A YouTuber charged viewers to see autopsy photos of a murdered 11-year-old boy, an act the prosecutor called 'disgusting'
- YouTuber Zav Girl received criticism for charging viewers to see photos of a murdered boy.
- 11-year-old Gannon Stauch was killed by his stepmother Letecia Stauch in 2020.
A YouTuber received a barrage of criticism after charging viewers to see autopsy photos of an 11-year-old boy who was murdered by his stepmother.
True Crime YouTuber Zav Girl obtained photos of the body of Gannon Stauch, who was murdered by his stepmother Letecia Stauch in 2020. Letecia was found guilty by a Colorado court on May 8 of stabbing and shooting Gannon to death in a fit of "hatred and jealousy," then shoving his body in a suitcase, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Zav Girl obtained photos of Gannon's autopsy via a public-records request, and posted a video about them on her Patreon account, where people could pay $3 to watch.
Michael Allen, the Colorado prosecutor who led the case, told News Nation that doing this was "the lowest of human forms."
"Gannon deserved so much more in life from his stepmother and he certainly deserves dignity and respect in death," he said. "And there's nothing about what this YouTuber is doing that provides any dignity or respect to Gannon."
Gannon's father Al Stauch also spoke with News Nation, saying knowing Gannon's photos were being viewed this way was "retraumatizing."
"We just finished the trial just over two months ago. And now we're having to kind of relive some of this stuff and not being able to put it behind us," he said. "The word I use to describe it is evil."
Zav Girl issued a statement on her YouTube channel, where she has 89,000 subscribers, on Tuesday. She said people had been "very divided on how they feel" about the video and she was "hearing a lot from both sides."
"The reality of the situation is that different people feel differently about this," she said. "Some people genuinely think making a video including the autopsy photos is bad and I respect their opinion and feelings."
Others, like herself, she said, thought the photos were "interesting and informative," and were "able to view it all in a more scientific detached way."
"It's just one of those things where it depends on the person," she said.
In the statement, Zav Girl said she was "not adamantly against taking the video down" if people were "truly unhappy with it." Her whole Patreon account has since been removed.
Zav Girl said she was charging the fee because she "spent a lot of time and worked hard" putting the video together. She also said she had been dealing with threats and was going to take a step back from her channel while she dealt with them.
Allen said Zav Girl's statement and justification "rings hollow."
"Scientifically, they could have used body diagrams that the autopsy also included instead of putting out Gannon's just completely broken body that reflects the depravity and horror that he had to live through and suffered," he told News Nation. "It's outright disgusting."
Insider has reached out to Zav Girl for further comment.