http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gg5xCtQ...EOsJfwD8SV6U680

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 ****. 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."






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Why do these sort of people exists? parents should know better. Bullying another child like that until she commit suicide

This had to be one of the most disturbing stories I have ever read...We read so often about teenagers being cruel and evil, but here you have an adult who should be hung...Noone in their right mind would do this, and what makes it worse is this poor girl had several disorders...To think, that another mother, and a neighbor, would stoop so low is beyond me...I hope the officials don't close this case, and charges are bought against her...Heart goes out to Megan's family...

The cops say there is no charges they could bring up against them, I say charge them with conspiracy to commit murder.

I know they didn't say they wanted to kill her but they did imply they wanted her to kill her self.

the bold itself, intending or not, showed their intention to commit murder by assistance. >.> That's not even second degree murder since saying that meant they planned it to go down that way.

Yes, there was intent there. How could a mother do this to another person's child? What a psycho! She really should be thrown in jail and left there.

This sounds almost pre-meditated; neighbors and "former frineds" creating an almost intimate relationship with the 13 year-old girl, who they may very well know suffers from depression, and then making hurtful comments causing her to commit suicide. I personally would like to see the owners of the Josh myspace account rot in jail.

Gee, a kid with mental disorders being allowed to communicate with strangers over the net by her parents. Who could have seen that one coming?

Good point. Still the users of the fake account casued the death of the girl, and that cant be changed.

I just cannot see it that way. 50% of all those who live online have a huge cruel streak in them. It would just have been a different online soap drama that would have hit her later. Even UM gets some of those emo teen dramas.

"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."


How sad, like she got it from both ends...

...I wonder what vulgar things were said on both sides that lead to this online nightmare.

This is horrible. Even if her parents had monitored her more, the fact remains that a full grown adult conceived and executed a cruel plan.



If she was concerned about what the girl was saying about her child, why didn't she go to Megan's parents and talk to them about it?

i saw this story today the morning show with mike and juliet. I'm curious as to how the other mother who created the myspace ever took to the news that she caused the girl's death. did she every apologize to the family at all for what she did?

That was my question, also. But it makes me wonder if there's a whole underlying issue we don't know about, since it stated that they were neighbors and the two girls had been friends. Most likely, the mother who created the hoax didn't think she could talk to Megan's parents, so she felt that this was the only way to figure it out. Nevertheless, it shouldn't matter. You're an adult, you feel your child is being ripped on, you know who it is, you talk to their parents; regardless of the personal history. It's called being mature and taking the high-road. And for that matter, the fact that she wasn't the only one on that account - it stated her daughter and another person were on it talking to her, also. Who wants to bet that last meassage Megan got was written by the daughter, the ex-friend? We don't know for sure, but to me, that definitely was something a 13 year old girl would say to another one, especially an ex-friend. If she was just trying to find out what Megan was saying about her daughter, WHY would she even let her daughter or another person have access to the account? Sounds like the whole family has some serious maturing to do. JMO.

This makes me feel sick to my stomach. Myself and a couple others actually pulled a similar stunt to a friend years back, creating a false email addy and then adding him to Messenger (chat). We said the persons name was Nicole, and we kept it going for over a month. Our friend totally fell in love with "Nicole", renaming the lead character of a book he was writing to Nicole, and even drawing pictures of what he thought she'd look like. We set up a date with them, then I walked to the local video shop nearby to see if he showed up, and he did. That's when I felt terrible and told him the truth. He was abit upset over it, but we're still friends now. I don't know how I'd have been able to live with myself if he harmed himself in any way as a result, but I was a kid and just didn't think about the possible consequences.

Oh yeah, let's ban depressed teenagers from the internet.. half of the internet's "population" would disappear over night. Well, who should be allowed to use the internet is another issue for another time but shouldn't excuse the behavior of others either way.

Only a pathetic loser would keep a prank like this going on for a month and a half..I'd love to see somebody go to jail for it, but there's no law against being one as of yet.

I just don't buy the "she created Josh's profile because she wanted to gain Megan's confidence to know what Megan was saying about her own child online" thing. She must have been having a blast ****in with this girls head to keep it going for so long before practically telling her to kill herself.

It actually sounds like it was a game to this woman, and she was getting her cookies from it...Some people do have an evil streak in them, and forget when it's time to let go...Megan should have been monitored alot better than she was on the internet...But it's now alot of if's and that won't bring this poor child back...

