Epstein’s eyes had burst capillaries suggesting he was strangulated in his jail cell, says forensic pathologist
Late financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's eyes had burst capillaries after he was found hanging in his Manhattan prison cell, suggesting that he was possibly murdered through manual strangulation, according to a renowned forensic pathologist. Former New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden, in a television interview on Dr. Oz, examined graphic photographs of Epstein's death and discussed his theories around it.
The millionaire investor allegedly hanged himself at the Manhattan Correctional Center early morning on August 10, despite being intermittently put on suicide watch. Epstein, a registered sex offender, was arrested by federal agents on July 6 in New Jersey after his return from a Paris trip and was charged with child sex trafficking in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591.
Baden's theories are based around burst capillaries and the fact that his lower extremities were pale and not purple or bluish, which would have been the case had he hanged himself on the August 10 night. Baden was hired by Epstein's brother, Mark, to observe an autopsy on the financier.
“The blood settles after we die. The so-called lividity, if you’re hanging, the lividity is on the lower part on the legs. These would be like maroon/purple, front and back and they aren’t,” Baden told Dr. Mehmet Oz in a clip acquired by the New York Post. Oz then proceeds to show graphic images of Epstein's eyes on camera.
"These little hemorrhages, tiny little blood splotches. What do these particular hemorrhages, burst blood vessels, tell you? Why is it a red flag?” he asks Baden in the clip. To which the pathologist replies with: "In a hanging, the arteries and the blood vessels, the veins are both clogged off and the person is pale. The face is pale."
"With a manual strangulation, there’s a backup of a pressure and the little capillaries can rupture and they’re best seen in the eye," he continues, adding that it was "very unusual, especially in a prison situation" that Epstein's cause of death was changed to hanging after it was deemed inconclusive.
"The initial death certificate was issued at the time of the autopsy, it’s pending further study, getting more information," the pathologist says on the show set to air on Thursday.
"Five days later it was changed to hanging suicide and one of the things the family wishes to know, the estate wishes to know is, what was that additional information that caused them to change it when five months later and the family still doesn’t know what happened to in the first encounter and what happened to him when he was found dead."
Baden, in an interview on CBS’ '60 Minutes' earlier this month, had also said that the forensic evidence released in the case so far "points much more to murder and strangulation than the suicide and suicidal hanging."
The pathologist added that the autopsy results showed Epstein's hyoid bone, at the base of his neck, broken in three pieces, which was unusual in a case of suicidal hanging.