Alleged Photo of Suspect 1 Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Bloody Corpse Surfaces

Editor's Note: The graphic photo circulating on the Web claiming to show the body of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has not been officially confirmed. We have blurred the image completely but link to the Reddit thread where the photo is posted, which is extremely graphic. 

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The website TMZ and Twitter users are spreading a photo allegedly showing the corpse of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed by police in Watertown, Massachusetts, Thursday night.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev seen on surveillance camera before allegedly helping plant bombs that lead to three being killed and more than 170 injured in at the Boston Marathon. (Photo: FBI)

The image purporting to show body of Tsarnaev, whose brother, the other suspect in the bombings, is still at large, is reported by TMZ to be "100 percent authentic," according to its law enforcement sources. Its sources said they would be investigating who leaked the photo.

The image shows a bloody body with what appears to be gunshot wounds. The body also has a large gaping hole in the left rib cage, which Redditors speculate was the result of a thoracotomy. According to the Surgery Encyclopedia, a thoracotomy can be performed for various reasons to gain access to lungs, ribs, heart or other organs in the chest cavity. Although lung cancer is the most common reason for such a procedure, a resuscitative thoracotomy could be performed to "control injury-related bleeding from the heart, cardiac compressions to restore a normal heart rhythm, or to relieve pressure on the heart...".

Another Redditor, HeyItsTheChad, claims that a "doctor friend" said the red on the body's face is not blood but "bruising," which would be consistent with someone being run over by a car. CNN reported that Tsarnaev exited the car stolen by he and his brother, engaged in gunfire with authorities and was run over by Dzhokar who drove away and was being hunted by police Friday.

This image has been blurred from its original due to the graphic nature. The photo has not be validated as authentic, but some on Reddit claim it to be the body of Tsarnaev. (Image via Imgur)

TMZ went on to report the image first surfaced on Reddit from a user of the social news site who said they obtained the copy from a "friend."

TMZ did not link the Reddit thread, but this appears to be the original post. The thread was started by the Redditor UncleLeosEyebrows who wrote:

Got this from a friend downtown. Haven't seen it anywhere else yet. Not sure of validity. He would not tell me where he got it from

UncleLeosEyebrows went on to say he has tried to confirm the source.

We should note too that after the death of a high-profile person fake, doctored photos showing the alleged body have a tendency to surface. There were similar photos that came out after the shooting of Osama bin Laden claiming to show his corpse.

This combination of undated photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The FBI says the two brothers and suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed an MIT police officer, injured a transit officer in a firefight and threw explosive devices at police during a getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar still at large on Friday, April 19, 2013. The ethnic Chechen brothers lived in Dagestan, which borders the Chechnya region in southern Russia. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, one of their uncles reported said. (Photo: AP/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young)

It should also be noted that TMZ's law enforcement sources might not be associated with the Boston case specifically.

There is another Reddit thread that began with the same image here.

Let us know what you think of the photos validity by taking our poll:

Update: The Smoking Gun reported the chief of the hospital’s emergency medicine department, Dr. Richard Wolfe, who said he had seen the photo circulating and noted that it “was not taken during the medical procedures or when the medical team had control of the body.”

Wolfe explained after Tsnarnaev was pronounced dead at the hospital, the body was taken to a "non-clinical area" where law enforcement took custody.