The night he died: the official record

In the early hours of 23 July 2019 Epstein was found on the floor of his cell with an orange cloth around his neck. His cellmate told officers Epstein had tried to hang himself. Epstein first told staff his cellmate had tried to kill him, then said he did not know or would not discuss it, and asked to stay with the same cellmate. He was on suicide watch for about a day and then psychological observation until 30 July. [1]

When he left observation, the psychology department emailed more than 70 staff that he must be housed with a cellmate. That instruction is central to what came next. [1]

On 9 August a federal appeals court released about 2,000 pages from Virginia Giuffre’s old lawsuit against Maxwell. Epstein spent the day with his lawyers. That day his cellmate was transferred out, and no one was assigned to replace him, despite the instruction. At about 7 pm, against policy, a unit manager let him make an unmonitored call he said was to his mother; she had died years earlier, and the call was to someone with whom he had a personal relationship. [1]

He was locked in his cell around 8 pm. The officers on duty, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, did not do the 10 pm, midnight, 3 am or 5 am counts or the 30-minute rounds, and signed forms saying they had. The OIG found his cell held an excessive amount of linens, some torn into nooses. At about 6:30 am, delivering breakfast, they found him hanged from the top bunk with a strip of orange cloth, almost seated, his buttocks an inch or so above the floor. [1][2]

The cameras had problems since 29 July; the fault was found on 8 August and not fixed. The camera at the end of his tier showed a live feed but was not recording. One camera that was recording showed the common area and part of the stairway to his tier. It showed no one going up to any tier between about 10:40 pm and 6:30 am. [1]

The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a suicide by hanging on 16 August 2019. The FBI and SDNY found no evidence of a crime. Attorney General William Barr, who said he had seen the footage, called it “a perfect storm of screw-ups.” In June 2023 the inspector general reported that “the combination of negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures” gave “arguably one of the most notorious inmates in BOP’s custody” the opportunity to take his own life. [1][3][4]

The OIG added: “we did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination regarding the absence of criminality.” It interviewed three inmates in cells with a line of sight to his; they said no one went in or out after he was returned to his cell. The autopsy found no defensive wounds and no injuries to his hands. The July 2025 Justice Department memo repeated the conclusion and released video. [1][2][5]

Noel and Thomas were charged with falsifying records; the charges were dropped after they completed deferred-prosecution agreements. No one was charged in the death itself. [1]