The Metropolitan Correctional Center, which is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, stands in lower Manhattan on Nov. 19, 2019, in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
By Joe Saunders March 11, 2026 at 5:00am
Almost seven years after the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the questions are still coming.
Department of Justice documents on which the New York Post reported Saturday indicated that one of the guards at the Metropolitan Corrections Center had searched Google for news about the convicted sex criminal shortly before his death at the facility.
The same guard had made numerous, unexplained cash deposits in her bank, including a $5,000 deposit only 10 days before Epstein died.
Prison guard googled Jeffrey Epstein minutes before his body was found – and deposited thousands days before pedophile’s suicide: DOJ https://t.co/eiQXr5SXIL pic.twitter.com/92gf86kLua
— New York Post (@nypost) March 7, 2026
Epstein’s body was found in his cell on Aug. 10, 2019, in what has been officially ruled a suicide.
According to the documents mentioned by the New York Post, as well as the U.K.’s Daily Mail, now-fired guard Tova Noel’s computer had searched for “latest on epstein in jail” twice in the hour before Epstein’s body was discovered at 6:30 a.m.
In a transcript of her 2021 interview with investigators, Noel denied performing the searches.
“I don’t remember doing that,” she said, according to the New York Post. “I don’t recall looking him up.”
But Epstein wasn’t the only name that was searched on the computer, according to the Daily Mail. Two other men being held at the prison were also the subject of searches.
In another document reported by the New York Post, Noel was shown to have been making cash deposits in her bank account since December 2018.
The amounts varied, but totaled $11,880. The largest was $5,000 in a deposit made on July 30, 2019, 10 days before Epstein’s death, according to the outlet.
Noel was not asked about the money during her interview, the report noted.
The documents also indicated that Justice Department investigators thought Noel was the individual seen on video at the jail around 10:40 p.m. the night of Epstein’s death, carrying orange linen in the area around his cell.
Orange cloth was the material believed to be used in Epstein’s hanging death.
Noel, however, declared in the transcript that she “never gave out linen — ever” to inmates, according to the New York Post. She also said the other guard on duty was asleep between 10 p.m. and midnight.
Noel also admitted that she did not conduct regular checks on inmates, and said her colleagues routinely neglected to do so as well. She said they simply falsified records to claim they had done so.
“I’ve never worked in the Special Housing Unit and actually done rounds every 30 minutes,” she said, according to the New York Post.
The documents only bring up more questions about Epstein’s death.
Why would a guard need to search for news about a man facing sex trafficking charges when she could look in on him herself — and was even being paid to do it? Why was discipline so lax in a federal prison that guards apparently routinely ignored their duties in monitoring prisoners and even slept on the job?
Who was the individual on video carrying orange linen if it wasn’t Noel or her colleague?
In the almost seven years since Epstein’s death, his case has rattled elite worlds in business and politics. It’s even caused an uproar in the British royal family.
It’s been a public relations plague on the second Trump administration as well. It’s implicated huge names, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. It’s disgraced prominent figures on the international stage.
And still, the questions keep coming.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.