Leaking of Photographs
According to Newsweek, the Catsouras "accident was so gruesome the coroner wouldn't allow her parents to identify their daughter's body." However, photographs of the scene of Catsouras' death were taken by California Highway Patrol officers as part of standard fatal traffic collision procedures. These photographs were then forwarded to colleagues, and were leaked onto the Internet.
Two CHP employees, Aaron Reich and Thomas O'Donnell, admitted to releasing the photographs in violation of CHP policy. O'Donnell later stated in interviews that he only sent the photos to his own e-mail account for viewing at a later time, while Reich stated that he had forwarded the pictures to four other people. Catsouras' parents soon discovered the photographs posted online. The pictures had gained much attention, including a fake MySpace tribute website that actually contained links to the photographs. People also anonymously e-mailed copies of the photos to the Catsouras family with misleading subject headers, in one case captioning the photo sent to the father with the words, "Woohoo Daddy! Hey daddy, I'm still alive." This led to the Catsouras family withdrawing from Internet use and, concerned that their youngest daughter might be taunted with the photographs, began homeschooling her.
Read more about this topic: Nikki Catsouras Photographs Controversy
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