U.S. flags on late financier Jeffrey Epstein's private islands off the coast of St. Thomas have been lowered to half-staff, according to images and videos captured by a boat captain cruising past it.
"It was a real moment out there and it just felt so heavy," Captain Kelly Quinn, owner of Salty Dog Day Sails, who shot the images from one of the islands, Little St. James, told NBC News. "I didn't feel there was a realness of the end of Jeffrey Epstein until I saw that. That was a lot more literal."
He added that a flag on Great St. James Island, which Epstein also owned, was at half-staff. The two islands are located in the U.S. Virgin Islands. NBC notes it is not clear who lowered the flags, but Quinn said he's almost certain it was one of the estate's employees.
The flags on Little St. James appear to have been lowered after the FBI searched it and took away evidence from Epstein's mansion.
Epstein was being held in federal custody after his arrest on charges of sex trafficking and was found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan last Saturday after an apparent suicide.
According to his autopsy, Epstein's neck had been broken in several places, injuries that can occur in people who hang themselves or who are strangled.
Epstein bought Little St. James Island in 1998 for $7.95 million. His estate there includes a 24,000-square-foot mansion, pools, and a blue-striped structure that has been the subject of several online conspiracy theories.
He bought Great St. James in 2016 for $22.5 million.