My Space Suicide Shines Light on Cyberbullying

Lori Drew is Indicted in Case of Megan Meier MySpace Suicide Case

According to an AP news release, Lori Drew, aged 49, was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the case of the teen suicide of Megan Meier. The indictment charges Lori Drew with, in effect, hacking. Prosecutors allege that Ms. Drew violated the MySpace Terms of Service by not providing factual information, soliciting personal information from a minor and using that information to harass or harm people. If Lori Drew is convicted, this would set a precedent. Since there are no specific Federal laws against cyberbullying, a conviction could set case law for future cases of those who were or are being cyberbullied.

The indictment alleges that Lori Drew, along with two other individuals, opened a MySpace account under a fictitious name of a boy, Josh Evans, to correspond with Megan Meier. Over the course of a month, Ms. Drew and others had contact with Megan Meier to gain her trust so that she could determine what bad things Megan was allegedly spreading about her daughter. Megan believed Josh Evans to be real and was heartbroken a month later when Josh broke off the friendship. According to the Associated Press report, Megan hung herself in her bedroom after about a dozen mean spirited messages, which included one that told her that the world would be better off without her.

Page 7 of the indictment, which is posted on thesmokinggun.com, lists several "overt acts" that Ms. Drew is alleged to have perpetrated. Among the overt acts included are that upon hearing of the suicide, Lori Drew deleted the fictitious account of Josh Evans and instructed another juvenile involved in the hoax to "keep her mouth shut." Other overt acts include references to sexually related comments allegedly exchanged between Ms. Drew and her co-conspirators and Megan Meier.

Megan Meier, age 13, was being treated for depression at the time of the incident in 2006. Megan's parents were not aware of Ms. Drew's involvement until six weeks after the suicide when they were told by another parent of a child that had access to Josh's profile.