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Texas Man Kills Girlfriend And Posts Dead Body Photos To Facebook, Site Refuses To Remove Horrific Pics For 36 Hours, Police Say

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 00:50 PST, May 31, 2016

Texas man Kenneth Alan Amyx is accused of killing his girlfriend and posting photos of the horrific murder scene to Facebook. Two images of Jennifer Streit-Spears’ dead body were posted on Sunday. The gruesome crime has sparked a viral hashtag and been dubbed the #FacebookSelfieMurder.

Facebook reportedly refused to remove the dead body photos for 36 hours because the images did not violate its terms of use policy, the Daily Mail notes. The first photo posted to the social media website reportedly showed Jennifer Streit-Spears’ dead body. The second image reportedly depicted the bloody face of a man. Plano, Texas, law enforcement investigators believe the man in the photo is Kenneth Alan Amyx.

Beneath the photos of the dead body of Jennifer Streit-Spears, 43, is a caption which read, “Please pray for us.”

After the sister of the murder victim saw the photos on Facebook, she immediately called the police. Texas officers forced their way into the apartment Kenneth Alan Amyx, 45, shared with the victim, the New York Daily News reports.

Once inside, the police officers quickly discovered a horrific and bloody scene. Jennifer Streit-Spears was dead and had been stabbed multiple times. Kenneth Amyx was found alive but with what officers have described as self-inflicted stab wounds.

The grieving loved ones contacted Facebook to request the images of the murder be removed from the social media website. A sister of the murder victim told the media she was given “limited options” to have the cloudy but gruesome images taken down.

“I did ask them to remove it several times. They told me I could block Jennifer if I didn’t like what she posted and gave me other similar options,” the unidentified sister said during an interview with the Daily Dot.

The photos from the Jennifer Streit-Spears murder remained visible on Facebook for 36 hours before the efforts to have them removed by family and friends succeeded. During an interview with CBS11, a Facebook representative defended the decision to keep the murder scene images on the social media website.

The staffer maintained the dead body photos were not a violation of the company’s policies even though the images were flagged by multiple users. The Facebook representative also said the images could not be removed until website monitors could determine if Streit-Spears’ account had been hacked.

The Facebook representative said the decision to initially decline the requests to remove the murder photos was due to a concern the bloody images were a “call for help” from the victim and not a post by the killer. The photos are now being used as evidence in the murder case.

“Facebook has long been a place where people share their experiences and raise awareness about important issues. Sometimes, those experiences and issues involve violence and graphic images of public interest or concern,” the Facebook staffer told the media.

After the murder scene photos were removed from the victim’s Facebook page, her profile was changed to an “in remembrance” page.

The man accused of the committing the Facebook selfie murder was previously convicted of sexually abusing a child under the age of 14 in Rockwall County, Texas. Amyx has also been convicted on indecent exposure to a child charges in Dallas County.

Kenneth Amyx was arrested and ultimately transported to the Collins County Jail. He has been charged with the murder of Jennifer Streit-Spears and is being held on a $600,000 bond.

[Image by Twin Design/Shutterstock.com]

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