Nikki Catsouras Death, Accident, Photos, and More

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According to Newsweek, Nikki Catsouras’ “accident was so gruesome the coroner wouldn’t allow her parents to identify their daughter’s body”. Photographs of the scene were taken by California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers as part of standard fatal traffic collision procedures but eventually leaked to the public and that brought controversy.

Two CHP employees, Aaron Reich, and Thomas O’Donnell, admitted to releasing the photographs in violation of CHP policy. O’Donnell stated in interviews that he only sent the photos to his own e-mail account for viewing at a later time, while Reich stated that he had forwarded the pictures to four other people.

Nikki Catsouras’ parents discovered the photographs posted online. The pictures had gained much attention, including a fake MySpace tribute website that contained links to the photographs. People anonymously e-mailed copies of the photos to the Catsouras family with misleading subject headers, in one case captioning the photo sent to the father with the words “Woohoo Daddy! Hey Daddy, I’m still alive.”

This led the Catsouras family to withdraw from Internet use and, concerned that their youngest daughter might be taunted by the photographs, to begin homeschooling her. The online harassment aspects of the case were covered by Werner Herzog in his 2016 documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World.

The Catsouras family reportedly sued the California Highway Patrol and the two dispatch supervisors responsible for leaking the photographs in the Superior Court of California for Orange County. Initially, a judge ruled that it would be appropriate to move forward with the family’s legal case against the CHP for leaking the photographs, however, an internal investigation led the CHP to issue a formal apology and take action to prevent similar occurrences in the future, after discovering that departmental policy had been violated by the two dispatch supervisors.

On January 30, 2012, the CHP reached a settlement with the Catsouras family, under which the family received around $2.37 million in damages. CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader commented: “No amount of money can compensate for the pain the Catsouras family has suffered. We have reached a resolution with the family to save substantial costs of continued litigation and a jury trial. It is our hope that with this legal issue resolved, the Catsouras family can receive some closure.”