Surveillance Video From Night Of Jeffrey Epstein’s Suicide Attempt Mysteriously Vanishes
Dec. 19 2019, Updated 8:28 p.m. ET
Surveillance footage from the night of Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide attempt has vanished.
Prosecutors revealed in court on Wednesday, December 18, that they could not locate any videos of the outside of the late financier’s cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City from July 23.
“I don’t know the details of how it was lost or destroyed or why it wasn’t retained when it should have been,” lawyer Bruce Barket said in court.
As RadarOnline.com readers know, prison guards found Epstein with neck injuries after reportedly trying to hang himself on July 23. Afterwards, the inmate was treated and put on suicide watch. Guards were meant to check on him every 30 minutes following his attempt, but on August 10, he was left alone for eight hours, and when guards finally walked over to his cell, he was dead.
Federal correctional officers Tova Noel, 31, and Michael Thomas, 41, were each charged with “one count of conspiring to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the MCC, and to make false records,” according to court documents obtained by Radar. The prison guards were on duty the night Epstein died and are accused of falsifying records in which they lied about checking up on Epstein when in reality, they didn’t. The have both pleaded not guilty.
Despite the fact that the New York City Medical Examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide, many sources close to the case still believe he was murdered, and a forensic pathologist told Fox News that the accused pedophile’s body showed signs of homicide.
News of the missing surveillance footage was exposed after Epstein's cellmate at the time of his suicide attempt, Nick Tartaglione, formally requested that video be preserved as evidence.
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Tartaglione, a former cop who was awaiting trial for four counts of murder, was accused of attacking Epstein on July 23, but he denied the claims, saying he actually tried to stop the late financier from taking his own life.
“We want to be sure that all the evidence is preserved to show that Nick behaved appropriately and even admirably that evening,” Barket said in court. “We asked for all the video and photographic evidence to be preserved, specifically this surveillance video. Now it’s gone.”
At the time of his death, Epstein was awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls and abusing them in his various mansions. Two of his alleged victims have since sued his estate.