A seasoned Palm Beach detective’s voice broke with barely contained rage as he recounted the flood of heartbreaking stories from dozens of Jeffrey Epstein’s young female victims, some as young as 14, who walked into his station between 2005 and 2008.
Detective Joe Recarey, lead investigator in the Palm Beach Police Department’s 2005 probe, spoke in a 2020 interview resurfaced amid 2025 Epstein file releases, his words raw from memory. “These girls came in one after another—middle schoolers, high school freshmen—telling the same story,” Recarey said, eyes glistening. “Epstein paid them $200–$300 for ‘massages’ that turned into sexual abuse. He’d have them recruit friends, promising money. Some were 14, runaways or from broken homes. They’d cry, saying, ‘I didn’t know what to do.’”
Recarey identified over 30 victims, many detailing abuse at Epstein’s mansion, with Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly recruiting and grooming. “We had probable cause for arrest in weeks,” he recalled, voice cracking. “But the state attorney’s office dragged it out, then gave him that sweetheart deal—13 months with work release.” The 2008 non-prosecution agreement, criticized as shielding Epstein and co-conspirators, haunted Recarey: “Those girls deserved justice. Instead, they got silence.”
His testimony, key in the 2020 Netflix series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich and echoed in Virginia Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl (October 21, 2025), amplified survivor pain amid Transparency Act disclosures. Recarey’s rage endures: “We knew the scale. We begged for more. They looked away.” As files unseal by December 19, 2025, his words indict the system that failed the youngest voices.
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