Afrasianet - In a house in the city of Colombe, west of Paris, one of the most prominent strands in the French stretch of the Epstein case was severed on Monday night: Daniel Siad, the 69-year-old model discoverer, was found dead before judicial authorities heard him about complaints accusing him of rape and human trafficking, or asked him in detail about the nature of his relationship with the American financier convicted of sex crimes.
Nanterre prosecutors said an "investigation into the cause of death was opened on Monday evening" after his body was found inside his home, and that an autopsy would be carried out as part of the investigation by the judicial police in the province of Au-de-Seine, where the city of Colombe is located.
Le Parisien newspaper said he died of a heart attack, and his lawyer, Minya Arab Tigrin, told Reuters he died of a heart attack, but the official cause remains subject to the outcome of an autopsy.
Fashion Scenes Daniel
Siad was not known outside of the fashion industry, but he worked for decades in model scouting, a profession based on seeking out new faces on the streets and cities and connecting them with agencies. He told RTL radio that he had been doing this business for about 30 years.
Siad presented himself as "born in France and a Swedish citizen", while the Guardian identified him as a French-born Algerian citizen with Swedish citizenship.
His activism was not isolated from the big names in the industry: he worked with Jean-Luc Brunel, a model agent close to Epstein, and with Gerald Marie, the former European director of Elite.
These relationships gain their importance because the fashion world was one of the channels that Jeffrey Epstein used to reach young women and girls.
With his files declassified, Siad appeared not only as a model finder, but also as a party to frequent correspondence about the ages and photos of women and girls, and meetings he sought to arrange with Epstein.
Thus, the question about Siad has shifted from the nature of his profession to the reality of the role he played within the Epstein network, a question that will remain undecided after Siad died before he was questioned.
"The Model Hunter"
Epstein's files do not merely reveal a passing connection with Sayad, but document an intense and extended communication between the two men about women and girls, some of whom have not yet reached the age of eighteen.
AFP and Le Monde newspaper reported that Siad's name appeared in more than 1,000 documents, while Reuters said he had appeared nearly 2,000 times.
According to correspondence published by the Guardian, Siad continued to send Epstein photos and information about the ages, nationalities and appearance of women and girls, and to suggest meetings with them.
His activity was not limited to one city or country, as he traveled for this purpose between France, Sweden, Spain, countries in Eastern Europe, in addition to Cuba and Morocco.
In a 2009 letter, Siad told Epstein that he had 45 women to meet in Slovakia, and that he planned to search small villages in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Other letters also showed him talking about girls as young as 15, 16 and 17.
Epstein's responses reveal the nature of his interest in these nominations: he would ask Siad: "What about new girls?" and "Are there any interesting women?" Or he should be content with one question: "Age?" In a message reported by CNN, Siad sent a photo of a woman suggesting she work as a model or assistant, to which Epstein replied: "Too big."
Sayad himself described this activity in a 2014 letter in the language of fishing, saying, "In this work sometimes I feel like a fisherman, sometimes I fish fast, sometimes I don't find fish."
Files reveal
that the relationship between Siad and Epstein was not limited to exchanging letters and arranging meetings, but also included money transfers. CNN reported that Epstein paid Syed tens of thousands of dollars, while a letter from 2018 showed a directive to transfer $25,000 to him in the form of a five-year loan.
The relationship lasted years after Epstein was convicted in 2008 of sex crimes and released from prison the following year. Siad continued to send photos and information about women and girls and information about their ages, at a time when Epstein's conviction and criminal record were known.
Siad defended this by saying that the money covered travel and work expenses, and that the meetings were career tests for MC2 or Victoria's Secret. But CNN said it found no evidence that Epstein was auditioning for models for Victoria's Secret.
Siad also told the network that he believed Epstein's account that he paid for his crimes, and that he had not heard from the women who presented them to him that they had been harmed.
In an interview with RTL, Siad insisted that the relationship was "purely professional" and said that he had only introduced Epstein to "10 or 15" women in 15 years. After the scale of Epstein's crimes was revealed, he came back to describe him as a "monster" and say he had "exploited his trust."
Five complaints and accounts of solicitation
Siad was under investigation in Paris by the Office of Combating Human Trafficking after five women filed complaints against him, some related to rape and human trafficking, RTL reported.
Former Swedish model Ebba Carlson said she recognized him from his photos in the Epstein files, accusing him of raping her when she was 20 and then presenting her to Gerald Marie, the former European director of Elite, who she also accuses of raping her.
Former French model Juliet said Siad offered her a job in the United States in 2004, before she found herself in front of Epstein in New York. She says he took her passport, gave her money she didn't ask for, and then touched her body inside a bedroom, according to her account.
She described what happened as a lure that starts with a professional promise, then creates a sense of dependence and religion, and ends with testing the young woman's ability to refuse.
A woman identified as "Malika", according to the Guardian, said Siad lured her in 2013 with a fashion offer, then introduced her to Epstein in Paris, where she worked as a "masseuse", before asking her to look for other girls.
Siad denied all the accusations, and his lawyer denied that he had introduced Malika to Epstein, and kept saying, "I have never raped anyone in my life."
What was lost by his death?
Siad died before authorities questioned him or formally placed him under investigation, although the Guardian said the FBI had received information about his work with Epstein since 2016. In February 2026, French prosecutors set up a team to analyse the new documents and the French names contained in them, but Siad died before he could give his account to investigators.
That sparked criticism of the prosecution's performance, with lawyers for Ebba Carlson calling the lack of action against him a "grave mistake", while Juliet said that "a new link in the chain has disappeared" before she could help uncover the truth and identify those responsible.
With his death, Siad became the second prominent name in the French circle linked to Epstein to die before the charges were settled in court, after Jean-Luc Brunel, who was found hanged in his prison in 2022. Epstein died in prison under mysterious circumstances in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, and authorities later announced that he had died by suicide.
French leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for the investigation to continue, stressing that "the victims have the right to the full truth and justice."
Until the autopsy results are released, the available sources do not include evidence that Siad was killed. But his death closed a door that could have answered about his travels, the money he received, and the nature of his role in introducing women to Epstein.
