A woman, who spoke with Jeffrey Epstein on the phone a day before his death, said she didn’t think the convicted sex offender sounded suicidal, the New York Daily News reported citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter. The banker’s late night call to Shuliak is of interest to prosecutors working on the Epstein case as investigators try to shed light on the mysterious death of a billionaire, who was accused of running a sex trafficking network of minors.
"Anyone that he spoke to during that month he was in custody is going to be relevant to why he committed suicide. I want to talk to anyone he had communication with during that time", said attorney Brad Edwards.
However, the New York Daily News reported Karina Shuliak had declined to cooperate with federal investigators due to concerns about her own possible legal exposure. A source close to the woman said Shuliak believes she is not part of the investigation.
Shuliak, believed to be in her 30s, lived on Epstein’s private island, where his alleged sex victims claim the financier abused dozens of underage girls. Despite the young woman having reportedly dated Epstein for up to five years, in 2013 she married his female associate Jennifer Kalin, in what the New York Daily News said was a sham marriage aimed at getting US citizenship and keeping her in the United States.
It is believed that Epstein used such sham marriages to force his victims, non-US citizens, to stay inside the country. However, sources told the newspaper that they do not consider Shuliak to be a victim of Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in July on charges of running a sex trafficking network of minors. He didn’t live to see his trial as he hanged himself on 10 August. The circumstances surrounding his death raised many questions. The billionaire was put on a suicide watch after a first botched attempt to take his own life, but several days later was taken off of it. Prison guards responsible for checking on him were reportedly sleeping and browsing the internet and the video of his first suicide attempt was deleted due to a technical error.
These and other details sparked allegations the disgraced financier didn’t kill himself and was actually murdered by someone, a claim supported by a pathologist that was hired by Epstein’s family. Numerous conspiracy theories suggest that his influential friends and acquaintances, among them - US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prince Andrew, could have killed Epstein, to avoid being implicated in his crimes during his trial.
