Articles labeled: suicide

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.”

I just can’t stand to hear another story like this. A mother kills herself and her two small children, one toddler and one 6 year old by drowning herself and the two children in a river brook.

Police tried to save them, but the mom was determined to end their lives and had no intention of sparing her children the suffering of drowning and the fear of their last moments - murder by the hands of their own mother.

When, oh, when are we going to wake up as a society and help children in our own backyard who are victims of their parents screwed up intentions and abuse and depression and whatever else excuse we so conveniently shrug off? Mothers diagnosed with depression need more than some counseling and medications. They need constant monitoring and perhaps and intervention from social services in effort to take their children away. We cannot sit here and allow these crazy and/or depressed moms and dads incompetently raise children. MT hopes that children are worth more than an, “Oh, well”, to the situation. MT finds it deplorable that these women are given sympathy instead of scorn. Nothing about this is noble or misconstrued. This is a murder/suicide and those children deserved better.

WARDSBORO, Vt. (AP) — A woman apparently intent on suicide waded into a brook carrying her 6-year-old daughter and purposely eluded the grasp of a police officer attempting to rescue her before being swept downstream, police said Sunday.

Both Nicole Waring and the child died, and a search continued Sunday for Waring’s 2 1/2-year-old daughter.

“For whatever reason, it was a deliberate action,” said Vermont State Police Capt. David Covell.

Waring, 40, was reported missing early Saturday after she disappeared from her parents’ Wardsboro house with the two girls, the state police said.

As troopers began preparing a search party, State Police Sgt. Robert McCarthy spotted Waring and a child standing on the edge of Wardsboro Brook, about 100 yards from the parents’ home, Covell said.

Normally placid, the brook was swollen with rain and snowmelt and had a swift current.

McCarthy tried to talk to Waring but she ignored him and walked into the water holding the child, police said.

As if it wasn’t obvious that Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff, who went on a killing spree last December, was a mentally ill psycho, the note police have discovered may clinch it.

A Pinellas County teacher who fatally shot his ex-wife, their two children, another woman and himself in December left behind a letter that indicated the killings would cleanse the world of “sociopathic” and “unethical” tendencies, according to newly released documents.

“Though this act may be viewed as depraved and evil, it does, in fact, leave the world a better place,” authorities said Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff wrote in a letter found on his computer after the slayings.

Ballistics tests confirm Bernsdorff used the same gun in all the killings and to take his own life when state troopers tried to pull him over for driving erratically, Clearwater police spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts wrote in a statement.

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.

Vicki Van Meter set a record back in the ’90s for being the youngest pilot to fly a plane across the United States — she was only 11 years old at the time. She improved on that feat when she was 12, flying a plane from the United States to Europe. But this amazing kid apparently grew up to be a depressed young woman. Van Meter was found dead last Saturday, with the cause of death presumably suicide:

Van Meter died Saturday of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Crawford County coroner said. Her body was found in her Meadville, Pennsylvania, home on Sunday.

Her brother said she battled depression, but her family thought she had been dealing with her problems.

“She was unhappy, but it was hard for her to open up about that, and we all thought that she was coping,” Daniel Van Meter said. He said she had opposed taking medication.

Van Meter was celebrated in 1993 and 1994 when she made her cross-country and trans-Atlantic flights accompanied by only a flight instructor. Her instructors said she was at the controls during the entirety of both trips.

“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything,” Van Meter said before her second trip. In her teens, she said she hoped to become an astronaut when she grew up.

JaJuan Holmes, an 18-year-old student at Davidson High School in Mobile, Alabama, walked into the school’s gym where 150 students were gathered, pulled out a handgun, shot once into the ceiling before fatally shooting himself.

The school immediately went into lockdown, but the lockdown ended after police determined there was no further threat. Police believe the young man acted on his own.

School officials allowed students to be checked out of school by their parents today, but students cannot leave unless a guardian signs them out, but the school will remain open for the students who are not signed out early.

Classes continued through the day at and grief counselors are on campus to help students, faculty and staff get through this tragedy. Mobile Police Chief Phillip Garrett says since there is no other threat to students, classes will be held as scheduled Friday.

Apparently distraught after aborting twins, a British artist hanged herself.

Emma Beck was found hanging at her home in Helston, Cornwall, on Feb 1 2007. She was declared dead early the following day - her 31st birthday.

Her suicide note read: “I told everyone I didn’t want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does.”

