I didn't really lean on the photos of him for any degree of certainty about his death.

My social calculus assumptions:

• Estimated total number of wealthy men Epstein has blackmail material on who with at least half a billion dollars in net worth (minimum criteria for a local/regional US oligarch). My guess is in the low triple digit range..
  
• Organized Half-billionaires (or wealthier) can accomplish close to anything in the US.
  
• Epstein has a dead man's lock with each of the men's name on the list.
  
• Each man on the list would stop at nothing to prevent the blackmail material from reaching the public/courts.
  
• Blackmail material hasn't been released.
  
• Some random person supposedly claimed Epstein's body.
  

Therefore Epstein is alive.

I think the agenda was/is get him out of the spotlight, because the US public was closely watching, and demanding justice.
Cause they weren't going to risk killing him!