On August 10, 2019, American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found unresponsive in his Metropolitan Correctional Center jail cell, where he was awaiting trial on new sex trafficking charges. According to the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons official statement, "He was transported to a local hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries and subsequently pronounced dead by hospital staff."

The New York City medical examiner ruled Epstein's death a suicide. Epstein's lawyers challenged that conclusion and opened their own investigation. Epstein's brother Mark hired Michael Baden to oversee the autopsy. In late October, Baden announced he discovered more evidence of homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging. Both the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general are conducting investigations into the circumstances of his death.

Due to violations of normal jail procedures on the night of his death (e.g. the removal of his cellmate without a replacement, the falling asleep of two guards who were meant to check on him, and the malfunction of two cameras in front of his cell) and Epstein's knowledge of compromising information about famous people, his death generated doubt about his apparent suicide and speculation that he was murdered.