Pathologist Hired by Epstein Family Says Convicted Sex Trafficker’s Body Showed Signs of Homicide

There’s no question that Jeffrey Epstein, who died in his jail cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10 where he was being held on charges of federal sex trafficking, was a monster. The billionaire was charged with paying minors to perform a multitude of sex acts and had already served a 13-month sentence in 2008 in order to avoid similar charges via plea deal. The circumstances of his death, however—which was ruled a suicide by a medical examiner—are hazy at best and now being officially questioned.

The Hill reports that Epstein’s brother hired Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist, to look into the suicide ruling. Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, has worked on cases involving such high-profile names as O.J. Simpson, President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Baden told Fox & Friends that “the evidence points to a homicide rather than a suicide,” citing “three fractures in the hyoid bone, the thyroid cartilage that are very unusual for suicide and more indicative of strangulation—homicidal strangulation.”

Further variables that lean towards the homicide hypothesis are that the two guards responsible for checking on Epstein fell asleep during their shift and the security camera watching Epstein malfunctioned at the same time, leaving investigators blind to the activity in Epstein’s cell at the time of his death. Baden says he’s never seen such a confluence of errors in 50 years of investigating prisons in the state of New York.

Epstein was on suicide watch at the time of his death after being found injured and semi-conscious in his cell in late July, but it was not determined whether the injuries were staged or real. Either way, less than a month later, Epstein was found dead, and the investigation continues so as to unwind the question of how.