Prison Guards Discover Jeffrey Epstein Unresponsive: A Closer Look at the High-Profile Inmate’s Mysterious Death

Recently uncovered footage from the vast Epstein files reveals the moment prison guards discovered the deceased body of the notorious figure.

This CCTV footage, long hidden within a trove of documents and videos released by the Justice Department and the House Oversight Committee, sheds light on the events surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s demise.

At the time of his death on August 10, 2019, Epstein was detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, facing charges related to sex trafficking.

Early that morning, guards found him unresponsive in his cell. Despite attempts to revive him with CPR, he was transported to New York Downtown Hospital, where he was declared dead.

The New York City medical examiner concluded that Epstein’s cause of death was suicide by hanging.

But the circumstances around his death have fuelled major conspiracy theories that the financier’s passing may have come about through foul play. 

Footage now unearthed by the Daily Mail shows the outline of a prison guard approaching a desk near Epstein’s cell at 6.30am on the day of his death. 

Just 10 seconds later, the person then makes his way to the cell. 

The CCTV tape gives rare insight into the circumstances leading up to Jeffrey Epstein’s death

Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) was reported to have died by suicide some time after 6.30am on August 10, 2019

A little over a minute after this, a guard can be seen moving back and forth between the security desk, where he is shortly joined by two others, and the area housing Epstein’s cell. 

The guards are then seen running between the two areas. Epstein was officially declared dead at 6.39am. 

Epstein’s death abruptly halted one of the most closely watched federal criminal cases in recent memory.

Prosecutors had accused him of operating a years-long sex trafficking operation involving underage girls, with alleged victims coming forward to describe abuse that spanned multiple states and countries.

His arrest in July 2019 followed years of scrutiny over a controversial plea agreement he reached in Florida in 2008, which allowed him to avoid federal prosecution at the time.

The new charges brought in New York exposed Epstein to the possibility of decades in prison if he was convicted.

But Epstein’s death came amid a cascade of failures inside one of the federal government’s most secure detention facilities.

Prison records show that guards assigned to monitor Epstein did not conduct required checks during the overnight hours before his body was discovered.

Epstein was being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York on sex trafficking at the time of his death on August 10, 2019

He was declared dead at 6.39am

Scheduled rounds at 3am and 5am were missed, according to official findings. 

Furthermore, cameras positioned outside Epstein’s cell were not functioning properly that night.  

Investigators later confirmed that at least two surveillance cameras had malfunctioned, leaving critical gaps in visual monitoring of the area.

Because of those failures, officials were unable to establish a definitive timeline of Epstein’s final moments.

To this day, no precise official time of death has been determined.

The newly released DOJ files contain additional details that investigators reviewed in the aftermath of Epstein’s death, including surveillance observations from inside the facility. 

According to the records, investigators from the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General identified footage showing what appeared to be an unidentified figure moving toward the floor where Epstein was housed.

The footage captured an orange-coloured shape ascending a staircase in the vicinity of Epstein’s housing unit during the overnight hours. 

A shadowy, orange object could be seen moving up the stairs to Epstein’s cell block at the New York prison at around 10.40pm the night before he was found dead

Epstein was found dead in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre on August 10, 2019

Among the millions of files released by the DOJ were photos from inside Epstein’s cell

Investigators from the FBI and the DoJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) flagged that CCTV footage from inside the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York, where Epstein was held before his death, appeared to show an orange flash that may have been ‘an inmate’ walking up to the floor the notorious paedophile was being held on.  

Investigators noticed an orange shape moving up a staircase towards his cell on the night of his death. 

The report, from the OIG, noted that at 10.39pm on August 9, 2019, FBI agents observed that ‘a flash of orange looks to be going up the L Tier stairs – could possibly be an inmate escorted up to that Tier’.

The inspector general appeared to draw a different conclusion to the FBI, writing of the flash of orange: ‘Inmates are currently on lockdown, it is possible someone is carrying inmate linen or bedding up.’ 

The analysis from the two investigative bodies contradicts public statements made by at least two top US officials. 

Bill Barr, who was the US attorney general during Trump’s first term, claimed in a 2019 interview that he had personally reviewed security footage that confirmed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died. 

And last May, former deputy director of the FBI Dan Bongino told Fox News: ‘There’s video clear as day. He’s the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it.’ 

He added shortly before the release of the video last August: ‘We are working on cleaning it up to make sure you have an enhanced [version] and we’re going to give the original so you don’t think there were any shenanigans.’   

The final report by the Inspector General stated: ‘At approximately 10:39 p.m., an unidentified CO appeared to walk up the L Tier stairway, and then reappeared within view of the camera at 10:41 p.m.’