In a surprising turn of events, a Missouri woman named Ms. Lori Drew is being brought up on charges stemming from a 13 year old girl’s suicide; her name was Megan Meier. It is surprising because some people in law enforcement believe this area of law to be untried; prosecuting cyber stalking/bullying has not been commonly taken to the legal arena of the court room. MySpace might mean federal prison for those involved in the alledged hoax.
Lori Drew, and a 19 year old employee named Ashley Grills, were allegedly involved in creating a MySpace profile of a young man named “Josh Evans” who contacted Megan and initiated a online relationship. MySpace is a social networking site. As time went on, “Josh” became abusive online and even went so far as to say that the world would be a better place without her in it …and, that he no longer wanted to be friends with her. Within an hour of that online conversation…Megan was dead.
Not long ago Ashley Grills, the 19 year old employee, did a television interview alledging that Lori Drew was involved in some of the postings. Ms. Drew denies this…but, she has now been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization. This whole case is tragic.
Supposedly, according to Ms. Grills, the whole hoax was set up to find out if Megan was saying anything about Ms. Drew’s daughter. This hoax has had horrible consequences. Young Megan is dead, Ms. Grills is probably next in line for some kind of legal consequences unless she has procured immunity for her testimoney; Megan’s family is mourning the death of their child, Ms. Drew could end up in federal prison, and a neighborhood is torn apart as the Drew and the Meier families lived in the same neighborhood at the time of the tragedy.
The outcome of this case could have long lasting impact on how people conduct themselves online, in chat lines or in social networking sites. It is imperative that people monitor their children when they are online for safety reasons. Words have power to put down or lift up and people are going to be held accountable legally.
It might be a good time to remind people that we have impact on those around us…why not make it a positive IMPACT! Check this out… http://theimpactfactor.net?id=35.
Grills stated that she just wanted to make megan angry at josh so she could close down the myspace account, thats a load of horse crap, all she had to do was hit DELETE on the myspace account and megan would still be alive today, sad and heart broken over not hearing from josh anymore but alive. These people intently set out to cos a break down in megan knowing she was on meds for depression, and in my opinion, they all should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for their part, and their part was MURDER!!!
I agree with Tammy C – This woman was 47 PEOPLE! I have two daughters and if an adult tried to mess them in this way – well let’s not go into that. I feel very sorry for the husband and children of this horrible, souless person – I want to believe that He didn’t participate and the children are just that – children.
There are NO EXCUSES for the Lori Drews in the world. I hope she is convicted and I hope she suffers every minute she spends in prison. I do believe that there will be some folks in prison waiting for her and she won’t have the anonymity of the internet to hide behind!
As for the Meier family – God bless and keep you from anymore suffering. I hope you feel some vindication when this animal pays for what she did to your baby!
I would just like to update this page with the information that Megan’s mother, Tina, has started a foundation to help educate others about bullying and it’s effects. She travels and gives talks to organizations and schools. Here is the address for the foundation: http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org
Tina Meier also works with an organization to help stop online bullying…check it out here: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org