The father of Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused Jeffrey Epstein of sex trafficking, said he does not believe claims that she took her own life.
Giuffre publicly accused Epstein of forcing her to have sex with Prince Andrew, who eventually settled a lawsuit filed by Giuffre out of court, and other men when she was a teenager.
Giuffre died on a farm in Australia last week, and police said the “early indication is the death is not suspicious,” according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
Her death was reported as a suicide.
Sky Roberts, her father, appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” to respond to his daughter’s death, noting that he had not spoken to her in years.
“First of all, I couldn’t even believe it. I mean, I started crying right away. I’m still crying,” he said in a video posted to YouTube.
“I can’t believe that this is happening. It just, it’s impossible,” he said.
“And then for them to say that she committed suicide, there’s no way that she did. Somebody got to her,” he said.
Roberts said his daughter “knew a lot of things about a lot of powerful people.”
He said he has no doubt the infamous picture that showed his daughter with Prince Andrew was genuine.
“Virginia sent the original picture, so I know it wasn’t faked, but the original picture of Prince Andrew and her with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background, so I know that’s true that she did” have sex with him, he said. “She was there with him.”
Roberts said, he wanted his daughter remembered “as someone who actually got out of a bad situation and made a good situation out of it, that she was helping a lot of other young girls that were feeling the pain of what goes on with people like that.”
“I think she’s strong, very strong, and that’s why I don’t think she committed suicide. She had too much to live for,” he said.
Not long before her death, Giuffre left a note that was shared by some family members, according to People.
“Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers need to show the battle lines are drawn, and stand together to fight for the future of victims. Is protesting the answer? I don’t know. But we’ve got to start somewhere,” the note said.
Several weeks ago, Giuffre posted on her Instagram account that she was dying due to a collision between her vehicle and a school bus. She did not say where or when the accident took place.
Roberts had “been in a serious accident and is receiving medical care in the hospital,” Dini von Mueffling, a representative for Roberts, told the Guardian.
Police could not substantiate the claims Giuffre made.
