The Epstein files: Why the sex offender's brother and lawyer do not believe he took his own life

When Mark Epstein heard the news his brother Jeffrey had died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell, he thought that made sense. Jeffrey wouldn't want to spend his life locked up. He had no reason to doubt it.

"I fully expected them to come out of the autopsy saying, 'It's unfortunate, but Jeffrey committed suicide.' But that's not what happened," he told the ABC.

The independent pathologist who Mark hired to attend the autopsy believed the death looked more like a homicide. The New York deputy assistant medical examiner conducting the autopsy said she required further information before making a ruling.

It was after then-chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson ruled Epstein's death a suicide a few days later that "the wheels started turning".

"Let me be really clear: Barbara Sampson … was not at the autopsy," Mark said.

Mark said he believed this was "a cover-up".

So what happened the night of Jeffrey Epstein's death?

In the absence of some crucial information, conspiracy theories flourished, gaining momentum as further details came to light. There were no cameras recording in the area outside Epstein's cell, the guards hadn't carried out the usual checks, and Epstein's cellmate had moved out the day before.

Jeffrey Epstein was a high-flying financier and convicted sex offender who lured girls and young women to his Palm Beach mansion, New York townhouse and private island where he sexually assaulted them. The FBI and Department of Justice have identified 1,200 Epstein victims and their families.

In 2019, federal prosecutors laid charges relating to the sex trafficking of minors, setting the stage for a trial that many expected to implicate others in his network.

Ever since Epstein's death in custody, there has been widespread speculation about his death and whether it was part of a cover-up.

Mark Epstein refused to discuss anything to do with his brother's victims or the Epstein files that are now being pored over and consumed by a deeply interested public. Instead, he says he is focused on bringing about another investigation into his brother's death.

"You don't get away with murdering my brother, where I come from," he said.

"I want a real investigation to get done. That's my goal."

In downtown New York City, near an office of the US Attorney and 1 Police Plaza, the Metropolitan Correctional Centre (MCC) was holding Jeffrey Epstein. It has since been closed, but it was a high-security facility that housed drug lord El Chapo and former associates of Osama bin Laden. This was a federal facility with a track record of holding some of America's most wanted.

It also had a history of security failures.

After Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell on August 10, 2019, a series of "protocol failures", as well as "technical failures/deficiencies" were discovered inside the MCC facility and an investigation was opened, according to an FBI document released in the latest tranche of Department of Justice (DOJ) disclosures.

Despite Mark's insistence that an adequate investigation into his brother's cause of death was never carried out, there was a DOJ probe. A report from that investigation released in 2023 said: "The FBI investigated the cause of Epstein's death and determined there was no criminality pertaining to how Epstein had died."

But Mark is continuing to push for another investigation, telling the ABC he believes his brother "was murdered".

Mark Epstein and large swathes of the American public believe the same thing about how Epstein died. The New York medical examiner, the DOJ and the FBI might have moved on from the possibility Epstein did not take his own life, but many have not, and now suspicions around exactly how he died have gone mainstream.

What happened in the autopsy?

One of the cornerstone principles of forensic pathology is that the corpse is a silent witness who never lies. Crime scenes might get contaminated, evidence might be planted and humans make errors, but a dead body is a vault of factual evidence.

When Epstein died, Mark exercised his right as next of kin to have his own expert forensic pathologist observe the autopsy being carried out by a New York City medical examiner. Lawyer David Schoen, who had recently agreed to defend Epstein at trial, recommended Michael Baden.

Dr Baden was in the room with deputy chief medical examiner Kristin Roman as she conducted the autopsy. According to Dr Baden, she shared some of his misgivings but could not make a ruling without a further investigation.

Three days later her boss, chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson, ruled it as a suicide.

"There might be some information that hasn't been released yet that the chief medical examiner was given that might cast a different light on it. But if this were a suicide, it's an extremely unusual suicide," Dr Baden said.

"It's more consistent with homicidal strangulation rather than suicidal hanging."

It is worth noting how experienced Dr Baden is. He was a New York City medical examiner for 25 years, including a stint as its chief. He was the lead examiner for the New York state police. He was chairperson of the forensic pathology panel that re-investigated the deaths of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King. And in the 1980s, he was among the scientists sought by the Russian government to examine the remains of the Romanov family and the last Emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicolas II.

He has conducted more than 20,000 autopsies and, for a time, was the chief forensic pathologist in charge of examining deaths in New York City prisons.

A DOJ report into Epstein's death found failures in staff and systems, that he was left alone after a period of suicide watch, that he had access to bedding and that there was a critical failure of cameras inside the facility, leaving gaps in evidence.

In another complication, the cell was not treated as a crime scene, which meant forensic evidence was lost. All of those factors have helped erode trust in the system and in turn, the suicide declaration.

But Dr Baden comes back to the body on the table in front of him.

