Disclosure in US department of justice files raises further questions about whether paedophile died by suicide

Janet Eastham Senior News Reporter/ The Telegraph/ March 8, 2026

The last prison guard to see Jeffrey Epstein alive made suspicious cash deposits in the 12 months before his death, US Department of Justice (DoJ) files reveal.

Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York on Aug 10, 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

Tova Noel, 37, one of two officers accused of falsifying prisoner record checks that night, made a final cash deposit of $5,000 (£3,729) into her bank account less than a fortnight earlier on July 30.

A total of 12 ATM cash deposits, beginning in October 2018, were flagged by her bank to the FBI in a “suspicious activity report” in November 2019.

Ms Noel and her colleague Michael Thomas were fired after being accused of falsifying records to claim they checked on Epstein during the night before his suicide on Aug 10 that year.

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CCTV footage revealed the pair did not check on Epstein for eight hours, despite his cell being just 15 feet from the guards’ desk.

Criminal charges against them were later dropped.

The bank transactions are among several new disclosures in the Epstein filesthat raise questions about the paedophile’s death.

It can also be revealed that Ms Noel searched the internet for the sex offender just minutes before he was found dead. 

The officer Googled “latest on Epstein in jail” at 5:42am and then again at 5:52am. Less than 40 minutes later, at 6.30am, Mr Thomas found the disgraced financier dead in his cell.

The FBI highlighted the internet search in its 66-page forensic examination of Ms Noel and Mr Thomas’s bureau of prisons desktop computers. It was the only search highlighted.