LA court indicts middle-aged prankster over teen MySpace suicide
Parents of a teenage girl who committed suicide after a neighbor manipulated and bullied her through MySpace may finally see justice served.
A court in Los Angeles has indicted 48-year-old Lori Drew of St. Louis Missouri, on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress. Drew’s target? Thirteen-year-old Megan Meier.
The incident, which could cost Drew some 20 years of imprisonment, begun when she created a fake account on MySpace using the name Josh Evans, which she used to befriended her 13-year-old neighbor Megan.
After several weeks of a blooming online relationship, Megan received a message from Josh on October 15, 2006 saying: “I don’t want to be friends with you anymore because you’re not nice to your friends.”
The nightmare got worse when Josh and Megan’s mutual MySpace friends started calling Megan awful names. Another letter from Josh stating that the world would be a better place without her, finally pushed Megan to commit suicide.
Several weeks after their daughter’s death, the Meir’s found out about Drew’s involvement in the MySpace prank pulled against their daughter and filed complaints against Drew. But Drew denied having involvement in the incident and claimed that her daughter, and a teenage employee, Ashley Grills, were the ones responsible.
Ashley Grills who was 17-year when the crime happened, admitted that she was the one who created the fake Josh Evans account, but said that the Drew family were also involved. Grills also admitted writing the last message but argued that she wrote that to end the joke that had gone too far.
Awaiting arraignment and trial, Drew and conspirators (who were not named in the indictment), may get lucky as this is the first time that such an crime has occurred, and it may be difficult to get a conviction.
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