A true crime YouTuber has issued an apology to the family of an 11-year-old child who was murdered after she used pictures of their autopsy in a video she was charging for.
The YouTuber, who goes by the name of Zav Girl on the video-sharing platform, created a video about the murder of young boy Gannon Stauch who was murdered by his stepmother Letecia in 2020.
Letecia was found guilty of Gannon's murder in May 2023 as prosecutors accused her of stabbing and shooting the boy before putting his body into a suitcase, drove over 1,300 miles with the body in a rented van and then threw Gannon's body off a bridge in Florida.
She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Intending to create a video about this case the YouTuber submitted a request for public records and obtained photos of the child's autopsy, posting a video about them to her Patreon account which required people to pay $3 to watch.
The YouTuber has faced a huge amount of backlash for doing this, including from Gannon's father Al who said she was 'dishonoring' his son and that it was 'evil' to obtain the pictures.
In an interview with NewsNation, he said anyone wanting to have a conversation about his son's death would have had enough information from the trial and did not need to obtain pictures from the 11-year-old's autopsy.
Michael Allen, one of the prosecutors in the case of Gannon's murder, also criticised the posting of the autopsy pictures, saying there was not 'any sort of sensitivity' involved.
The YouTuber previously said 'different people feel differently about this' and claimed that some people found the pictures 'interesting an informative', but her Patreon account has since been taken down and she has issued an apology video.
In the video she said she wanted to 'apologize to everyone I've hurt, especially Gannon's family' and said that she hadn't specifically requested pictures of the autopsy, instead requesting 'all the video, audio and written records'.
She said she 'made no request for autopsy photos' and that they 'just happened to be in the files', saying she was more interested in interviews with Letecia.
"I'm sorry I let you down," she said in the video, addressing the true crime community before speaking about the family of the young victim.
"I cannot imagine the pain Gannon's family has gone through. My anger over what happened to Gannon is the reason I started following the case.
"I'm not this evil, heartless person, like many are saying but I'm also doing a lot of self reflecting and I'm looking into sensitivity training. I did not want to add to the family's loss with anything I said or shared about this case.
"To Gannon's family I have no words that make this better. No one should have to ever go through what you guys have been through. I am so very sorry for any pain I have caused you."
UNILAD has contacted Zav Girl for comment.
Topics: US News, News, Crime, True crime, YouTube
Joe Harker