Seven years after the unexplained death of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, speculation over how he died has not faded. If anything, the unanswered questions continue to drive conspiracy theories and public suspicion.
Authorities concluded that the convicted paedophile died by suicide, saying he hanged himself inside his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.
But many people remain unconvinced. For them, the official account has never fully answered a string of troubling details, leaving the belief that Epstein was murdered still firmly alive.
A disturbing new documentary examining Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, his powerful inner circle and the fallout from his death has now returned to those lingering doubts. In it, several central figures share accounts they say raise fresh questions about what really happened behind bars.
The ABC documentary, which premiered on HBO Max on September 3, follows award-winning reporter Grace Tobin as she investigates the theories surrounding Epstein’s death.
One of the people featured is David Schoen, who was serving as Epstein’s lawyer when he died.
Schoen said he spoke with Epstein nine days before his death, after an alleged earlier suicide attempt that Epstein insisted had not happened.
‘He denied that he had tried to commit suicide. The story that he told about what had happened was that the cellmate had forced him to put a rope around his neck and pulled it just to see the reaction Epstein would have.
The official ruling is that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell
Among those interviewed is David Schoen, Epstein’s lawyer at the time of his death
‘But he told the correctional officers that he couldn’t remember what had happened because he was afraid if he got that guy in trouble that he would have trouble himself,‘ Schoen said.
Schoen said Epstein had been unhappy in jail but remained determined to fight the sex trafficking case against him.
‘The fact that he wanted to fight this case until the day before he died says to me that it’s unlikely he committed suicide.’
Epstein was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he was found dead in his prison cell, with his death quickly becoming mired in mystery and speculation.
The two guards responsible for monitoring him, who had been assigned to his cell following the earlier alleged suicide attempt, reportedly fell asleep and failed to check on him for around three hours. At the same time, cameras outside his cell malfunctioned.
In 2023, the US Department of Justice concluded that there had been ‘job performance failures’ by prison officials, but maintained that Epstein had died by suicide.
Even so, questions over the official account have persisted, with some arguing that Epstein’s knowledge of his powerful connections could have given others a motive to silence him.
Another key figure interviewed in the documentary is Michael Baden, the forensic pathologist who examined Epstein’s body after his death.
Baden said he had been asked to attend the autopsy the following day.
‘The history was that he was found having committed suicide by hanging in his jail cell. There was a little odd situation there because the ligature furrow around the neck was horizontal.
‘In a suicidal hanging, the ligature mark is usually up the high part of the neck and goes upwards.
‘And then the moment of surprise. There were three fractures, two of the thyroid cartilage, which is the Adam’s apple. And one of the hyoid bone. In 50 years of doing this, I’ve never seen that.
‘That’s [a] much more common crushing injury in homicidal strangulation. So I think at that point there was concern as to whether it was suicide as thought or not.’
Schoen explained that the medical examiner of New York City who conducted the autopsy said that it was inconclusive – she couldn’t say for certain that it was suicide.
‘But then her boss three or four days later changed it to suicide,’ Baden added.
Even Epstein’s brother, Mark, has publicly said he believes the financier was killed.
‘I believe he was murdered. And if they do a real investigation and they talk to the right people, they could figure out what actually took place,’ he told Tobin.
In the film, political scientist Joe Uscinski, who has studied conspiracy theories for 15 years, said he polled Americans about Epstein’s death and found that the belief he may not have died by suicide was a common opinion.
‘Half the country thought it was a conspiracy that he was killed by people who were trying to cover up their involvement with him.’
‘And you don’t normally get conspiracy theories getting half the country to buy in,’ he said.
Joe Uscinski, who has studied conspiracy theories for 15 years, said he polled Americans about Epstein’s death and found the belief he may not have died by suicide was common
Lisa Phillips, an Epstein survivor, speaks during a news conference with lawmakers on the Epstein Files Transparency Act
Even some of Epstein’s victims believe he did not kill himself, including Lisa Phillips, a model who met the disgraced financier on his island while she was in the area for a photoshoot.
‘I believe he always thought he was going to get out of it,’ she said.
Phillips met Epstein in the year 2000, when he quickly took an interest in her modelling career, as well as her aspirations and dreams.
The night they met, he sexually abused her for the first time under the guise of getting a massage from her, she recounted in the documentary.
After she returned home, Phillips said Epstein called her and arranged a meeting with a Ford modelling agent, before beginning to send her to auditions.
