A decoy body to mislead journalists who had gathered outside the prison after the death of Jeffrey Epstein was allegedly used by guards at a New York detention center, while the real body was secretly removed with a different vehicle, according to claims contained in case files that were recently unsealed and released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Based on an internal memo, a prison supervisor testified to FBI agents that staff at the Metropolitan Correctional Center orchestrated the staging amid heavy media presence, following Epstein’s alleged suicide in his cell in 2019.
The files report that boxes and sheets were arranged to resemble a human body and loaded into a white van marked with the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, leading journalists to follow it as it departed. Without the media realizing it, Epstein’s actual body was placed in a black vehicle, which left the facility “undetected,” allowing authorities to transport the corpse away from the spotlight. The alleged deception was carried out after a responsible official warned guards about the large number of journalists outside the prison and stated that he would arrive at the loading dock with a separate black vehicle to remove the body.
Epstein: Complaints about food, showers and insects in handwritten note
The files also reveal that investigators found a handwritten note inside Epstein’s cell at the time of his death, which was not treated as a suicide note by the medical examiner. The note, which investigators described as “difficult to read,” appeared to include complaints about detention conditions, such as grievances about food, showers and the presence of insects.
The files, included in a package of three million documents recently made public, describe how officials responded to the intense media presence outside the prison in the hours following Epstein’s death. After the financier was confirmed dead at the hospital, his body was returned under federal custody to the prison, while necessary preparations were made for its transfer to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
A note from a testimony states that, due to the “large presence of news media,” staff devised a plan to “obstruct” journalists during the body’s removal. According to the document, officials “used boxes and sheets to create what looked like a human body, which was placed in the white OCME vehicle that the press followed, allowing the black vehicle to depart unnoticed with EPSTEIN’s body.”
Other sections of the files describe how officials had placed Epstein’s body in a secure facility connected to the prison for safekeeping, while procedures such as fingerprinting were conducted before its transfer. It should be noted that the financier was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York on charges of trafficking minors for sexual exploitation, until the time his death was announced on August 10, 2019. According to police reports, he was found unconscious in his cell early that morning by guards. After attempting CPR, they rushed him to a New York hospital, where his death was confirmed.
The medical examiner ruled that his death was suicide by hanging, a conclusion that has been repeatedly questioned following a series of serious lapses within the prison. These lapses included guards who fell asleep during their shift and security cameras that were not functioning, issues that later became the subject of multiple investigations.
Investigators later confirmed that at least two surveillance cameras had malfunctioned, creating critical gaps in visual monitoring of the area. Due to these failures, authorities were unable to determine with certainty the exact timeline of Epstein’s final moments.
They faked his death.
He. Is. Alive.
— X (@Xking332) February 2, 2026
