Conspiracy theorists have speculated that Mr. Epstein may have been murdered in an effort to prevent him from ensnaring his coterie of rich and powerful friends in his legal woes.

[The latest: Attorney General William Barr said Mr. Epstein’s suicide was ‘a perfect storm of screw-ups.’]

The legal battles have just begun

Although the criminal case against Mr. Epstein ended with his death, the legal battles against his estate — assets estimated at more than $577 million — are expected to go on for months as his accusers seek justice.

In the days after Mr. Epstein’s death on Aug. 10 in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, several women filed lawsuits against his estate, claiming he used a network of Manhattan recruiters who visited dance studios to lure young aspiring performers.

And in early October, lawyers for Mr. Epstein’s estate asked a judge in the Virgin Islands, where his will was filed and signed two days before he killed himself, to allow the payment of $90,000 in fees to a New York law firm defending the estate against a half-dozen lawsuits.

Investigating possible conspirators

The federal authorities have shifted their focus from Mr. Epstein himself and are now looking into his employees, girlfriends and associates who prosecutors say helped lure girls into his orbit and organize his encounters with them, two people with knowledge of the inquiry told my colleagues.

It remains unclear whether Mr. Epstein’s alleged network of recruiters at New York’s dance studios is being investigated.