Finally-An Indictment in the MySpace Suicide Case

May 19, 2008

In a case that has been in and out of the news somewhat regularly since 13-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide by hanging herself on October 16, 2006 after becoming the butt-end of a cruel hoax that was allegedly perpetrated by an adult and a juvenile, the case appears to be moving forward-at last-with the indictment of Lori Drew, 49, on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without proper authorization, handed down by a Los Angeles federal grand jury on Thursday, May 15, 2008.

To recap for those readers who are not familiar with the story, when the case began some nineteen months ago young Megan believed that she had made a new friend in Josh Evans, described as a cute teenage boy who began exchanging messages with Megan on MySpace.  Josh claimed that he was born in Florida and had recently moved to O'Fallon, Missouri, located east of St. Louis and not far from Megan's residence in Dardenne Prairie.  Megan, who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder and was on medication, continued the correspondence with Josh for several weeks before he suddenly broke off his friendship with her on October 15, 2006 by telling Megan that someone had told him that she was cruel and unpleasant toward her friends.  The problem was that Josh didn't exist, and the following day Megan hung herself.  She died a day later.

On the day that Megan hung herself, she had received very cruel messages from someone logged into "Josh's" MySpace account.  The messages that were being posted were stating things such as, "Megan Meier is a slut; Megan Meier is fat."  Megan, upset, told her mother about the messages as her mother left the house for an appointment.  When she returned home, she viewed the messages in question and was surprised to see that her daughter had engaged in vulgar language in her responses.  She expressed to Megan that she was upset over the language that Megan had used.  Megan went to her father in another area of the house because she was feeling so badly about what had happened, and he attempted to raise her spirits by telling her that everything would be okay.  Less than half an hour later, Megan was found...

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