Facebook Keeps Photos Of Marine’s Gruesome Suicide For Users

A war veteran Daniel Rey Wolfe signed on to Facebook on Monday night to leave a series of suicide notes, before tragically taking his own life. It’s a headline we have read based on a trend that the social networking site has seen in recent years, but this time it’s what Facebook didn’t do that’s making headlines.

According to Gawkerthe graphic timeline remained intact after the Marine’s passing. Wolfe’s Facebook feed was filled with photos of his suicide, and nothing was done initially to remove the photos, even in the wake of his loved ones insisting the photos should be removed. Despite the requests of friends and veterans’ organizations, Facebook didn’t take any action in removing the contents of Daniel Rey Wolfe’s tragic timeline.

It’s reported that Wolfe’s struggles were too much for the Marine to handle, and he took his life with a blade in a squat outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In an e-mail to Gawker, Douglas Tripp, a former Marine friend of Wolfe’s said of the gruesome scene exposed to the Marine’s family and friends.

“His friends and family were exposed to images they should never had to [have] seen. Who needs to see their son, brother, cousin or friend like that? They will remove a picture of a bare ass or exposed breast with the quickness. How are those more dangerous than a young man mutilating himself before he commits suicide?”

In recent years Daniel Rey Wolfe was struggling through a series of problems. The Marine collected a string of speeding tickets, and was arrested twice in Southern California for charges that haven’t been brought to light. Although he was struggling, he wasn’t known by police as a troublemaker, but as a man who was going through his own issues.

Major Mark Irwin, who is a spokesperson for the Broken Arrow police department said that he was, “going from place to place,” and was a guy that was “down on his luck.” He wasn’t beyond helping though, as several officers came to Daniel’s aid in his time of need. “One of the officers, she gave him a little bit of money.”

Wolfe made a series of Facebook posts before he took his own life. One was a request for his funeral. The Marine wanted, “a viking funeral” and expressed that he wanted to be “pushed out on a wooden raft soaked in gas and oil.”

After the series of messages Wolfe took to the social networking site to post four graphic photographs documenting the scene.

Gawker reports:

“The final three photographs show a left leg and arm with numerous cuts and scratches grooved into them. Deep punctures are visible on the leg.”

His Facebook friends were frantic to help their fallen brother. Many attempted to save him with encouraging postings on his Facebook wall:

After reporting the account to Facebook the Marine’s friends received a jarring response from the site:

“We reviewed the photo you reported for containing graphic violence and found it doesn’t violate our community standards.”

According to a rep there are two options a member can do after a loved one passes away:

“One is to memorialize the account. The other option is for family members to chose to have the account removed.”

After two days and various questioning of Facebook’s representatives, Marine Daniel Rey Wolfe’s account has been deleted from the site.

[Image Credit: Facebook wall via Gawker / Top image via Bing]