Disturbing Cyberbullying by an Adult Posing as Teenager Results in Suicide
Internet Safety Educator
6 Comments
Megan Meier 13-years-oldIn October 2006, beautiful 13-year-old Megan Meier of Missouri, killed herself.
She reportedly had been battling depression. She, like many teenagers, were self-conscious and was concerned about her weight. But one day, a good looking 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, contacted her on MySpace.
"Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at him!" Tina Meier recalls.
And so it began.....For six weeks, the two teenagers struck up quite the online friendship, sharing all sorts of details about their young lives. Megan had recently ended a friendship with a girl who lived down the street, but other than that, things were looking good for Megan.
On October 15, 2006, everything changed. Megan received a disturbing message from Josh that said, "I don't know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends." Megan had no idea where Josh had heard such a thing.
The next day, a very upset Megan told her parents that things were being posted online about her. "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat." Megan fired back, with some obscene language. Tina ordered her off the computer. Megan ran past her father telling him kids were saying horrible things to her, and she ran into her room. As Megan's parents were talking about what just happened, Tina said she had an awful feeling. They went upstairs to Megan's room. She was hanging, in the closet. She died the next day, a few days before her 14th birthday.
Megan's dad later opened up her Myspace account. The last message to her read, "Everybody in O'Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you."
After the suicide, Ron and Tina tried to email Josh, but his account had been deleted.
After the suicide, a neighbor contacted the Meiers. She told them that Josh Evans did not exist, but was created by the parents of Megan's former friend.
According to police reports:
"(She) stated in the months leading up Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a 'my space' account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter.
"(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named ------ constructed a profile of 'good looking' male on 'my space' in order to 'find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line' about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people.
"(She) stated she, her daughter and (the temporary employee) all typed, read and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan.
"According to (her) 'somehow' other 'my space' users were able to access the fake male profile and Megan found out she had been duped. (She) stated she knew 'arguments' had broken out between Megan and others on 'my space.' (She) felt this incident 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."
Tina says her daughter had never attempted suicide.
The names of the parents have not been released.
Tina and Ron are now separated......
Reader Comments (6)
This is the saddest thing I've ever heard of. 1..where were this girl's parents in locking down some of the time she had on her computer? 2...what parent would pose as a teenager to degrade or demote another child? 3...what charges are being brought on this parent posing as a minor? Isn't there some sort of law she broke in contacting a minor that way???
I heard about this on Sunday night. (At risk of echoing countless newspaper articles,) I can't fathom how or why these parents felt it was right to pose as a kid on myspace.
I believe a couple of bloggers did some sleuthing on their own and determined the names of these two parents involved.
A terrible tragedy.
--
Chris
www.cyberbullying.info
Hi Chris and Blessed,
Yes, I also found the name, address and phone numbers of the mother who did the cyber bullying--if the information is in fact accurate. I chose not to post the information online and will let authorities release that information.
**As of this writing, there does not appear to be any charges...yet...
**Megan's parents are now separated.
I am hoping to personally contact Megan's parents. If anyone knows contact information, please let me know.
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
Hi Danny,
Thank you for your comment and your thoughts.
As someone who has seemed to fight an uphill battle these past three years hoping to keep all children safer online, at the very least the City Council in this particular town took a step, although a small one.
I can not tell you the lack of understanding and complete ignorance I encounter, to this day, regarding electronic bullying. It saddens me and is very frustrating.
I can just tell you from a personal point of view, I never thought trying to implement these safeguards for our children, would be such a struggle on many levels.
Thank you so much for your comments and insight.
While the Megan Meier case seems outrageous and unique, it isn’t unique. Hundreds of cases of egregious and heinous acts go on every day with the same excuses out of our lawmakers.
One such other case....The case of Nikki Catsouras, is a classic example of disgusting, hateful activity against innocent victims, while our lawmakers excuse themselves from enacting laws to prevent this.
The excuse lawmakers use to let themselves off the hook stem from the growth of the Internet and how fast it's changing. This is a sham.
Chat rooms, message boards, instant messengers and email have been in existence for far over a decade now. While the software used to transmit messages changes slightly, the basic essence of using the Internet to send a message is largely the same. Is a decade or two long enough to establish some basic decency laws in regards to Internet usage?
I’ve posted the Nikki Catsouras story along with many details about the Megan Meier case so the inactivity out of our lawmakers towards these types of cases can be clearly seen.
Those who are interested in learning about cases like Megan’s and Nikki’s case are encouraged to drop by and comment on them if you like. I have a couple of polls set up as well. Danny Vice would like to hear your point of view.
Public awareness of the problem and discussions about possible solutions are the best way to pressure elected officials into action instead of excuse making.
I invite you to come by and share your opinion.
Danny Vice
http://weeklyvice.blogspot.com