Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019 before he could be tried on charges of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. The New York City medical examiner’s office concluded the same year that he hanged himself.
But alternate realities have abounded ever since, with false claims including that Epstein died from COVID-19 complications and that he’s alive and hiding out in New Mexico.
A recent Instagram post claims “drone footage captures Jeffrey Epstein alive.” The post’s footage is an aerial shot of two people, one sitting in a vehicle and the other leaning against a vehicle. One of the men has white hair similar to Epstein’s.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
We don’t know who’s in the video, but it’s not evidence that Epstein is alive. It appears to have been circulating online since August 2019, the same month Epstein died.
Though the link is now dead, it was published Aug. 30, 2019, on YouTube, with a description that apparently referred to Hurricane Dorian: “Post Dorain Little St. James Drone 8/30/2019.”
Little St. James is the island in the U.S. Virgin Islands that Epstein bought in 1998.
Multiple officials at different levels of government have said that Epstein is dead.
U.S. corrections officials announced his death, the New York City medical examiner performed his autopsy, and the U.S. attorney general, federal prosecutors and an Epstein lawyer have said he is dead.
We rate claims that this drone footage confirms he’s still alive Pants on Fire!
