Dr. Michael Freeman will present an independent forensic and biomechanical review of Jeffrey Epstein’s death at University College London in November, using the complete medical examiner’s file to reassess whether the autopsy evidence supports the official finding of suicide by hanging.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A forensic medicine expert who has worked on major death investigations will publicly reexamine the autopsy evidence surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death, presenting an independent analysis next month that will compare the physical findings with the New York City medical examiner’s determination that Epstein died by suicide.
Dr. Michael Freeman is scheduled to present his analysis Nov. 16 at University College London, where he is expected to detail the medical examiner’s reasoning, examine the reported circumstances in Epstein’s jail cell and present a biomechanical analysis of how the documented neck injuries could have been produced.
The event, titled “A scientific analysis of the cause & manner of Jeffrey Epstein’s death,” will be hosted by UCL Faculty of Laws’ Centre for Criminal Law. Freeman is expected to offer his own determination regarding the manner of death after reviewing evidence that was largely unavailable for independent scrutiny for years.
The analysis is based on the complete New York City medical examiner’s file, which Epstein’s next of kin released in 2025 for Freeman’s review along with written authorization allowing publication of the findings and supporting evidence.
UCL says the contents of that file will be made publicly available on the day of the lecture, giving outside researchers and members of the public an opportunity to examine the material underlying Freeman’s conclusions.
Epstein, 66, was found dead Aug. 10, 2019, inside his locked cell in the Special Housing Unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that he died by suicide by hanging.
Questions about that conclusion emerged almost immediately, driven both by the autopsy findings and by serious failures inside the federal jail before Epstein’s death.
The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General later determined that Metropolitan Correctional Center personnel failed to assign Epstein a required cellmate, failed to conduct required inmate counts and rounds, allowed him to retain excess linens and failed to ensure that the jail’s security-camera system was fully functional. Despite those failures, the inspector general said its investigation did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination that there was no criminality associated with Epstein’s death.
Freeman’s review will approach the question from a forensic-medical perspective rather than focusing primarily on prison management.
According to UCL, he will compare the medical examiner’s rationale for classifying the death as a suicidal hanging with the actual autopsy evidence and the circumstances described by investigators.
The university says the review will also examine several features Freeman considers unusual in the investigation of a hanging death.
UCL notes that no photographs were taken of Epstein’s body at the scene before it was moved, that the ligature reportedly used in the hanging was not preserved and examined as evidence, and that the prison guard who said he discovered Epstein hanging declined for approximately two years to speak with investigators.
Freeman also intends to present a biomechanical analysis addressing the forces and mechanism necessary to produce the ligature injury pattern documented during Epstein’s autopsy.
That portion of the analysis could become central to the renewed debate because injuries to Epstein’s neck have been disputed since 2019.
Dr. Michael Baden, the forensic pathologist retained by Epstein’s family who observed the autopsy, publicly questioned the suicide determination several months after Epstein’s death.
Baden pointed to fractures involving Epstein’s hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage and said the pattern was more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging. New York City Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson rejected that interpretation and maintained that her office stood behind its conclusion of suicide.
Other forensic specialists have noted that such fractures can occur in both strangulation and hanging, particularly in older individuals, meaning the presence of the injuries alone does not determine the manner of death.
The upcoming UCL review is therefore expected to go beyond simply identifying the fractures by examining whether the injury pattern is mechanically consistent with the circumstances described in the official account.
Another issue Freeman is expected to address is how the suicide determination itself was reached.
UCL says the detailed basis for the medical examiner’s conclusion was not publicly known until approximately three years after Epstein’s death, when the medical examiner who performed the autopsy provided a sworn explanation to Justice Department investigators.
The 2023 inspector general report ultimately concluded that extensive Bureau of Prisons negligence and misconduct created the conditions in which Epstein was left alone and unmonitored for hours.
According to the inspector general, Epstein had been required to have a cellmate following an earlier incident in July 2019 in which he was found unresponsive with cloth around his neck. Nevertheless, his cellmate was transferred on Aug. 9 and no replacement was assigned.
Staff also failed to perform required rounds during the night. Epstein was discovered at approximately 6:30 the following morning.
The inspector general said the combination of negligence, misconduct and staff failures gave Epstein an opportunity to take his own life while locked alone in his cell, while acknowledging that the failures helped fuel continuing questions about what happened.
Freeman’s forthcoming analysis does not change the official manner-of-death determination at this stage. His conclusions have not yet been presented publicly, and the New York City medical examiner’s ruling remains suicide by hanging.
The significance of the Nov. 16 event will depend on the evidence Freeman presents and whether his biomechanical findings materially challenge the reasoning behind the existing determination.
Freeman brings extensive forensic experience to the review.
He is a tenured associate professor of forensic medicine and epidemiology at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands and formerly served as David Jenkins Professor and chair of forensic and legal medicine with the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine at Britain’s Royal College of Physicians.
He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine and has provided expert testimony more than 2,000 times in civil and criminal proceedings.
Freeman has also served as a cause-of-death expert for five U.S. attorneys general in investigations involving deaths in police custody, including work connected with the investigation of George Floyd’s death in Minnesota, according to UCL. He has published approximately 240 scientific papers, books and book chapters, primarily involving forensic medicine, epidemiology, injury and cause-of-death analysis.
The UCL presentation is scheduled from 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Bentham House in London.
Unlike earlier public arguments over Epstein’s death, Freeman’s review will be accompanied by the underlying medical examiner’s materials, which UCL says will be released alongside the presentation.
That disclosure could allow other forensic specialists to independently assess both the official suicide determination and Freeman’s competing analysis rather than relying solely on summaries of evidence that has remained largely outside public view since 2019.
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