Woman guilty in case of teen MySpace suicide
A Missouri woman who posed as a 16-year-old boy on MySpace.com to woo and then rebuff a troubled teenage girl who later committed suicide was found guilty Wednesday of three misdemeanor charges, but no felonies, by a federal jury. The jury rejected felony charges against Lori Drew of accessing a computer without authorization to inflict emotional distress. Drew, 49, of O’Fallon, Mo., allegedly posed as the boy to harass a former friend of her daughter’s. The jury did, however, find her guilty of three misdemeanor counts of violating the terms of service with MySpace.
The verdict in the nationally watched cyber-bullying case comes nearly two years after the death of Megan Meier, 13, who is referred to in court documents as “M.T.M.” Megan hanged herself with a belt in her bedroom closet within an hour of being rejected by “Josh Evans,” the fictitious identity that Drew assumed on the popular networking Web site. During the five-day trial, they portrayed Drew as masterminding a scheme to humiliate Megan even though she knew that the girl — once her daughter’s best friend — had depression. Drew wanted to know whether Megan was spreading rumors about her daughter, prosecutors argued, and bragged about the hoax. Four weeks into the exchanges, Josh broke off contact with Megan, punctuated, her father said, by a message that “the world would be a better place without” her. Within an hour of receiving it, Megan committed suicide.
Source: Washington Post
Comments(73)
What has this world turn into…
if i would be mean i would say: “that’s america!” but i am not mean, so i don’t say it!
Its okay I’ll say it:
F**KING AMERICANS.
if that had happened in the uk, the woman would have been sent to prison no question. The UK has very strict laws now governing Bullying, which is what this woman effectively did to the girl, And any case of bullying that ends in a death has without exception resulted in prison terms
The woman is sick to the core to influence an already unstable minor to such lengths, and i’ll bet she had no remorse either
But you just did
MySpace, Youtube, Hi5 and some such garbage should have IQ and self confidence tests upon registration.
hey..um 4? Aren’t you a bit of a hypocrite with what you just said? You are sort of insulting and bullying her with calling her sick and assuming she has no remorse; what makes you any better then her? Would you feel good if she just happened to read you post and killed herself because you called her sick and would get the idea in her head people assumes she doesn’t regret her actions. Americans don’t make me sick and all of you who feel sorry for the 13 year old girl. LIFE SUCKS! you walk in to the streets of NewYork and say “im gonna kill myself” how many people will stop and help you? Reality is that if this girl is so unstable that a “chat” on the “internet” would push her over the edge then she was probably gonna off herself anyways.
That old lady is quite horrible, but cant be blamed for the young girls stupidity, if anything blame her parents.
Its a sad story but really, even if the “16 year old boy” was a real boy not an old bag pretending to be a boy, what the hell, her parents should have been keeping an eye on her – she only a 13yr old girl ffs!! What is she doing tryin to hook up with 16 yr olds.
I know if it was my daughter it would be quite different. I know you cant keep watch all the time but this all seems to have happened in their own home.
Video of the alleged suicide anyone? … I have a feeling that the father was involved somehow… Anyway one American Down ~305,754,000 to go… Iran or Korea should learn something from this news… You can kill Americans over the internet? They even do it for you. It’s a whole new era… A nice era…
@8
Spot on, the parents are guilty of at least some of the blame here. Their daughter was looking to hook up with 16 year olds and was chronically depressed. Did they not notice?
Hmmm,,
You all have very valid points.
However, Drew was aware of the instability of the girl, and shudnt have exploited that.
More info:
http://pysih.com/2007/11/19/lori-drew/
Bullying is human nature, it happens all over the world unfortunately – so you cant just say because this case is from the US that all Americans are bad or prone to bully more. This woman is obviously a freek and should do jail time, but shame on those that she bragged to and how said nothing. Kids spend far too long and get far too involved with these sites and fictiscious characters, both otehr peoples and their own. Its up to parents to relulate how much time their kids spend online and keep an interst in what they are doing – come on people its obvious!
Okay, we get it, people hate America.. And when they see things like this happen in America, it reinforces their ignorance.
There are sick people everywhere in this world. Things like this happen on a daily basis across the world, it is because of human nature! Look at the holocaust, nanjing tragedy, etc.
How can you speculate how it would turn out in the UK? Was there an exact case where the court ruled on more harsh terms?
lol whooow whats with all the hate towards americans? this website if full of people that seem to hate every kind of person xD
Well… I definitely hate you now too… jesse…
god bless america
Come on not just Americans are idiots, they are all over the world – another sad story but check this out:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1087772/Boy-12-collapsed-died-using-Lynx-deodorant.html
What a stinky pom. Kid sprays so much deoderant he DIEEED.
