Two individuals who attended a prestigious Michigan fine arts school have reported sexual conduct by Jeffrey Epstein, a major donor, according to an investigation that also uncovered dozens of allegations spanning decades against nearly 50 other people.
Interlochen Center for the Arts, which operates a summer camp and performing arts school drawing students worldwide, hired a law firm in 2024 to investigate reports of sexual abuse by faculty and staff. The scope was later expanded to include information about Epstein, the 66-year-old financier who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
Investigation Details
Interlochen removed Epstein’s name from a lodge after his 2008 sex offense conviction in Florida. The building, renamed Green Lake Lodge, was recently demolished following the US Justice Department’s release of millions of pages concerning Epstein.
The Sanghavi law office reported collecting 70 accounts from alumni alleging “physical conduct of a sexual nature” by 47 faculty and staff members affiliated with Interlochen from the 1950s through the 2010s, with most incidents occurring before 2000.
“The information gathered during this investigation is, simply, devastating,” the 97-page report states, noting that alumni reported grooming, flirting, sexual touching, and sex.
School Response
Interlochen has provided names of accused individuals to Grand Traverse County authorities in northern Michigan to determine potential next steps. None are currently employed, and more than a third are deceased.
“We are deeply sorry for the harm experienced by members of our community and extend our apologies to those impacted by abuse at Interlochen,” said President Trey Davey and board chair Barrett Rollins in a letter posted online. “While the vast majority of the incidents described in the investigation took place many decades ago, and reports of abuse at Interlochen have significantly decreased over the past 25 years, the passage of time does not diminish the experiences of our alumni. Sexual abuse committed by an adult in a position of power or trust against a student is wrong, then and now.”
Davey and Rollins wrote that Interlochen today “is fundamentally different from the institution described in this report,” with comprehensive safety policies and a changed culture.
Epstein’s Ties
Epstein, who played the bassoon, attended Interlochen as a camper in 1967. He donated more than $400,000 to the school between 1990 and 2003.
Two women told investigators that Epstein engaged in sexual conduct with them, one at the lodge bearing his name. According to the report, he brushed against her body “over her clothes, in a manner in which he indicated was accidental.” Epstein also paid for her to visit him in New York while she was a student. She said “every time he was ‘handsy’ with her, she would freeze until he would stop.”
The other woman reported giving Epstein a massage at his home, and he may have asked her to remove her top. She had no further contact with Epstein or his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Outside the school investigation, at least two Interlochen alumnae made allegations of grooming and abuse against Epstein and Maxwell, according to federal records and media reports. Their identities were not made public. One testified against Maxwell at her 2021 sex trafficking trial. It is unclear if those women spoke to the law firm hired for the Interlochen investigation.
