Megan Meier was bullied in school and had suffered from low self-esteem and depression since a very young age. She was a fragile teen, a good girl, who was very unhappy. Megan opened up a MySpace account with permission from her parents and soon afterwards was approached online by a boy named Josh who complimented her and lifted her spirits.
Josh was the first boy to pay attention to Megan and soon they were friends communicating by instant messaging. After one month of Josh saying only kind things to Megan he suddenly turned ugly towards her spewing insults like, "the world would be a better place without you."
Megan could not cope with the pain of being attacked by her new friend with all that she's had to deal with, and took her life in her very own bedroom.
Her parents were devastated and did their best to revive their daughter but Megan was pronounced dead the next day.
A month later a neighbor told Megan's parents that there was never a boy named Josh and it was in fact a another neighbor who was the mother of a teenage girl that had created the fake identity so that she'd have a way to find out information about her own daughter.
Unbelievably enough this women actually attended Megan's funeral. When Megan's mother confronted the woman it was not sympathy that she received.
It's been a year now since the tragedy and Megan's parents want to the world to know what happened to their daughter. They want to bring awareness to the issue of Cyberbullying, and are hoping that the women involved in the MySpace bullying of their daughter will finally be held accountable for her actions.
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13 comments:
If you want to see the shear power of the blog, look no further than the sad tale of Megan Meier, the 13 year old that committed suicide last year. She established a relationship with a (we know now) a fictitious boy named Josh Evans. Then this boy called her horrible names and she was pushed over the edge. Then we find out that the fictitious boy was created by Lori and Curt Drew, adults - neighbors of the Meier's.
The story finally came out this week and the blogs have been absolutely radioactive with their disdain for these sick people (Lori and Curt Drew). The local paper did not publish their names, believing their anonymity was valid - but the blogs found them and outed them. And it goes further - we know all about Lori and Curt's business, their clients and even their property information.
Perhaps this is the Bitch that John McCain's supporter was thiking about. How do we beat the BITCH... Lori Drew.
Someone this fragile is going to off themselves one way or another. Think about your own school years. Do you really think she would have made it? It was coming sooner or later.
It seems to me the parents and My Space have some blame for death of Megan. The parents were trying to be their child's friend and allowed her set up a page (Megan stated she was 16 on her page!). That's responsible! My Space clearly states you have to be 14 and over to set up a page, to me it should be 21. I fight with my daughter all the time about a page, she's 14 and will not have a page until she is out of the house. Be a parent, say no once in a while.
I keep finding myself coming back to this story. It really hits home hard. My sister’s daughter, my niece, was killed in a motor cycle accident. She had just graduated from TCU and had her whole life in front of her. A parent should never have to go through the agony of out living their child, regardless of the circumstances. My daughter is seventeen and I remember the stressful days she had at that age. My daughter is very popular and was a cheerleader from middle school until her sophomore year. She quit cheerleading because of the evil that engulfs those groups. She excels in sports still and has many boy suitors requesting her affections. Even though this has been the case, she still was a girl on the brink of becoming a young woman. She had the days of crying from the moment she got home from school till she woke up the next morning. My point is that regardless of your popularity, religion, ethnic back ground or whatever, the pressure on young girls/women is tremendous. I'm just so thankful that daddy's little girl will be twice the person I will ever be. I will withhold publicizing my opinion on who is right or wrong in this case. But I must tell Megan’s parents that she will be in my prayers for quite sometime time I’m sure. And i will repeat, A parent should never have to go through the agony of out living their children.
I hope this woman lives with the dead of this child everyday of her life. She is a murder. Plain and simple. She obviously knew of the girl's issues. She lured the child and then once had her confidence struck with a knife to the heart.
What a terrible nightmare for this family. My heart and sympathy goes out to her family and friends.
While, I don't want to jump to conclusions because we often do not have all of the facts I also find it deeply disturbing that anyone, much less a mother, would go to this extent to emotionally impact a youngster.
I just cannot fathom the fact that an ADULT deceived a 13 year old girl who clearly had issues. This woman had nothing but vindictive motives in mind. That woman, and her cohorts, need to be held accountable. NO QUESTION. Just who does she think she is? My guess is that she has the emotional and intellectual IQ of a child. Who else would feel the need to belittle a young girl? Quite frankly, I worry for the safety of her own children. They likely are the victims of some level of abuse. NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD DO THIS SORT OF THING!
I don't think that most people would intentionally push someone to suicide or columbine disasters. But there needs to be laws to protect people from intentional emotional bullying.
This woman is no different than sex predators pretending to be someone they are not. Law enforcement needs to step up to the plate here. Otherwise, this woman will likely get it from another lunatic parent. But maybe that is what the cops in that town expect - losers "taking care of" losers.
Hi Guys,
Thanks for your comments. I know this story is very upsetting, and I feel that the Drew's should be held accountable for their actions in a lawful manner. I don't understand how they aren't breaking the law by harassing a young girl, it's frustrating, but it's up to law enforcement officials to decide what action to take.
I have published comments that include their names, but I am not going to publish comments left with their phone number or address out of concern for their young teenage daughter. She is an innocent victim in all of this, and it's sad enough that she has such an immature and insensitive mother, without adding even more heartache into her life.
the crime is "child molestation" or "reckless disregard for human life", these folks belong behing bars....
Chris, This is one of those senseless acts, that leaves us speechless, with the exception of questioning "why" of course.
Really excellent post!
Ann
Ms. Drew used the same same exact mode of operation as a child predator enacts in the seduction of a child.
Drew posed as a member of the opposite sex and spent weeks and weeks luring this girl into a relationship.
