GONE girl

She was the British society heiress who became Jeffrey Epstein’s lover, then confidante and co-conspirator in a depraved sex ring. Since the death of the billionaire paedophile, Ghislaine Maxwell has miraculously disappeared, and now her accusers want answers. Daniela Elser investigates

- Daniela Elser

It could be a totally innocuous photo. A middle-aged woman seemingly caught unsuspecting while eating a burger and fries at an LA outpost of the famed fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger. Her hair is short, her face free of make-up and her choice of a hoodie and pants fairly drab. In some of the images, she wears matronly glasses. She could be any other slightly dowdy 50-something Angeleno indulging in a fast-food hit.

But the woman is anything but normal or average. She is Ghislaine Maxwell, one of the most pursued and searched for people in the world right now, having totally disappeared from public view last year. She is also the best friend and former lover of Jeffrey Epstein, the prolific and convicted sex offender who abused countless underage girls and peddled sexual favours to other powerful men.

Maxwell has been accused of playing a key role in bringing those teenagers, many from vulnerable backgrounds, into Epstein’s orbit. She has also been accused of being a sexual participant. (Maxwell has vehemently denied the allegations. She’s never been accused of wrongdoing by authorities and has never been charged with any crime.)

In retrospect, Maxwell’s story should have played out differently. The daughter of an ’80s media tycoon, her life should have seen her flit between the usual haunts of the titled and the obscenely wealthy, a vacuous parade of money and social ambition. Instead, her name will forever be closely linked to a man who trafficked girls and whose heinous sexual appetite destroyed an untold number of women’s lives.