The New York Times reported Tuesday that Jeffrey Epstein purportedly tied a bed sheet to the top bunk in his cell and threw himself forward. Today, however, the results of the autopsy indicate that Epstein had multiple broken bones in his neck. That evidence is consistent with homicidal strangulation rather than suicide by hanging. Washington Post:

Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said. […]

The office of New York City’s chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, completed an autopsy of Epstein’s body Sunday. But Sampson listed the cause of his death as pending

The details add to the bizarre circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, which have launched a wave of questions and conspiracy theories about how he could have died in federal custody. Even President Trump has egged on speculation, without evidence, that Epstein — whose alleged victims say they were pushed to have sex with his powerful and celebrity friends — might have been killed to keep him from spilling the secrets of others. […]

Jonathan L. Arden, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, said a hyoid can be broken in many circumstances, but is more commonly associated with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging.

The coroner’s office is seeking information on Epstein’s condition before his death. Video evidence of the hallway still has not been provided. Also, results of a toxicology screening to see if there were any unusual substances in his body have not been provided.

This does deepen the mystery about what happened to Epstein. Again, not jumping down the CT rabbit hole just yet, but this is an interesting development.

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1 COMMENT

    • If you read the entire Washington Post article linked to, you will see that the breaking of bones takes place in certain hanging deaths. The wideness of the noose is taken into account, the length of the drop. Now, forgive me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see how tying a bedsheet to a top bunk and throwing oneself forward would break all those bones — but perhaps I don’t have an accurate picture of the situation.

      That said — I really think this stinks on ice. My personal opinion is that he was murdered. But I’m not going to write that, other than here in a comment, until I find more conclusive evidence. But if I had to take a guess, I think at the end of the day, there’s going to be a good probability that he was offed.

      The death of Epstein is just too convenient. Sleeping guards, the cellmate that was removed, being taken off of suicide watch a mere ten day after a suicide attempt — a lot of things went wrong, all at once. And this is with respect to a very high profile inmate, not just some guy off the street.

      • But to keep it fair, Ursula, the world is a very random place. You may well be seeing a pattern where none exists. And it’s not like the org he left behind will now be left alone.

          • If you wrote this as a script, it would come across as contrived. How to explain that the cellmate was removed. How to explain the suicide attempt and then the sudden removal from suicide watch. How to explain the guards all just falling asleep. But the truth is stranger than fiction. Maybe this is all on the up and up and he did kill himself, with no assistance from the outside.

        • Thank you for chiming in, Wolf. The way this happened, there are just too many simultaneous screw ups that all lend themselves to the convenient death of Epstein.

      • As horrible as it sounds…my first question is whether someone might break multiple bones because they had to try more than once. Like he jumped, but the sheet didn’t hold, but he broke a minor bone. Then jumped again.

        This whole story is just so awful. I will be happy when we never have to think of this foul creature ever again. I mean…I’m sorry that justice is denied…but still.

      • irony1
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        noun
        noun: irony

        the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
        “‘Don’t go overboard with the gratitude,’ he rejoined with heavy irony”
        synonyms: sarcasm, sardonicism, dryness, causticity, sharpness, acerbity, acid, bitterness, trenchancy, mordancy, cynicism

  1. Time to start charging Barr with being the idiot he is … TOTALLY responsible for this circus of errors IF INDEED it was not something more sinister on his part, either way, he IS the top responsible person, SO in respect to his office and the USA, he should immediately resign and turn ALL of the details over to the House investigators as any less, since he has already burned a couple of very large bridges, maybe charge Barr with capital murder by negligence …?
    Manslaughter by ignoring his responsibilities?

    The most important person of interest EVER in the recent history of the USA and in just a few days the impossible happens why wasn’t he doing all the steps needed to set things up?

    The scary part was the so-called previous attempt at suicide did not insure standard practices … Barr cannot slither out of this … NO WAY ….