I don't know, from the articles I read, it sounded like her parents monitored her usage pretty well, as best as can be expected when the child is that old.

Her mother read every communication on MySpace.

What I find incredibly HIDEOUS is that there was an adult involved in this... a parent no less. That makes me physically ill. You do NOT use that kind of deceit, lying, and subterfuge to find out what someone elses child is saying about your child. NOT ok, not ever. In fact what that woman did was juvenile at best... She really needs to figure out why she felt it was necessary to act the same age as her own daughter.

In this case, I feel incredibly sad for the parents of the little girl who was harassed, and I feel badly for the little girl who's mother did this.

I suppose I feel somewhat sorry for Megan, however the reality is that she was extremely fragile, if it wasn't this incident, it very likely would have been another. I know that's not going to be a popular with a lot of folks here, because we like to think we can "fix" everyone, but sometimes we just can't.

However, the whole incident was unbelievable. Cruel. Unnecessary. Harmful. STUPID.

Been seeing this on CNN....How sad

Many questions being asked, be interesting to see how (if any) an outcome will come about.

Exactly. Can't there be a law called 'on-line murder'? This definitely sounds like it. They got her confidence up, probably knowing about her mental problems, then pushed her to kill herself. The mother who set all this up should at least be done for manslaughter.

From what I can tell, whoever this mother is wanted Megan away from her own child because of the mental health problems. She probably thought she could scare Megan away using the internet. And the worst case scenario is that she intended for Megan to kill herself. I think this woman has a few mental problems of her own.

Now because of what she did, her own daughter would probably suffering from mental health problems herself because of what her mother did, killing her friend and all.

I don't know if it would be called manslaughter since she didn't actually do it physically. Maybe using malicious psychology with intent to kill should be new law. Is there one?

this sounds like the problems you get when a child has a child. This woman may have been a grown-up, but that doesn't mean that she HAS grown up. I knew girls just like this in high school, types to live off others misery. It just sounds like she never got over being in school.

anything goes in the internet. that is why I hardly trust people on the internet . everybody is a stranger.



but here on UM I feel like I'm a part of a family.. a second family.

Very sad.

Yeah, i agree. This is the worst thing i've read for ages.




I don't know what its called in the US but surly its manslaughter ( what you get charged with if your actions lead to the unintentional death of someone ) could they not be charged with that?



It must be nice being perfect.



Didn't see this post, you beat me to my point but i agree with you wholeheartedly.

Hopefully.



Could be. Stupid b***h! She wouldn't even be capable of realizing that she caused the death of an innocent human being if that was her train of thought. Shame on her!

Thanks. The mom belongs behind bars for this one for sure..........

i think im too in touch with my emotions, i find this really sad, a waste of a life because the neiboughood watch decided to create a fake person, its not a good idea, even in a normal situation it end badly (trust me i know, dont ask) but to not even tell her parents what was going on, thats just pathetic. poor girl if that happened to someone close to me i dont think i could take it, i think i would just lose it, but then again thats not like me, so i dont know. its murder what they did.

OMG, I just Googled "My Space Josh Evans, O'Fallon".

There has been so many write-ups about this. Id never before heard of anything like it.
That poor girl, her poor family. I hope they catch the Mongrels that where the ones who where so very crule.

So do I Atanerpmav, so do I. Did you read my last post? I think that the emotions of all the people equal my own. How wrong! This has been made sadder due to the fact that an adult, who was at least 15 years older than the victim, caused this.

"To right, a human, a child, ones child is and forever always their babies"

If they had done this to my child, *grrrr, cracks the ground with ungodly force and opens it up*

Lol.

I think any of us who are parents would react the same way, Ataner. But I would prefer that the earth opens up under her house and swallows that abomination who calls herself a mother. And what did her daughter say to her to start this unfortunate series of events? I would like to hear what she has to say for herself too.

sad

Actually I know a guy who talked his wife into committing suicide ( she did survive the attempt) and he went to jail for a long time. He kept telling her she was useless and should kill herself. He would get some insurance money and at least she owuld be good for something if she at least was able to get him that money. I can't remember what exactly they called it, assisted suicide? I can't remember, but he was charged and foudn guilty. Boy, did that screw he up for a long time. SO, they could figure out something to charge this woman with, they just have to find it.

I agree it does sound pre-mediated. It's disturbing to say the least that they couldn't find one law to take this under. I can think of several, cyber stalking/bullying/harassment for a start, not to mention an adult preying on a minor?