[Editor’s Note: This article and video contain graphic autopsy photos.]
It’s been four and half years since Jeffrey Epstein was found unresponsive in his New York City prison cell. His death was ruled a suicide, but questions have lingered over whether or not the convicted sex offender took his own life.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Jeffrey’s brother, Mark Epstein, who revealed a previously unseen autopsy photo that casts doubt on the assertion that Jeffrey hanged himself. The two discussed some of the errors that were made in the aftermath of Jeffrey’s death and why Mark is struggling to find answers.
Epstein’s Death
Jeffrey was found dead on August 10, 2019 in his prison cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. He had been arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Mark said he learned of his brother’s passing from the media, and he initially was inclined to believe the speculation that his brother had died by suicide. “I had no reason to doubt it,” he shared. “He didn’t have any children. Our parents are gone. He would know he didn’t have to worry about me… so, I respected that as his decision.”
But things started to change as he learned more about the circumstances surrounding Jeffrey’s death and what the medical examiner was – and was not – able to determine.
New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson, MD, conducted a four-hour autopsy on Jeffrey’s body on August 11. Mark said he and Jeffrey’s attorneys also requested former NYC Chief Medical Examiner Michael Baden, MD, be present. “They came out saying that they could not call this a suicide because it looked too much like a homicide,” Mark noted. “So, then the questions became if he didn’t commit suicide, then he was killed, and then who killed them? How was it done?”
A Justice Department Inspector General report released last summer detailed a number of failures at the Metropolitan Correctional Center – including faulty cameras, understaffing, structural problems, falsified documents, and more – before and after Jeffrey’s death, but it also concluded the disgraced financier hanged himself in his jail cell with an orange noose he fashioned from “a sheet or a shirt.” According to the 128-page document, no foul play was possible.
Epstein’s Autopsy
Mark said that when Jeffrey was found unresponsive by the prison guards, he had been dead for “at least” two hours. “We know that from the autopsy results because the mark that was left in his neck,” he shared. “For that mark to be embedded in his left that way and dry like that, he had to be dead for at least two hours. It could have been six hours, but a minimum of two.”
That mark is visible in a previously unseen autopsy photo that Mark shared exclusively with The Megyn Kelly Show. “I have a hard time, as a layperson, understanding how a sheet made that mark,” Megyn said. “It’s almost like garrote was used or some sort of rope wire.”
Mark noted that the doctors who performed the autopsy said the marking looked more like “ligature strangulation,” which typically occurs “when you go behind and pull something tight around someone’s neck.”
If you read the Justice Department report, it describes the way Jeffrey was allegedly found hanging. “They said that he was in a seated position with his legs extended out in front of him, and he was hanging by the thing around his neck from the top bunk of the bunk beds,” Mark explained. “His buttocks was about an inch or an inch and a half off the ground.”
That is not in line with the markings in the photo, Mark said. “If you look at the picture… the ligature mark is more in the middle of his neck and sort of goes straight back,” he explained. “In a hanging, it goes really high up in the front of your neck because you sink down into the noose or whatever was used.”
This is why Mark does not believe Jeffrey died from “hanging the way they say,” and he hopes that raising awareness about the case will help him learn more about what happened. Right now, he said he is questioning the Department of Justice, but he “can’t get answers.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Epstein by tuning in to episode 721 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or visiting 988lifeline.org