Mark Epstein says his brother Jeffrey was murdered: He 'knew a lot of stuff about a lot of people'

The "Epstein didn't kill himself" memes are not going away any time soon.

Within 24 hours of news breaking that disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in prison, his brother, Mark Epstein, hired two renowned forensic pathologists to observe his brother's autopsy. Having reviewed their reports, Mark Epstein told the Miami Herald that he is convinced his brother was murdered.

Mark Epstein is talking, but only because he believes that his 66-year-old brother was killed, and he is challenging both the Department of Justice and New York City's chief medical examiner. He insists the pathologist erred in concluding that his brother hanged himself in August at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center.

"I could see if he got a life sentence, I could then see him taking himself out, but he had a bail hearing coming up,'' said Epstein, a real estate mogul who says he knows very little about his late brother's businesses — or his brother's alleged sex crimes against underage girls and young women.

According to the Herald, Mark Epstein hired Dr. Michael Baden to observe his brother's autopsy and another pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht, to review Baden's findings. The two doctors concluded that Jeffrey Epstein's injuries were more consistent with manual strangulation than suicide by hanging.

'I have never seen this kind of hanging scenario'

The Bureau of Prisons said Jeffrey Epstein was found on his knees in his cell with a sheet around his neck early in the morning of Aug. 10.

Baden noted that the former Wall Street magnate suffered three fractures in the right and left sides of his larynx. The forensic pathologist said the chances of someone breaking three bones in their neck via a self-inflicted hanging is "rare," although not outside the realm of possibility. Some medical experts added that although neck fractures are more common in strangulations, they are possible in suicide cases where the victim is older.

The forensic pathologists hired by Mark Epstein did not appear to buy it though.

"I have never seen this kind of hanging scenario, this leaning forward, with three fractures. The bunk was three to four feet above, and there was not enough velocity there to produce three fractures," Wecht told the Herald, adding, "It's all very suspicious, too much to be a coincidence."

Where was his protection?

Wecht also noted that Jeffrey Epstein should have received better protection in prison given the heinous nature of the crimes he was accused of committing:

So what do they do, they give him a cellmate who happens to be over 200 pounds, a former cop. Then we are led to believe that on July 23 he had a "suicide attempt," when he is found unconscious, and so they move him to suicide watch. Then they let him off the watch, then they move his cellmate, then the camera doesn't work, then the guards fall asleep, then they cut him down and they move him before the medical examiner came, and they know full well not to do that.

The Herald added that another factor fueling speculation surrounding the Epstein case is that the coroner who examined his body could not determine the cause of death. Yet, five days later, the cause of death was changed to "suicide by hanging."

If Epstein did not commit suicide, who killed him?

Mark Epstein told the Herald that his brother had the goods on powerful people who wanted him dead and that he now fears for his own life.

"Jeffrey knew a lot of stuff about a lot of people," he said.