So there u go must be at least as stupid as someone who offs themself because their internet bf doesnt like em.
stupid americans …
RS links, the axxo version please
god bless america,the land of the free and the home of the brave…
Stupid people are everywhere, and yes i mean the girl that killed herself. just plain stupid
words are like bullets, and they go right trough me
Funny SAWB
.
Prior to this verdict I thought the old lady was at least guilty of being the cause of the girl’s suicide. After this verdict I realize now that she didn’t say anything directly related to suggesting the girl kill herself, however, the girl interpreted her words in a very dark way.
I’ve known many parents in America who take their child’s privacy and freedom too seriously, this leads children to experiment and with default teen traps such as peer pressure, whatever is the latest thing (myspace, smoking, drinking etc.), all without their parents being clued in till it’s too late. I mean by the time they catch them smoking, they have been smoking for sometime already. You can’t be a good parent by making privacy and freedom of your child to be most important if your responsible for their actions and behaviors. You have to strike a balance between allowing them to do what they want with your guidance and if you don’t stick your face into what they are doing, ah they aren’t going to tell you.
that teenage boy must of been really cute
What the ****?
Ok, so the woman is guilty, I don’t argue that, if she really tried to get the girl to kill herself, she should do some jail time.
HOWEVER
there is obviously some very disturbing point in this whole thing: What if an actual 16-year-old boy had done it? Let’s say, just for fun? I mean, teenagers ARE like that, and imagine some drunk friends sitting in front of the pc and deciding to insult some random people for fun… The girls death definitely cannot be blamed on the woman. Someone mentioned IQ tests for Myspace etc., I myself prefer it the way it is: Just the question “You must be 14 or above to enter” and the parents responsibility to watch what their kids are doing… I mean come on, if your girl is depressive, she should not be able to make a virtual friendship with a nonexistent person without the parents knowledge.
@3 – 100% agree
Im in the UK an don’t think something like tha tcould happen with MySpace.
Facebook on the otherhand…
internetz, srs bsnss!!1
Not guilty! Everyone in internet is free to assume a fake identity.
The girl who died was just plain stupid to let herself be influenced by cyber bullying.
Natural selection at its best!
please don’t group us americans in.
shes just a douche, get over it
@27
Gyver you are living proof natural selection doesn’t work.
And after all the fighting and trialing and suicide and comment flames -what did we learn from that?
MySpace stinks.
…
this is what is referred to as population control. Like the tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and everything else. The gene pool is one less unstable person closer to being pristine.
Myspace: A Place For Fiends
i hope the vindictive fat b!tch gets her face kicked in
What the hell happened to freedom of speech in this country. They going to start convicting us for being mean on an internet site that EVERYONE has the option to avoid going to in the 1st place.
This is precisely why people should get out more, Facebook, Myspace etc is for f***tards. I’ve avoided these sites, just don’t see the point of having these “fake friends”, most of the guys I work with sit in front of their screens wasting hours when they could be getting laid, the internet is only good for p0rn and downloads lol
Legally speaking, I don’t know if she could have received a harsher punishment. When you think about it, all the woman did was talk to the young girl. While it may be clear that the woman tried to hit her emotionally, it is not clear that she was trying to incite suicide.
However, if you believe in God, Heaven and Hell–this lady’s fate is pretty much wrapped up. Her malicious actions directly resulted in the end of someone else’s life.
Silly American girls, off’ing themselves over a FAKE 16 year old boy she never met… Holy smokes!
Clearly, this girl had issues up the ying yang. She was fat, had braces, and most likey, her PARENTS had something to do with her up-bringing.
If it wasn’t for this woman, who bullied her over SIMPLE COMPUTER CHAT, well, she would of off’ed herself the first day of high-school.
Well, one less head-case, that will be a burden on the welfare of America..
You should be thankful she is gone!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheaper on the economy.
I feel sorry for the girl, but in all honesty, what the hell has a 13-year old girl got to be depressed about?
I can only think that her parents/family can’t have been very supportive of her during her life if she felt so bad that she killed herself. I mean, that’s not exactly something you choose to do lightly. Unless you’re stupid. Or American (wahey!!).
Seriously though, someone should have seen it coming long before it happened, whether this “missouri woman” had played her little games or not.
@29 fart button
You are a fool, a SICK, SICK, pathetic fool. A human who’s not had self esteem for so long. What a waste of skin and scumbag you are.
