Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / The Night of No Checks, No Cameras, and No Cellmate: Breaking Down Epstein’s “Suicide” (Part 1)

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The Night of No Checks, No Cameras, and No Cellmate: Breaking Down Epstein’s “Suicide” (Part 1) · The Epstein Chronicles

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Epstein Chronicles. On August tenth, twenty nineteen, Jeffrey Epstein was
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  found dead in his Manhattan jail cell. The official story
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  suicide by hanging, a tragic end to a monstrous man,
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  But almost immediately the cracks in that narrative began to show.
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  The most high profile inmate in America, locked in one
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  of the nation's most secure facilities, dies under circumstances so bizarre,
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  so riddled with failure, that the story feels less like
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  fact and more like fiction. Guards asleep at their posts,
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  surveillance cameras mysteriously malfunctioning, a cellmate pulled away just hours
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  before an autopsy that revealed fractures in his neck bones
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  more consistent with strangulation than self hanging. These aren't the
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  details of a clean, open and shut case. They're the
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  ingredients of a cover up. Epstein's death didn't just rob
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  survivers of their day in court. It shielded the rich,
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  the powerful, and the untouchable from ever being forced into
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  the light. Politicians, royals, billionaires, men with everything to lose.
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  If Epstein ever talked so, was this truly a suicide
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  or was Jeffrey Epstein silenced before he could bring others
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  down with them? In this multi part series, we're going
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  to examine the forensic inconsistencies, the impossible security lapses, and
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  the powerful motives that point to murder not suicide. As
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  the final chapter in Jeffrey Epstein's Story, Part one, A
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  controversial end to a notorious story. On the morning of
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  August tenth, twenty nineteen, multi millionaire and convicted sex offender
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  Jeffrey Epstein was found under responsive in his cell at
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  Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center. He was later pronounced dead, and
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  the news reverberated around the world. The official ruling was
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  suicide by hanging, inclusion that on its face closed the
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  case of Epstein's demise, Yet almost immediately skepticism arose. How
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  could one of America's most high profile inmates, a man
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  with connections to some of the world's most powerful people,
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  die so conveniently undersupposed twenty four hour watch and a
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  federal facility. Conspiracy theories proliferated, even reaching the highest levels
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  of government. President Donald Trump himself fueled speculation by suggesting
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  Epstein might have been killed to keep him from revealing
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  the secrets of others. Epstein's death has since become one
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  of the most debated incidents in recent memory, with many
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  asking was it truly a suicide or was he silenced
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  by foul play? The official narrative suicide by hanging. The
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  New York City Chief Medical Examiner, Barbara Sampson conducted Epstein's
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  autopsy and officially ruled the death of suicide on August eleventh,
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  twenty nineteen. The The autopsy determined that the cause of
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  death was hanging and the manner of death was suicide.
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  Doctor Samson later stated she stands firmly by that finding,
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  and according to investigator's reports, the injuries observed on Epstein's body,
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  including fractures in his neck, were consistent with self inflicted hanging. Crucially,
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  the medical examiner told the Department of Justice that Epstein's
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  body showed no signs of a struggle or defensive wounds,
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  injuries like broken fingernails, bruised knuckles, or other trauma that
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  would be expected if he had been attacked. Blood toxicology
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  tests were clean, showing no sedatives or toxins in his system.
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  In short, from the perspective of the official autopsy, nothing
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  in Epstein's physical examination conclusively pointed to homicide. Officials also
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  cite Epstein's prior behavior and the circumstances of his confinement
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  as supporting the suicide conclusion. Just over two weeks before
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  his death, on July twe twenty third, twenty nineteen, Epstein
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  had been found semi conscious on the floor of his
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  cell with a strip of bed sheet around his neck.
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  At the time, prison authorities treated this as a suicide attempt,
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  placing Epstein on suicide watch. Epstein reportedly claimed that another inmate,
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  Nicholas Tartaglione, had attacked him, but that cellmate, a former
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  police officer facing murder charges, denied any altercation and was
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  cleared by jail officials. Meanwhile, Epstein remained under heightened psychological
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  observation for about one week. Then, on July thirtieth, jel
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  psychologists determined he was no longer at imminent risk, and
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  he was taken off of suicide watch. Epstein's attorneys later
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  insisted he had not been suicidal, but records show that
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  in the days following his watch, he continued to receive
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  mental health check ins and denied having any plans to
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  harm himself. Notably, Epstein's life was unraveling. A federal judge
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  had denied him bel on July eighteen, meaning he faced
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  months in a start jail cell, awaiting trial on sex
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  trafficking charges. He had recently signed a new will on
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  August eight, twenty nineteen, redirecting his vast wealth to a trust.
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  To officials, these facts suggested a man who knew he
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  was likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars,
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  and might have lost the will to fight. Attorney General
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  William Barr later commented that epstein state of mind and
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  the evidence collected pointed to suicide, not murder. Perhaps the
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  strongest element of the official narrative is the apparent absence
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  of any intruder or accomplice. Epstein was confined in the
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  Special Housing Unit of the jail, a high security unit
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  where inmates are locked in their cells twenty three hours
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  a day. Multiple layers of security separated Epstein from the
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  outside world a series of locked doors, gates, and stairwells
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  to which only a limited number of guards had keys
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  at any given time, according to the depart and a
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  Justice Inspector General. Surveillance cameras covering the shoe's common areas
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  show no one entered or exited the tier where Epstein
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  was housed during the critical overnight period when his death occurred.
