Netflix Sued Over Photo In Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker Documentary

A man from Kentucky is suing Netflix for using his image without permission in a documentary about a murderer.

During The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, a 2023 Netflix documentary about Caleb McGillvary, a viral internet star who was convicted of murder in 2019, a photo of another man holding a hatchet, Taylor Hazlewood, appears on the screen while the narrator asks, “Is this a guardian angel or a stone-cold killer?” Text also appears on the screen that reads, “You can never trust anyone.”

Hazlewood, a 27-year-old who works as a respiratory therapist in a neonatal ICU, has nothing to do with McGillvary, though, and according to the lawsuit he filed, Netflix used the photo without permission. In June 2019, Hazlewood took a photo with his friend’s hatchet and posted it on Instagram.

Netflix released the documentary on Jan. 12, and on Jan. 20, a friend told Hazlewood that they’d seen his photo used in the documentary. After that, more than 20 of Hazlewood’s friends and acquaintances contacted him about his photo in the documentary, causing him to experience “reputational harm, stress, anxiety, and anguish,” according to the lawsuit.

Hazlewood’s attorney, Angela Buchanan, told BuzzFeed News her client is “a private and quiet man, was galvanized by his inclusion in the true-crime documentary The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, which tells the salacious story of Caleb McGillvary’s rise to fame and subsequent first-degree murder conviction.” She said Hazlewood “had no connection whatsoever to the people or events depicted in the film.”

“Netflix, and the production companies upon which they rely, must be held accountable when they are negligent and cause this sort of reputational harm,” Buchanan said.