With the U.S. Department of Justice’s release of 3 million more files pertaining to convicted sex felon Jeffrey Epstein, multiple written mentions of alleged connections to Colorado towns and business owners have come to light. A word search of the documents for “Colorado” generates 1,485 hits, with inquiries for cities including Denver and Aspen generating several thousands more. 

Chad McWhinney, a Colorado real estate developer and chairman and co-founder of Realberry, a Denver-based real estate organization, was referenced in an email exchange to Epstein on Nov. 1, 2014. Also included in the files was a photograph of McWhinney allegedly kissing a female person whose face is redacted.  

The email, sender’s name redacted, read: “chad mcwhinney, kimball’s friend. I like him a lot. Seems like a very nice and solid person. To him to Mark for lunch.” 

McWhinney’s attorney Chris Murray said in a statement to The Denver Post that his client denied knowing, meeting or doing business with Epstein. Murray also claimed that the person McWhinney was pictured with was a 30-year-old woman whom McWhinney, 42, was dating at the time.  

“Mr. McWhinney had no idea the woman had any affiliation with Mr. Epstein,” Murray said. “Mr. McWhinney empathizes with the victims and is, like all of us, horrified at the facts that are coming to light.” 

The person referred to as ‘kimball’ is apparently Kimbal Musk, a Boulder restaurateur and Elon Musk’s brother, who was referenced several hundred times in the files which includes email exchanges with Epstein about women and parties. 

In January 2013 Epstein emailed Kimbal Musk: “You are invited to the island for a couple of days, come relax.” 

Musk prevaricated, saying he was dealing with “the nuclear explosion” that was his life but suggested coming in the spring. 

In another email Musk sent a redacted recipient, he asked if he and she could take a step back from their relationship. “We know how much we like each other. But I am just not able to do a real relationship right now. Would you be up for going back a step to just dating? We would see each other on weekends when we can and focus it on fun stuff.” 

The redacted recipient of that email forwarded it to Epstein who responded with “good news” and “now I have you back again full time” and invited the redacted recipient to “the ranch.” 

In a statement posted to X on Feb 9, 2026, Kimbal Musk wrote, “My only meeting with that demon was in his New York office during the day. I never met with him again, and I never went to his island. My heart goes out to the many victims of Jeffrey Epstein, as it does for all who have suffered any kind of sexual abuse or harassment.” 

In addition to his many properties in New York City, Paris, the Virgin Islands, Florida and the Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, Epstein was also a trustee for a $24 million Colorado chalet in Vail. 

In August 1998, Elizabeth Ross Johnson transferred the deed to her home in Vail to the Elizabeth Ross Johnson Amended and Restated Revocable Trust, established in May 1998. The two trustees were Johnson and her financial adviser, Epstein. Johnson was an heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. 

At the time of Epstein’s death in 2019, he still owned a portion of Johnson’s chalet. Johnson died in 2017 and in 2021 the trust sold the chalet. It is unclear whether the Epstein estate received proceeds from the sale. 

There are two known women with Colorado connections who were allegedly trafficked and abused by Epstein and his co-conspirators. One is a woman, identified only by the initials ML, who was purportedly trafficked by Epstein as a child and was living in a tent in Durango when Epstein died in 2019. 

In a Sept. 13, 2019, email included in the files a member of the FBI’s Victim Services Division wrote, “She is currently refusing any housin (sic). She has a dog and is unwilling to leave him for any reason. She is living in a tent near the river in (redacted). As of right now that is where she wants to be.” 

Virginia Roberts Guiffre, the outspoken Epstein victim who died by suicide on April 25, 2025, also lived in Colorado at various points in her life and her brother and sister-in-law still live in El Paso County. 

Guiffre was subject to a horrific media onslaught including in 2015 when she was followed by members of the British media inside a southern Colorado Walmart and had to be helped out the back door by staff. Upon her return home Guiffre found the back door of her Penrose home open. 

“They had been taking high security precautions, so that seemed very unusual,” Guiffre’s lawyers wrote in an email to U.S. attorneys. “Brad and I believe this may (be) Epstein (or his associates) signaling that VR should not talk.” 

Epstein traveled in and out of Aspen multiple times. In an unsealed grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida over the abuse of 13 girls, the indictment listed a July 4, 2004, flight from Aspen to Palm Beach as evidence. 

The released Epstein files also show just how often Epstein and his associates discussed travel plans for Colorado mountain vacations. The bookings for these vacations were often planned by Epstein.  

An August 5, 2012, in an email from a redacted sender signing Larry, to Lesley Groff, Epstein’s assistant for nearly two decades, Larry wrote “I heard Je will return to Zorro Wednesday,,, have you heard of any other trips like Aspen or Grand Junction.” 

On August 9, 2012, Lesley Groff emailed Epstein with subject “Priv. & Conf. Aug. 9-21” details of a trip with August 9, in which “Barnaby Marsh to visit JE at the Ranch and spend the day.” On August 11, 2012, the itinerary reads “??? Fly to Aspen, Grand Junction.”  

Epstein and his associates’ visits to Grand Junction have raised questions in the community.  

In January 2012, then-Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced an indictment against 14 individuals who’d allegedly ran, abetted and patronized a human trafficking ring at locations in Denver, Boulder, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and Lakewood. 

It is not clear whether the Grand Junction trafficking ring was connected in any way to Epstein.

The trafficking ring involved the prostitution of children and the distribution of methamphetamine and cocoa, according to the 70-count indictment, which stated ringleaders were suspected of arranging, via the internet, “out calls” for the children and coercively controlling their victims through drugs and threats of violence.  

According to the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, the Western Slope lacks sufficient resources for victims of human trafficking. Marginalized groups, like migrant workers, in particular, are more vulnerable to exploitation.

In 2023, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the state recorded its highest ever year for statewide human trafficking cases, 107, and in 2024, 88 cases were reported. 

CBI’s preliminary data shows 110 human trafficking crimes took place last year, but that number could change. Commercial sex trafficking makes up most human trafficking cases in Colorado, and on average 65% of Colorado’s human trafficking victims, from 2008-2025, were minors, according to the CBI.