I agree that it was stupid for them to release the story before the image was replaced.
But really, why the hell can’t Google put in a temporary fix while they are waiting for the new images to be ready? I wonder whether they are trying to make a point, to remind us of their dominance…
The really close pictures from a severe angle are obviously all from planes (and that’s what the body appears in), but a lot of the top-down pictures at lower zoom levels are also from planes and have been for a long time.
Mapping cameras used to be in 36", 24", 12" lengths with some 6" focal lengths. Mostly on 9½" by 9½" negatives.
Now they are mostly 6" & 3½" focal lengths.
The new $$$$$ cameras are going digital. Bit more to it than with hand held cameras.
Big areas were done with mosaics.
Then came orthophoto’s
Then came computers.
Zoom in low and see how much of the sides of a building you can see. That will give you and idea of how far the center of the camera was when it was taken. More so if you know what the focal length & flight height is.
Satellite’s are so high that there is almost no visible indication of angle on maps produced at these scales.
Photos used by Google are different because of availability and means of photographing. They don’t get the best satellite images so they use mapping companies or maybe they have their own planes & cameras now.
The possibilities of this tech is expanding at an unbelievable rate.
Using this link, the picture of the dead body seems to still be there for now.
What a 21st-century way to be memoralized.
For one, this view doesn’t even give me a satellite view; it gives me a map view. When I switch to satellite and zoom in I’m in a parking lot of a football field and don’t see anything nefarious.
Still gives me a disturbingly close in picture even on a cell phone.
Patch up?
Yeah - the link still works for me on my computer and on my IPad. Maybe try clicking with a different device?
Internet Explorer seems to work fine. Firefox, nope.
Thanks.
As I read it the murder is unsolved. As painful as it may be for the family this sort of publicity may lead to some information to solve the crime. Probably a slim chance, but if this made the news in the Bay area you know that a few people in Richmond have had a look.
Nope… It ain’t ‘just you’. 
It’s still working.
Nice shoes!
Maybe there were 2 murder investigations that day and we found the other one? 
My family discovered (accidentally) that the Google map satellite view of the local / family church cemetery shows a funeral in progress (hearse, pallbearers, tent over the grave, etc). Link at funeral image
Looking at the date, it turned out to be my brother’s funeral.
I need to take snapshot of the page before it get removed - it’s almost too cool. And he was one of those people who always hated having his picture taken…
How do you find the date of an image?
I’m wondering the same thing, I’ve always been curious when I look at some images.
On a slightly unrelated note, I found myself on Google Street View. I remember following the car on my way home from work in the summer of 2012 and I recently found the image of myself.
It looks to me like they’ve fixed it already. I don’t see anything in IE, Firefox, or Google Earth. Just to be clear, it was in a triangular space near Duboce Ave?
Earlier today you could see the body, now it looks like it’s been replaced with a white cross buried (or Photoshopped) in the ground.
I saw the Google car in Freeport, ME in September…I was on a sidewalk in full view. I keep checking that particular stretch, but they haven’t updated Street View yet.