Two New York City jail guards were arrested on Tuesday for failing to check on Jeffrey Epstein the night he took his own life in his jail cell in August.
The two federal Bureau of Prisons employees are suspected of failing to check on Epstein every half-hour, as required when an inmate was recently taken off suicide watch. The jail guards are also suspected of fabricating log entries to say they had checked on the high-profile inmate.
The guards, who were taken into custody early Tuesday morning, are expected to be formally charged in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan later Tuesday, Nov. 19.
Investigators believe the guards failed to check on Epstein for several hours, giving him ample opportunity to fashion a noose and hang himself with it.
Epstein was in jail awaiting a hearing on multiple counts of felony child molestation and human trafficking.
He was placed on suicide watch after he attempted to hang himself on July 23. He was found unconscious on his cell floor with bruises on his neck.
Epstein was taken off suicide watch about a week before his death, but guards were still required to check on him every 30 minutes because he was still considered at risk for self harm.
Conspiracy theorists argue that Epstein did not kill himself. They say Epstein was killed to silence him because he was about to reveal the identities of high-profile pedophiles in his inner circle.
A famed forensic pathologist hired by his brother determined that Epstein died by homicidal violence. The pathologist found tiny broken bones in Epstein’s neck that are indicative of strangulation.
Forensic experts told the Dailymail.com that the hyoid bone near the Adam’s apple can be fractured when a person hangs himself, but a broken hyoid bone is most often found in cases where victims were strangled to death.
