Jeffery Epstein, the man who was charged with sexually abusing numerous underage girls, had committed suicide, ruled the medical examiner's office.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10. This sparked off outrage and disbelief over how such a high-profile prisoner, known for socializing with powerful people including presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, could have gone unwatched.
Messages seeking comment have been left for Epstein's lawyers. Other theories regarding hius death haven't been put down yet. An office telephone number for Dr Michael Baden, the pathologist hired by Epstein's representatives to observe the autopsy, rang unanswered.
Epstein was found with a bruising on his neck on July 23 and ever since had been placed on suicide watch.
People familiar with operations at the jail say he was taken off the watch after about a week and put back in a high-security housing unit where he was supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes. Jail guards on duty the night of Epstein's death are suspected of falsifying log entries to show they were checking on inmates every half-hour as required
Attorney General William Barr has said that Epstein will be continue to be investigated so that possible conspirators can be punished.
A source on condition of anonymity said that a guard in Epstein's unit was working a fifth straight day of overtime and another guard was working mandatory overtime. As per autopsy reports, Epstein's neck was broken in several places.
US District Judge Richard Berman, who is in charge of the criminal case against Epstein, asked the jail's warden this week for answers about the earlier episode, writing in a letter Monday that it had "never been definitively explained." The warden replied that an internal investigation was completed but the information could not be divulged as the findings were being incorporated into investigations into Epstein's death.
The Washington Post and The New York Times reported Thursday that the autopsy revealed that several bones in Epstein's neck had been broken, leading to speculation his death was a homicide.
Epstein, a sex offender had pleaded guilty in 2008 for offering a teenage girl for sex.
Two more women on Wednesday, sued Jeffrey Epstein's estate, saying he sexually abused them.
The suit, filed Thursday in a federal court in New York, claims the women were working as hostesses at a popular Manhattan restaurant in 2004 when they were recruited to give Epstein massages.
One was 18 at the time. The other was 20.
The lawsuit says an unidentified female recruiter offered the hostesses hundreds of dollars to provide massages to Epstein, saying he "liked young, pretty girls to massage him," and wouldn't engage in any unwanted touching. The women say Epstein groped them anyway.
They are seeking $100 million in damages, citing depression, anxiety, anger and flashbacks. Other lawsuits, filed over many years by other women, accused him of hiring girls as young as 14 or 15 to give him massages, then subjecting them to sex acts.
The two prison guards who were on duty to keep watch over Epstein have been suspended. Accodring to American Federation of Government Employees Council of Prison Locals, many a times, prison guards are forced to work overtime.
President Donald Trump in the meantime said, "I want a full investigation, and that's what I absolutely am demanding.”
