NYC Medical Examiner Rules Epstein Committed Suicide
The New York City medical examiner’s office ruled on Friday that accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide by hanging last week.
The late financier was found unresponsive his cell at the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan on Aug. 10 and pronounced dead hours later, Fox News reported.
Epstein was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving underage girls.
Chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson determined the accused hanged himself in his cell.
BREAKING: Medical examiner rules Jeffrey Epstein’s death a suicide, says he hanged himself in his jail cell
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 16, 2019
The circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death — given his contact with several high profile figures including former President Bill Clinton — has fueled speculation that the 63-year-old may not have taken his own life.
The prisoner was reportedly taken off suicide watch just days after he was found on his cell floor with a bruised neck on July 23.
Additionally, Epstein’s cellmate was removed the day before he was found dead, the guards watching him are said to have fallen asleep, while the camera monitoring him malfunctioned.
Speculation ramped up further on Thursday after The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that the medical examiner’s autopsy had found several bones in Epstein’s neck broken.
“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,” The Post reported.
“But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.”
Sampson issued a statement Thursday in response to those articles, saying: “In all forensic investigations, all information must be synthesized to determine the cause and manner of death.
“Everything must be consistent; no single finding can be evaluated in a vacuum.”
Fox News reported the day before Epstein died that federal prosecutors unsealed documents from a 2015 lawsuit, in which the plaintiff, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in the early 2000s.
Giuffre alleged the pair trafficked her to have sex with and provide erotic massages for politicians and others from the business world such as former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and former New Mexico Governor and Clinton-era Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.
Both men have denied wrongdoing.
Epstein pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct charges in 2008, which forced him to join a sex offender registry.
Attorney General William Barr said earlier this week that an initial investigation regarding the death Epstein has uncovered “serious irregularities” in how Metropolitan Correction Center handled its responsibilities.
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