Medical examiner concludes Epstein death 'suicide'

Jeffrey Epstein (mugshot)

Amid widespread skepticism, the New York City medical examiner's office announced Friday it has determined that financier Jeffrey Epstein's death in prison was a suicide by hanging, a source told Fox News.

Upon hearing that the examiner concluded Epstein died by kneeling down with a bedsheet around his neck that was attached to a bunkbed post, a prominent forensic pathologist told Fox News in a live interview that he doubts the finding.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, 88, who has consulted in many high-profile cases, said "you do not, from a kneeling position, with a bedsheet attached to the bedpost, break the hyoid bone ... and also cervical vertebrae."

"You don't break vertebrae in a suicidal hanging in which the scenario is a leaning-into," said Wecht, who is best known for his criticism of the Warren Commission's findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

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"If he hurled himself off the top bunkbed, that (breakage) could have occurred, because you've got a 200-pound-plus person with that kind of force imparted by the velocity of dropping-down body." he said.

Wecht He emphasized, however, that if it occurred by kneeling down, as the medical examiner apparently determined, "you do not break your hyoid bone and your cervical vertibrae."

Wecht dismissed arguments that being an older man, Epstein's bones might have been brittle.

"This is not a 75-year-old menopausal woman who has osteoporosis," he said.

Epstein, awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving underage girls, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan early Saturday. He was pronounced dead hours later.

Epstein's shocking death has prompted an investigation by the Justice Department, the FBI and congressional committees.