A shocking online claim is bringing new attention to a cold case murder in Las Vegas.
Someone posted graphic pictures and claimed to be the killer of Shauna Maynard, a runaway found shot to death back in 1998.
It appears to be a hoax, Las Vegas Police officials tell Action News the claim is not valid but they wouldn't elaborate.
The disturbing photos and outrageous claim were posted to 4chan, it's a user-generated content site much like Reddit. It was put up just over a month ago and it is disturbing.
The anonymous poster set it up like a sick game, claiming to have killed several women then urging other users to guess names to go along with the disgusting images that appear to show dead bodies.
"Whoever could do something like that just shows that it's a sick sick mind, you know social media unfortunately can be so abused in manners like this," said Retired Metro Lieutenant, Randy Sutton.
One of the first pictures shows a dark haired woman covered in blood but her face isn't visible. Next to it there's a high school photo that users quickly identified as Shauna Maynard.
The 17-year-old runaway was found shot to death on Blue Diamond and Decatur back in 1998.
According to Sutton, a hoax like isn't likely to hurt a cold case but it would waste a lot of time and resources.
"The family suddenly gets thrust back into the mix of these type of terrible emotions, they may, you know start reliving the trauma of this and it's just really a horrible thing to do. It shows that someone really doesn't have any type of conscience whatsoever," explained Sutton.
He also said this kind of hoax could cause immeasurable damage to a victim's family.
"The cruelty of that is beyond belief, I mean if you think about how the woman's family has been suffering for all theses years."
This terrible hoax aside, there is still hope for Shauna Maynard's family and other's like them. Metro just recently hired two retired detectives that will be dedicated to looking into cold cases.
Anyone with information on Shauna Maynard's murder is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.
