As with any tragedy, it is human nature to want to find a silver lining. With the true crime story of Nikki Catsouras, it wasn’t easy, but her family wanted to try. That is why they contacted Newsweek following her premature death in 2006.
Coping with losing their daughter was hard enough, but the events that followed were something no family should have to go through.
Hoping they could spare anyone else from a similar fate, the Catsourases shared their story, as difficult as it was. Here’s everything you should know about the tragedy.
Who was Nikki Catsouras?
Born to Christos and Lesli Catsouras, Nikki’s trials started early. When she was 8 years old, she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor, and after radiation therapy, there were some side effects. The Catsourases surmised that this affected her judgment in later life, which caused her to experiment with cocaine and led to the day in question.
On October 31, 2006, Nikki was feeling the effects of recent cocaine use. While her mother was folding laundry, she went to the garage and took the Porsche she was not allowed to use.
Too late to stop her, Lesli called Christos, who called the police, and then started to look for his daughter himself. While on his search, the father saw police cars speeding past him. They later told him there was an accident. What should have been an end to a sad story was only the beginning for the family.
Pictures blindsided the Catsouras family
No matter what decade, cyber tormenters always seem to plague the internet, and even the tragic death of a young girl was not sacred. Not even days after the incident occurred, the Catsourases discovered that pictures of Nikki were circulating online via email. The websites dedicated to the subject were grotesque, setting up fake social media profiles and even hardcore pornography sites.
What made it worse was the subject material of the pictures. Nikki’s cause of death had been so gruesome that the coroner had not allowed the family to identify the body. Now, the pictures were being emailed to Christos directly, with subject lines in poor taste. Her father elaborated to CBS News the effect this had on him and his family.
“Since the leak my family has been forced to relive the shock every time the horrific images reappear simply because there are no tools in place to stop it. ‘The Right To Be Forgotten’ is the only chance for my family to find closure, and to finally grieve.”
How were these images released?
The reason these images got leaked in the first place was because of two California Highway Patrolmen who were dispatched to the scene, Thomas O’Donnell and Aaron Reich. Though the former quit after the incident, there was little justice for the Catsouras family. They attempted to sue the websites that had posted the pictures to no avail.
Like similar legal battles, such as retrieving the stolen Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson tape, they had little legal grounds to stand on.
Even suing the CHP yielded few results, as they claimed it was an issue of freedom of information. As of the writing of the Newsweek article, the Catsouras family was still embroiled in legal battles, with two of the daughters getting their education at home. The Catsourases have struggled with the threat of possibly seeing their daughter in such a way, as Christos told ABC News.
“They were crime scene pictures that never, ever should have gone out. There was a big mistake made by the California Highway Patrol that was never really acknowledged, or they never wanted to help us once that mistake had been made.”
In the time since, the internet hasn’t gotten much better, making many wonder what the fascination is with such a harrowing story that has traumatized a family.