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A true-crime YouTuber has faced a backlash online and from the parents of the murdered Gannon Stauch after sharing his autopsy photos online.
The YouTuber, known as Zav Girl, last week shared images of Gannon as part of a true-crime video focusing on his murder. The 11-year-old was killed by his stepmother, Letecia Stauch, in January 2020. In May of this year, she was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on two counts of murder. During the trial, prosecutors said Letecia Stauch stabbed her stepson 18 times and shot him. Gannon died from a gunshot wound and skull fracture.
While Zav Girl has a public YouTube account with over 89,000 subscribers, the clip that has caused the controversy was available only to those who subscribe to her Patreon page. This platform allows people to subscribe to individuals for a monthly fee to view content that a creator may not post on their public YouTube page.
The YouTuber was able to get access to the autopsy photos after paying for them as part of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. This was according to NewsNation host Brian Entin, who also condemned Zav Girl while covering the story. The father of Gannon, Al Stauch, spoke to Entin on Wednesday on NewsNation and deemed the actions by the YouTuber as "evil."
"The word I use to describe it is evil, Brian. The world got enough information from the trial to have every discussion they want to have," Al Stauch said. "Why do we need to go have a Freedom of Information (FOI) request and pay for this kind of information and then dishonor my son by putting his photos out like that?"
Patreon has since deleted the video as well as Zav Girl's account. A Patreon spokesperson spoke to Newsweek about the incident.
"We removed 'Zav Girl' from Patreon for violations of our Community Guidelines for Violent and Graphic Content. To create a safe environment for users, Patreon does not allow content glorifying or promoting violence of any kind," the spokesperson said.
Newsweek has contacted Zav Girl via email for comment. Following the backlash, she issued a message on her YouTube page on Tuesday, addressing the controversy while also attempting to offer an explanation.
"The reality of the situation is that different people feel differently about this. Some people genuinely think making a video including the autopsy photos is bad, and I respect their opinion and feelings," the YouTuber said in her statement.
"Other people, like myself, think of autopsy photos and the coroner discussing/explaining them as interesting and informative and are able to view it all in a more scientific, detached way. It's just one of those things where it depends on the person."
Zav Girl added that she was not against taking the video down if that was what people really wanted. She also said she was not selling the photos on their own, but rather had included them in a full video. "I understand some of you have issues with me charging money on my Patreon for the video. If I was charging money for the autopsy files alone or something like that, I think I'd see your point.
"But in this case I spent a lot of time and worked hard putting together a video lining up the coroner's audio and descriptions along with the appropriate part of the photos she is describing and editing it together to try to make it as informative as possible for the viewer," Zav Girl added.
Update 7/14/23, 3:11 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Patreon.
About the writer
Gerrard Kaonga is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter and is based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on U.S. ... Read more