On August 10, we reported about the alleged suicide of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in his Manhattan jail cell. His death took place during the night, only 24 hours after documents in his sex trafficking case were unsealed. Several high profile politicians were implicated in the documents (see our previous report below).
Three prison guards found Epstein at 7:30 am after he had apparently hanged himself in his jail cell. Epstein had also attempted to take his life on July 24th. Was he on suicide watch? How do you commit suicide in jail when you’re on suicide watch?
The Daily Mail reported that Epstein was supposedly on suicide watch, although The New York Times reports that it is unclear whether additional measures had been put in place to ensure the pedophile did not try and take his own life for a second time.
On Monday, during a speech he was giving to the Fraternal Order of Police, Attorney General Bill Barr told his audience, “We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation.”
Barr also reassured everyone that the case would continue, saying, “Let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein. Any co-conspirators should not rest easy.”
Yesterday new reports from several sources emerged, claiming Jeffrey Epstein’s jailers falsified reports stating that they checked on him every 30 minutes the night of his death.
According to the Daily Mail, investigators had learned that checks were not done for several hours before Epstein was found unresponsive in his jail cell.
The New York Times is also reporting that the corrections officers slept for three hours during their watch and then falsified records.
Now, the Washington Post is reporting that an autopsy found that financier Jeffrey Epstein sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings, deepening the mystery about the circumstances around his death.
Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.
The details are the first findings to emerge from the autopsy of Epstein, a convicted sex offender, and multimillionaire in federal custody on charges of sex trafficking.
People familiar with the autopsy, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive stage of the investigation, said Sampson’s office is seeking additional information on Epstein’s condition in the hours before his death. That could include video evidence of the jail hallways, which may establish whether anyone entered Epstein’s cell during the night he died; results of a toxicology screening to determine if there was any unusual substance in his body; and interviews with guards and inmates who were near his cell.
Hyoid fractures have previously sparked controversy in jailhouse and other contentious deaths.
In 2008, Ronnie L. White, a teenager accused of killing a police officer, died of an apparent suicide in a suburban Washington jail cell. But two days later, the cause of death was changed to homicide when a Maryland state medical examiner discovered the teen had a broken hyoid.
Medical examiners concluded White was probably strangled with a sheet, towel, or “crux of the elbow.” The officer who moved his body pleaded guilty to obstruction. But no one was ever charged in White’s death. A federal judge said in 2013 that it remained a mystery whether the inmate was slain or took his own life.
The hyoid bone played a central role in a heated dispute last year over another high-profile death in New York, that of Eric Garner. A New York police officer was accused of using an improper chokehold while trying to arrest Garner and of causing his death. A police officers’ association claimed that an autopsy from Sampson’s office found there was no break of Garner’s hyoid bone, and that this proved that the officer could not have strangled Garner and caused his death.
Will we ever know the truth about how Jeffrey Epstein died? What do you think about his suspicious death? Do you think he was killed, or did he commit suicide? Did the #ClintonBodyCount just increase by one? Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