But yet it went further. The adult Drew formed a heated relationship with the 13 year old girl. She worked hard to gain the girl's confidence. She exploited the girl intimately by posing as a boyfriend. She enacted the same methods child predators use to groom their victims.
Then the woman emotionally raped this child. She took her supposed love and sexual stimulation and crushed the girl emotionally with them -all while knowing the girl was unstable.
This adult and her friends calculated the best way to achieve maximum mental distress and then carried out their plan. Even enticed others to join in the destruction of this child.
There are manslaughter convictions on the books that won based on looser ties to a person's death than this. Child predators go to jail for following this scenerio.
Ms. Drew is the clear definition of a child predator. She used the internet to stalk, entice and lure a 13 year old girl into a romantic, sexually sparked, full fledged relationship. She then used that power to inflict Great Mental Harm to this child... A physical rape and mental rape are both as equally destructive to a 13 year old child. Drew knew this (or should have known this) and still proceeded unabated.
This is so far beyond "Harassment", this is full fledged exploitation of a child.
Is the local police of this county out of their minds to think that NO charge will stick?
Is the local District Attorneys office serious if they don't think this girl's rights have been thoroughly trampled by a grown woman?
Does the DA really expect people to roll over while this woman goes without so much as even a single charge?
Does even a speeding ticket register a more serious offense than this?
_____________
Last of all, the very worst. Ms. Drew remains defiant and indignant. Claims the girl was already on the edge mentally.
Ms. Drew denies wrong doing and insists she bears no guilt in her actions.
She justifies her actions as being "protective of her daughter"... Please tell me how she was protecting someone by mind raping a 13 year old child?
To add insult to incredible injury.... The Drews file charges against the family that lost this child.
The Drews, in a final act of ultimate hate, seek to hurt this family who lost a beloved child. She seeks to harm them financially....
Just as MS. Drew attacked an innocent little girl, Ms. Drew now attacks a grief stricken family - again seeking to harm someone's very life.
This woman is evil incarnate
This woman has county officials protecting her...
The same county officials who would put ANY other child exploiter in jail.
It would appear we have a few corrupt city officials. Officials who need to be fired
Perhaps the county detectives on the case need some scrutiny. Did they really investigate this crime thoroughly? Apparently not.
There had better be some charges...and some heads better role from this complete mismanagement of law enforcement.
On Wednesday, October 21st, city officials enacted an ordinance designed to address the public outcry for justice in the Megan Meier tragedy. The six member Board of Aldermen made Internet harassment a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail.
Does this new law provide any justice for Megan? Does this law provide equitable relief for a future victim or actually weaken the current law?
I reject the premise of this new law and believe it completely misses the mark. The reasoning behind this opinion is that city officials have consistently treated this case as an Internet harassment case instead of a child welfare/exploitation case.
Classifying this case a harassment issue completely fails to address the most serious aspects of the methods Lori Drew employed to lead this youth to her demise. The Vice disagrees that harassment was even a factor in this case until just a couple of days before Megan's death.
Considering this case a harassment issue is incorrect because during the 5 weeks Lori Drew baited and groomed her victim, the attention was NOT unwanted attention. It was not harassment at all. It was invited attention. Megan participated in the conversations willingly because she was lured, manipulated and exploited without her knowledge.
This law willfully sets a precedent that future child exploiters and predators can use to reclassify their cases to harassment issues. In effect, the law enacted to give Megan justice, may make her even more vulnerable. So long as the child victim doesn't tell the predator to stop, even a harassment charge may not stick with the right circumstances and a good defender.
Every aspect of this case follows the same procedural requirement used to convict a Child Predator. A child was manipulated by an adult. A child was engaged in sexually explicit conversation (as acknowledged by Lori Drew herself). An adult imposed her will on a child by misleading her, using a profile designed to sexually or intimately attract the 13 year old Megan.
Lori then utilized the power she had gained over this child to cause significant distress and endangerment to that child. She even stipulated to many of these activities in the police report she filed shortly after Megan's death.
We can go on and on here, but the parallels between this case and many other child predator cases that are successfully prosecuted bear striking similarities.
Child Predator laws do not require much more than simply proving that an adult has engaged a minor in sexually explicit conversation. Lori Drew has already stipulated that her conversations with Megan were sometimes sexual for a child Megan's age.
City officials who continue to ignore this viable, documented admission and continue to address this issue as harassment are intentionally burying their heads in the sand, when the solution is staring them right in the face. Why?
On June 5th, 2006, Governor Matt Blunt signed into law stiff penalties for convicted sex offenders. The Vice believes that officials continually reject a child predator classification of this case in order to keep the penalty of this offense out of this harsher realm.
Opponents of this law are active in defeating this law not by changing it, but by disqualifying cases like Megan's from ever being heard.
There are several other child exploitation laws on the books. To date, none of them have even been considered by City, State and Federal officials in this case. I'm outraged that a motion was never even filed, so that the case could at least be argued before a judge or jury.
Those satisfied with this response out of Missouri officials need to think through the effect this law will truly have. It quite honestly has the potential to directly undermine Jessica's law. It quiet easily gives prosecutors a way out of prosecuting child endangerment and child predator cases in the future.
Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing here.
Danny Vice
http://weeklyvice.blogspot.com
Tragic story but I have to agree with poster above - somebody as fragile as this is more liable to react in such a way. If you're going to attribute blame I'm not sure the medium is the place for it.
Well written story.
I don't have any smart words Christy, I read this and it made me sad, but it also angered me, why do others feel the need to bully anyone, are we all not equal.... I guess there will always be someone who thinks they are better than the next, what a tragedy, the people responsible should be held accountable!
Peace
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