A young woman missing for nearly 11 years has resurfaced in Jeffrey Epstein’s files, her name pitched to the convicted sex offender by an alleged recruiter now under investigation in France for human trafficking.
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A Der Spiegel and ZDF investigation published Friday identifies the woman only as Michele — her last name withheld at her family’s request — who was 22 when she walked out of her mother’s home in September 2015 and never came back. Her parents only learned her name was in the Epstein documents when reporters told them.
“I fear she’s no longer alive,” her mother Annett said. “That something was done to her.”
The man who apparently put Michele’s name in front of Epstein was Daniel Siad, a Swedish modeling scout whose name appears nearly 2,000 times in the documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice. In one email, Siad described himself as a “fisherman” who catches women for Epstein across France, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe.
“You will love her,” Siad wrote to Epstein, according to Der Spiegel — his second apparent attempt to broker an introduction, describing Michele in an earlier message as “the girl you missed from Germany.”
Michele’s father, Vlado, says he once confronted his daughter after overhearing a call with Siad. “Michele said she worked for him as an escort,” he recalled. An ex-boyfriend told the outlet he believed “her drug addiction was exploited.”
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Siad is under investigation in France, where five complaints have been filed against him, including for human trafficking. Separately, two women — a former Swedish model and a German woman — have accused him of rape. Siad denies knowing them and says he has “never in his life” raped anyone. He denies all wrongdoing. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said around 20 suspected victims have come forward in the broader French Epstein probe, about 10 of them new.
German prosecutors are expected to decide soon whether to open a formal criminal investigation into Michele’s disappearance — a move that came only after Der Spiegel and ZDF published their findings. As recently as March, German police said they saw “no concrete indication of a crime,” despite apparently being aware her name appeared in the files of a convicted sex offender.
Her family is still waiting. “We just want to find her,” her father said, “no matter what her situation.”
A second cell phone belonging to Michele has been sitting with German police for more than 10 years. Authorities told Der Spiegel a forensic analysis had not been possible for technical reasons — and that they now plan to try again.
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