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Kevin Riford
Our sister, Katie Riford, went into hiding in 2019 with her two children, Olivia and Mason Riford. Up until that point, Katie and her children had resided with me and my mother, Joanne, in Wheatfield, New York, in Niagara County. They lived with us until the day they left.
This article is about the abnormalities surrounding their disappearance, where they were eventually found, and information that emerged afterward—including information contained in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
I am including every article I can find about Katie and her children published by mainstream media outlets, including Channels 2, 4, 7, and others, because these reports support one portion of what I will discuss in this article.
The News Articles
What’s missing from the news articles
You might be wondering what I am talking about.
It’s quite simple.
Not one of the articles I have found makes reference to my sister’s vehicle or her license plate number.
Yes, you read that correctly.
If you’re looking for two children and an adult, wouldn’t one of the first things law enforcement would do be to provide information about the vehicle the person was driving so that members of the public could potentially help locate them?
That never happened. Ever.
Yet, in the Niagara County Sheriff’s report we obtained through a Freedom of Information request, it clearly states that [redacted] was advised an alert would be created for [redacted], as well as the vehicle she was driving.
Report obtained by my family via FOIA request:
You can read the full report here: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/niagara-county-22291/niagara-county-sheriffs-field-case-report-for-02152019-missing-persons-126514/
But that’s not the only abnormality
My sister and her children went “missing” in 2019.
The Niagara County Sheriff’s Office never went to the media initially after my sister and her children’s disappearance in 2019.
In fact, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office only went to the media approximately six months later after their disappearance, and only because my family started contacting local media outlets and had an “interview” with Channel 4, WIVB.
WIVB Channel 4 did get one thing correct:
Katie Riford and Her Children Are Located in New Mexico
In 2023, my missing sister Katie Riford & her children would be located, but not in Wheatfield, NY where they lived their entire lives up until leaving. They would be located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to media reports, they were living in an apartment located within Bernalillo County.
Living under a false alias and enrolled in public school
According to the reporting of KRQE, Katie was living under the alias “Courtney Keleher.”
At least one of the children was reportedly enrolled in Albuquerque Public Schools using the child’s real first name but a false last name. That information was also specifically cited in our family’s subsequent FBI FOIA request concerning “Courtney Keleher.”
My family could not believe it ourselves.
How could a single mother with two small children establish new identities and enroll the children in public school?
Surely public schools require some type of documentation.
What records were provided to the school?
Were previous educational records transferred?
What identification was used?
How did the school verify the children’s identities?
Did the school know the children’s true identities?
These are questions I believe deserve answers and the local media sure didn’t ask.
What we found out next
My family would submit a FOIA request to the FBI regarding her alias and the street Katie (“Courtney”) allegedly lived on: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/courtney-keleher-albuquerque-new-mexico-128062/
During our research, we also realized that Katie and her children had been living relatively close to Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico property, commonly known as Zorro Ranch.
To Be Clear: I Am Not Saying Katie and Her Children Stayed at Zorro Ranch
If you’re wondering whether I am insinuating that Katie and her children were actually staying at Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, the answer is no.
I am not making that allegation in this article.
Instead, I am documenting the geographic proximity and asking readers to consider it within the broader context of the information discussed later in this article.
Katie’s U.S. Marshals Report Mentions North Carolina
My family would ask my sister Katie to obtain her U.S. Marshals report, which she did.
While reviewing the report, we found a particular portion interesting.
The U.S. Marshals report states that Katie was “spotted in North Carolina with a little boy who does not look similar to [redacted].”
You might be wondering why this is interesting.
First, why would Katie reportedly have been with a little boy who did not look similar to her son?
And second, this became particularly interesting because, during our research into the Department of Justice’s Jeffrey Epstein file release, we discovered that another person with connections to Niagara County also appeared in the Epstein files.
Elizabeth Ghazi / Elizabeth Gammack
We recently identified another Niagara County native who appears in the DOJ’s Jeffrey Epstein files: Elizabeth Ghazi, also identified as Elizabeth Gammack.
She has documented connections to Niagara County, including Lockport and the Gasport/Hartland area.
The document contains her first, last, and middle name. It also states that she was reported to have been involved with [redacted] and may have information concerning someone who had done some type of media interview regarding “JE”—Jeffrey Epstein—and a victim.
