TUCSON, ARIZ. (KGUN) — Jeffery Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, died in 2019 while in custody at a Manhattan jail. His accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
But an Epstein sexual assault survivor, who now lives in Tucson, says she believes the network Epstein built is still in place.
"It's not dead with Epstein," said Dana Taylor. "He built networks upon networks upon networks of people. I know, I know we want it to be done. We want to have a face, faces and say this is done. These were the god-awful people."
Taylor tells KGUN 9 she has first-hand knowledge of Epstein's network in New Mexico, where she lived for decades.
"To simplify it, to say that Epstein was the one and only perpetrator, when we know there were thousands of perpetrators and tiers of network, that's the thing I think that is overlooked dramatically," Taylor said.
Taylor credits SACASA, the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault, with helping her deal with the trauma of decades of sexual abuse.
"I received the...abuse, the torture and I witnessed it," explained Taylor.
She says she is now helping with a New Mexico investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's activities at his Zorro Ranch and in Santa Fe. Taylor says Phillip Ray Houtz, her late ex-husband, introduced her to Epstein as far back as the early 1990s.
"I clearly knew that this was someone that had a lot of power," recalled Taylor. "I have memories of him. Unfortunately, it was very difficult for me at that time to piece together all of my memories because I was being drugged a lot."
There are numerous reports that victims and survivors were drugged during their abuse by Jeffrey Epstein.
Taylor says her late ex-husband was a well-connected member of this network in New Mexico.
"My husband did a lot to convince me that what I was seeing was not real," Taylor said. "Did a lot of drugging and brainwashing of me."
Taylor will meet again this month with Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, a central figure pushing for transparency and state-level investigations into Epstein's activities and properties in New Mexico.
Taylor says she is speaking out now because she is finally able to break free from those who have controlled her for decades -- and she's speaking for the victims who no longer can.
"I'm still alive and a lot of them are dead, and that's okay," said Taylor. "I am ready to fight to change this. I am going to fight until my last breath because I am tired of a world that allows this to happen to us. That was okay with us being abused, as we have been, and us being disbelieved because more people have more money and more than us. So we get to be disposable. I'm going to do everything in my power to change that for other women."
Taylor has recently been appointed to the Pima County-Tucson Women's Commission. She says she wants to continue to advocate for women's equality.
If you are a victim of sexual abuse, consider contacting SACASA, the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault.
Or you can reach out to Dana Taylor's organization by clicking this link.