    • If this was a police detective story in the movies, there are plenty of facts pointing in the direction of foul play. Again, I hesitate to go full on CT but my God — a high profile prisoner like this and all the rules get bent? No cellmate, taken off suicide watch, the guards go to sleep, then the autopsy shows all these broken bones? This is even remotely normal? C’mon.

      • I’d only consider your suspicions full CT if you fingered a specific suspect or group of them. It’s worth keeping in mind that inside the Walls, Epstein likely had zero pull and contacts. Any number of people beyond the folks he was doing his child sex slave business with would have found plenty of reasons to want him dead.

        • My suspicions are solely predicated on how odd it is to have him removed from suicide watch — and then all the other stuff I’ve already named. But the removal from suicide watch, for which we still don’t have an explanation, is the glaring problem here.

  2. I dunno…….if someone did deep six Epstein, being the madame, Maxwell still is able to tell the tale, so in my opinion, that renders the theory moot.

    Now if Maxwell has an unfortunate “accident” or dies of a mysterious “sudden illness” leaving no direct witnesses, I would say the theory is spot on.

    I can see how Epstein could have easily broken bones in his neck by sitting on the top bunk, tying the sheet with about a foot length between his neck and the top bunk rail and falling head first towards the floor…..the sudden jerk would be rather violent and could easily have provided enough to force to break bones in the neck. Sounds like he died of a broken neck which could easily end in strangulation.

    • You could be right. I have difficulty envisioning this entire operation of Epstein and the bedsheet. Literally, I would need somebody to draw me a picture of it. But it could have happened as you describe. The WaPo article did go on at length about how the broken bones are only present in a certain percentage of hanging incidents — and maybe Epstein legitimately falls into that percentage. It’s just all a little too pat for me, the entire scenario. But we’ll see. I would like to see the video footage and the toxicology report.

    • Good attention to detail, Blue. It’s worth remembering that a proper hanging that gives the neck a clean snap would require six feet. Any less than that and it gets seriously messy. Usually the latter category of hangings DO die from strangulation.

    • If he had a bunk in his cell, he most likely could not have hung himself from just that, he would have straddled it after falling over and suffocated but that’s not likely either, for his neck to have been broken, he would’ve had to be much higher up and dropped without hitting the floor/ground.
      Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and as the auxiliary lethal mechanism in hangings in the event the neck does not break.

    • You might note, that The Daily Beast had a story yesterday – that I might write on today – on “where in the world is Ghislaine” – inferring that no one will confirm her whereabouts. She could be attempting to hide from liability, though I suspect she has enough property in the U.S. that someone could attach a judgment to it, and she could be trying to hide just to be away from prying eyes. But, apparently, she IS trying to hide, which is also what someone would do if they were in fear.
      I doubt that she’ll be killed, that would be too obvious and lead the public to demand a massive Warren Commision type of investigation (and I don’t believe THEY did a good job). No, I don’t think she will be killed, I don’t know if Epstein was killed.
      I know this, like Pierce said, the cat on the CT bag is out on this and always will be.

  3. We really need to stop this. Many jailhouse suicides actually do strangle themselves from a kneeling position, which does break those particular bones. We’re supposed to be the reality-based community and this is almost Pizzagate territory.

    • I’ve assumed that the comparison pictures were there for a reason, to show they are two different people. Is the old guy in the top photo ‘supposed’ to be Epstein? It’s obvious from the two lower pics that those are two different people. The nose is different, the eybrows and forehead are different, the hair color is different. If they are passing the top picture off as Epstein, it just confirms what I’ve thought all along. Epstein’s death was faked and he was smuggled out of custody and this ‘body double’ put in his place. It’s never made sense to me that Epstein would meekly take himself out, not with all the wealth and power he’s wielded for so long. I think the first suicide ‘attempt’ was to get us all looking that direction, so when this staged event happened, we’d all jump to this conclusion. Instead, I think we’ve been played. I could be wrong, but there’s evidence that doesn’t seem to be available, surveillance that didn’t seem to be done, and there’s no one in this effed up administration that we can trust to get at the truth. IMHO.

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