back, he thinks he should have left as headlines and allegations built up around his multi-millionaire boss.

“You’re not going to get the full truth,” he said of the information released so far about the ranch.

“With all these documents coming out, there is that truth that’s in that, but I think there’s still always something that’s left out,” he said.

He has tried to move on from his time at the ranch. Money was a factor in his decision to stay, he admitted.

“I should have left a couple of years earlier, to be honest,” he said.

“When you’ve been at a place for so long, it comes down to money,” the worker said, telling Stuff that he would have made a very different decision if he knew the scale of Epstein’s offending.

“It bothers me I stayed as long as I did,“ he said.