COLOMBES — Daniel Siad, a 69-year-old French model scout, was found dead at his home in Colombes, a suburb of Paris, on Monday. He was under investigation in France for alleged links to Jeffrey Epstein's human trafficking network.

Marie-Céline Lawrysz, deputy public prosecutor at the Nanterre Judicial Court, confirmed the discovery of his body. The Nanterre prosecutor's office opened an investigation to determine the cause of his death on Monday evening, and an autopsy will be performed on his body to determine the cause of death.

Former Swedish model Ebba Karlsson accused him of raping her in 1990 when she was 20 years old. She filed criminal allegations of rape and human trafficking against him in Paris earlier in the year.

He had not yet been questioned by investigators regarding the trafficking allegations at the time of his death. He was under investigation for allegations of rape.

His name appeared thousands of times in the U.S. Department of Justice's declassified Epstein files. He communicated with Jeffrey Epstein for approximately 10 years, with their last correspondence occurring shortly before Epstein's death in 2019.

In a June 2009 email to Epstein, he wrote: "Hello Jeffrey, I just found an amazinng [sic] one. She is 20 years old but she looks younger, from Latvia." In a July 2014 email to Epstein, he wrote: "In this busyness [sic] I feel like fisherman, some time I cache quick, some time no fish."

In a 2018 email, he wrote to Epstein that he was looking for a "good looking young assistant" for him. In response to the email, Epstein replied: "Too old."

He: "I trusted him and believed this guy is a professional person." He said: "I never heard anything from anyone I introduced to him who came back to me that they had a bad situation." He stated in an interview that he believed Epstein was casting women for Victoria’s Secret and the modeling agency MC2. He told France TV earlier in the year: "With time, one discovers that this individual committed atrocities; fortunately, I never introduced him to any minor or non-minor who was abused." He said: "I have nothing to reproach myself for."

His lawyer, Ménya Arab-Tigrine, stated that he was never formally the subject of judicial proceedings. The lawyer: "If he died of a heart attack, the unbearable waiting, the pressure and the anxiety he suffered every day will have had something to do with it." The lawyer stated that he died an innocent man.

Ebba Karlsson regarding his death: "He was very close to be arrested. We worked so hard for this, trying to have justice." A model known as Juliette accused him of grooming her in 2004 when she was 21 years old. Juliette: "Another link in the chain has disappeared that could have helped uncover the truth and identify those responsible."

Modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel was found dead in his prison cell in France in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges related to Epstein. He worked as a scout on commission for Brunel. Stan Pottinger, a lawyer for Epstein victims, stated in 2016 that Brunel described him as a recruiter of women for Epstein. He described himself as French-born, of Algerian origin, with Swedish citizenship.

The death of Daniel Siad halts two active French investigations into alleged sexual violence and trafficking links to Jeffrey Epstein’s network. The U.S. Department of Justice’s declassified Epstein files, which listed his name thousands of times, have prompted congressional and inspector general reviews of how the case was handled.