By Myron Gananian (March 2026)
The method of Epstein’s death remains very high in the level of preoccupation it has garnered, even now, almost six years later. So much has contributed to this interest, ranging from his notoriety, the laxity of his jail cell control, and to the dispute between the coroner’s autopsy conclusion and Michael Baden’s conclusion, the renowned Forensic Pathologist, hired by Epstein’s estate. The question from the beginning has centered on homicide or suicide. In what follows, I propose a conjecture that favors the latter.
We must start with what is most important, the physical environment of his cell. A window covered by a heavyweight metal screen showing no deformity. Lighting source a recessed fixture with no attachment point. A steel-framed bunk bed with the topmost frame member 6½ feet from the floor. A cell intentionally structured to be devoid of any attachment point, in an effort to avoid suicide by hanging.
Next, we look at the cell after his death without the benefit of seeing his body as first found, which was described as being face-down, buttocks in the air, noose around his neck and the far end of the noose attached to the topmost part of the bunkbed. This is likely the most salient point of all, and is instructive to the point that it should lay to rest all speculation about the mode of death. He was not hanging when first found. Almost 100 pictures, available online, show a disheveled room filled with scattered bedsheets and the remains of the noose. There are no pictures antecedent to the ones taken during CPR by the Paramedics. The far end of the noose is not attached anywhere, assuming that one of the first things the guards did, prior to their starting CPR, was to cut him loose. A perfectly reasonable, reflexive maneuver in such a situation, since they could not have performed CPR without first cutting him down. All this in violation of rules which forbid disturbing suicide circumstances since they are considered crime scenes.
Now we must consider the person of Epstein. Regarded a math whiz, 6 feet tall, and cornered, literally, after an obviously lurid and well-publicized life. Emotionally, he had every reason to prefer suicide to very long-term incarceration, a certainty.
There is no quarrel that something fatal happened around and to his neck. The overriding question is: How?
Factoring all the aforesaid, there can be only one conclusion: Epstein did not and could not hang himself because there was nothing from which he could hang himself. The room was “Hangproof”. The only way for him to accomplish his end and his ends was to BUNGEE from the top bunk. He could not have hanged himself from the top bunk, the highest attachment point available, since in doing so his feet would hit the floor with 6 inches of loose sheet to serve as a tightener for the ligature, an impossibility. Therefore, there was insufficient height for the sheet to tighten at all. However, a very shrewd calculation could enable a bungee maneuver from that very spot. It would be impossible for a 6-foot person to jump, feet first, hit the floor, and do the least damage to his neck with the attachment point only 6 inches longer than his height. He could have suffocated from such a maneuver, with difficulty, but would unlikely have sustained any fractures of the sort described.
This is the calculation he would have had to go through. Starting with his height, he had to determine the distance from the attachment point to the floor. Once he attached the noose end of the sheet very tightly around his neck, he had to ensure that when he dove off the top bunk, headfirst with all his might, that his head would not hit the floor. If it did, this might result only in a skull or neck fracture, and is less likely to result in death if the sheet were not short enough. He had to ensure suffocation at a minimum, if not a result far worse. He had to avoid hitting the floor with his head at all costs.
There are deficiencies in Dr. Baden’s statements and conclusions. He strays from pure forensics when he implies that the case for homicide is strengthened due to the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of those who deny homicide. This could be a valid criticism of those who hold an opposing view, but those factors are totally irrelevant to a forensic analysis and should have no influence on his conclusion. Such considerations are outside the purview of forensics. Furthermore, since he has seen thousands of deaths by hanging and garotting, he is unable to conceive that there may be an alternate explanation for the fractured hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage he considers so conclusive in his assertion of homicide. The fracture of the hyoid is nicely explained by the bungee hypothesis. Over a 50-year career, Baden performed 20,000 autopsies, and there is no report of his ever having done one on a bungee accident victim. Autopsy reports of bungee-jumping caused death show fractures of the hyoid bone.
The essence of forensics is the use of science and the avoidance of emotion and prejudice, with the exclusion of inconsistencies. This was sorely lacking in those who postulate homicide. Dr. Baden is the greatest violator of these principles. He didn’t appreciate that inmate #76318-054 was a Black Swan.
Table of Contents
Myron Gananian is a retired physician living in California.
Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast
