The parents of murder victim Caroline Wimmer are suing Facebook after a paramedic pleaded guilty to posting photographs of their daughter’s corpse to the social-networking site. Wimmer was found by her parents, Ronald and Martha, after she was strangled with a hairdryer cord in 2009.
Mark Musarella, who responded to their emergency call, admitted that he posted photos of Wimmer’s corpse to Facebook and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He has forfeited his EMT certification and received 200 hours of community service. The Wimmers are suing Facebook in order to force the company to turn over the image and prevent the image from being further disseminated and downloaded.
Knowing the photo is still out there makes it hard for the family to move on, say the Wimmers. But Facebook believes it is protected by the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said, “The case is without merit. We will fight it vigorously.”
Parents sue over Facebook photos of dead daughter [CNN]
