The reports of Ghislaine Maxwell’s whereabouts have been greatly exaggerated.
The British socialite and accused madame of the late millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has been rumored to be living in a submarine, in a Midwest home guarded by Special Forces, and even a three-bedroom home in Teaneck, NJ.
Like a modern version of the popular 1990s computer game, “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego,” Maxwell had been an elusive, globe-trotting target.
She was rumored to be shacking up with modeling mogul Jean-Luc Brunel in Brazil, as far off as New Zealand and Israel, and in March filed a legal claim in the US Virgin Islands for a piece of Epstein’s estate.
Rumors swirled that she popped up in Paris last month, and a photo emerged in August of her reportedly at a Los Angeles fast-food joint following Epstein’s arrest in July on federal sex trafficking charges in New York.
“Ghislaine is like a James Bond character — she is quite a unique person,” fellow socialite Lady Victoria Hervey said in November. “I just don’t believe that anyone is going to find her.”
In fact, federal investigators said Maxwell, 58, spent much of this year in a secluded 156-acre estate in New Hampshire, where she was arrested and hit with federal sex abuse charges on Thursday.
“If you’re looking for a place to hide, boy, you can’t find a better one,” a person close to the real estate deal told NBC News. “It’s a lovely house on a lot of turf and it’s up a driveway that’s a little bit more than a half-mile long. Nobody comes up there to bug you or poke or pry.”
But Maxwell’s immense wealth — more than $20 million, according to federal prosecutors — had her rumored whereabouts all over the world.
Britain’s Mirror said in February that a wild new theory suggested that Maxwell was hiding out in a submarine, reporting that she has a license to pilot “submersible vehicles.”
A friend of the socialite’s told Fox News in January that another rumored hideout — a safe house somewhere in the Midwest, guarded by US Special Forces operatives — was bogus.
“Ghislaine is similar to many people who live on the coasts,” the friend told the outlet. “She views it derisively. It wouldn’t be her first choice of a place to stay. With her British accent and star looks, she would stand out in Iowa. It’s the Midwest, where people know their neighbors.”
Earlier this month, investigators said Maxwell could be laying low in a plush apartment in the more socialite-friendly environs of Paris.
But in the end, the law caught up with her closer to home in New Hampshire.