A mystery third person was spotted on camera in jailhouse footage from Jeffrey Epstein’s final night alive, a CBS News investigation has revealed.
The person, who was not identified or even mentioned in a Department of Justice investigative report, is seen entering a common area near where Epstein’s cell was located just after 4 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2019, two hours before he was found dead.
A CBS analysis of footage determined that the guards on duty, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, did not unlock a door to let the unknown person into the Special Housing Unit within the Metropolitan Correctional Center. That reportedly contradicts what Noel told the DOJ, when she said that the opening of the door to the area “requires a physical key.”
Without the key, which was supposedly only accessible to Noel and Thomas, it is unclear how the mystery person entered the unit.
Footage released by the government this month comes from a security camera that did not have a visual on the entire common area for Epstein’s unit. It recorded the guard’s desk, which was a floor below where Epstein was held, and only a sliver of the staircase that led to the convicted sex offender’s cell block. The limited footage is extremely grainy, making it challenging to analyze movements in the area.
CBS notes that the lone security camera with footage—the DOJ says other cameras were broadcast live to a security center, but their footage was lost—did not capture enough of the staircase leading to Epstein’s cell block to say definitively that the mystery person did not approach it.
“There is no way to know from the video if it indeed was possible for someone to enter the unit and climb the stairs to Epstein’s cell without being seen,” the network reported.
White House officials from the administrations of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have said that all evidence points to Epstein’s cause of death being a suicide. Still, debate over whether the alleged sex trafficker died via suicide or was murdered—as his brother, Mark, and many MAGA figures believe—has been widely debated.
The CBS analysis includes the expertise of video forensics specialists. They said they saw multiple issues with the government’s conclusions about what went down on Epstein’s final night alive.
Among the reported “discrepancies” was a mysterious “orange shape” that was recorded ascending the stairs to where Epstein’s cell was located.
A DOJ report said that the blurry figure was a corrections officer carrying up “linen or inmate clothing.” Conor McCourt, a retired NYPD sergeant and forensic video expert, told CBS he believes the shape was someone dressed in an orange inmate jumpsuit.
“It’s more likely it’s a person in an [orange] uniform,” he said, suggesting it may have been a prisoner ascending the stairs.
The orange figure’s movement up the stairs to Epstein’s cell block was around 10:40 p.m., making it the last recorded movement in the direction of Epstein’s cell.
Despite the guards on duty being required to check on Epstein every half-hour, as he was on suicide watch and temporarily did not have a cell-mate, the DOJ said no guards checked on him that night. His body was found at breakfast the next morning.
The DOJ released a statement about the findings of the CBS analysis, but stopped short of conceding that its investigation into the matter may have fallen short.
“The OIG appreciates the careful review of our report,” the statement reads. “Our comprehensive assessment of the circumstances over the weeks, days, and hours before Epstein’s death included the effects of the longstanding, chronic staffing crisis in the [Bureau of Prisons] and the BOP’s failure to provide and maintain quality camera coverage within its facilities. As CBS notes, nothing in its analysis changed or modified the OIG’s conclusions or recommendations.”
