Prison Guard’s Shocking Google Search Raises New Questions in Jeffrey Epstein’s Death

A prison guard tasked with monitoring Jeffrey Epstein’s cell searched for information about him on Google just minutes before his death. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has released a new set of documents related to the convicted s– offender, revealing the search history of former Metropolitan Correctional Center worker Tova Noel.

Noel was one of the two prison guards on duty the morning Epstein was found dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York on August 10, 2019. Her browser history, obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), showed she searched ‘latest on Epstein in jail’ twice, once at 5:42 a.m. and again at 5:52 a.m. local time.

Less than forty minutes later, at 6:30 a.m., Epstein was spotted hanging in his cell by Noel’s co-worker, Correctional Officer Michael Thomas. The disgraced financier had used orange cloth strips to hang himself. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Epstein had been arrested one month earlier and was awaiting trial on trafficking charges when he died by suicide.

Records show that Noel also searched for information about other inmates that morning. Investigators said she also browsed online shopping sites for furniture looked for discounts available to law enforcement officers.

Both Noel and Thomas were fired from their jobs for falsifying jail records that indicated they had conducted regular checks on Epstein the night before his death. According to prison rules, guards were required to check Epstein’s Special Unit cell every 30 minutes.

However, according to the FBI, the guards failed to conduct the checks because they were allegedly napping and browsing the internet. A case was also filed against both for falsifying records, but the charges were later dropped.

Documents released by the DOJ also reveal that Noel received unexplained deposits in her bank account in the months leading up to Epstein’s death. Between December 2018 and July 2019, $11,880 were deposited in her account. Out of this amount, $5000 was transferred to her just days before Epstein’s death, on July 30, 2019.

The FBI believed that Noel was the last person who saw Epstein alive, and she carried inmate clothing to his cell on the night of August 9, 2019. The agency wrote, “At approximately 10:40 pm, a correctional officer, believed to be Tova Noel, carried linen or inmate clothing up to the L-Tier, the last time any correctional officer approached the only entrance to the SHU tier.”

However, Noel has maintained her innocence and said she had nothing to do with the financier’s death. Though she acknowledged that she had seen Epstein alive after 10 p.m. that night, she claimed that she did not provide him with inmate clothing.

In 2021, she gave a sworn statement to the DOJ and said she does not remember Googling him before his death. “I don’t remember doing that. I don’t recall looking him up,” Noel said in her statement. She also revealed that she had no idea how Epstein got access to the extra clothing he eventually used to hang himself.