Jeffrey Epstein's Death Ruled A Suicide

NEW YORK — New York City's medical examiner ruled Jeffrey Epstein's death a suicide Friday, dashing conspiracy theories that the pedophile financier was murdered.

Epstiein, 66, killed himself by hanging in his Manhattan jail cell, according to Dr. Barbara Sampson, the city's chief medical examiner. That conclusion was reached after "careful review of all investigative information, including complete autopsy findings," she said in a statement.

The examiner's ruling provides evidence against the baseless conspiracy theories alleging that Epstein was killed. Those theories have circulated in the week since Epstein was found dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

But the determination does not answer many other questions about the circumstances of Epstein's death that federal investigators hope to answer.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said the federal jail where Epstein was locked up had "serious irregularities." Two guards assigned to the unit where he was held fell asleep and did not look in on him for hours even though he was supposed to be checked every 30 minutes, according to news reports.

And Epstein was not on suicide watch when he was found dead Saturday morning despite making a possible attempt on his own life fewer than three weeks prior. The Lower Manhattan jail's warden was reportedly reassigned and two of its guards placed on administrative leave as the FBI and the Justice Department's inspector general probe the circumstances of Epstein's death.

Federal prosecutors had accused Epstein, a Brooklyn native, of sexually abusing dozens of girls at his Upper East Side mansion and Palm Beach, Florida estate. Barr has pledged that his alleged victims would get justice, saying this week that his co-conspirators "should not rest easy."