NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: An autopsy of the financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in an apparent suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, found his neck had been broken in several places, according to two law enforcement sources.
Such injuries can occur to people who hang themselves or who are strangled.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in New York City on Saturday. The circumstances of the multi-millionaire’s death are under investigation, and it was unclear when a report of the autopsy would be made public.
One of the two law enforcement sources familiar with the Epstein case said there was no evidence or suggestion of foul play but cautioned the investigation was at an early stage.
“In all forensic investigations, all information must be synthesized to determine the cause and manner of death,” Barbara Sampson, New York City’s chief medical examiner, said in a statement on Thursday. “Everything must be consistent; no single finding can be evaluated in a vacuum.”
Epstein’s broken neck was reported earlier by the Washington Post.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan where Epstein was jailed, said there had not been an inmate suicide there since 2006.
Zhongxue Hua, the Bergen County medical examiner in New Jersey, said a neck fracture was atypical in a suicide but warned not to jump to conclusions.
“It’s unusual to have a neck fracture,” Hua said. “But the first question to address is when did it occur.”
If Epstein’s neck fracture was fresh, Hua said, then “at a minimum, it’s a very unusual suicide.”
Epstein, 66, who once counted Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Bill Clinton as friends, was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday morning, according to the prison bureau.
A source told Reuters previously that he was found hanging by the neck.
Mark Epstein, who is Jeffrey Epstein’s brother, said in an interview on Thursday he had last seen his brother in the morgue on Sunday.
Jeffrey Epstein pleaded not guilty in July to charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005. Prosecutors said he recruited and paid girls to give him massages, which became sexual in nature.
The financier had been on suicide watch at the MCC but was taken off prior to his death, according to a source who was not authorized to speak on the matter.
Epstein was alone in a cell when he was found hanging there.
Attorney General William Barr has said the criminal investigation into any possible co-conspirators would continue.
Barr, whose agency oversees the Bureau of Prisons, has also demanded an investigation into Epstein’s death and ordered the temporary reassignment of his jail warden.
The bureau said 20 of its inmates, including those under home confinement or in halfway houses, committed suicide in the 10 months ending in July, and 109 committed suicide in its previous five fiscal years, which end on Sept. 30.
It also said its suicide rate is lower than that for the overall US population.
At the MCC, two jail guards are required to make separate checks on all prisoners every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not followed overnight, the source said.
Separately, a team at the jail on Wednesday began an “after action” review, which is normally triggered by significant events such as a prominent inmate’s death, a person familiar with the matter said.
Jeffrey Epstein autopsy report shows broken neck
Jeffrey Epstein autopsy report shows broken neck
- Epstein committed suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges
- Medical examiner says a neck fracture was atypical in a suicide
Putin warns that Russia will seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if peace talks fail
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that Moscow will seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin’s demands in peace talks.
US President Donald Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end nearly four years of fighting following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Washington’s efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Speaking at an annual meeting with top military officers, Putin said Moscow would prefer to achieve its goals and “eliminate the root causes of the conflict” by diplomatic means, but he added that “if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive dialogue, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means.”
Putin was referring to Ukrainian territory seized by Russia — action widely condemned in the West as a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and an unprovoked act of aggression.
Putin claimed that “the Russian army has seized and is firmly holding strategic initiative all along the front line” and warned that Moscow will move to expand a “buffer security zone” alongside the Russian border.
“Our troops are different now, they are battle-hardened and there is no other such army in the world now,” he said.
Putin praised Russia’s growing military might and particularly noted the modernization of its atomic arsenal, including the new nuclear-capable intermediate range Oreshnik ballistic missile that he said will officially enter combat duty this month. Russia first tested a conventionally armed version of the Oreshnik to strike a Ukrainian factory in November 2024, and Putin has boasted that it’s impossible to intercept.
At the same time, he rejected European officials’ statements about Moscow’s purported plans to attack European nations as “lies and sheer nonsense ... driven by short-sighted personal or group political interests, not by the interests of their people.”
Sharply different demands by Moscow and Kyiv
Putin’s tough statements follow several rounds of talks this week between Ukrainian. American and European officials on a U.S.-drafted peace plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after meeting with US envoys in Berlin that the document could be finalized within days, after which U.S. envoys will present it to the Kremlin.
Putin wants all the areas in four key regions captured by his forces, as well as Crimea, which was illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also has demanded that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces have not captured yet.
The Kremlin also insists that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO and warns it won’t accept the deployment of any troops from NATO members and will view them as “legitimate target.”
Zelenskyy has expressed readiness to drop Ukraine’s bid to join NATO if the US and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine’s preference remains NATO membership as the best security guarantee to prevent further Russian aggression.
At the same time, Zelenskyy has rejected Moscow’s demands that it pull back its troops from other areas that Russia has not been able to take by force.
The Ukrainian leader described the draft peace plan discussed with the US during talks in Berlin on Monday as “not perfect” but “very workable,” noting that Kyiv and its allies were very close to a deal on “strong security guarantees.” But he also emphasized that the key issue of control over territory remain unresolved and rejected the U.S. push for Ukraine to cede control over the eastern Donetsk region.
Putin on Wednesday again praised Trump’s settlement efforts and seconded Trumps’ repeated claims that the war in Ukraine wouldn’t have erupted under his watch. He charged that the previous U.S. administration and some of the European allies he contemptuously called “piglings” had vainly expected Russia’s collapse.
The Russian leader said a dialogue with Europe “is unlikely to become possible with the current political elites, but in any case, it will be inevitable as we grow stronger if not with the current politicians, then with a change in political elites in Europe.”
Russian military maps out for more gains
Reporting to Putin at Wednesday’s military meeting, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov spelled out plans for further advances, saying the latest Russian advances in Donetsk have set the stage for a quick push into the Ukrainian-controlled part of the region.
Belousov also declared that Russian troops were preparing to drive Ukrainian forces from parts of the Zaporizhzhia region that Moscow also annexed in 2022 but never fully captured, as well as extend gains in neighboring Dnipropetrovsk.
“The key task for the next year is to preserve and accelerate the tempo of the offensive,” he said.
Belousov spelled out plans for expanding Russian military capabilities, focusing on drones, jamming equipment and air defense assets.
Aerial attacks continue
As Russia continues its grinding advances in many sectors of the front, it also pummeled Ukraine with daily missile and drone strikes.
At least 26 people were injured by Russian glide bombs in Zaporizhzhia and its vicinity, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov. The attack damaged several residential buildings, as well as infrastructure and an educational facility.
At least 69 long-range drones were launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 29 drones in the morning, with the assault continuing during the day.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 94 Ukrainian drones overnight.
In Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, drones injured two people and damaged several private houses, according to regional emergency officials. In the southwestern Voronezh region, Gov. Alexander Gusev said drone fragments damaged a power line serving an infrastructure facility, causing a blaze that was quickly extinguished.
