Homicide Detective on New Epstein Autopsy Questions: ‘I Sure Hope They Opened His Stomach’

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

Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles Police Department detective who was involved in the O.J. Simpson case, weighed in on the new allegations surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s death.

Famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said an autopsy of Epstein, a convicted sex offender, showed his death was more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicide. New York City’s Medical Examiner ruled that Epstein’s cause of death was suicide by hanging when he was found in his jail cell in Manhattan.

“Baden actually opens up something that someone should have been answered several months ago,” Fuhrman told Fox News.

Fuhrman said he believes that Epstein killed himself but stressed more facts should be released in the case.

“There are opportunities to narrow this down tighter and this hasn’t been reported. I sure hope they opened his stomach,” he said. “We know the exact time that he had his last meal. You can analyze the stomach contents and rate of digestion to bracket the time of death between one or two hours,” he told Fox News.

The details are important because the time of death could allow investigators to determine if anyone was in Epstein’s cell at the time.

An apartment building owned by Jeffrey Epstein in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, on Aug. 12, 2019. Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images

“About two weeks after he was arrested, he attempted suicide,” said Fuhrman, Fox reported. “Obviously, it was unsuccessful and he was put under suicide watch. Now, suicide watch—federally—is you are watched constantly 24 hours a day. You have clothes and bedding that cannot be tied into a rope ... there’s nothing that’s available for you to actually take your own life and you’re being watched all the time.”

But Epstein wasn’t on suicide watch while in jail.

“Jeffrey Epstein convinced his attorney [and] convinced the chief psychologist at the correctional facility that he was no longer a threat to himself,” added Fuhrman. “The attorney pushed it. The warden agreed with it. So ... he was taken off suicide watch.”

Former New York Medical Examiner’s Claims

Baden was hired by the convicted sex offender’s brother, Mark Epstein, to observe the autopsy after he was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell more than two months ago.

Baden told Fox News that, “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 claimed in the Wednesday interview, suggesting powerful individuals may have been involved in the death.

“If they think he has information, his life could be in jeopardy,” he insisted.

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.”

The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, New York, on July 1, 2019. Richard Drew/AP Photo

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 remarked. “Whoever made it has to have a lot of DNA on it and the brother has been asking for that from day one.”