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MAJOR BREAKING NEWS:
1/ "An autopsy found that financier Jeffrey Epstein sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings, deepening the mystery about the circumstances around his death."
Wot.
Wot.
2/ "Among the bones broken in his neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they're more common in victims of homicide by strangulation."
Wot.
Wot.
3/ "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."
Wot.
Wot.
4/ "The revelation of Jeffrey Epstein’s neck injuries follows reports that officers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center broke protocol and failed to properly monitor him. Corrections officers had not checked on Epstein for 'several' hours [before his death]."
Wot.
Wot.
5/ "People familiar with the autopsy said Sampson’s office is seeking additional information... That could include video evidence of the jail hallways, which may establish whether anyone entered Epstein’s cell during the night he died; results of a toxicology screening..."
Wot.
Wot.
6/ "'If, hypothetically, the hyoid bone is broken, that would generally raise questions about strangulation,' said Jonathan L. Arden, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, 'but it is not definitive...'"
Wot.
Wot.
7/ "In a study of suicidal hangings of young-adults and middle-aged people in India, conducted from 2010 to 2013, hyoid damage was found in just 16 of 264 cases, or six percent."
Wot.
Wot.
8/ The article also implies age, obesity, a long "drop" (on the noose), and some medical conditions could make hyoid damage more likely in a suicide.
Epstein was 66, but apparently in good health, certainly not obese, and would not have been in a position to have a long "drop."
Epstein was 66, but apparently in good health, certainly not obese, and would not have been in a position to have a long "drop."
9/ But what many others may fail to note is that, in assessing personal factors—age perhaps weighing toward hyoid damage but everything else, at least that we know of, against—you also have to consider environmental factors, i.e. the likelihood of other proximate causes of death.
10/ *If* the autopsy can't conclusively attach the hyoid damage to suicide versus homicide, there'll have to be some consideration to the fact that he didn't have a cellmate—which points toward suicide—the fact that guards breached protocol (which points another way), and so on.
11/ I say the guards' behavior points "another way" not to say homicide—which I still see as *very* unlikely—but some complicity from other parties in inducing/allowing a suicide—as why would Epstein think he had time to plan/execute a suicide if he thought he was being watched?
12/ That is, there's an argument to be made—albeit, yet, not conclusively—that Epstein was either able to kill himself partly because he *knew* he wasn't being watched, or was harmed by others who'd been told he wasn't being watched. A "fortuitous" suicide plot feels less likely.
13/ All this would've been *immaterial* if the autopsy had *clearly* shown a suicide—i.e., all indictors (frankly, both in the body and in the environment) pointing toward a wholly self-planned and "fortuitously" timed suicide, but I have to say... that does feel less likely now.
14/ CBS reported that "shrieking" was heard from Epstein's cell. Of *course* this *could have been a mis-description of the guards' shouting*—but (a) it wasn't Epstein if he was unconscious and (b) I met hundreds of prison guards as a public defender and none seemed a "shrieker."
15/ And I hate to state the obvious: the most powerful men in the world wanted this guy dead immediately by whatever means.
I'm sorry, but in an *inconclusive* autopsy—if that's what we're headed toward—that *has* to be acknowledged and taken into account somehow.
It just does.
I'm sorry, but in an *inconclusive* autopsy—if that's what we're headed toward—that *has* to be acknowledged and taken into account somehow.
It just does.
16/ Media desperately wants to write stories whose lead is, "Twitter personalities push conspiracy theory!", so please Jesus for the 100th time can I say that as a former lawyer and investigator I *don't develop a theory of a case* without more evidence—far more—than we have now.
17/ In fact, given how many outlets—including the Kremlin's, RT—misquote my threads as taking positions on things I haven't take a position on, let me be clear: I *don't know* and *have no theory* on what happened here. I just know they need to investigate the *hell* out of this.
18/ All we can say is: 1) there's some evidence of Epstein's death—and the circumstances preceding it—being suspicious; 2) the nature of Epstein's case would demand a massive probe of his sudden death in any case; and 3) at *present* it looks like we have an inconclusive autopsy.
19/ I'd be remiss if I didn't note that the story that dropped tonight of an "unidentified associate" collecting Epstein's body—when his brother has been quoted talking about him before, so it's not like family members couldn't have done this—was strange. nbcnews.com/news/crime-cou…
20/ But here's what I would *stay the hell away from*:
(1) The false 4chan claim by a "prison guard" implying Epstein's body was swapped out for a cadaver;
(2) claims that a photograph—Epstein on a gurney—confirms the doppelgänger theory;
(3) *any* "a POTUS was involved" theory.
(1) The false 4chan claim by a "prison guard" implying Epstein's body was swapped out for a cadaver;
(2) claims that a photograph—Epstein on a gurney—confirms the doppelgänger theory;
(3) *any* "a POTUS was involved" theory.
