Rodney Alcala is a serial killer who was convicted of various murders and rapes back in the 1970's. He was sentenced to death but due to the slow moving nature of California's death row, died in prison earlier this year still awaiting the death penalty.
At one point, authorities found many photos of young women, often in sexually explicit poses, in a storage unit rented by Alcala. Authorities believe these are the photos of additional victims. Beginning in 2010 or so, they posted some of the less explicit photos--or cropped the more explicit ones--on the web to see if anyone could identify these women. So far only one has been identified, who turned out to be an additional murder victim.
What do you think of the ethics of posting these photos? On the one hand, yes it might help with solving some long dormant cold murder cases--as seems to have actually happened once. But what if some of these women were raped but not murdered? That means that a photo associating them with and taken by their rapist, possibly rather revealing, is now out there for all to see. If these women were in their 20's back in the day, they could be in their 60's or 70's now but still possibly living and potentially traumatized by seeing these photos posted for the public to see. Any thoughts on the ethics of this decision?
Poll