A user anonymously posted images purportedly showing a woman’s body with details of a suspected homicide in Washington on the anonymous image-sharing site. Police are investigating if the photos are linked to a Port Orchard homicide.
Police in Port Orchard, Washington, are investigating gruesome photos of a dead body posted anonymously on the online forum 4chan that are possibly linked to the homicide of a woman on Tuesday. The victim, believed to be in her 30s, was found dead in her apartment the Port Orchard Independent reported.
Before 3 p.m. several photos of a dead woman lying naked on a bed surfaced on 4chan. The woman appeared to have red marks around her neck. A message along with the images read: "Turns out it's way harder to strangle someone to death than it looks on the movies."
When pressed by other 4chan users to verify the authenticity of the pictures, the anonymous user said: "Check the news for Port Orchard, Washington, in a few hours. Her son will be home from school soon. He'll find her, then call the cops. I just wanted to share the pics before they find me." The woman's body was discovered at 3:26 p.m.
The pictures were deleted from 4chan — the same site to post nude images of celebrities two months ago— but have now resurfaced on Reddit.
Kitsap County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Deputy Scott Wilson told NBC's King 5 that detectives were investigating the photos purportedly showing the homicide victim, but he was unable to confirm if they were images of the same woman.
"Any time we have images of this graphic nature that are posted online and perpetrate to be this crime scene we are going to take those seriously, but we're unable to confirm whether those photographs are of this victim," Wilson said.
Police are also searching for the victim's car, a 2001 gold four-door Ford Focus, which was missing from her house.
Wilson also said that this was not a random assault and that the victim "was targeted by a yet-to-be determined other person."
