Girl Commits Suicide Over Internet Prank

[Deadly_Nightshade]

TEXT: Parents Say Online Bullies Caused Daughter's Suicide

Last Edited: Tuesday, 13 Nov 2007, 11:02 PM CST

Created: Tuesday, 13 Nov 2007, 10:58 PM CST

By Teresa Woodard

 

Did an Internet prank lead a St. Charles County teen to take her own life? Her parents say their daughter was driven to her death by online attacks led not by other teens, but by adults. No law was broken, there was no real crime, but it is all a real tragedy.

 

"She was our baby. We absolutely miss every single second of her," says Tina Meier as tears fall down her face.

 

Tina talks about Megan's laughter like she can still hear it. "She just had an unbelievable, hysterical laugh, where she would just not breathe and then she would giggle, then it would turn into this high pitched squeal," Tina says.

 

And there was her smile, wide and happy, the smile of a girl about to be 14, about to get her braces off. Not a girl about to end her life.

 

"She thought life was wonderful," Tina says.

 

Tina admits her daughter had battled depression and ADD, and was on medication to help with both. But a new school, new friends, and a new account on MySpace, strictly monitored by mom and dad, were making life better.

 

"I thought we were as vigilant as we could be as parents with all the things in place, and even with that, no matter what I did, I still couldn't protect her."

 

"The computer rules were that it was going to be a private MySpace page. We were going to have the password only, she wasn't going to have the password, all the computers in our house had passwords, so none of the children could get on," Tina says. "I had to be able to approve all the content on that page, and I had to approve who was going to be added to the page."

 

"She got this email from this boy named Josh Evans," Tina explains.

 

Josh was cute and asking to be added to Megan's list of "friends" on the page. Tina reluctantly let him have access to her daughter's account. They were friends first, then they called each other boyfriend and girlfriend. But they never met. Then Josh got mean.

 

"Megan gets an email on her MySpace from Josh saying that he didn't know if he wanted to be friends because he heard she wasn't nice to her friends," Tina recalls.

 

That was one night. Tina comforted Megan, telling her not to worry about it. The next day more messages appeared from Josh and other people.

 

Tina had to take her younger daughter to a doctor's appointment, and even though there were strict rules about Megan not being online without supervision, she left without making sure Megan logged out. Tina called back a few minutes later to find her daughter in tears over the things being said about her. She told Megan to log off, but Megan didn't. When Tina came home, Megan said she felt like she was under attack from everyone, even from Tina, who was furious her daughter did not do as she was told.

 

Megan ran upstairs to her room. Tina and her husband Ron began talking about the problems with the online account. Less than 20 minutes passed.

 

"And I just got this horrible feeling in my stomach," Tina says. "I just took off running upstairs and opened her door and I found her."

 

Megan hung herself in her closet.

 

Weeks later, a friend told the Meiers that Josh Evans never even existed.

 

"That's the biggest tragedy of the whole thing," says Ron. "An adult did it."

 

The Meiers say a neighborhood family created Josh to see if Megan would say bad things to him about their own daughter. There is a police report, where the neighbors admit it.

 

"I believe that it's no different than somebody handing her a loaded gun," Ron says.

 

"How could you do that to somebody?" asks Tina. "A child!"

 

The police report was filed by that neighbor and it accuses the Meiers of property damage. The Meiers say when they found out about the internet hoax, they did lose their tempers, damaging the family's property. They say they are responsible. But they want to know who is responsible for Megan.

 

"We went to the St. Charles County sheriff's department, the prosecutor, the FBI got involved," Ron says. "But in the end they had to say there's nothing they could do."

 

"We were hoping and praying that something would come, some justice would come. We had to keep quiet about it because everybody said keep quiet, keep quiet and let justice prevail. Well, this is where it's gotten us."

 

Justice never came. Megan never turned 14, never got her braces off.

 

Since they can't change their past, they want to change the law.

 

"Because there is not a law that it can fit into people are saying, 'Sorry, go change the law yourself. Put it in Megan's name, then maybe it won't happen to another family.' So I guess if that's what we have to do that's what we're gonna have to do. I will take every last breath I have to fight for Megan's name," Tina says. "The law needs to be changed so it never happens to a family again."

 

Ron struggled speaking about what happened. "I think every parent, man, husband, father, tells themselves, 'No one's going to hurt my family.' It happened."

 

 

The real moral of the story is,

[Atreides]

Well that's all fine for adults like us who've been around for awhile. Kids are still naive, developing, learning. The parents seemed to be very watchful about her activities too.

 

I'd say this is an extreme case though.

[Sand]

I hate pranks. Pranks are never funny for the one being fooled. The adult in this case should be ashamed and should be punished for driving a young child to suicide.

