The debate rages on: did Jeffrey Epstein really kill himself? Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden threw more gasoline onto that raging fire during an appearance on Fox News Monday when he argued that autopsy findings indicate evidence that Epstein died in a possible homicide.
According to Fox News, Dr. Baden, who was hired by Epstein’s brother to investigate his death, said that the ruling of the disgraced billionaire’s death as a suicide was “premature.”
“I think there’s a lot of information that still hasn’t been revealed yet that is essential in order to arrive at a conclusion, whether this is a suicide or homicide,” Baden said. “I think the closing out of the case as a suicide so quickly was premature.”
Photos released by CBS News revealed the condition of Epstein’s cell at the time of his death, which showed arrays of carefully strewn together bedsheets that he used to create the noose to hang himself with. Dr. Baden took particular issue with photographs of the ligature mark around Epstein’s neck, saying it “doesn’t match the ligature that was found at the scene and that the medical examiner copied to show how he was hanged.”
“It was too wide and too smooth. This is a rougher injury,” said Baden. “There is no transfer of any blood on that ligature from the neck. It doesn’t match the ligature mark on the neck. It’s too wide, it’s too smooth, and it doesn’t have any transfer of skin or blood.”
The original autopsy on Epstein noted that the convicted pedophile had “two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx, specifically the thyroid cartilage or Adam’s apple.” Baden argued those injuries were not typical in cases of suicide by hanging.
“In hanging, one doesn’t get three fractures of the Adam’s apple and the bone, the hyoid bone above it. That just doesn’t happen,” argued Baden. “I think the important thing is to find out what was seen when the guards first went into the cell. Was he hanging? Was he on the ground? As some people reported when he was found.”
“The removal of the body destroyed a lot of the forensic evidence,” he continued. “EMS is not supposed to remove dead bodies from jails. They’re supposed to have a whole forensic workup, what kind of forensic evidence is on the clothing, how long the person was dead.”
“We can tell from the ligature mark that he had been — there was a tight ligature around his neck for many hours, and the front of the neck, before he was found–so he was dead for a long time. But we could be more specific about that if somebody tested out the stiffness of the body, et cetera, at the scene,” he concluded.
Baden’s declaration about the nature of Epstein’s death comes on the heels of a report from “60 Minutes” saying that various protocols were broken at the time of the billionaire’s death, further adding to the suspicion of death by possible homicide.