Autopsy Photos of Murdered Boy Gannon Stauch Sold by YouTuber

A YouTuber has been condemned by a NewsNation host for creating a video highlighting the autopsy photos of murdered Colorado boy Gannon Stauch.

Gannon, 11, 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.

The prosecution lawyers said that Letecia Stauch drove the boy's body to an area off Colorado Highway 105 and South Perry Park Road and dumped it before later driving it to Florida.

NewsNation host Brian Entin said that he was sensitive to individuals who took advantage of grieving families for personal gain. He accused true-crime YouTuber Zav Girl of doing just that. Newsweek has contacted Zav Girl via email for comment.

Entin added that the YouTuber was selling the photos of Stauch's autopsy as she had made a video for her Patreon subscribers that showed the images.

Zav Girl has argued against this claim in a message that she posted on her channel on Tuesday. She said she was not selling the individual photos of Stauch but uploaded a full video only accessible by her Patreon followers. It focused on the photos as well as audio from the homicide trial. Patreon allows people to subscribe to individuals for a monthly fee to view content a creator may not necessarily post on their public YouTube page.

"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," Zav Girl said in her message.

"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," the YouTuber added.

On Tuesday, Entin shared clips on his Twitter page of his on-air reaction to the autopsy controversy. He dismissed the YouTuber's statement as well as her decision to share the autopsy photos. The NewsNation journalist said that he took personal offense and found Zav Girl's actions sick.

"For some reason, Zav Girl thought it would be a good idea to put in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for little 11 year-old Gannon's autopsy photos and they actually released the photos to her," Entin said.

"She had to pay and they release the photos to her and she got them, you can just imagine, based on the description of how that little boy was killed, what they look like.

"Zav Girl then proceeded to post them on her Patreon account, an account attached to her YouTube page and she charged her followers money to see the autopsy photos," Entin added.

"For 3 dollars, you could see little Gannon's body. She was making money off of that little boy's autopsy photos. Autopsy photos of a severely beaten little boy, really, it has just got no place on the internet."

Entin also spoke to the lead prosecutor on the murder case, Michael Allen, who said that the family of Gannon is aware of this controversy. Allen added that he had advised the family on how to combat this incident but said that there is nothing they can do to get the images taken off the internet.

"It is just completely disrespectful to the family members that have had to live through this horror," Allen added.

"But, even more so, Gannon deserved so much more in life from his stepmother, and he certainly deserves dignity and respect in death.

"There is nothing about what this YouTuber is doing, and I think there is another one out there as well, that provides any dignity or respect to Gannon.

"The statement they put out about this incident, sort of justifying it, just rings hollow," Allen said.