The inquest at Truro City Hall heard that Miss Beck had split up with her boyfriend, referred to as “Ben” after he “reacted badly” to the pregnancy.

She saw her GP before the termination, but missed an appointment at a hospital in Penzance. She then cancelled, but later turned up to an appointment at a clinic at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske. The counsellor was on holiday so a doctor referred Miss Beck to a pregnancy counselling telephone service eight days before carrying out the abortion when she was eight weeks pregnant, the inquest heard.

Beck’s mother is angered that her daughter did not receive the services of a counsellor to determine if she was mentally fit and fully aware of her actions. The doctor who performed the abortion stands by his contention that Beck fully consented to the procedure.

Seven suicides, with a few botched attempts leaves people wondering, what is going on this town that is influencing teenagers to take their own lives?

A special taskforce began its inquiry into the recent suicides in Bridgend, south Wales, today, as it emerged that another teenager attempted to hang herself last week.

The taskforce, which includes police, children’s services and mental health experts, is examining dozens of apparently copycat suicides by young people in Bridgend since 2004.

The most recent was the death of Natasha Randall, 17, who was found hanged in a bedroom at her home in Blaengarw last Thursday.

The next day, Leah Phillips, one of Randall’s 15-year-old schoolfriends, was found hanging at her home in Pontycymmer. The girl’s stepfather said he had cut her down and given her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She survived and is now recovering at home.

Heath Ledger, star of numerous films and who just finished filming the highly anticipated role of the Joker in the new Batman movie, was found dead in his apartment this afternoon. The cause is unknown, but it’s being reported that he was found with numerous sleeping pills strewn about the bed.

According to the NYPD spokesman, Ledger, who was living in an apartment at Broome street, “had an appointment for a massage…The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, and found him dead at 3:26 p.m” with “pills strewn all around him.”

The housekeeper and masseuse tried to awake him and called the authorities when he did not respond. When the paramedics responded he was in full cardiac arrest and they attempted to perform CPR. It was unsuccessful, however, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.The police say foul play is not suspected.

Ledger is the father of a 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, who he had with actress Michelle Williams. The couple broke up last year.

This just breaks my heart in pieces.

This is EVERYBODY’S problem. Schools, parents, the police — we all need to get together and get the message across. There needs to be stiff consequences for those who bully. There should be a zero tolerance policy in every school.

This poor boy’s suffering. It didn’t have to happen. I blame the parents of the bully most of all, because I believe parents of bullies are complicit in their children’s crimes.

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — A grieving mother is suing the Blue Springs School District, claiming her 12-year-old son was bullied to death.

Kim Myers said she blames school teachers and administrators for her son’s death.
She said her son, Brandon, was constantly picked on by classmates, teased for a speech impediment.

Last February, her boyfriend found Brandon unconscious.

Myers said, “When he found Brandon, he was still standing upright. He had his one foot flat on the floor and another up on a bucket, with a cord around his neck. And John thought he was playing because he wasn’t hanging, per se. And he nudged him and found that he was unconscious at that point.”

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.

UPDATE

What do all bullies have in common?? They have parents that are bullies too. If you’ve ever spoken with a bullies parent, they generally don’t care about their children’s behavior and in fact, encourage it. It’s a way for them to deal with unresolved issues from their past (I suppose).

How can any parent be a part of a bullying campaign that ultimately lead to a 13 year old’s suicide?…somebody who is creating future sociopaths.

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Missouri (AP) — Megan Meier thought she had made a new friend in cyberspace when a cute teenage boy named Josh contacted her on MySpace and began exchanging messages with her.

Megan, a 13-year-old who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder, corresponded with Josh for more than a month before he abruptly ended their friendship, telling her he had heard she was cruel.

The next day Megan committed suicide. Her family learned later that Josh never actually existed; he was created by members of a neighborhood family that included a former friend of Megan’s.

In one of the most selfish and cruel acts imaginable, a father shoots his children’s mother, right in front of them, and then kills himself. One child was found with so much blood on him that the police thought that he had been shot too:

Francisco Santiago, 44, shot and killed his girlfriend Flora Acosta, 39, and then turned the gun on himself in their Willoughby Street home, police said. Both died of wounds to the head from a small-caliber handgun.

Before the shooting, police said, Santiago sent their 10-year-old son upstairs to his aunt’s home, but a daughter, 8, and a teenage son with autism remained in the apartment.