‘I was abused by him again and through his connections, or he would send me on auditions. But back then I wasn’t aware that I was trafficked.
‘Auditions are castings by Epstein. So it’s like, oh my friend is casting a really big film right now.
‘And you’re sent somewhere where all of a sudden you’re propositioned for sex and the people around you are enforcing it. Just thought it was the business.’
Another survivor, Ashley Rubright, also shared her story in the film. She was only 15 when she met Epstein.
‘I was working at a BBQ restaurant and one of my coworkers asked me one day in the restaurant if I would like to give a man a massage for $200. I thought about it for a second and said sure.’
She recounts how she went to Epstein’s Palm Beach home and was shocked when she walked into the bathroom only to find the financier naked.
‘He just kind of laid on the table and then he told me how to massage him,’ she said, ‘Then he flipped over and that’s [when] things got really more way more inappropriate there.
‘He asked me to to take off my bra and to pull up my skirt and he was touching himself the whole time.
‘I was just trying not to look and he would grab me, grab my behind and I was just trying to not be there, you know, at that time.’
After he finished, his assistant came in and took Rubright back downstairs, she said.
Although she was shocked, she said she tried to rationalise it, thinking it must have been a ‘fluke’.
She went back to his home once more, where she said the situation escalated further.
‘I just remember Jeffrey bringing over a basket [of sex toys] and asking me to pick one and asking me if I knew how to use it.’
‘He had me sit on the bathroom floor, and he sat on the edge of the massage table.’
She said she remembers what happened, but the film shows her become visibly emotional and stop herself from saying anything more.
Ashley Rubright shared her story in the film. She was only 15 when she met Epstein
Epstein ultimately served 13 months of an 18-month sentence, quickly returning to high society, hanging out with people such as Bill Gates and Prince Andrew (pictured)
Republican lawmakers including Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene joined forces with Democrats in a push to release the Epstein files
Her life turned dark after her time with Epstein, she then added.
‘I was angry and I I didn’t care who got the brunt of it at all. I stopped cheerleading, I stopped dance. I kind of went from, like, trying to do good to just not caring.’
Phillips and Rubright are two of more than 1,000 women who are said to have been sexually abused by Epstein, although the full extent of his alleged abuse remains unknown as more survivors continue to come forward.
The film also delves into Epstein’s first criminal case, exploring how Palm Beach police began investigating him after the stepmother of a ninth-grader at Royal Palm Beach High School reported in March 2005 that a wealthy man had molested her daughter.
Police subsequently discovered that a number of victims had been recruited at Royal Palm Beach High School.
Spencer Kuvin, who represented three of Epstein’s victims at the time, recalled in the film how aggressive Epstein’s ‘dream team’ of lawyers had been.
‘It is widely reported that Jeffrey Epstein and his legal team has some of the victims followed by blacked out SUVS, you know, showing up at their houses.’
‘They were also investigating the lead investigator, Joe [Recary], and I asked to meet him.
‘So he picked a Starbucks in downtown West Palm Beach. And when I sat down and I started talking to him, his head was on a swivel. And he kept looking around. And I said, what are you doing?
‘I’ll never forget. He looks at me and he says, you have no idea what they’re doing to me.’
Kuvin said they had been digging through Recary’s personal trash. ‘He said to me, I’ve never seen this kind of an operation before.’
Despite the extensive investigation by Palm Beach police, the case ultimately ended in a controversial plea deal that saw Epstein face what critics described as a remarkably lenient sentence following intense lobbying by his lawyers.
‘The charges that they ended up bringing were solicitation for prostitution of a minor. It’s basically calling these victims prostitutes.’
Epstein ultimately served 13 months of an 18-month sentence, quickly returning to high society, mingling with people such as Bill Gates and Prince Andrew.
In the years leading up to his second arrest and death, Epstein abused hundreds, allegedly trafficking victims to more powerful men. Survivors are still seeking answers and justice.
Republican lawmakers including Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene joined forces with Democrats in a push to release the Epstein files, putting them at odds with President Donald Trump.
Speaking to fellow survivors and supporters on Capitol Hill, Phillips is filmed saying the issue is one ‘America is finally united on’.
Although the Department of Justice has published around 3.5million pages of Epstein-related files, lawmakers say almost half of the records remain unreleased.
Federal estimates suggest that between 2.5million and 3million documents related to the Epstein investigation are still being withheld by the DOJ.
