Epstein's prison guard searched his name minutes before body was discovered: DOJ

WASHINGTON, DC: Freshly released documents from the US Department of Justice are raising new questions about how Jeffrey Epstein died.

One detail stands out: a prison guard searched Epstein’s name online less than an hour before he was found unresponsive in his federal jail cell.

The records show that correctional officer Tova Noel looked up Epstein on the internet just before his body was discovered at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019.

DOJ records reveal Epstein guard’s cash deposit

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s prison guards googled him minutes before he was found dead and also made a mysterious $5,000 cash deposit 10 days before the predator’s jail-cell death, newly released Department of Justice documents reveal.

The information has renewed scrutiny over the handling of Epstein’s detention, which had already drawn intense public attention because of security failures and unanswered questions about supervision inside the jail.

Tova Noel was one of the two Metropolitan Correctional Center workers accused of falsifying records to say they checked on Epstein throughout the night before his Aug 10, 2019, death. The guards were fired, but criminal charges against both were later dropped.

Epstein guard searched him minutes before death

Noel searched “latest on Epstein in jail” at 5:42 am and again at 5:52 am, less than 40 minutes before her colleague, correctional officer Michael Thomas, found the disgraced financier dead in his cell by hanging at 6:30 am, according to an FBI record of Noel’s internet search history that night.

The officer had previously been assigned to monitor inmates in a high-security unit where Epstein was being held while awaiting trial on federal charges.

Earlier in the shift, Noel, 37, spent time shopping for furniture online and even nodded off at work instead of performing the required checks on Epstein every half hour. Meanwhile, Thomas browsed motorcycles, according to prosecutors.

The FBI highlighted this unusual internet search in its 66-page forensic report on the Bureau of Prisons computers used by Noel and Thomas. Out of everything reviewed, it was the only search that stood out.

Epstein guard denies googling him in testimony

When questioned during her sworn statement to the DOJ in 2021, Noel denied googling Epstein.

“I don’t remember doing that,” she claimed, according to a transcript. She said FBI records were not "accurate." “I don’t recall looking him up.”

“I’ve never worked in the Special Housing Unit and actually done rounds every 30 minutes,” she told investigators.

Meanwhile, Chase Bank flagged cash deposits in Noel’s bank account in a “suspicious activity report” to the FBI in November 2019, another file from the DOJ revealed.

A total of 12 deposits began in April 2018, the bank said, and culminated in the largest deposit, for $5,000, on July 30, 2019, the records showed.

An internal FBI briefing, also released in the DOJ files, reveals the agency believed Noel was likely the mysterious orange shape spotted in a blurry surveillance video near Epstein’s cell around 10:40 pm that night.

In the sworn statement, Noel, who was working a double shift that day, told investigators she last saw Epstein alive “somewhere around after 10” and that she “never gave out linen,ever” or clothing to inmates because that’s done the shift before.

Despite that conclusion, the circumstances surrounding the case, including surveillance failures, staffing issues, and inconsistent records, have continued to fuel debate and speculation for years.