Why Megan Meier's Death Scares Me

The story surrounding the death of teenager Megan Meier reads like a Lifetime movie. The drama, secrets and outrageous behavior are better suited for fiction than reality. In my family, the story of Megan Meier's suicide hit close to home. It is easy to see that Megan could easily have been one of my daughters.

Our family lives only a few miles from the neighborhood where Megan lived with her parents, Ron and Tina Meier. It is a neighborhood similar, although perhaps more affluent, than ours.

My husband is a business associate of Tina Meier and had seen her just a week or before the story of Megan's suicide was published in the St. Charles edition of the Suburban Journal in an article by Steve Pokin. Although we knew of Megan's death and how she was found, we were completely unaware of the harassment Megan was subjected to through Myspace prior to her death.

The school Megan attended at the time of her death closely resembles the school my own daughter attends. I know teachers, students and families at the school.

The scary part of Megan's story is the fact that it could happen to any of our children. The scariest part is that the person responsible for emotionally tormenting Megan to the point that she took her own life was an adult trusted by her family.

Megan was a thirteen year old. Like many, if not most, thirteen-year-old girls Megan Meier wanted to be accepted, to be part of a group. Megan Meier struggled to fit in at times and was thrilled to find a new online friend when Josh Evans contacted her via Myspace wanting to be a friend. After the friendship developed Josh Evans turned enemy. He sent mean messages that tormented Megan. Tina Meier, Megan's mother, had been supervising her daughter's time online but was too late to prevent Megan from being exposed to all of the nastiness on the final day of her life. The comments instigated by Josh Evans drove Megan Meier to kill herself.