The document contains significant redactions.
I want to make something clear:
The fact that someone’s name appears in a government file related to Jeffrey Epstein does not, by itself, establish that the person committed a crime.
The contents of the underlying document have to be examined on their own merits.
Should you choose to view Elizbeth Ghazi’s full DOJ file, you can do so at this link: https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01726077.pdf
Or this link which is the file I downloaded several weeks ago. Apparently, the DOJ has been taking certain files down, so I am always certain to download them when I come across them.
Elizabeth Ghazi DOJ File Download
Calling Ms. Ghazi AKA Gammack
I called Ms. Ghazi on the phone to ask her about her name and the tip contained in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
During our conversation, she denied knowing anything about it.
Toward the end of the conversation, she stated that “it’s all bullshit.”
I offered to provide Ms. Ghazi with the Department of Justice document in which her name and information appeared. Apparently, she did not want it and hung up.
Ms. Ghazi’s Department of Justice file contains extensive information and redactions. Among other things, the records contain information relating to addresses, employment, property, vehicles, and other law-enforcement records.
Again, I am not presenting the existence of this file as proof that Ms. Ghazi committed wrongdoing.
I am documenting what the file contains and what Ms. Ghazi herself told me when I contacted her.
Ms. Ghazi’s Niagara County Connections
Below is a list of past counties and locations associated with Ms. Ghazi in the records, with addresses redacted.
As we can see, Ms. Ghazi has an extensive history of residing in Niagara County.
This caught my attention because Niagara County is also where my family lives and where Katie Riford and her children lived before their disappearance.
It is simply another geographic connection I encountered while researching this story.
North Carolina
While researching Elizabeth Ghazi, I also found information indicating that her husband, AsfshinGhazi, is a North Carolina developer who owns several companies.
Local media reports have also described him as a significant political donor in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
This became noteworthy to me because the U.S. Marshals report concerning Katie contains the reference to Katie allegedly being spotted in North Carolina.
What I have found are separate pieces of information involving some of the same geographic areas.
The Hartland Connection
There is another geographic detail that caught my attention.
After Katie was returned from New Mexico to Niagara County, her court case was heard in the Town of Hartland Court, located in Gasport, New York.
Hartland is approximately 40 minutes from her former home in Wheatfield, New York.
Elizabeth Ghazi, also known as Elizabeth Gammack, appears to have had connections to Gasport, New York, as well.
I believe the geographic overlap is worth documenting and allowing readers to examine for themselves.
North Carolina, the U.S. Marshals Report, and Elizabeth Ghazi
This brings us back to the U.S. Marshals report.
Peter M. Vito stated that Katie Riford was spotted in North Carolina.
That caught my attention because Elizabeth Ghazi also has documented connections to North Carolina.
The following is the relevant portion of Katie Riford’s U.S. Marshals record obtained through a FOIA request:
Given the circumstances surrounding Katie’s disappearance, the alias reportedly used by the family, their eventual discovery in New Mexico, the reference to North Carolina in the U.S. Marshals report, and the separate appearance of a Niagara County-connected individual in the Epstein files, I believe these are reasonable facts to document.
Pictured above: portion of Katie Riford U.S. Marshal report
Pictured below: Elizabeth Ghazi address list in DOJ Epstein report
Where Are Olivia Riford and Mason Riford?
This is ultimately the question that matters most to me.
My niece, Olivia Riford, and my nephew, Mason Riford, were located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, along with their mother on March 2, 2022. At that time, according to WKBW’s reporting, the children were placed into the care of the Department of Children and Family Services in Albuquerque.
But what happened after that?
Where are Olivia and Mason today?
Why is information about them so difficult to find?
How were they able to live under different names?
What records were used to enroll at least one of the children in a New Mexico public school?
Why was Katie’s vehicle never reported?
Why was there such a long delay before the disappearance received significant public attention?
Who was the child reportedly seen with Katie in North Carolina?
I don’t claim to have every answer in this article.
What I do have are records, news reports, government documents, FOIA requests, and a series of unanswered questions.
My purpose in publishing this information is to put those records together in one place and ask questions that I believe deserve answers.
Most importantly, I want to know where my niece and nephew are today and what happened to them after they disappeared in 2019.
Those are questions I have not stopped asking. Maybe one day we will know.
I’ll keep asking questions while the media remains silent.