"When looking at the body … I looked at a little odd situation there, because the ligature furrow around the neck was horizontal rather than upwards because [in] suicides, the ligature will slide upward and stop by the undersurface of the jawbone, the mandible," he said.

"There were three fractures: two of the thyroid cartilage, which is the Adam's apple, and one of the hyoid bone … and that is extremely unusual in suicide. That's much more common a crushing injury in homicidal strangulation."

Dr Baden explained that the series of three fractures were reminiscent of the results of assassinations you might see in movies "like the Godfather pictures, when somebody gets into the passenger seat in the car and the other guy gets behind and a ligature is put around the neck and squeezed".

"So that's a crushing injury and not … usually seen in suicidal hangings," he said.

An FBI document released as part of the DOJ disclosures of the Epstein files included some of the medical examiner's autopsy report. In the document, titled Jeffrey Epstein Death Investigation, the examiner noted the ligature mark "peaks slightly on both sides of the neck." The chief medical examiner at the time, the person who made the declaration of suicide, defended that work and said she stood behind her findings.

The examiner noted the pattern of three fractures as part of the reasoning for the suicide by hanging declaration. Asked by the ABC if he agreed with her opinion, Dr Baden said: "No. That's absolutely wrong.

These conflicting views have troubled not only conspiracy theorists but those seeking out sound, available evidence.

Dr Baden's opinion is one of the driving forces behind Mark Epstein's push for another investigation. And why others, including the highly regarded journalist who uncovered the scale of his abuse, do not believe he took his own life.

'I don't believe any conspiracy theory'

In the weeks leading up to his death, Epstein appointed a new lawyer, David Schoen. Well known in the United States for his criminal defence and civil rights work, Mr Schoen has a list of famous clients, perhaps the most notable being Donald Trump.

Mr Schoen was only Epstein's lawyer for a short period of time, but since his client's death he has been vocal about what he learned as he prepared Epstein's defence. Most famously, he has conveyed his interaction with Epstein about Mr Trump, including that the late sex offender professed to have no "bad information" on the now-president.

For most Americans, Mr Trump's impeachment lawyer offering up insights on what information Epstein did or did not have on the president most likely means very little.

"Many people, I think, have suggested I would be less than credible on the subject because I am friends with Donald Trump … but what I have said are the facts," Mr Schoen said.

He told the ABC that while he did not believe someone of significant social or political standing targeted Epstein, he did have his own reasons for believing his client did not take his own life.

"I don't believe any conspiracy theory," Mr Schoen told the ABC.

But he also said: "I don't think he killed himself."

Mr Schoen said Epstein had made plans to defend the sex trafficking charges he was facing and other plans that were "forward-looking".

Epstein had been placed on suicide watch in the weeks leading up to his death, but there is uncertainty over the incident that led to him being under that level of observation. In the Jeffrey Epstein Death Investigation document, a detailed timeline of his days in the MCC is laid out. It says the chief psychologist undertook an initial suicide risk assessment, during which Epstein "denied any suicidality and had no mental health or suicide history" and even a few days later "did not appear to be in any distress".

Then he was found curled up in his cell, alive but with a visibly red neck, according to the FBI document. Epstein told an officer that his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, who was awaiting a murder trial, had tried to kill him. But in the following days, notes on his psychological assessments included that he "could not remember what happened" and that he had said, "I have no interest in killing myself", the document reads.

Six days after the incident he was taken off suicide watch. Seventeen days later he would be found dead in his cell.

Mr Schoen said that while he does not buy into the part of the conspiracy theories that suggest someone had Epstein killed, he does see a "political agenda to put this case in the past" and believed the suicide declaration was an attempt to do that.

Among the American public, it has not worked.

"When I polled Americans asking them what they thought about his death, if it was just him killing himself or if he was killed by a broader conspiracy, half the country thought it was a conspiracy," political scientist and conspiracy theory expert Joe Uscinski said.

Even before Epstein was found dead in his cell, his story was "a perfect storm of belief for conspiracy theorists", according to Dr Uscinski, who explained that the imagination of someone predisposed to believing these ideas is almost lying dormant until the right story comes along.

With Epstein, there was a prior conviction, photos with a prince, flight manifests and a private island. Most importantly, there was a growing number of women braving public exposure to reveal what happened to them while they were in Epstein's world.

What that evidence morphed into were theories "about massive sex trafficking rings" … "views about blackmail rings and that Epstein was controlling all sorts of rich and powerful people," Dr Uscinski said.

"We don't have great explanations of how and why his death occurred. There are reasons to think the investigation after the fact was kind of slipshod. There are reasons to think that the original prosecution and plea deal wasn't that well-thought-out," he said.

Dr Uscinski said the combination created "the basic conspiratorial building blocks".

