Jeffrey Epstein is still making headlines six years after his death. The late disgraced financier and convicted child sex offender’s death has been challenged by conspiracy theorists, who claimed that the jail surveillance footage outside of Epstein’s cell wasn’t reliable. Furthermore, his autopsy report raised eyebrows. So, what really happened to Epstein when he died?
Epstein’s official cause of death was ruled to be suicide by hanging using a bedsheet, most likely using the top bunk of his bed and pitching himself forward to hang, according to law enforcement. However, conspiracy theorists have challenged this.
On August 10, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York City. The Bureau of Prisons said that Epstein was given life-saving measures immediately after he was found, and first responders took him to a hospital. He was pronounced dead that day.
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General’s investigation criticized prison guards and officials, alleging negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures” in Epstein’s death, according to multiple outlets.
On the night of Epstein’s death, prison officials did not check on him every 30 minutes. The two guards assigned to Epstein’s cell fell asleep and failed to check on him for around three hours. Moreover, they falsified records to hide their mistake, according to The New York Times.
Epstein’s autopsy report sparked doubt about his manner of death. Dr. Michael Baden was in the room for Epstein’s autopsy, and he raised questions about the fractures in his larynx and hyoid bone, calling those “extremely unusual in suicidal hangings” and aligning with “homicidal strangulation.”
“There’s evidence here of homicide that should be investigated, to see if it is or isn’t homicide,” Baden said, per PBS. Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson, who conducted the autopsy, said she stood “firmly” behind her findings of Epstein’s death.
