That is what Dr. Michael Baden told Fox News on Wednesday, saying he doesn’t believe that disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s death in a jail cell was a suicide, and that it harbored many of the hallmarks of a murder.
“I’ve not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case,” Baden told Fox News.
The allegations may spark fresh conspiracy theories around the death of the wealthy, well-connected financier. The 66-year-old investor died Aug. 10 of an apparent suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he was in custody awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
After an autopsy in mid-August, Barbara Sampson, the chief medical examiner in New York City, said Epstein’s cause of death was suicide by hanging, which she determined after “careful review of all investigative information.”
Epstein’s death has sparked a host of suspicion partly because he was put in the suicide-watch unit on July 23, weeks prior to his eventual demise, but had been removed soon after when a psychological evaluation found him fit enough not to be monitored.
He had pleaded not guilty to the government’s allegations that he led a sex-trafficking scheme to lure young women and girls to his homes in Florida and New York.
Baden, however, told Fox News that Epstein’s death was more consistent with a homicide, citing fractures in the financier’s neck that are typically associated with strangulation. He also said bleeding in Epstein’s eyes were also typical of someone being strangled.
“There’s evidence here of homicide that should be investigated, to see if it is or isn’t homicide,” Baden said.