When did the Epstein investigation begin?
Executive summary
The first formal law-enforcement inquiry that triggered the modern Jeffrey Epstein saga began with a Palm Beach police investigation in March 2005 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at Epstein’s home [1] [2]. That local probe was later joined by a federal criminal investigation: the FBI opened a case in mid‑2006 (commonly dated July 2006), and a federal grand jury returned an indictment that led to Epstein’s July 2006 arrest on a state solicitation charge while federal agents continued developing their inquiry [3] [4].
1. The local spark: Palm Beach police open a probe in March 2005
The chain of official action began when a Palm Beach parent reported that her 14‑year‑old daughter had been sexually abused at Epstein’s mansion, prompting a Palm Beach Police Department undercover investigation that ran roughly a year and included searches of Epstein’s home and interviews with alleged victims and witnesses [1] [2] [5]. That 2005–2006 state investigation produced enough evidence for state prosecutors to present to a grand jury and for local law enforcement to press for further action, setting the factual record that federal investigators would later review [1] [5].
2. Federal escalation: the FBI opens a case in July 2006 and grand‑jury activity follows
Federal investigators formally entered the picture in mid‑2006: multiple contemporary and later accounts note that the FBI began a federal probe in July 2006 and that agents expected an indictment in 2007; a federal grand jury did indeed return an indictment and Epstein was arrested on a state charge in July 2006 even as federal work proceeded [3] [4] [6]. Reporting and subsequent document releases repeatedly mark July 2006 as the point when the FBI’s Operation—variously described in timelines—became active, though the contours and scope of federal activity evolved over the next months and years [5] [4].
3. Earlier complaints, interruptions and the 2006–2008 non‑prosecution context
While 2005–2006 are the clearest start points for the modern investigative record, there were earlier contacts and complaints: at least one victim alleges she made an FBI complaint in 1996 and reported contact with FBI agents in late 2006 about that earlier claim, and internal reviews later criticized federal handling of the 2006–2008 period and highlighted a secret non‑prosecution agreement that curtailed broader federal indictment of Epstein at the time [7]. In short, the official timeline that matters for most reporting begins with Palm Beach police in March 2005 and the FBI in July 2006, but those dates sit atop a longer, fraught history of complaints, missed opportunities and controversial prosecutorial choices documented in later investigations [7] [5].
4. Why the start date still matters: transparency, accountability and new documents
The precise dating—March 2005 for the local probe and July 2006 for federal involvement—matters because it frames questions about what investigators knew, when they knew it, and why later federal charges did not follow until 2019; those questions have driven successive document dumps and congressional requests, including massive DOJ releases of millions of pages in 2026 intended to make the investigative record public [8] [9]. Contemporary reporting and timelines from AP, PBS and legal watchdogs converge on the 2005–2006 window as the operative beginning for the investigations most central to Epstein’s prosecutions, even as recently released files and watchdog reports continue to fill in earlier threads and procedural critiques [1] [3] [7].