Posted on 11/18/2007 6:50:42 AM PST by LurkedLongEnough
DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. (AP) -- Megan Meier thought she had made a new friend in cyberspace when a cute teenage boy named Josh contacted her on MySpace and began exchanging messages with her.
Megan, a 13-year-old who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder, corresponded with Josh for more than a month before he abruptly ended their friendship, telling her he had heard she was cruel.
The next day Megan committed suicide. Her family learned later that Josh never actually existed; he was created by members of a neighborhood family that included a former friend of Megan's.
Now Megan's parents hope the people who made the fraudulent profile on the social networking Web site will be prosecuted, and they are seeking legal changes to safeguard children on the Internet.
The girl's mother, Tina Meier, said she doesn't think anyone involved intended for her daughter to 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," she 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. But sheriff's officials have not closed the case and pledged to consider new evidence if it emerges.
Megan Meier hanged herself in her bedroom on Oct. 16, 2006, and died the next day. She was described as a "bubbly, goofy" girl who loved spending time with her friends, watching movies and fishing with her dad.
Megan had been on medication, but had been upbeat before her death, her mother said, after striking up a relationship on MySpace with Josh Evans about six weeks before her death.
Josh told her he was born in Florida and had recently moved to the nearby community of O'Fallon. He said he was homeschooled, and didn't yet have a phone number in the area to give her.
Megan's parents said she received a message from him on Oct. 15 of last year, essentially saying he didn't want to be her friend anymore, that he had heard she wasn't nice to her friends.
The next day, as Megan's mother headed out the door to take another daughter to the orthodontist, she knew Megan was upset about Internet messages. She asked Megan to log off. Users on MySpace must be at least 14, though Megan was not when she opened her account. A MySpace spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.
Someone using Josh's account was sending cruel messages. Then, Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like, "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat."
Megan's mother, who monitored her daughter's online communications, returned home and said she was shocked at the vulgar language her own daughter was sending. She told her daughter how upset she was about it.
Megan ran upstairs, and her father, Ron, tried to tell her everything would be fine. About 20 minutes later, she was found in her bedroom. She died the next day.
Her father said he found a message the next day from Josh, which he said law enforcement authorities have not been able to retrieve. It told the girl she was a bad person and the world would be better without her, he has said.
Another parent, who learned of the MySpace account from her own daughter who had access to the Josh profile, told Megan's parents about the hoax in a counselor's office about six weeks after Megan died. That's when they learned Josh was imaginary, they said.
The woman who created the fake profile has not been charged with a crime. She allegedly told the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department she created Josh's profile because she wanted to gain Megan's confidence to know what Megan was saying about her own child online.
The mother from down the street told police that she, her daughter and another person all typed and monitored the communication between the fictitious boy and Megan.
A person who answered the door at the family's house told an Associated Press reporter on Friday afternoon that they had been advised not to comment.
Megan's parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan's death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors' driveway and encouraging them to move away.
Megan's parents are now separated and plan to divorce.
Aldermen in Dardenne Prairie, a community of about 7,000 residents about 35 miles from St. Louis, have proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment. It could come before city leaders on Wednesday.
"Is this enough?" Mayor Pam Fogarty said Friday. "No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it's something, and you have to start somewhere."
You wouldn’t call a grown up pretending to be a boy engaged in an internet romance with a 13 year old girl for the purpose of spying on her to be “extreme and outrageous behavior”? And then begin calling that girl names and insulting her after she began to feel an attachment to the fictitious boy?
I’s call that VERY outrageous and VERY extreme. These people are sick and should suffer a penalty of some kind.
If adults have this much difficulty getting along, one can only imagine how tough it is for kids who already have enormous peer pressure and a need to "belong" in their offline lives. At least at Free Republic, our online squabbles don't carry over into real life. Most of us never have to worry about meeting each other in the "real world" unless we do so intentionally. This girl had these people living right down the street.
Anyway, while the mother who created the fake account may not be legally liable for what happened, she certainly contributed to it happening and her behavior is totally inexcusable. I do not know how she can live with herself.
No,up until now I haven't shown any "compassion" for the kid.Until now my comments have been based on logic,fact,reality and not emotion.Do I feel bad for the girl and her family? Absolutely.It's always a sad,sad thing when a 13 year old kid dies...in a car accident....of cancer...or by suicide.So who's to blame? The parents? Possibly...depending on how vigorously they were seeking medical care for their girl.The meds she might have been taking? Very possibly...because,as noted elsewhere in this thread,there seems to be medical research indicating that certain antidepressants are capable of making suicide *more* likely in kids (as opposed to adults).
Also note that that while I was once a 13 year old boy (a long time ago) I've never been a 13 year old girl so maybe there's something I'm missing here adolescent girl-wise.
And on the subject of compassion be aware of this...I worked for 20+ year in the ER of a large hospital located in a big city.As a result I've seen death....lots of death....too much death.The main reason I left was because it was affecting me in ways that I didn't like.
And ESPECIALLY don't sue the driver who aims his car in your child's direction. /s
Whatever happened to detention?
Honestly, that’s likely a fake page, someone else’s page with the same name, or else it was hacked somehow (between phishing and other hacks, anyone who doesn’t keep a very close eye on their profile at some point will probably learn that some bot has been posting spam through it). Also, if a 13-year-old wants a profile, they’ll have to put a fake age in that’s above myspace’s age limit, so you’ll never find a profile with the official age listed as 13.
As far as her parents go, they were mostly really good about keeping tabs on what she was doing online, who she was communicating with, and not letting a girl her age have unlimited/unsupervised internet access. They went way above and beyond what the average parents of kids that age would do to keep them safe on the internet. The number of children today who use social-networking sites either are doing it behind their parents’ back, or their parents don’t care or are naive enough to think that their kid ‘knows better’ than to talk to a stranger online.
I'm not sure. I remember spending some time in detention, or after school a few times myself, for much the same things as my nephew does (maybe he got it honestly), and I did learn after a while that was not the way to act in class.
None of us were "medicated" back then, we were just normal kids that acted up sometimes, but we were taught to respect our teachers when they disciplined us. I grew out of that & I suspect my nephew will too - so far, my sister has resisted the school's efforts to have him put on various medications. I think she is doing the right thing.
Actually, most kids on Ritalin are also on anti-depressants. Go back and check, most kids who did school shootings were also on ADD and/or anti-depressants. However, people are warned that anti-depressants can cause suicide and are not recommended for children under age 18.
Prayers for the family. i can’t imagine losing a child like that.
When I was 13, I went to camp and found a “boyfriend”. After we came home from camp, he acted like he didn’t know me and later at school denied even talking to me during camp. I was upset at the time, but I got over it.
I agree with you about her committing suicide over something else. I’m not saying that this other family should have done what they did, but I don’t think they are to blame for this kid’s suicide.
Amen to that... I don’t think that many people here remember being teens or have teens here. Even the most stable kids have a tough time. This little girl had it tougher than most.. She was apparently bullied so much in her old school that she had to transfer. And her so-called friend and her dear mommy thought it would be funny to give the poor girl a fake boyfriend and spread malicious rumors about her on the Internet.
“Victimology” - the new American pastime.
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