A Hoax Turned Fatal Draws Anger but No Charges
By CHRISTOPHER MAAG
DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo., Nov. 21 — Megan Meier died believing that somewhere in this world lived a boy named Josh Evans who hated her. He was 16, owned a pet snake, and she thought he was the cutest boyfriend she ever had.
Josh contacted Megan through her page on MySpace.com, the social networking Web site, said Megan’s mother, Tina Meier. They flirted for weeks, but only online — Josh said his family had no phone. On Oct. 15, 2006, Josh suddenly turned mean. He called Megan names, and later they traded insults for an hour.
The next day, in his final message, said Megan’s father, Ron Meier, Josh wrote, “The world would be a better place without you.”
Sobbing, Megan ran into her bedroom closet. Her mother found her there, hanging from a belt. She was 13.
Six weeks after Megan’s death, her parents learned that Josh Evans never existed. He was an online character created by Lori Drew, then 47, who lived four houses down the street in this rapidly growing community 35 miles northwest of St. Louis.
That an adult would plot such a cruel hoax against a 13-year-old girl has drawn outraged phone calls, e-mail messages and blog posts from around the world. Many people expressed anger because St. Charles County officials did not charge Ms. Drew with a crime.
But a St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, Lt. Craig McGuire, said that what Ms. Drew did “might’ve been rude, it might’ve been immature, but it wasn’t illegal.”
In response to the events, the local Board of Aldermen on Wednesday unanimously passed a measure making Internet harassment a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail.
“Give me a break; that’s nothing,” Mayor Pam Fogarty said of the penalties. “But it’s the most we could do. People are saying to me, ‘Let’s go burn down their house.’”
St. Charles County’s prosecuting attorney, Jack Banas, said he was reviewing the case to determine whether anyone could be charged with a crime. State Representative Doug Funderburk, whose district includes Dardenne Prairie, said he was looking into the feasibility of introducing legislation to tighten restrictions against online harassment and fraud.
In seventh grade, Megan Meier had tried desperately to join the popular crowd at Fort Zumwalt West Middle School, only to be teased about her weight, her mother said. At the beginning of eighth grade last year, she transferred to Immaculate Conception, a nearby Catholic school. Within three months, Ms. Meier said, her daughter had a new group of friends, lost 20 pounds and joined the volleyball team.
At one time, Lori Drew’s daughter and Megan had been “joined at the hip,” said Megan’s great-aunt Vicki Dunn. But the two drifted apart, and when Megan changed schools she told the other girl that she no longer wanted to be friends, Ms. Meier said.
In a report filed with the Sheriff’s Department, Lori Drew said she created the MySpace profile of “Josh Evans” to win Megan’s trust and learn how Megan felt about her daughter. Reached at home, Lori’s husband, Curt Drew, said only that the family had no comment.
Because Ms. Drew had taken Megan on family vacations, she knew the girl had been prescribed antidepression medication, Ms. Meier said. She also knew that Megan had a MySpace page.
Ms. Drew had told a girl across the street about the hoax, said the girl’s mother, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter, a minor.
“Lori laughed about it,” the mother said, adding that Ms. Drew and Ms. Drew’s daughter “said they were going to mess with Megan.”
After a month of innocent flirtation between Megan and Josh, Ms. Meier said, Megan suddenly received a message from him saying, “I don’t like the way you treat your friends, and I don’t know if I want to be friends with you.”
They argued online. The next day other youngsters who had linked to Josh’s MySpace profile joined the increasingly bitter exchange and began sending profanity-laden messages to Megan, who retreated to her bedroom. No more than 15 minutes had passed, Ms. Meier recalled, when she suddenly felt something was terribly wrong. She rushed to the bedroom and found her daughter’s body hanging in the closet.
As paramedics worked to revive Megan, the neighbor who insisted on anonymity said, Lori Drew called the neighbor’s daughter and told her to “keep her mouth shut” about the MySpace page.
Six weeks later, at a meeting with the Meiers, mediated by grief counselors, the neighbor told them that “Josh” was a hoax. The Drews were not present.
