An Unidentified Figure and Conflicting Accounts
Another detail in the footage has also drawn attention. At 12:05:48 a.m., an unidentified person appears to pass through the Special Housing Unit. The inspector general’s report states that only two staff members entered the unit after midnight — a corrections officer identified as “CO3” and the morning watch operations lieutenant.
The report does not address the presence of a third individual seen in the video. Investigators also identified a possible discrepancy in Noel’s own account of the evening. Noel told investigators she left Epstein alone in the shower area after he made a phone call using a line normally reserved for attorney communications.
She said she stepped away to use the restroom and that another staff member later escorted Epstein back to his cell. But surveillance footage appears to show Noel remaining in the unit and escorting Epstein toward the staircase that leads to his cell.
Another female staff member can be seen leaving the unit shortly before Epstein is escorted and returning shortly afterward. The timing of this sequence has drawn particular interest from investigators.
Epstein had been allowed to make an unmonitored phone call from the shower area. According to the report, the unit manager placed the call for him after Epstein said he wanted to speak with his mother. But his mother had died years earlier.
The manager dialed a New York City number beginning with the 646 area code, and a man answered the phone. The phone was then handed to Epstein before the manager left the area. The manager later contacted Noel and asked her to retrieve the phone.
The Bureau of Prisons’ Northeast regional director later said the call raised serious concerns. “We don’t know what happened on that phone,” the official said. “It could have potentially led to the incident, but we will never know.”
Criminal Case Against Guards Ultimately Dropped
In 2021, federal prosecutors moved to end their criminal case against the two guards responsible for monitoring Epstein the night he died. In a filing in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the charges against Noel and Thomas.
The request came after both had completed the terms of the deferred prosecution agreements they signed in May of that year. Under those agreements, the guards were required to complete 100 hours of community service and cooperate with a federal investigation into Epstein’s death.
Epstein — the financier who was facing federal sex trafficking charges — had been found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019. The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.
