Mom Who (Allegedly) Caused MySpace Suicide Gets Off

By Pamela Mortimer

Missouri resident Megan Meier, 13, was a "bubbly, goofy" girl who loved hanging out with her friends, watching movies and fishing with her dad. That is, until she committed suicide after being dumped by a fictitious boy on the social networking site MySpace.

Prosecutors have announced that they will not file criminal charges in connection with Meier’s suicide. St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas stated at a news conference that there wasn't enough evidence to press criminal charges in connection with the death.

Meier of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., committed suicide last year after being dumped by "Josh," a boy created under the encouragement of Lori Drew, the mother of a former friend of Megan’s. According to reports, Drew wanted to know what Megan was saying online about her daughter.

"Their purpose was never to cause her emotional harassment that we can prove," Banas said. "There's a difference between what people think or what we may believe the reason was that they created this, it's what we can prove and what a jury would believe."

Banas claimed that statements given by the neighbor and two teens who participated in creating the fictitious boy didn’t fall under criminal standards for the state's statutes on stalking, harassment, or endangering the welfare of a child.

Banas also said that The Federal Bureau of Investigation headed the investigation after the U.S. Attorney's Office was contacted by Megan’s family.

Meier's parents have concluded that their daughter’s October 16, 2006 suicide was the direct result of the MySpace harassment.

"There's no dispute that Mrs. Drew was aware of the creation of this MySpace," Banas said. "It was done by a young person that was in the employ of her — an 18-year-old girl along with her younger daughter — and the sole purpose by all parties that were involved in this was has been to find out what Megan was saying about this 13-year-old daughter of Mrs. Drew."

Tina Meier, Megan's mother, made a statement last month saying she didn't think anyone involved anticipated that Megan would kill herself.

"But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile," Tina Meier told the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which first reported on the case.

Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law.
"You have a lot of facts that have gone out across this country that are a misstatement of facts, of things that occurred that actually didn't occur — some being true, some not being true," Banas said.

Megan had been taking prescription medication but had been optimistic, her mother said. Part of that happiness was attributed to a relationship Megan had formed on MySpace with Josh Evans. This was about six weeks before her death.

According to Megan's parents, the girl received a message from Josh on Oct. 15, basically stating that he didn't want to be her friend anymore because he had heard she wasn't nice to her friends.

The next day, Megan's mother noticed that Megan was upset about online messages. She asked Megan to log off MySpace. MySpace users must be at least 14, though Megan was not when she logged on for the first time.

The messages became cruel. In distress, Megan called her mother, saying messages were being posted about her, saying things like, "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat."

Megan's online communications were monitored by her mother who returned home and discovered that her own daughter was sending messages containing vulgar language. She told Megan how upset she was about it.

Upset, Megan ran upstairs. Her father, Ron, tried to comfort her, to tell her everything would be fine. About 20 minutes later, Megan's mother discovered that her daughter had hanged herself in her bedroom closet. She died the following day.

Ron Meier claims he found a message the next day from Josh. It told Megan that the world would be better without her, he said. To date, the message has not been able to be retrieved by authorities.