After a few days of apprehension, Elisabetta Tai Ferretto, the 50-year-old former model from Montagnana (a municipality in the province of Padua) who was among the first women to denounce the violence and harassment of the New York financier Jeffrey Epstein, was found. The woman is believed to be in a Florida prison, as Interpol confirmed after the Interior Ministry had requested the help of US law enforcement agencies. The news was communicated to the police station in his country and to the Italian consular authorities in the United States.
Elisabetta Tai Ferrero had not given her family any news since April 22nd, a few days after returning overseas at the end of the Easter holidays, spent with relatives in Montagnana. A silence which, at this point, could be explained by the news of his arrest and his stay in a cell. “It’s the end of a nightmare,” the 50-year-old’s mother would have said to councilor Paola Barbierato, as reported by Il Gazzettino. At the moment, however, the accusation against the woman has not been made public.
The sudden disappearance
For two weeks all contact had suddenly stopped: the phone was no longer receiving messages and even the social profiles were closed or deactivated. A sudden and total silence, which had shocked the relatives who were used to hearing it every day. The family members had turned to the Rovigo Prosecutor’s Office, which had opened an investigation. The report was sent to the Foreign Ministry, which in turn activated diplomatic channels with the US authorities.
Epstein, rejection and escape
Elisabetta Ferretti was among the first women to emerge from anonymity and openly denounce the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in a cell in New York in August 2019. The Venetian, who then went by the surname Tai, had told the New York Post in those months that she had escaped from the financier’s very luxurious New York home after rejecting his sexual approach.
According to her story, she moved from Italy to the United States in 2001 chasing the dream of making it in the fashion world. In 2004 her agent proposed that she meet “a man who would change her life”, giving her the chance to start parading on the catwalks of the well-known brand Victoria’s Secret. That man was none other than Epstein himself, a trusted friend and financial advisor to Leslie Wexner, the owner – among numerous successful brands – of Victoria’s Secret. In a fake audition, the financier would have attempted a sexual approach, but the young woman would have refused, running away from his home.