Mother of teen in grisly photos case writes about cyberbullies

The Orange County Register ^ | September 26, 2012 | Greg Hardesty

[EveningStar]

A mother who endured cyberbullying after her daughter's death writes about the insidious trend.

Lesli Catsouras, the mother of Nikki Catsouras, has just completed a memoir "Forever Exposed," about her family's journey coping with Internet trolls and cyber-bullies in addition to the toll-road-crash death of her 18-year-old daughter.

[South40]

Now writing the book will result in a million more internet users finding the photos.

Absolutely. They were wealthy before the million dollar payoff from the state/taxpayers. Now more money from the book. I've never experienced such a tragedy but I do believe should I ever find myself in such an unfortunate position I would deal it differently.

[South40]

The police/EMS/ or morgue released official scene photos “on the sly” that are not supposed to be released.

California Highway Patrol investigators took the pictures and two Highway Patrol dispatchers leaked the photos.

[al baby]

Lots of cops and firemen like the gore trust me i know plenty and some of them are sick bastards

[svcw]

The HP dispatchers, should spend some time in jail then.

[PLMerite]

Yeah, the pictures are pretty grisly. But they’re reality.

The day the public doesn’t have access to crime and “accident” images and evidence is the day the gov’t can kill people with impunity.

[South40]

I knew a man who owned a towing company who seemed to have a weird fetish for such gore -- so much so that he required his tow truck drivers photograph the gore they would see when dispatched to a crash scene. And what did he do with these graphic images? He plastered his office walls with them. Every square inch was horrific images of bodies hanging through busted out windshields, bodies under cars, decapitations, etc. The first time I was there and saw it all he acted like I was being too squeamish. he really did seem to enjoy the images and other peoples' reaction(s) to them.

This guy was a city council member and a leader in his community. But oh what a kook.

[South40]

One of the dispatchers, Thomas O’Donnell, was reprimanded and disciplined but remarkably not fired. The other dispatcher, Aaron Reich, resigned for reasons he said were unrelated to the leaked pictures. No jail time.

[svcw]

Thanks for the info, there should have been some jail time.

[flintsilver7]

The official cause of death would be something like massive head trauma. From the photos, it is almost impossible to tell what was what. On the plus side, a death like that results in no pain. The physical body is in bad shape, but there was no suffering.

[beaversmom]

Even FReepers can rarely resist comments about weight, height, and relative attractiveness.

You are right Melas. At times, I haven't always been above this practice myself of judging harshly. I've woken up and I'm really trying to steer away from being so judgmental of people in the general public. BTW, I probably don't always agree with your posts, but I've always respected your posts. I appreciate your perspective, passion, and intelligence.

[Melas]

Thank you. That’s a very kind thing to say.

[EEGator]

I had not thought of that. Death must have been instant, thus no pain. I still wish I never looked the photos up.