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Autopsy indicates death of Jeffrey Epstein likely due to strangulation

A report from an autopsy performed on multi-millionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has revealed that he suffered broken bones in his neck during his alleged suicide by hanging last week.

The Washington Post and other media have reported that the hyoid bone, which lies behind the Adam’s apple, was found broken during the examination.

The Post article quoted Jonathan L. Arden, who is president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, as stating that a broken hyoid bone is more commonly associated with death by homicidal strangulation than hanging.

The article goes on to cite studies done in both Thailand and India over the past decade on the results of suicide by hanging. The Thai study found that in only one-fourth of the twenty cases examined was there damage to the hyoid bone. The Indian study examined 264 suicides by hanging and found hyoid damage in only 16 cases, or six percent of the total.

The Indian study stated that rates of hyoid fractures in hangings depend on a variety of factors, including “age of the victim, the weight of the victim, type of suspension and height of suspension.”

The Post article also cites an incident in 2008 where the cause of death of a prisoner found dead by hanging in a Washington, DC, jail cell was determined to be a homicide, due to the discovery of a broken hyoid bone. The prisoner, Ronnie L. White, had been accused of killing a police officer. The autopsy performed on White stated that he had likely been strangled by a sheet, towel or “crux of the elbow”—a chokehold.

A broken hyoid bone due to strangulation is common enough that the New York City police cited the lack of a broken hyoid to excuse the murder by asphyxiation of Eric Garner, who was killed in 2014 when multiple NYPD officers pinned him to the ground, compressing his neck and chest, which led to his death.

The initial report from the autopsy explodes the efforts by the media, led by the New York Times, to dismiss all questioning of the official explanation of Epstein’s death as “conspiracy theories.” Whether Epstein died from suicide or murder, there is clearly enough evidence to warrant a full criminal investigation.

The evidence of a conspiracy to have Epstein killed in one form or another is mounting. The Post article comes after other reports that screaming was heard from Epstein’s cell the morning of his death.

The warden of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) has been transferred to a desk job, and the two guards on duty at the time of his death have been placed on administrative leave, following revelations that basic security protocols were not followed.

Among the procedures violated was the requirement that regular checks be made on Epstein every half hour. It was later revealed they had falsified logs.

Epstein had allegedly attempted suicide on July 23, after which he was placed on suicide watch. He was then removed from suicide watch on July 29 and returned to his cell in a segregated housing unit, apart from the main inmate population. A cellmate who was with Epstein was removed, leaving Epstein alone in his cell for at least 12 hours before he died.

The New York Times, however, is continuing its efforts at damage control. It buried its own report on Epstein’s autopsy in its local news section and attempted to spin the medical examiner’s findings to indicate that suicide was the most likely cause of death.

The headline of the Times article, “Autopsy Shows Bones in Jeffrey Epstein’s Neck Were Broken,” avoids drawing any conclusions, while the subhead in the online edition attempts to draw the opposite conclusion from the Post, namely that “such injuries can occur in a suicide by hanging, especially in older people like the financier, who was 66.”

The article ignores the statement by Arden and instead quotes a qualified statement from a Dr. Burton Bentley, head of a medical consulting firm in Arizona, who states that the hyoid fracture is not enough to determine a cause of death. “It’s not a hundred percent. It’s not even going to get us to ninety.”

In multiple articles published since Epstein’s death, the Times has worked to discredit any questioning of Epstein’s death while simultaneously being unable to explain any of the suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident.

Epstein was a man with connections at the very highest levels of society. A 2008 plea deal involved Epstein serving a thirteen-month sentence, with work release six days a week, in the Palm Beach county jail. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop any further investigations, granted immunity to Epstein’s unnamed co-conspirators and agreed to conceal the plea bargain from his victims until after his sentencing, a violation of federal law.

Included in the language of Epstein’s plea bargain was an acknowledgment that he had provided assistance in an unrelated case, a fact that still remains unexplained.

In 2011, when Epstein attempted to have his sex offender status removed in the state of New York, the federal prosecutor assigned to the case argued on behalf of Epstein, a bizarre occurrence noted by the presiding judge in the case where she denied Epstein’s request.

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[13 August 2019]

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