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  Between approximately ten forty pm on August ninth and six
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  thirty am on August tenth, No one was seen entering
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  Epstein's tier on the footage reviewed by investigators. Then Attorney
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  General Barr personally watched the video and stated it clearly
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  showed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed,
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  leading him to accept the suicide finding. In Barr's words,
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  the surveillance video was the icing on the cake, confirming
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  that Epstein was alone and that no outside assailant could
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  have reached them unnoticed. Given these points, the autopsy results,
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  evidence of suicidal behavior, and the secure isolation of Epstein's cell,
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  the official conclusion remains that Epstein took his own life.
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  The Justice Department's final report in twenty twenty three, while
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  cataloging numerous jail failures, stated it did not uncover evidence
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  to contradict the FBI's determination that there was no criminality
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  in Epstein's death, and yet despite these assurances, doubts persist.
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  A series of peculiar irregularities and unanswered questions surrounding Epstein's
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  final hours have led many to suspect that the suicide
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  narrative does not tell the full story. So let's go
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  through the counter arguments, the evidence, and the analysis underpinning
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  the theory that Epstein was murdered. One of the first
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  red flags cited by skeptics came from Epstein's autopsy itself.
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  While the medical examiner ultimately ruled the death a hanging suicide,
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  the detailed findings revealed injuries more unusual than typically seen
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  in suicidal hangings. According to The Washington Post, Epstein's autopsy
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  found that he sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones,
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  including the hyoid bone near the atoms apple. Forensic experts
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  note that while a broken hyoid can occur in suicidal hangings,
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  especially in older individuals like sixty six year old Epstein,
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  such breaks are far more common in homicidal strangulation cases.
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  In fact, Jonathan Arden, president of the National Association of
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  Medical Examiners, explained that a broken hyoid bone generally raises
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  questions about strangulation and would prompt a thorough investigation into
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  the manner of death. Beyond the hyoid, Epstein's autopsy noted
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  fractures to other structures in the neck. Doctor Michael Boden,
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  a prominent forensic pathologist who observed Epstein's autopsy on behalf
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  of Epstein's family, was struck by the unusual pattern of
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  the injuries. There were fractures of the left and right
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  hyoid cartilage and left hyoid bone. Doctor Boden told sixty Minutes,
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  I have never seen three fractures like this in a
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  suicidal hanging. In examining over a thousand gel hanging cases
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  over decades, Boden said he had not encountered such extensive
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  neck damage in self inflicted hanging. These details immediately deep
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  in the mystery of Epstein's death. They suggest a level
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  of force at play that some experts argue is inconsistent
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  with someone hanging themselves from a makeshift ligature and a
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  low slung gel cell. In a televised interview, doctor Cyril Weckt,
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  another veteran forensic pathologist, pointed out that the mechanics of
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  Epstein's alleged suicide, reportedly tying a sheet to a bunk
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  bed and leaning forward, would likely not generate enough force
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  or velocity to shatter multiple neck bones. The severity of
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  Epstein's injuries, Weckt argued, practically rules out the leaning forward
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  suicide scenario that the authorities described. Detractors of the official
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  story also note that certain autopsy findings and procedures were
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  odd or lacking. Photographs from inside Epstein's cell show multiple
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  strips of orange bedsheet twisted into nooses on the floor.
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  Yet doctor Bowden has observed that the ligature mark on
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  Epstein's neck as seen in autopsy photos, did not match
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  the material of the bedsheet noose that was collected as evidence.
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  The mark was situated in the middle of Epstein's neck,
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  rather than beneath the jawline, and a typical position for
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  a hanging, but consistent with someone pressing a cord around
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  the throat from the front. The discrepancy raises the possibility
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  that the ligature applied to Epstein's neck was not the
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  same bed sheet he allegedly used to hang himself, though
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  the official investigation has not acknowledged any mismatch. It's also
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  notable that no photographs were taken of Epstein's body as
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  it was found hanging in the cell. According to standard procedure,
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  a suicide scene in custody should be treated with the
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  same care as a crime scene. However, guards cut Epstein
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  down and rushed them to a hospital before forensic photos
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  could be taken in situ. While perhaps done in the
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  hope of saving his life, this removal inadvertently disturbed potential
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  evidence about the death scene. Doctor Bowden has lamented that
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  investigators cannot now see exactly how Epstein's body was found,
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  critical context, for example, to know the precise positioning of
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  the noose and the knots. He also noted that, based
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  on the autopsy's lividity pulling of blood on the tissues,
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  Epstein likely had been dead for around two hours by
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  the time he was found around six thirty am. If true,
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  that would place his time of death closer to four
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  thirty AM, raising questions about whether prompt life saving measures
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  wherever possible, and highlighting how long he went unchecked. The
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  Medical Examiner's Office has stood by its conclusions, emphasizing that
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  no single autopsy finding is definitive and that hyroid fractures
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  can occur in suicides. Nevertheless, the forensic inconsistencies, the broken
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  neck bones, more typical strangulation, the questionable ligature marks, and
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  the lack of initial scene documentation have provided considerable ammunition
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  for those who suspect Epstein's suicide may have been a
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  stage cover up. All right, folks, we're gonna wrap up
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  episode one right here, and in the next episode dealing
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  with the topic, we're gonna pick up where we left off.
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  All of the information that goes with this episode can
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  be found in the description box.