It was not until 2006, when F.B.I. agents knocked on her door in North Carolina, that Ms. Farmer found renewed hope that Mr. Epstein would be held accountable. New allegations about Mr. Epstein had surfaced the previous year, when a report by a teenager in Florida spurred an extensive investigation that uncovered a wide range of young girls who had been recruited to visit Mr. Epstein’s lavish home in Palm Beach.

Heavily redacted records released by the F.B.I. appear to show handwritten notes from November 2006 interviews with Maria Farmer and Annie Farmer, outlining key details of their stories, including Maria’s visit to the New York police and her referral to the F.B.I.

But though the investigation progressed, a widely criticized plea deal eventually quashed any federal prosecution. To the sisters, the 2008 plea agreement, which allowed Mr. Epstein to plead guilty merely to much less serious state charges, was deeply demoralizing.

Ms. Farmer was starting to put some of it behind her when the latest news about Mr. Epstein began to emerge, and more victims began coming forward. She found herself crying when she saw those accounts, wondering what it would have taken to stop him when she first tried. Though the time for a lawsuit has long passed, she has been working with a lawyer, David Boies, to support other victims of Mr. Epstein.

“Every time I hear one of the girls tell their story, it devastates me,” Ms. Farmer said.

Ms. Farmer, who recently received a diagnosis of a brain tumor, said she still had some fear about coming forward to tell her own story, even after Mr. Epstein’s death. She recently moved to a new home in the South to improve her privacy.

In her new residence, she has laid out an art studio in front of windows that offer a peek-a-boo view of a nearby lake. She has started painting again, for the first time in years, and new pieces are stacked up against the walls.

One day, she said, she will try to bring artistic shape to her experience with Mr. Epstein. But for now, she has been focused on a series of paintings of families and children.

They are not like her earlier paintings, the ones Mr. Epstein liked. All the girls are clothed.