New York City’s former chief medical examiner said disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s manner of death was likely to have been a homicide.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden was hired by the convicted sex offender’s brother, Mark Epstein, to observe the autopsy after Jeffrey Epstein was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell more than two months ago.
Baden told Fox News, “I think that the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide.”
“The brother is concerned that if [Epstein] was murdered, then other people who have information might be at risk,” Baden said in the Oct. 30 interview, suggesting that powerful individuals may have been involved in the death.
“If they think he has information, his life could be in jeopardy,” he said.
After observing the autopsy, Baden said there were signs of “unusual” activity “from day one,” saying the wounds were “more consistent with ligature homicidal strangulation.”
There were three fractured bones in Epstein’s thyroid, Baden said, adding that he’s never seen such injuries from hanging deaths in 50 years of examinations.
“Hanging does not cause these broken bones, and homicide does,” he told Fox. “A huge amount of pressure was applied.”
Baden then called on prosecutors to release the findings from DNA samples.
“They took fingernail clippings to see if there’s anybody else’s DNA on it, and that hasn’t been released; neither has information about whose DNA is on the ligature out of torn strips of orange sheets,” he said. “Whoever made it has to have a lot of DNA on it, and the brother has been asking for that from day one.”
Baden also called into question the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, including the claim that two security guards fell asleep while working at the jail.
“Occasionally a guard falls asleep—never two guards at the same time,” he said on Fox News. “The issue would be, did somebody come in and cause his death?”
The pathologist said there’s no shortage of people who would want to see him dead.
“There were 800 other people in the correctional facility and most of them would have liked to have gotten their hands on him.” However, he noted, “a number of people had to be involved if this was a homicide.”
“It’s 80 days now, and the brother feels he is getting a runaround. He thinks that his brother wasn’t the type to commit suicide, but he wants to get the information that he hasn’t been able to get so far.”
Recent news accounts have reported that Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and currently the world’s richest man, had met Epstein several times after he was convicted.
Gates visited Epstein’s Manhattan mansion at least three times, and employees of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also spent time there.
“His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing, although it would not work for me,” Gates wrote of Epstein to colleagues in 2011 after the pair’s first meeting.
The comment was in reference “only to the unique décor of the Epstein residence—and Epstein’s habit of spontaneously bringing acquaintances in to meet Mr. Gates,” a spokeswoman told the paper. “It was in no way meant to convey a sense of interest or approval.”
