Dr. Marc Siegel told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday that the recent revelation that convicted sex offender and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein had certain broken bones in his neck make it more likely that his death was a homicide and not a suicide, based on statistics.
The Fox News segment came in response to The Washington Post reporting late on Wednesday night that Epstein’s autopsy found that he sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, which “deepen[ed] the mystery about the circumstances around his death.”
“Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple,” The Post added. “Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.”
“The hyoid bone in the neck being fractured and other fractures in the neck, make it more likely, and again, this is a percentage call, more likely that it was a homicide than a suicide,” Siegel, a Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, told Fox News.
“It can either be a suicide or a homicide still … I am now more suspicious than ever that this could be a homicide,” Siegel continued. “That answer is going to come to us because if someone attacked, you see signs of the attack on the body … It hasn’t been released yet. I’m waiting to see that.”
“If someone holds you down and strangles you, you see evidence on the body — bruises,” Siegel added. “The other question that has come up … is about the suicide watch situation which is shocking to me as a physician who has dealt with severely depressed and suicidal patients.”
“Six days on a suicide watch, prison officials reportedly removed it. Prison officials, guided by who? What self-respecting psychiatrist would say, ‘okay, he’s no longer suicidal,'” Siegel concluded. “There was evidence on July 23rd that he may have done something to his neck, or someone did … suddenly six days later he waves his hand, says he’s fine, and he’s put in an area where ultimately he’s unobserved — because as you know, people fall asleep and they falsify records reportedly.”
WATCH:
The New York Post reported on Monday that Epstein was found in his jail cell with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck, apparently killing “himself by kneeling toward the floor and strangling himself.”
On Tuesday, news broke that the two prison guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein supposedly fell asleep for three hours, did not check on him, and then allegedly falsified prison records to cover up their actions.
Hours prior to his alleged suicide, Epstein’s cellmate, who Epstein claimed tried to kill him in late July, was reportedly transferred out of the cell, leaving Epstein alone.
“The convicted pedophile also told his lawyers that the neck injuries he suffered in an earlier incident at the Metropolitan Correctional Center were inflicted by his hulking, ex-cop cellmate, which led the lawyers to request that he be taken off a suicide watch, according to a source familiar with Epstein’s case,” The New York Post added.