The line between conspiracy theory and reasonable suspicion can be drawn on evidence and in the case of Jeffrey Epstein there is plenty of it. But Dr Uscinski warned the theories had now gone further than what could be proven.

"You put all of that together and you have a recipe for a lot of interest, a lot of beliefs that are out in front of the evidence," he said.

Calling something a conspiracy theory makes it harder to inspect in a reasonable, rational way, but one of the most respected voices on Jeffrey Epstein, Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K Brown, remains suspicious of the circumstances of his death.

"Is that a conspiracy theory because I don't believe that he committed suicide? No," she told the ABC.

Brown famously published a three-part series on Epstein in 2018 that helped encourage federal prosecutors to look at the Palm Beach local again. By this time Epstein had been convicted of two sex crimes, including soliciting a prostitute and soliciting a minor for prostitution. To Brown, the leniency shown by the prosecutors at that time and the "sweetheart deal" they struck with Epstein was a big flashing warning sign that more might be going on.

Brown identified 80 of Epstein's alleged victims while researching her initial stories and had spoken to the investigators that originally took on the case.

"Quite frankly, he had a good shot of arguing that the deal in Florida, which gave him federal immunity … applied to the charges that they were bringing against him in New York. I just think it was too soon for him to throw in the towel," she said.

Brown is able to rule out some of the wildest conspiracy theories while remaining sceptical of the official line that Epstein took his own life.

"For example, one of the theories is that he's probably still alive there somewhere. I know he's not because I saw his autopsy pictures, but there are people who believe that," she said.

"There are people who believe that he was a Mossad agent. I haven't closed the door on that, but I haven't seen evidence of that either.

"I think you try to be open-minded to some of these things, but I think there comes a point when you know there's no evidence of something, you have to understand that it is just a conspiracy theory."

For Mark Epstein and lawyer David Schoen, a great deal of their suspicions about Jeffrey Epstein's death come back to the expert opinion of Dr Baden. Brown also said she gave "a lot of weight" to Dr Baden's evidence.

But there are also suspicions among his victims — the people who were in his homes, seeing and experiencing his abuse.

'He liked to have things on people'

In the pages of Epstein's correspondence uploaded in the DOJ disclosures, he asks to be introduced to people of note, suggests dinner guests, names and titles are dropped and email by email, his circle of influence appears to get wider.

He was collecting connections and now there is correspondence with people across business, politics, academia, even diplomacy that suggests he was at least trying to have a presence in those spheres.

One of his victims, Lisa Phillips, has said she watched him do this in real time and believes it is a piece of the puzzle surrounding his death.

Ms Phillips was a model with a New York agency contract and on a job she hoped would be her big break in the Caribbean when a friend suggested they spend their free day on an island owned by this guy she knew.

Ms Phillips was in her 20s at the time, but as she has recalled to the ABC, Epstein used the same predatory tactics on her as he had with much younger girls.

Years later she would find herself in a place of torment. She knew Epstein had opened doors for her and considered him "a mentor", but she was also his victim.

When she tried to extricate herself from Epstein's world, the phone would ring and an offer for a modelling job too good to refuse would come her way. "That's how he reeled me back in," Ms Phillips said.

"The last thing he said to me was he liked to have things on people."

She said she believed Epstein was "recording everything" so that when he got "in trouble for his sick, twisted ways" he would have the leverage he needed.

"I believe he always thought he was going to get out of it. So I don't believe he killed himself," Ms Phillips said.

Eventually she moved to the West Coast to set up a new life in Los Angeles. After she arrived, Ms Phillips was offered a casting for the upcoming Victoria Secrets show — a potential career-making moment. She told the caller "that's amazing".

"Then I hung up the phone and I didn't go to that casting," Phillips said.

Jeffrey Epstein's death robbed his victims of a chance for justice, but it also catapulted this story into a stratosphere of conspiracy theory rarely seen, with experts now comparing it to one of America's favourite questions: who really killed JFK?

Inside Epstein's camp, his lawyer and his brother are of the opinion there is more to know. Speaking to women who saw him up close and the investigative journalist who cracked the story open, the suspicions around his death become less conspiratorial and more like reasonable questions left unanswered.

And as more files are released, the public continues its search for evidence either way.

Dr Uscinski said conspiracy theories that were once very loud have been known to fade out, noting the example in the mid-2000s when there was an unfounded belief among parts of the community that 911 was an inside job.

"Now you talk to some Americans about it and they're like, 'Who's Bush?' And that may happen here," he said.

"Then again, events could conspire such that Epstein remains part of culture for a long, long time."

Credits:

Writer: Emily Clark

Editor: Clare Blumer

Digital video: Jessicah Mendes, Kenny Ang and Jack Fisher

Diabolical: The Epstein Files, ABC NEWS documentary team

Reporter: Grace Tobin

Researcher: Alison McClymont

Producer: Jennifer Feller

Executive Producer: Caitlin Shea