Google: We'll Remove Image of Murdered Teen From Maps

It's a rare move from tech giant
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2013 3:40 PM CST

Kevin Barrera, 14, was murdered four years ago—and his family just discovered Friday that his body can be viewed on Google Maps. Barrera was shot on a footpath crossing railroad tracks in Northern California; the crime remains unsolved. A Google Maps satellite image of the murder scene shows a police car, police officers, and Barrera's body. A local TV news station alerted the Barrera family to the image, and now Google has agreed to remove it—a rare step.

"All the memories are coming back to four years ago," Barrera's dad, Jose, tells the San Jose Mercury News. "I'm in shock." He asked for Google to remove the image, and was joined in that call by a youth center in the city that Kevin spent time at after school. "Google has never accelerated the replacement of updated satellite imagery from our maps before, but given the circumstances we wanted to make an exception in this case," says the Google Maps VP. It could take as long as eight days for the image to be removed. A technology analyst tells KTVU that by doing this, Google may open itself up to similar requests from other people upset about satellite images. (More Google Maps stories.)

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