Family's distress after Marine documented his suicide in series of grisly pictures on Facebook… and the social networking site refused to take them down

Former Marine Daniel Rey Wolfe posted disturbing pictures documenting his suicide on Sunday

Despite the pleas of his family and friends the pictures remained online until Wednesday

Facebook claimed that the images did not necessarily break their community standards

Following pressure from the media and the Veterans Association Facebook removed the pictures



Facebook has come under heavy criticism for refusing to remove extremely graphic pictures of a war veterans suicide posted to the social media giant on Sunday



Despite the pleas of his family and friends, grisly images of former Marine Daniel Rey Wolfe remained online until Wednesday, after he took his own life in a Tulsa, Oklahoma squat.



Facebook initially told his loved ones that the gruesome pictures of deep puncture wounds on his legs captioned with heartbreaking goodbye messages did not violate their community standards, outraging them and veteran's organizations.

Tragedy: Daniel Rey Wolfe took his own life on Sunday night or Monday morning and updated Facebook with pictures of his suicide

Despite repeated calls over two days to remove the photographs, Facebook at first refused to budge on the issue.



According to an investigation by Gawker, Facebook justified not removing the photographs because they make a distinction between cases of someone who is documenting their own self-harm as opposed to someone promoting others self-harm.



A spokesperson for Facebook told Gawker they 'have been advised by experts in that space that removing content could be detrimental' in the case of those committing self-harm.

In essence, if they removed cries for help, then family and friends would not know to intervene.

'Facebook has long relied on guidance from suicide prevention and other mental health experts to equip friends and others to take action when they notice a friend in distress,' said a spokesman for Facebook to MailOnline.



'As part of this approach, we’ve been advised of the importance of allowing images of self-harm to remain on Facebook since they are legitimate cries for help and will increase the likelihood a friend reaches them in time.



'We of course remove content reported to us for encouraging or promoting self-harm.'



Indeed, Wolfe's friends and family did respond to his horrifying pictures almost immediately, desperately trying to reach him and find him.

Strength: Daniel Wolfe was known by his comrades as a good friend and soldier who found re-adjusting to civilian life difficult

Warning: Daniel Wolfe posted this to his Facebook page on Sunday evening - heralding his suicide

Requests: Wolfe began to worry his friends and family when messages like this started to appear

Heartbreaking: The mental anguish that Wolfe was going through was clear in this message

Definite: Daniel Wolfe re-iterated his desire for a funeral fit for a warrior

The father-of-one was reportedly suffering from deep depression brought on by money problems and an undiagnosed case of PTSD.



He had become known as a drifter in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow, 'going from place to place' and police thought of him not as a trouble maker, but as someone 'down on his luck.'



On Sunday night, his troubled state of mind became clear when he posted a series of messages that increased in morbidity with each subsequent update.



'The only fight I ever lost was the one to myself,' wrote Wolfe on Sunday night, followed by 'When my body moves no more give me a vikings funeral.'



Directly after that Wolfe uploaded four pictures - one of a half-empty bottle of vodka, with the caption, 'Byee b****s' - and the other three showing where he had cut himself.



This caused his friends to launch into full-on panic stations as they pleaded with him to snap out of it and to contact the Veterans Association.

Reaching out: Daniel Wolfe's friends and family tried their best to help the stricken soldier

Gruesome: This is the worst picture (heavily blurred by MailOnline) that Wolfe posted to Facebook with the caption, 'I'm leaking good now'

In the final, awful picture of his mutilated leg, Wolfe comments, 'I'm leaking good now.'



Broken Arrow police found Wolfe dead in an 'unoccupied dwelling' on Tuesday evening and informed his family.



However, the tragic last pictures he posted were still on Facebook and so his family asked the social media site to remove them.



Gawker was contacted by the family after their attempts to report the images of Wolfe's suicide were rebuffed.



'We reviewed the photo you reported for containing graphic violence and found it doesn't violate our community standards,' was Facebook's initial reply.



The Veteran's Association asked Facebook to remove them, but they too were met with a brick wall.



'It hurt and outraged me,' said Wolfe's former comrade Douglas Tripp to Gawker.

Standards: This was the message that Facebook provided when asked to remove the photographs

'When we would report the pictures they would tell us thank you for trying to make Facebook a safer place, but the images didn't violate their terms and conditions.



'When it clearly says images of self harm and mutilation are against their policy. How does leaving those pictures up make Facebook safer?'



Despite accepting Facebook's justification that images posted by those in distress can be extremely important, Wolfe's friends and family wanted to know why the pictures of a dead man couldn't be removed.



Facebook replied that in these cases the family is contacted and asked if they want their deceased relative's page to stay up in memorial or to be deleted.



In this case however, Wolfe's family were more concerned with the length of time the images were still online for.



Eventually, even though the photographs apparently did not violate Facebook's standards, they were only removed because the family asked.



In response to the tragedy and controversy a Facebook spokesman said, 'We’re saddened by this tragedy and offer our deepest sympathies to Mr. Wolfe’s friends and family, particularly those who worked so quickly to reach him during his time of need,

'As soon as people reported these posts and photos to Facebook, we immediately suggested a crisis hotline and attempted to connect Mr. Wolfe with specific suicide prevention resources.



'His friends took action and notified police as well as the Veterans Crisis Line. Despite their swift response, we were notified of Mr. Wolfe’s death and unpublished his profile.'

