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Epstein-Linked Modeling Scout Daniel Siad Found Dead Near Paris

The 28-year-old woman who discovered his body said he suffered cardiac arrest at his Colombes home. French prosecutors have opened an investigation and ordered an autopsy. Siad appeared in over 1,000 declassified Epstein documents

Daniel Siad, a modeling scout with documented ties to Jeffrey Epstein, was found dead Monday evening at his home in Colombes, a suburb northwest of Paris. The Nanterre prosecutor’s office confirmed the death after Le Parisien broke the news, and has opened an investigation to determine the cause. An autopsy has been ordered.

Siad was discovered by a 28-year-old woman who told authorities he had suffered cardiac arrest, according to Sky News. The circumstances remain under examination.

At the time of his death, Siad was the subject of a human trafficking investigation led by a specialized Paris unit. Multiple women had filed complaints against him, including accusations of rape. Siad had denied the allegations and stated he wanted to be heard by investigators to present his version of events.

The first complaint came on February 10 from Ebba P. Karlsson, a Swedish former model. She told investigators she recognized Siad in recently declassified documents related to the Epstein case, where his name appears in over 1,000 files released by the US Department of Justice. The documents include exchanges between Siad and Epstein that frequently revolve around women and include apparent requests for money. In a 2014 message, Siad wrote to Epstein about women he had identified: “In This busyness I feel like a fisherman some time I cache quick, some time no fish.”

Karlsson told BFMTV she had received death threats from Siad after filing her complaint. She said she was lured by him under the pretext of a career opportunity before finding herself trapped in southern France in 1990 at the age of 20.

Lisa Brinkworth, who co-founded the collective Victorious Angels — We Rise with Karlsson to combat sexual violence in the modeling industry and within Epstein’s network, reacted to Siad’s death with dismay. “I am in shock and very sad for all the victims,” she told AFP. “It is devastating that the survivors of the Brunel case were denied justice and now those of the Siad case are too.”

The parallel with Jean-Luc Brunel is difficult to ignore. Brunel, another French modeling agent with close ties to Epstein, was found hanged in his Paris prison cell in February 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of raping minors and sexual harassment. He had been arrested in December 2020 as part of the same French probe into Epstein’s activities. Like Siad, Brunel maintained his innocence until his death.
Siad had told France’s national broadcaster in a video posted on X that Epstein had “used my trust” and that he was not in a position to know the financier was dangerous. “I have nothing to blame myself for,” he said. He described himself as “from Kabylia, born French, and a Swedish citizen.”

The DOJ documents show Siad and Epstein exchanged messages from 2009 until shortly before the financier’s arrest in 2019. In the correspondence, Siad referred to young women and teenage girls he had found, often in Eastern Europe or Scandinavia, and attached photographs. Ages were frequently mentioned. In a June 2009 email with seven photos attached, Siad wrote: “I just found an amizinng One she is 20 years old but she looks younger from Latvia.” In a July 2014 message, he referred to “at least five” potential recruits aged “16 and 17” and a 15-year-old French girl.

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