Woman Whose Posing as Teen Boy on MySpace Led to Megan Meier’s Suicide Indicted in Federal Court

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Lori Drew, the Missouri mother who posed on MySpace as ‘Josh’, a 16-year-old boy, drawing 13-year-old Megan Meier into a fraudulent and faux relationship that ended tragically with Megan Meier taking her own life, has been named in a federal indictment and summoned to appear in US District Court in Los Angeles in June.

Megan killed herself after ‘Josh’, whom she truly believed to be a boy who was interested in her and who suddenly dumped her and told her that the world woudl be better off without her. Following this tragic event, we wrote in January here on the Internet Patrol how a Missouri grand jury was convened to determine whether Drew could be prosecuted for fraudulently using MySpace. The state of Missouri is now putting together legislation to criminalize any future cases where an adult uses online technology to harass a child, but they declined to file charges against Drew on the grounds that there were no current statutes under which a criminal case could be tried. It was at this point that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, who have jurisdiction over the district in which MySpace is based, stepped in.

The indictment filed in Los Angeles charges Drew with three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization, and one count of conspiracy. These charges stem from Drew allegedly violating the MySpace ‘Terms of Use Agreement’, which, in section 8 prohibits content that “harasses or advocates harassment” (section 8.2); “solicits personal information from anyone under 18” (8.5); “constitutes or promotes information that you know to be false or misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous” (8.7); has the user “impersonating or attempting to impersonate another Member, person or entity” (8.24); and finally, “using any information obtained from the MySpace Services in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person or entity, or attempting to do the same” (8.28). Also, in section 1, MySpace users must confirm that the registration information they provide is “truthful and accurate, and will be maintained as such.” The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Whatever the result at the conclusion of this legal process, whether Drew is acquitted or found guilty, and if the latter whatever sentence is passed down, nothing will bring Megan back, and that, readers, is the heartbreakingly tragic truth. Lori Drew played with fire, and it was Megan – and Megan’s poor family – who got so horribly burned.

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4 thoughts on “Woman Whose Posing as Teen Boy on MySpace Led to Megan Meier’s Suicide Indicted in Federal Court

  1. I hope they throw the book at this mother for setting Megan up. You are a parent and should not do things like this. You are very wrong to do this to a girl that has some problems, but is a good girl at that. This Lori Drew should go to jail and sit there and think about what her actions have done to Megan. If she just would have minded her own business and not gotten involved Megan would still be alive today. I am very sorry for Megan’s family.

  2. i agree with prosecuting this woman, this has to be the saddest, and ugliest story i’ve seen in my years on the internet. preying on the emotions of a depressed and vulnerable teen age girl, telling her “the world would be better off without her” is simply evil, and as the poster above noted the perpetrator, lori drew has shown no sign of remorse for her cruelty. i join in hoping the federal prosecutors can make the charges stick, and lori drew has a long time in prison to think about the young life she destroyed.
    “gunner”

  3. So many of these cases catch the media eye but then get put on the who cares list after it’s printed. I would like to see the Internet Patrol stay with this one and report back what the outcome is. This was very cruel and the footage I’ve seen didn’t show a remorseful Lori Drew at all. I hope they throw the book at her.

  4. This is truly horrible, and if the Feds can make those charges stick, this woman should definitely have the book thrown at her. But someone should also investigate any parents who allow their child to be so caught up in a “relationship” with someone they’ve never met.

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