The mystery of the orange figure on the night of Jeffrey Epstein's death. Video recording that contradicts official statements

Documents recently released by the United States Department of Justice bring new controversial details in the investigation into the death of Jeffrey Epstein. The investigators who analyzed the video recordings from the night of August 9, 2019 noticed a “silhouette dressed in orange” climbing the stairs to the floor where the billionaire's isolated and locked cell was at 10:39 p.m.

The billionaire committed suicide in prison in 2019. PHOTO: X @WriterPaulBond/archive

The mention appears in a log of observations made on the basis of images captured by the only known surveillance camera that operated that night in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. The note suggests an element not previously publicly reported by the authorities: “An orange shadow appears to be walking up the stairs of level L – could be a detainee being escorted to that level,” according to CBS News.

According to an FBI memo, analysis of the footage led to different conclusions between the FBI and the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General, even though they reviewed the same video footage. The FBI log describes the figure as “possibly a prisoner”, while the Inspector General records her as a prison officer carrying orange linen or bedding, referred to in the final report as “an unidentified correctional officer.”

The inspector general's report states that at 10:39 p.m., the unidentified individual ascended the stairs of Level L and reappeared in the camera field at 10:41 p.m. Officially, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead the next morning, August 10, before 6:30 a.m. by an officer bringing him breakfast. The exact time of death has never been established.

The new information contradicts the public statements made by the authorities. Former US Attorney General Bill Barr has repeatedly stated that no one entered Epstein's cell that night. Also, Dan Bongino, then deputy director of the FBI, stated last summer, in an interview at “Fox & Friends”, that “there is a clear video recording” which would show that Epstein was the only person present.

Prison employees interviewed by CBS News said that escorting an inmate at that time would have been highly unusual, and identifying the person caught on the stairs could have been essential to reconstructing the events, given that the sighting occurred within the estimated time range of the possible time of death.

CBS News' analysis, conducted with the help of independent video experts, showed that the silhouette's movement was more consistent with that of an inmate or a person wearing an orange prison uniform than that of a corrections officer. At the same time, the angle of the camera does not allow the clear exclusion of the possibility that someone climbed the stairs without being seen.

Details of the night of Epstein's death outlined in newly released documents

More than 3 million documents recently released by the Department of Justice provide additional details about the night of August 9, 2019, which was described as mostly quiet inside the Special Holding Unit (SHU), where Epstein was being held. Several inmates reported using drugs in their cells, and the two officers in charge that night, Tova Noel and Ghitto Bonhomme, were later questioned.

The documents show Bonhomme allegedly fell asleep on duty, and mandatory checks on Epstein's condition and inmate counts were not carried out according to procedures. The two officers were initially charged with falsifying records, but the charges were dropped in exchange for their cooperation.

None of the officers were specifically asked about the person in orange mentioned in the video surveillance log.

A separate internal presentation included in the released documents describes a prison officer — who investigators suspect is Tova Noel — carrying inmates' underwear or clothing upstairs. However, the 2023 inspector general's report does not explicitly identify Noel as the person captured in the footage. In his statements, Noel claimed that distributing underwear was not part of his duties and categorically denied that he had done so. “I've never distributed underwear. Never. That's a previous shift responsibility,” she stated.

Ghitto Bonhomme finished his shift at midnight, being replaced by another prison officer, Michael Thomas, who would discover Epstein's body hours later. Tova Noel stayed on duty for the second consecutive eight-hour shift. The two failed to perform the 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. inmate counts and the mandatory 30-minute health checks on Epstein. Investigators considered the possibility that both officers fell asleep on duty.

Thomas and Noel were later indicted on charges of falsifying documents attesting to the inmate count, but federal prosecutors eventually dropped the charges based on cooperation agreements that included interviews. A transcript of Thomas' interview, conducted two years after Epstein's death and published in recent documents, highlights major gaps in his recollection of the morning the inmate was found.

Thomas said he discovered Epstein in his cell shortly after 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 10 and pulled him from his hanging position. When asked what happened to the noose, he said he did not remember removing it or removing the object from Epstein's neck. For his part, Noel, who remained at the entrance to the cell, testified that he saw Thomas lower Epstein to the floor, but that he did not notice any rope around his neck.

The tool Epstein is believed to have used has not been clearly identified. According to the inspector general's report, a rope lifted from the crime scene was later determined not to be the object used in Epstein's death. Thomas also stated that Epstein was shirtless when he was found, and evidence indicates that a shirt believed to have been cut from his body was later returned from the hospital in a personal belongings bag.

Recent documents also show that the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reviewed the jail's surveillance footage six days after the death and concluded that it was too blurry to identify anyone.

Shortly after, the institution publicly announced that Jeffrey Epstein's death was a suicide, but did not provide an estimate of the time interval between the death and the discovery of the body. Coroner Michael Baden, hired by Epstein's brother, previously told CBS News that Epstein had most likely been dead for hours before he was found, but the movement of the body made it impossible to determine the exact time of death.