You should kill yourself not to waste my air!
just kidding
This woman is a big fat cuglyunt of a loser! What a Beeeatch! I hope she burnz in Hello! .. or at least.. is relegated to working at McDonalds for the rest of her worthless existence.
If a girl of thirteen thought it necessary to hang herself over someone she had never met fake boy/girl… whatever, Then she obviously wasn’t mentally equipped for life.
i.e, batsh1t crazy in the first place.
Those of you agreeing that she got what she deserved are morons.
This sets grounds for future cases even as simple as pretending
that you are someone else online. Sit back and watch while the
“law” here in the states goes nuts with this freedom.
Idiots.
A similar event happened recently in my home town, where a young man was about to hurl himself from a bridge. A group of passerbys had gathered and began to shout “just f**king jump” etc, etc.
If the man had jumped, could the crowd be held responsible?
Some food for thought.
I would love to punch the old womans face.
What the hell? You CANT provoke people into commiting suicide… and i don’t care HOW unstable they are.
In jail with her. 10+ years. And get her face in the news – show people what she has done.
ITT: Trolls trolling trolls
All this hate for america from just about every country ands yet so many people applying for citizenship in america from these very same countries… mmmmm
This lady should be f**king locked up.
Stop trying to cause arguments.
Anyway your case is terrible. The real-life incident was committed by a woman who intended on hurting that girl. Whereas poster number 4 has no intention of harming anyone, it just be frankly odd if someone “killed themselves” over number 4’s post, so no reason for them to feel remorse.
Bullying over internet? Hah! If somebody did that to me, I would just disconnect. Man, some people are definetly stupid.
And those 2 who commited suicied are just labile persons.
Yes, there are freaks all over the world, but America has 90% of them.
@ 37 dumbAMERICANgirls
You are someone I’d really love to meet down a dark alley….
Prick!!
Gyver
you are 100% correct. Fact is this kid was road kill either way. Her parents failed her.
#43
It’s harder to track down real life s***heads in this manner
You know you live in a nanny state when being mean to someone over the Internet can land you in jail
Anyone who actually bothered to read the case will know that “intent to harm” was not proven against the older woman. That is why she was only convicted of a misdemeanor.
Why could it not be proven? Because of testimony given by a “states evidence” witness. This witness testified that it was she (the states evidence witness) who thought up the whole idea and who involved the older woman. The states evidence witness also testified it was she who was acting as the 16 year old boy when the 13 year old girl was humiliated over the internet. Naturally, being a witness for the state, this person cannot be prosecuted and so, will not be punished.
MySpace is crap anyway. People trying way too hard to prove they are cool and can dress while in the real world they are trolls. Know a human being on person and only contact them by IM/MSN. Don’t let the f’ing internet take you over ffs
Stupid Americans lol.
so she’s not guilty then. misdemeanor charges are exactly that. she is free and will probably get a fine or community service. yeah what she did was sick, but what kind of f*cked up parents don’t see their own child’s suicide coming? i guess the hundreds of signs weren’t good enough. they should have been charged too in that case.
I love the internet.
Some of you it seems haven’t kept up with the case, or the background. The woman didn’t just say one time hateful things to the girl online. She spent many many weeks gaining the trust of the girl, and making the little girl think some guy liked her. Then suddenly the woman suddenly dumped the little girl in the meanest way possible and told her the world would be better without the little girl.
You wonder why kids shoot up schools and try to blow them up? Its because of months and years of harrasment and bullying by classmates that no one will stop that they one day snap and won’t take it anymore and lash out. When you beat someone’s spirit down and bully them, don’t be suprised if either they kill themselves one day or snap and try to kill all their tormentors. Humans are social creatures and need to belong to groups. If they are ostrizised then one day they snap and kill themselves or others or both, kill themselves and take others with them.
If you really are suprised by any of this then you have no clue about human nature and those people deserve what they get. Everyone involved as an adult should do some jail time. They knew what they were doing was wrong and they knew it would mess up the little girl but they didn’t care. So they deserved to be punished for a long time. We don’t need people like that in our society causing problems for the peaceful people, and terrorising little kids.
