Daniel Siad, a 69-year-old modelling scout whose name appeared thousands of times in declassified files relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead at his home in Colombes, a north-western suburb of Paris. The Nanterre prosecutor's office confirmed that his body was discovered on Monday and that an investigation into the cause of death has been opened, with a post-mortem examination to be carried out. Siad's lawyer, Ménya Arab-Tigrine, said her client had never been formally prosecuted and stated that he died of a heart attack, adding that "the unbearable waiting, the pressure and the anxiety he suffered every day" may have contributed to his death.

Siad had been under investigation in France since February on charges of organised human trafficking and conspiracy, following multiple complaints filed against him by women who alleged rape and trafficking. Prosecutors said telephone surveillance had been deployed but had not yielded sufficient evidence to justify his arrest. Crucially, he had never been questioned by investigators — a significant procedural gap under the French legal system, where a suspect is formally examined only once an investigating magistrate determines there is sufficient evidence of involvement in a crime. Siad had publicly denied all allegations in several media interviews, telling French broadcaster BFMTV: "I have never raped anyone in my life," and insisting that Epstein had taken advantage of his trust.

The Epstein files show that Siad recruited women and girls across Europe — including in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and France — from the late 2000s until at least 2017, sending Epstein profiles, photographs and videos of potential models by email. One message in the files, written in broken English, compared his recruitment activities to fishing. Swedish former model Ebba Karlsson, who filed the first complaint against Siad in February and has also accused him of introducing her to other alleged abusers in the modelling industry, expressed frustration at the outcome. "He was very close to being arrested. We worked so hard for this, trying to have justice," she told journalists.

Siad's death is the second time a French figure linked to Epstein has died before facing trial. Jean-Luc Brunel, a prominent French modelling agent who co-founded the agency MC2 Model Management with Epstein's financial backing and was suspected of procuring women for him, was found hanged in his Paris prison cell in February 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of rape and trafficking of minors. Epstein himself died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting federal trial for sex trafficking.

For victims and their legal representatives, Siad's death represents a profound setback. Lawyers representing six complainants said they felt "immense anger" at what they called the Paris prosecutor's office's "scandalous inaction," accusing authorities of contempt for victims of sexual crimes. A former model who had given a deposition to police in June lamented that "an important link in the chain has just vanished into thin air," warning that key information Siad might have held about the broader Epstein network was now likely lost. Ex-BBC journalist Lisa Brinkworth, who co-founded a collective supporting victims of abuse in the modelling industry, called on prosecutors to "urgently investigate all individuals connected to Epstein" still facing allegations.