A Tragedy That Won’t Fade Away

[Are_grits_groceries]

When grisly images of their daughter's death went viral on the Internet, the Catsouras family decided to fight back.

This is a story about a photo—an image so horrific we can't print it in NEWSWEEK. The picture shows the lifeless body of an 18-year-old Orange County girl named Nikki Catsouras, who was killed in a devastating car crash on Halloween day in 2006. The accident was so gruesome the coroner wouldn't allow her parents, Christos and Lesli Catsouras, to identify their daughter's body. But because of two California Highway Patrol officers, a digital camera and e-mail users' easy access to the "Forward" button, there are now nine photos of the accident scene, taken just moments after Nikki's death, circulating virally on the Web. In one, her nearly decapitated head is drooping out the shattered window of her father's Porsche.

The Web is full of dark images, so perhaps the urge to post these tragic pictures isn't surprising. But for the Catsouras family, the photos are a daily torment. Just days after Nikki's death, her father, a local real-estate agent, clicked open an e-mail that appeared to be a property listing. Onto his screen popped his daughter's bloodied face, captioned with the words "Woohoo Daddy! Hey daddy, I'm still alive." Nikki's sisters—Danielle, 18, Christiana, 16, and Kira, 10—have managed to avoid the photos, but live in fear that they'll happen upon them. And so the Catsourases are spending thousands in legal fees in an attempt to stop strangers from displaying the grisly images—an effort that has transformed Nikki's death into a case about privacy, cyber-harassment and image control.
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The family filed a formal complaint about the photos' release, and three months later, they received a letter of apology from the California Highway Patrol. An investigation had revealed that the images, taken as a routine part of a fatal accident response, had been leaked by two CHP dispatchers: Thomas O'Donnell, 39, and Aaron Reich, 30. O'Donnell, a 19-year CHP veteran, had been suspended for 25 days without pay. Reich quit soon after—for unrelated reasons, says his lawyer. Both men declined requests for comment, but Jon Schlueter, Reich's attorney, says his client sent the images to relatives and friends to warn them of the dangers of the road. "It was a cautionary tale," Schlueter says. "Any young person that sees these photos and is goaded into driving more cautiously or less recklessly—that's a public service."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195073

People are sick. If they want to see these horrible pics, they are welcome to it. However, sending the father emails is just beyond the pale. And yeah, I really believe the dispatcher was doing a public service.:sarcasm:

[dionysus]

1. i saw those last year.. how anyone could do that to this family is beyond the pale

:shudder:

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. O'Donnell needs to be fired.

And let that be a "cautionary tale" of what's right and wrong.

I wonder if they've tracked down who sent the "I'm alive" e-mail. Something tells me that a quick run through Spokeo would identify them.

And yes, people are sick.

[mrcheerful]

3. Back in the 70's as part of the drivers ed program there were films shown of the results of auto

accidents, I still remember seeing mangled bodies due to unsafe driving. The year before 6 teen age kids had been killed when the teen driver decided to beat a train, so the parents of the school district wanted reckless driving stressed as a part of the drivers ed program, including the mangled bodies. Not that sending pics to family that lost loved ones was cool, but one of the girls in my drivers ed classes lost her brother in the train accident and she had no problem when the film was shown about auto vs trains.

But then those films were made with the families approval and not something that was put out on the internet.

[hedgehog]

4. There are always people associated with rescue and medical

services who don't quite get the notion of privacy rights - or even simple decency.

[kiva]

5. Years ago a relative by marriage was in an accident

that killed her boyfriend, the driver. A few months later photos of the accident--not graphic, just the car--were being used by a local news show as part of their introduction. The woman called them, and the station pulled the photos--IMO, the right thing to do. Guess she should be grateful that the accident happened before sick scum had access to e-mail.

[inwiththenew]

6. I remember those photos

I can't imagine how hard that was for the family to see. She was literally splattered all over the place, at least her head was.