Four years ago, 14-year-old Kevin Barrera was beaten, shot and left to die on the railroad tracks in Richmond, California. Today, his family are faced with a daily reminder of his death: in fact, all they need to do is visit Google Maps, enter the correct coordinates, and they'll be taken to a satellite image of the crime scene, complete with police car, officers on the scene – and Barrera's body.

Google has so far not responded to family requests to take the images down. "When I see this image, that's still like that happened yesterday,” Kevin's father, Jose Barrera, told the local news network KTVU. “And that brings me back to a lot of memories." The killer was never found, which makes the situation even more heartbreaking for the grieving family.

Since its launch in 2006, Google Maps has been hailed as a revolutionary way to navigate the world. Armchair explorers can traverse street views of everything from the Galapagos Islands to the labyrinthine canals of Venice from the comfort of home. But for every playful Galapagos seal captured by Google cameras, there are cases like those of the Barrera family: occasions when you start thinking that, hey, maybe a global undertaking to map everything around us is actually a terrible idea, and doesn't contribute to the sum total of human knowledge.

The more you squint at the satellite image of the crime scene in Richmond, which is clear enough for you to see exactly what Barrera was wearing when he died (white shirt, white trainers – the image above has been cropped to exclude Barrera) – the more you start thinking that maybe seeing playful Galapagos seals doesn't mean anything compared to an unwarranted intrusion into private bereavements.