Pathologist says Epstein’s injuries point to murder, not suicide

NEW YORK — A forensic pathologist hired by Jeffrey Epstein’s brother says evidence suggests the disgraced financier had not died by suicide in his jail cell but had been murdered.

Michael Baden contradicted the official verdict of suicide by hanging given by officials in August, saying Epstein’s injuries were “more indicative of homicidal strangulation.”

“I think that the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide,” Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who was present at the autopsy, tells Fox News.

He says multiple fractures found in Epstein’s neck — specifically the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage — were “very unusual for suicide.”

Epstein was found dead in New York’s high-security Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10 as he awaited trial on allegations that he trafficked girls as young as 14 for sex.

New York’s chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson ruled that he had killed himself, a verdict that has been disputed by Epstein’s lawyers and his brother Mark.

Sampson said Wednesday she and her office stand by their ruling. “The original medical investigation was thorough and complete. There is no reason for a second medical investigation by our office,” she says in an email to AFP in response to Baden’s assertion.

— AFP