Dad says Google Maps shows son's dead body

[aaron695]

Given Google blurs peoples faces, I suspect they are quite happy to blur / remove dead bodies.

So not sure what the real issue is here?

Has he actually asked for it to be removed?

[emhart]

Current first line:

"Google says it will replace a Google Maps image after a California father complained it shows the body of his teen-age son, who was shot to death in 2009."

EDIT: To remove my own snark as I realized the article was updated. Sorry!

[calinet6]

Pretty amazing that something like this is basically a statistical certainty with the amount of imagery we generate of the world.

[leeoniya]

i would say "rather unamazing"

[bitcrusher]

Is that a popular place for bodies? I swear I can see a body at street level here: https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d-12...

[msellout]

The area appears to have a high murder rate, as mentioned in some other news articles.

[byoung2]

If the goal is to prevent people from seeing the image, why go to the local news? Now that the story has been picked up by online media, it will go viral.

[tedivm]

I doubt he cares about other people seeing it. I think he just wants to be able to use Google Maps in his home town without stumbling on his son's corpse.

[tricky]

Had the satellite flown over earlier this headline might have said 'google maps helps solve murder case'

so sad.

[beat]

So, has Google actually refused to remove the image? Or just not moved fast enough?

[toomuchtodo]

"Barrera said he plans to formally complain to Google and to lobby state lawmakers for their help in removing the image."

Don't believe he's actually asked Google yet to take it down.

[ryansan]

I used to live in this area several years ago. It's really quite a rough area with plenty of shootings and stray bullets to go around. These stories cropped up all the time. I remember discovering at one point that the crime in Richmond was worse than Compton. Not sure if it's still true or not.

[jamesbritt]

Some stats: http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ca/richmond/crime/

[briandoll]

Super sad situation, but this is a classic Streisand effect in the making. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

[baddox]

It sounds like the father's reason for requesting the removal is that it causes him grief, not that he wants fewer people to see it.

[thpoul]

Really sad picture. I hope google removes it.

[BocceBaal]

It's a little south of the marker on the map in the article, but it is still on Google Maps.

[magic_haze]

It's been blurred out now (http://imgur.com/1GcROpY).

Also, the new maps interface is very unintuitive. I remember there used to be an option to create a shortlink to an exact coordinate: I can't figure out where that is now. There is a 'Save' button, but I think that just saves it to my local machine. How do I share a location?

[steven2012]

Okay, ya I just found it as well. It's actually more South-East of the marker, and you have to look for the police car to locate it.

I don't think this is an unreasonable request to remove this map tile, it's a pretty clear image of a dead with cops standing nearby.

[weslly]

Seems like google just updated the map tiles. I saw it 10 minutes ago but it was gone when I refreshed the page.

http://i.imgur.com/VXCTQ17.png

[kimonos]

I understand the sentiment of the father.. I think it is appropriate for Google to remove it..

[jolohaga]

Very sad. I feel for the father.