New York Medical Examiner Completes Autopsy on Jeffrey Epstein’s Body, No Cause of Death Yet

Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters July 10, 2019. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via Reuters

The New York City’s medical examiner office completed an autopsy on the body of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, saying his cause of death was “pending further information at this time.”

The results came in about a day after Epstein apparently killed himself while being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, sparking numerous theories and speculation about how he died or whether there is a coverup.

In a brief statement on the night of Aug. 11, Barbara Sampson, the city’s chief medical examiner, said that Dr. Michael Baden observed the autopsy examination, reported the New York Daily News. It was done at the request of Epstein’s representatives.

“This is routine practice,” Sampson said.

“My office defers to the involved law enforcement agencies regarding other investigations around his death,” the examiner added. “Inquiries regarding the determination of the Chief Medical Examiner should be directed towards my office.”

Jail Failure?

Anonymous officials said that guards looking after Epstein should have checked him every 30 minutes but did not.

The procedure wasn’t being followed when the 66-year-old was found dead, reported The New York Times on Aug. 11, citing unnamed officials.

The jail transferred Epstein’s cellmate and allowed him to be placed alone in a cell two weeks after he was taken off suicide watch, which reportedly was against jail protocol, two officials told the paper.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center where Jeffrey Epstein was being held, on August 10, 2019, in New York. DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

Officials at the jail said when they made the decision to take him off suicide watch, the Justice Department was informed that a guard would “look into his cell” every 30 minutes, according to the Times. The official said that this wasn’t followed.

A prison official told The New York Times that two guards who were staffing the unit were working overtime, and one was on his fifth straight day of overtime.

Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch in Stanley, N.M. is shown Monday, July 8, 2019. KRQE via AP

Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after he was found a little over two weeks ago with bruising on his neck, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly. But he was taken off the watch at the end of July and therefore wasn’t on it at the time of his death, the official said, according to The Associated Press.

Cameras?

Also on Sunday, TMZ reported that there are cameras in the jail’s special housing unit, where Epstein was being held, but they don’t point inside the cells.

The cameras are set up to capture who goes in or out of the cell, but they do not point inside.

The outlet also reported that guards are supposed to pass by each cell every 15 to 30 minutes.

Epstein, 66, had been denied bail and was facing up to 45 years in prison on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial in 2020.

An aerial view of Little Saint James Island, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a property purchased by Jeffery Epstein more than two decades ago. Gianfranco Gaglione/AP Photo

Attorney General William Barr said that the U.S. inspector general will open an investigation “into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein’s death.”

“I was appalled to learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal custody,” Barr said in a statement. “Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered.”