“I just sat there in shock,” Mr. Meier said.
Shortly before Megan’s death, the Meiers had agreed to store a foosball table the Drews had bought as a Christmas surprise for their children. When the Meiers learned about the MySpace hoax, they attacked the table with a sledgehammer and an ax, Ms. Meier said, and threw the pieces onto the Drews’ driveway.
“I felt like such a fool,” Mr. Meier said. “I’m supposed to protect my family, and here I allowed these people to inject themselves into our lives.”
The police learned about the hoax when Ms. Drew filed a complaint about the damage to the foosball table. In the report, she stated that she felt the hoax “contributed to Megan’s suicide, but she did not feel ‘as guilty’ because at the funeral she found out Megan had tried to commit suicide before.”
Megan had mentioned suicide several times, her mother said, but had never attempted it, and no one who knew her, including her doctors, felt she was suicidal.
On the advice of F.B.I. agents who did not want the Drews to learn of their investigation of the hoax, Ms. Meier said, her family said nothing publicly about the case for a year. Today, the Meier and the Drew families continue to live four houses from one another on a winding suburban street.
“There are no words to explain my rage,” Ms. Meier said. “These people were supposed to be our friends.”
That's a horrible story. That's one of those situations where if the law isn't going to step in then it's time to go old school.
If this were my daughter:
Shortly before Megan’s death, the Meiers had agreed to store a foosball table the Drews had bought as a Christmas surprise for their children. When the Meiers learned about the MySpace hoax, they attacked Lori Drew with a sledgehammer and an ax, Ms. Meier said, and threw her pieces onto the Drews’ driveway. They kept the foosball table.
i read this a couple weeks back and wanted to start a thread over it, but i was too pissed and i knew what the general opinion would be. Just too fuvked up, how immature and disgusting of that family and especially the 47 year old mother.
this is the part that stood out to me
oh , ummm, jinx
Three years from now, when the Drews turn up dead in their home, the police will call it a "random burglary."
I would imagine if i had a daughter I couldn't stay living close to that woman. I would have killed her myself.
Sociopath
I just don't understand some people.
That woman preyed on a CHILD who was taking antidepressants... just because it was over the internet it's ok??
Its not even up for debate. I'd kill her. I wouldn't even think twice about it.
Man, those poor Drews, they are NEVER going to live this one down...
That's just horrible.
ed up... but in reality, no laws were broken. If you think about it, if being an irresponsible, immature, mean spirited was a punishable crime, half the internet world would be in prison. Tragic, and I'm sure that Drew is going to get what's coming to her.
The reason no laws were broken is because no one had thought of passing a law against it. That will change.
how? will they make being mean spirited towards a depressed girl a crime? Sorry, I don't see that happening
I had someone on a different message board send me messages like that. Seriously, he posts here now sometimes.
I think there is a difference between me telling you on this forum to off and go off yourself and a woman that premeditated a deception designed to target a girl she knew had a medical condition that could be exploited for her jollies. I would actually consider what she did a form of child abuse.
I guess the real problem is that we live in a society that time and time again refuses to take each act individually and tend to it accordingly. Every ing thing just has to be so god damned black and white for people. For s sake their is a gray area in every day life than needs to be addressed. This women mentally manipulated a minor and ultimately knowingly pushed her most sensitive buttons. Its not simply being mean spirited its criminal and its mental abuse as well as child abuse.
Mean spirited is me telling you what a complete ing dumbass you are for having the inability to see the difference between the two.
I wonder if Lori Drew is a good tipper.
My bad Extra, I guess they did. Although 90 days in jail.
I figured if the managed to come up with a law against it, it couldn't be severe enough to do squat... guess I was on the right track
Yeah, because I'm the only one right?
P.S. Go yourself you condescending prick
Don't worry. Karma will soon bring swift and horrible punishment.
I saw this on the Today show a couple of weeks back. They had the parents of the girl who died...this whole thing is wayyyyy messed up.
Wow. That is a crazy story. I feel bad for that girl and her family.
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