Jeffrey Epstein, the model scout and the Kiwi teen: Another accused man found dead
Thursday, 23 July 2026
A model scout who once tried to recruit a 16-year-old New Zealand model for Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home in France.
Daniel Siad was under investigation for alleged human trafficking, with French authorities saying that inquiry will continue despite his death.
Siad's name appears thousands of times in the Epstein files, which include messages in which he recommended young women to the disgraced financier.
A model scout whose once tried to lure a Kiwi model into Jeffrey Epstein’s vile web has been found dead at home, the latest member of the disgraced financier’s network to die before they could face justice.
Algerian-born Daniel Siad was found dead at his home outside Paris while under investigation by French authorities for human trafficking.
Siad’s name appears over two thousand times in the Epstein files, which contain numerous conversations between Siad and Epstein, in which he recommended young women to the disgraced financier.
Those conversations include one in 2017 when Epstein pressed Siad for “full body” photographs of one woman.
“Doesn't look happy,” Epstein replied, questioning whether she had received breast implants before telling Siad that he trusted his judgment, but that the woman’s breasts would need to be “redone”.
In 2015, Siad met with two young models near the Champs-Élysées in Paris and invited them to New York.
One of the women sent an email to Siad, providing him with a link to her modelling profile and one for her friend, a New Zealander who Stuff has chosen not to name.
Siad sent the profiles on to Epstein, asking: “What do you think about those models for NY”.
“Most of these girls would have been good 5 years ago,” he said.
“You need to find new.”
The New Zealand model was 16 years old at the time.
“In This busyness I feel like fisherman,” Siad once told Epstein, in broken English.
“Some time 1 cache quick , some time no fish.”
French authorities have opened an investigation into Siad’s death and plan to continue their existing human trafficking probe “to identify all persons likely to be implicated”.
Do you know more? Email chris.marriner@stuffdigital.co.nz
Human trafficking probe
Siad had been under investigation since early 2026 by French authorities specialised in human trafficking. He also faced several allegations of rape, but his lawyer said he wanted to defend the charges - and dismissed the suggestion that he took his own life.
Ménya Arab-Tigrine told French news outlet BFMTV that his death was “extremely surprising”.
“The last time I saw him, he was in good shape. That was about a month ago,' she said, adding that no one close to Siad considered he was suicidal.
“It’s completely out of the question,” she said.
When asked if he might have been killed, Arab-Tigrine said: “I don't believe in coincidences, but I don't have a crystal ball.”
“What I found immediately strange is that in a single case,” she said, referring to the Epstein enquiry, “not a single man has been brought to justice; that's quite rare.”
Jeffrey Epstein was found dead inside a New York prison cell in 2019.
French model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was closely associated with Epstein and was charged with the rape of minors and sexual harassment, once told investigators that Siad was a “scout or recruiter of girls and/or women” for Epstein.
Brunel took his own life inside a Parisian prison in 2022.
Mystery surrounds Kiwi caretakers
A Kiwi couple who managed Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling New Mexico ranch and worked on his notorious island in the Caribbean are yet to speak publicly after their names appeared thousands of times in the files
Brice and Karen Gordon, both former members of the New Zealand Defence Force, managed Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico from the early 2000s. Former colleagues said the pair were highly organised and professional after years of experience working as chefs in the army and navy, respectively.
Do you know Brice and Karen? Email chris.marriner@stuffdigital.co.nz
“They were very organised, very organised people,” a man who began working on the ranch before the Gordons arrived 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.”
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.
Gordon spoke to investigators in 2007 as they prepared a child sex abuse case against Epstein centred on a 14-year-old girl.
That case would eventually see Epstein plead guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute and serve a much-criticised short sentence after agreeing to a plea deal.
But at its inception, the FBI identified 36 underage girls that were allegedly abused by Epstein after being hired to give “massages”. It was as part of this investigation that Gordon was interviewed, alongside other members of Epstein’s entourage.
A document, one of millions released by the US Justice Department, contained notes from FBI interviews with a number of Epstein’s staff in late 2006 and early 2007.
Per the document, Gordon told the FBI in February 2007 that there were five to six full-time staff at the ranch, as well as some seasonal employees, and that Epstein only spent around fifty days a year there, mostly in the summer.
“Very little notice is given before Epstein flies to the ranch, usually 24 to 48 hours,” the document reads. “Epstein usually brings his personal assistant, his bodyguard, friends, personal trainer, and sometimes his masseuses.”
The document goes on to say that Gordon told the FBI that masseuses at the ranch were normally hired from the local area.
The names given for the staff who sourced the masseuses are redacted, but Gordon told the FBI that, in the words used in the interview notes, “the masseuses are all checked out and that they are professionals who are licensed massage therapists”.
Per the notes in the document, Gordon said that the FBI would need to visit “the office” to meet another employee, whose name is redacted, to obtain the records.
But investigators’ efforts were quickly stymied.
“Upon arriving at the office and greeting (redacted), (redacted) received a phone call from the ‘main office’ that told him they were no longer allowed to speak with us. The interview was immediately ended.”
Despite numerous enquiries, the Gordons have not spoken about their time working for one of the world’s most notorious men.
At time of publication, their whereabouts remain a mystery.