The Epstein Mystery Takes a New Turn

The body of prison inmate and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was discovered on the morning of August 10, 2019, in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan.

Despite U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr quickly ruling the questionable death a suicide, there have been continuing suspicions that Epstein was murdered.

As the release of his extensive files demonstrated, Jeffrey Epstein was extremely connected throughout the world. There were many powerful people with a motivation to kill him so that their involvement in his illegal activities would not be revealed.

One person who does not believe Epstein committed suicide is famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, former Chief Medical Examiner in New York City. Baden has performed more than 20,000 autopsies in his storied career. He said, “The autopsy findings are much more consistent with a crushing injury caused by homicidal strangulation than caused by hanging by suicide.”

Baden noted that Epstein had three fractures in his neck. He said that individuals with “even one fracture, we have to investigate the possibility of a homicide.” Baden has never seen a suicide with three neck fractures, nor has such a case ever been referenced in “findings in textbooks.”

Dr. Baden was a witness to the autopsy at the request of Mark Epstein, Jeffrey’s brother, who also believes that he was murdered.

Recently, in the trove of Epstein documents released by the Department of Justice, video was discovered from the Metropolitan Correctional Center. In the corner of video footage, a blurry “orange blob” is seen going up the stairs to Epstein’s floor at 10:39 p.m. August 9, 2019.

The FBI speculated that the image could have shown an inmate or a correctional officer, but no definitive answer has ever been provided. Instead, the image could have been the murderer accessing the stairwell to kill Epstein. No one knows for sure because the video cameras outside of Epstein’s cell were conveniently not working.

However, video from the nearby “officer station of the ninth floor L tier wing” was included within the massive release of Epstein files. According to reporters Gabrielle Fahmy and Shane Galvin of the New York Post, this station was just “a short set of stairs” away from Epstein’s cell.

The video from 3:15 a.m. on the morning of August 10, 2019 shows the MCC prison guards assigned to Epstein, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas. Instead of checking on Epstein and the other inmates every 30 minutes as was required, the guards were sleeping, surfing the Internet, “writing on a piece of paper, walking back and forth and talking on the phone.”

Along with searching online for furniture, Noel made several searches for the “latest on Epstein in jail.” The last search occurred just minutes before his body was discovered.

Noel and Thomas falsified records to indicate that Epstein’s cell was checked. They were fired for “misconduct and poor job performance,” but criminal charges against them were dropped.

One issue that must be investigated are new reports that Noel made 12 questionable cash deposits from  April 2018 to July 30, 2019, just ten days before Epstein’s body was found. The last deposit of $5,000 was the largest amount and the overall total was $11,880.

Possibly these cash deposits helped Noel purchase a “$62,000 2019 Land Rover Range Rover,” which is an expensive vehicle considering the average salary for a MCC prison guard was $52,481 in 2019.

It should also be noted that Noel moved to the “Special Housing Unit,” which included Epstein’s cell on July 7, 2019, “just weeks before his death.”

Hopefully, these issues will be examined thoroughly by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and his colleagues. Comer said that Noel has been called to testify before his committee on Thursday, March 26. He said if she does not appear, “I’ll subpoena her” because “We’ve got a lot of questions to ask.”

Since the prison guards were preoccupied with everything but doing their jobs, the exact time of Epstein’s death has never been determined. This is just one of many mysteries in this perplexing case. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the problems were due to “dishonest” prison guards who did not check on the inmates.

Another problem is how the case was managed by the Department of Justice, which transferred the Epstein death investigation to the Office of Inspector General, which lacked “prosecutorial powers.” Unfortunately, this transfer prevented “the examination of Epstein’s death as a murder.”

According to an investigation by The Miami Herald, “As a result his cell was never considered a possible crime scene that would, under normal circumstances, be examined by experienced criminal and forensic experts who would take fingerprints, blood samples, and other evidence. One thing that got lost…was that the piece of fabric that Epstein allegedly used to hang himself was never identified.”

We are also learning that there were bags of evidence destroyed in the days after Epstein’s death. An analysis by The Miami Herald revealed there were “people shredding documents” in the immediate aftermath of Epstein’s death. It is unknown what was in the “bags” of documents, but it was reported to be “unusual volumes of materials.”

One correctional officer reported to the FBI that he had “never seen” so many “bags of shredded documents…put in the dumpster at the rear gate” of the prison. The “bags” of documents were shredded and removed before federal agents reviewed their contents.

What was in those “bags” of documents? Additionally, there is no video, no hanging noose, no prison guards performing their duties, mysterious Internet searches, questionable payments, and ample motivation to kill Epstein.

Also, the world’s most renowned forensic pathologist believes Epstein was murdered. Yet, if Americans do not believe the official “suicide” narrative, we are labeled “conspiracy theorists.”

This case has been poorly administered from the beginning. It is not a “hoax,” it is now the story with unending questions. However, the first one that needs to be answered is “Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?”

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from 1-2 p.m. CT nationally on Real America’s Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is the President and General Manager of WGSO Radio, a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance, and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and at Crouere.net. For more information, email him at [email protected].