Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime bodyguard claims ‘somebody helped him kill himself’ as chilling new details emerge in autopsy report
JEFFREY Epstein's bodyguard believes his disgraced boss recruited others to help him with his apparent jailhouse suicide, according to a shock report.
The paedophile financier, 66, was found dead in his New York jail cell on Saturday morning while awaiting trial on child sex charges.
However, burly Igor Zinoviev amazingly told New York Magazine: “Somebody helped him to do that.”
The former cage fighter declined to given any more details about how he believes Epstein carried out the reported hanging at a Manhattan federal prison.
He said: “Listen, you know, that’s going a little too deep.”
In an earlier unpublished interview from 2015, Zinoviev was more candid about his thoughts on his shamed boss, reports the New York Post.
“Me personally, if I caught him with my daughter or something do that — I’m not going to go to police. I do something else. Much worse."
Zinoviev said he worked for Epstein for five or six years - often driving him from the Palm Beach jail where he served a 13-month sentence in 2008 when he was allowed out on work release.
While working for Epstein, Zinoviev flew with him to his residences on New York's Upper East Side and in the Virgin Islands.
During Epstein's autopsy he was found to have broken his hyoid bone, which is near the Adam's apple in men, according to the Washington Post.
Although hyoid breaks can occur during a hanging, experts told the paper the fracture is more common in strangulation victims.
Epstein reportedly hanged himself with a bed sheet in his cell after his lawyers ordered he be taken off suicide watch.
CLASH WITH CELL MATE?
EPSTEIN'S death followed an incident on July 23 in which he was found nearly unconscious on the floor of his cell with marks on his neck and was placed on a suicide watch.
But he was removed from the suicide watch on July 29 at the request of his defence lawyers, according to reports.
At the time of the July 23 incident, Epstein was sharing his cell with a hulking, former cop, Nicholas Tartaglione, who faces a death-penalty trial in four drug-related slayings in New York state.
Epstein told his lawyers that “the cop roughed him up, and that’s why they got him off suicide watch,” the source familiar with Epstein’s case said.
Tartaglione’s lawyer, Bruce Barket, disputed that account, saying, “I spoke to his lawyers and they never hinted at that to me, but he must have said something to get off suicide watch.”
“I do know that Nick was not brought up on any charges at all in the institution, so they cleared him.
“It’s simply, patently false to say that [Epstein] did anything other than try to kill himself at least twice, and succeeded when he succeeded.”
The US Bureau of Prisons, which runs the MCC, declined to comment, citing investigations into Epstein’s death by the FBI and the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General.
Epstein’s legal team didn’t return a request for comment.
The 6ft-tall paedophile strangled himself with the makeshift noose, police sources told the New York Post.
Jonathan L. Arden, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, said a hyoid break is more commonly associated with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging.
He told the Post: “If, hypothetically, the hyoid bone is broken, that would generally raise questions about strangulation, but it is not definitive and does not exclude suicidal hanging,”
TMZ today reported Epstein's blood vessels in his eyes popped when his air supply was cut off - according to law enforcement sources briefed on the case.
Epstein's death has been described as an "apparent suicide" by US Attorney General William Barr.
The report is likely to fuel conspiracy theories surrounding the predator's 'suicide’ - before he was due to stand trial for running a child sex ring.
The autopsy was performed on Epstein's body on Sunday, but officials said they needed more information before they can give an official cause of death.
The FBI is understood to be investigating the death given the nature of this case and out of an "abundance of caution".
Guards on Epstein's unit were working extreme overtime shifts to make up for staff shortages the day of his apparent suicide, reports claim.
FAKED PRISON LOGS
Two of the guards reportedly fell asleep for three hours before Epstein hanged himself and then faked the logs to cover their mistakes.
CCTV shows Epstein’s guards never made some of the checks logged the morning the disgraced financier died, a source told AP.
The two guards in the special housing unit where Epstein was held should have been checking on him every 30 minutes, according to protocol.
But they had actually been asleep for some or all of the three hours at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, officials told the New York Times.
Guards on the unit are now suspected of faking log entries to show they were making the necessary checks, according to a source.
Epstein is understood to have killed himself just 12 days after being removed from suicide watch.
He was placed on the watch after apparently trying to take his own life on July 23, shortly after he was denied bail ahead of his sex trafficking trial.
But less than a week after he was found with marks on his neck, prison officials determined he was no longer a threat.
On July 29, he returned to a cell in the 9 South housing unit which he shared with another inmate.
But his cellmate was later transferred, leaving Epstein alone on Friday night.
Epstein, 66, was found “unresponsive” in his cell at around 6.30 am local time on Saturday, according to an official statement.
His death came hours after a Manhattan court released a 1,200-page dossier detailing lurid abuse allegations against him.
The explosive papers also named some of the world’s elite leaders and politicians.
Timeline of the allegations against Jeffrey Epstein
The allegations against him go back to the 2000s
2005 - Parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home. A police search of the property found photos of girls throughout the house.
2006 - Charged with multiple counts of unlawful sexual acts with a minor.
2007 - Epstein’s lawyers put together a plea deal for Epstein, who was the 54.
He agreed to plead guilty to two felony prostitution charges in state court,
In exchange, he and his accomplices received immunity from federal sex-trafficking charges that could have sent him to prison for life.
2008 - Appears in court to plead guilty on two lesser counts and sentenced to a 18 months in jail and was released early in 2009
July 2019 - Arrested charges of child sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
Prosecutors accused him in a grand jury indictment of paying dozens of girls as young as 14 to engage in sex acts with him at his New York and Florida properties from 2002 to 2005.
Pleaded not guilty and could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
More than a dozen women have now come forward with more sex abuse allegations.
August 2019 - Hundreds of pages of court documents were unsealed alleging new details of sexual abuse claims against Epstein and several associates.
August 10 2019 - The twisted tycoon dies after apparently hanging himself in his prison cell.
The New York Post and news.com.au also contributed to this article
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