This is ridiculous. The woman should go to jail period, people who are blaming the parents are idiots and know nothing of parenting. If you think that good parenting will guarantee that your kids don’t have any problems, you know nothing about life. The problem is the women prayed on the girl, knew she was vulnerable, and basically set her up to commit suicide, she told her to do it basically. In every possible way that is sick. The big thing is, she indented it to happen, it was pre-meditated. Period. She should go to jail as much as if she was present in the room and put the belt around the neck herself…
I can’t belive the stuff coming out of most of you people on this site (I Apologize Human Race For Calling Them People), What is this crap about how stable that girl was it doesn’t matter if she had problems the intent of that lady was to cause severe mental distress to the girl, i don’t care if that girl thought she was a lava lamp that sad excuse for a failure should get life in prison. Also the rest of you saying that the human race is better off etc how would you feel if any of your friends or family committed suicide and someone said that!? P.s To anyone going to say what i have just written could have caused someone to commit suicide show me where i did it intently?
I’m going to say this is humanities at it’s best. The comments just goes to show you that the majority of people in this world should and has to be wiped out. I think it’s a sensible request to ask that everyone who read this post should go jump off a ten story building head first and make sure to angle it so that when you resoundingly hit the pavement, it shatters your skull.
Stupid people are everywhere. be it at your house,next door,race,gender, or even the person staring back at you in the mirror. So we should just do humanity a favor and end all end ourselves so we can stop wiping out other species and making this world inhabitable.
My two cents.
@62 You 1st
63 lol.
Some thoughtful points here, an interesting read.
Something to consider.. most people who say they’re gonna suicide don’t. My last g/f was (is) bi-polar, self-harmer. I broke off the r/ship, but stuck around to support her as much as I could.. but she tried to o/d because I wouldn’t get back with her.. I called an ambulance and everything.. turns out she was bluffing.. bloody good performance tho take my word for it.
It’s easy to be cynical, but it’s also a fact that most people, even the chronically depressed don’t go thru with it. You tell some kid in school to go “drop dead” and they suicide – are you to blame? If it’s in them to actually go thru with it, their situation must be very very serious, and nothing less than good therapy and meds will stop it.
You’re not to blame for someone else’s decisions. An *extreme* emotional reaction to something most people would be upset about but recover.. not your fault. Unless of course you really DO know what a person is going to do – then that’s manipulation.
But that’s not so in this case. This woman does however need serious therapy to have behaved like that – she also responded in an extreme and childish way to a ridiculously mundane situation. Tormenting your daughter’s friend? What a great parent. I feel most sorry for her daughter.
But that, I would say, is fairly American.
I can’t believe how many posters are unaware of what depression really is. It has nothing to do with intelligence!
This little girl wasn’t stupid, she just wasn’t equipped to how to handle the situation better. Her parents had her in therapy and on psychiatric drugs when she was in the third grade. Sure people have chemical imbalances and medication certainly helps but perhaps the parents should have given her more tools to handle situations like this. One thing they could have done was put the computer in the family room so her mum and dad could watch what was going on. Better yet knowing how fragile she was perhaps myspace wasnt the best place for her to be gaining confidence, sport perhaps?
But for all of you, depression is a place where you cannot see alternatives. its not pretty.
Its awful that this little girl had to die because she didn’t see any other alternative.
i usually steal all of my movies but id pay big bucks to watch her slowly consumed by ants.
@64 I said the very same thing in an earlier posting.
Next time I recieve a huge gas bill I’m going to commit suicide: My family will know to blame british gas (tut).
This arguement is flying WAY over some peoples heads.
Psycho should have gotten life.
as an american i’d be the first to admit that our country is extremely sick and decadent.
anyone that wants to say otherwise is deluding themselves and not being honest.
Sry to see what america has turned into,its time that good americans stand up to twisted ppl like this.
The woman is mentally sick many times over,picking on a child ??
What a coward.
ang on…
She at 49 pretended to be a 16yr old boy to use chat/friend site…
If a 49yr old guy pretended to be a 16 yr old girl on same type sites he gets branded as a paedo and get put on sexual offenders register he dont have to chat someone up or make sexual ref’s, why wasnt she convicted for that???
Only in America…
@62 It amazes me how people who say stuff like this always fall into the same category of people they claim to hate. Hobo, tell me genius, who should decide what is stupid, you? I bet that is exactly what you think.
@64 and @67 The argument is not flying over anyone’s head, the whole point is intent and the age difference. If you told a 3 year old kid to jump off a roof, and he did are you responsible? Of course you are you idiots, no matter what the law might say in one country or another. If you tell someone to kill themselves when you know they are in a vulnerable state, your at fault period, if you can’t see that your not able to distinguish right from wrong, and you should go get tested to see if you are a sociopath like Hobo@62 is…..
Timmah!, your right that you are not responsible if someone decides to do it, however, you still did the right thing, if someone threatens to commmit suicide, you call the cops, it is exactly the right action to take, if they are bluffing, then fine, they will have to deal with the cops, if not, then you might help save them….