A newly surfaced surveillance video is reigniting outrage over the death of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein—showing prison guards lingering just steps away from his cell instead of performing required safety checks.
The footage, pulled from a fresh batch of Department of Justice documents, captures correctional officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas inside the Special Housing Unit at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center around 3:15 a.m.—a critical window the night Epstein died.
Instead of conducting the mandatory 30-minute rounds, the pair appear to be chatting, pacing, and jotting notes at their station. At one point, one officer is seen on the phone. Epstein’s cell? Just a few feet away—down a short staircase, first door on the tier.
Investigators believe Epstein took his own life sometime between 10:30 p.m. on August 9—the last confirmed check—and 6:30 a.m. the next morning, when his body was discovered during breakfast rounds.
The most damning detail? Bright orange warning notices were reportedly posted right in front of the guards—spelling out exactly what needed to be done.
“Mandatory rounds must be conducted every 30 minutes on Epstein, as per God!!!” one sign read.
Lt. Roberto Grijalva, who oversaw the unit, told investigators he personally placed the warning near the computer before leaving for the weekend. The instructions were clear: Epstein had just been taken off suicide watch, required constant monitoring, and was not supposed to be left alone.
By Monday, the sign had mysteriously vanished.
Grijalva didn’t hold back when recounting what went wrong.
“They f—ed up,” he said bluntly, pointing to a cascade of failures that night—including the fact Epstein was left without a cellmate despite explicit instructions.
Even more shocking, extra bedding—reportedly left behind by a departing inmate—remained in the cell. Those same materials were later used in Epstein’s suicide.
The fallout didn’t stop there.
Noel and Thomas were later accused of falsifying official logs, claiming they completed checks that never happened—including the crucial 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. rounds. Both were fired, but criminal charges against them were ultimately dropped in 2021.
Now, with this new footage surfacing, fresh questions are swirling about how one of the most high-profile inmates in the country was left virtually unmonitored in his final hours.
Adding fuel to the fire, Noel is reportedly set to face questioning from the House Oversight Committee later this month—after reports she searched Epstein online shortly before his death and made unexplained cash deposits.
Years later, the case that stunned the world is once again under a harsh spotlight—and the latest revelations are only deepening the mystery surrounding Epstein’s final night alive.
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