Articles labeled: Lori Drew

Looks like Megan Meier’s parents are getting their wish.

A 49-year-old Missouri mother has been indicted for fraudulently using MySpace to “cyber-bully” a teenage girl who committed suicide after she was tricked into believing she was being dumped by her online boyfriend.

Lori Drew, of O’Fallon, Missouri, was named in a federal indictment charging her with three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization and one count of conspiracy. She faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. She has been summoned to appear in US District Court in Los Angeles in June.

The MySpace charade has drawn international ire since it was first reported that Drew posed as a 16-year-old boy on the social networking site and drew 13-year-old Megan Meier into a romantic relationship. After feigning interest in the girl for several weeks, Drew and several unnamed co-conspirators, abruptly broke off the relationship, telling her: “You’re a shitty person, and the world would be a better place without you in it.”

Many will certainly recall the case from last November of Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being bullied on MySpace. At the time, Lori Drew — the mother of one of Megan’s former friends — denied being involved with a fake MySpace profile that was set up to lure Megan in and then taunt her. But a former employee of Drew’s is now refuting that claim:

But now Ashley Grills, a 19-year-old employee of Drew’s who created both Evans and the page, claims the mother not only knew about it, but encouraged it. She told a U.S. network the mom called it a “good idea” and alleges she wrote some of the messages that helped lure Meier in.

Grills was the one who found the phony picture they used to represent Evans, a lad who always found an excuse not to meet the shy, overweight teen he befriended and then condemned. And she admits writing the final message that appears to have sent the girl over the edge.

“The world would be a better place without you,” it read. A few hours later, Meier was discovered hanged in her bedroom. But Grills insists she never meant any harm, claiming she was trying to end the online relationship because the hoax had gone too far.

The parents of Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being bullied online, want the person who they deem responsible, neighbor Lori Drew, to serve jail time.

Drew, the mother of an ex-friend of Megan’s, admitted in a police report to setting up a fake MySpace profile of a boy named “Josh Evans”, which she then used to tease Megan calling her “fat” and a “slut”. Now the community wants something done:

“You cannot as an adult sit there and do that and hide behind a computer. It is a criminal act. We want to see her go to jail,” said Tina Meier, Megan’s mother.

Now others are calling for justice in the case. Prosecutors say they are reviewing the case to determine whether anyone will be charged with a crime.

Last week the board of aldermen in the Meiers’ hometown, Dardenne Prairie, Mo., passed a law making Internet bullying a misdemeanor in the town.

“It’s time that we do something against this. On all levels, the state and federal level,” Dardenne Prairie Mayor Pam Fogarty said.