[theslug]

No I'd say the moral of the story is don't shelter your kids. The parents sound like real nut jobs. Yeah it's sad when people die I guess but whose fault is it really? Girls are emotionally unstable but this one sounds real weak so it was either poor genetics, bad parenting, filled up on prescriptions or all three.

 

Obviously what the adult did was pretty stupid on his part but seriously how in any universe does it sound even remotely reasonable to become emotionally attached and heavily amoured to someone you've never met and have only known for a short period of time over myspace? You guys are the ones being naive and childish placing blame on the adult. This is something that no one would ever predict and is a completely unreasonable conclusion.

 

Edit: Read first post, I agree for the most part.

Edited November 15, 2007 by theslug

[Gorgon]

So this guy pretended to be a boy just to see if this disturbed kid would say bad things about his daugther.

 

There is such a thing as getting too involved.

[Calax]

The adult is a little bit to blame in this in the fact that he acted like a teenager when he wasn't supposed to.

 

the Parents are to blame for being a bit overprotective

 

But I don't think that you could land a homicide on the adults file and you never should because if you were to do that, you'd open a WHOLE new can of worms where what is said online is legally loaded more than it already is. Sand would be a repeated felon based upon his "I'm new here" thread responses.

[Atreides]

Wonder whether the family will get time for a pedo-style internet con job.

[Sand]

I am not saying he should be charged for murder but maybe manslaughter, or or some other lesser crime. He needs to be held accountable for contributing to her death.

[Blarghagh]

That lying dad needs to be forced into therapy. Nothing is worse than being forced into therapy. I'd rather go to jail than be forced into therapy.

[Xard]

Man, now I feel like ass for laughing at this. Thanks guys.

 

Still, what a way (reason!) for an hero. Pffffft.

[jaguars4ever]

What's if it's sexy therapy?

[Guest The Architect]

As theslug said, how mentally weak do you have to be to kill yourself over criticism from several people on the Internet that you've never even met? Doesn't sound like she thought life was wonderful or that she thought she was, if you ask me.

 

Of course, the jackass pretending to be someone he's not should be kicked in the face a lot or something, but yeah, this kind of thing shouldn't be happening. Personally I think more emphasis needs to be put on mental issues in health education. People need to learn to treat themselves and others with respect and not be ashamed of who they are.

 

You wouldn't think a person with a healthy self-esteem would do such a thing like this. Also, this is yet another reason to hate MySpace. What a load of ****.

[Guard Dog]

Just a guess here but I'd bet large the "lying dad" had nothing to do with it and is just stepping up to take the blame away from his daughter. This is not something a grown man would do but it is exactly the kind of thing a teenage girl would do.

 

I've got to agree also, is someone hangs themselves over comment from faceless internet people was probably not far from it anyway and really needed help.

[Gfted1]

Tragic but smells fishy. How do you go from happy to hanging in a closet in under 48 hours?

[jaguars4ever]

Tragic but smells fishy. How do you go from happy to hanging in a closet in under 48 hours?

Women are like that, dude.

[Gorth]

Wonder whether the family will get time for a pedo-style internet con job.

I doubt they will, even if they deserve it. If the dad did it, I would say, he deserves time for deliberate deception and manipulation of a minor for his own purposes. Not sure if that is punishable by any law though. If he is covering over his own kids, I would say, it is not just one, but two families in dire need of therapy, since both seems to have problems raising kids then. Only the "dad" (undeserving of that responsibility in any case) is likely to know the truth.

[Gfted1]

I just think her parents were (naturally) painting a much rosier picture of her life prior to her suicide. I also cant understand how an even moderately depressed person can be rapidly pushed to suicide because a person she never met "didn't know if he wanted to be friends because he heard she wasn't nice to her friends".

 

As an aside, whats everyones views on suicide? Mortal sin? Cowards way out? While I find it tragic and somewhat selfish I dont have a moral problem with it. Hell, I could even see myself eating a bullet if something horrendous happened like my daughter getting snatched up and killed. Not sure I could live with that guilt.

[Musopticon?]

I thought this was hilarious, it's something that sounds like it came from Teh Internets, which it ironically is.

 

You could make a case over the parents sheltering the **** out of their daughter. I bet she practically lived in a steel barrel, the parents too afraid that something or someone would hurt her. So, they effectively forced the internet on her, of course she is desperate for attention, acknowledgement and everything that springs from human contact.

 

In a nutshell, it's a tragedy. Or tragically funny.

 

MySpace kills more people yearly than coffeine, that's something to think about.

[Dark_Raven]

Give the mother****ers the chair. Ride the lightning baby!

 

 

:aiee: :aiee:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Internets is teh fun. Not to be taken seriously.

[Tale]

MySpace kills more people yearly than coffeine, that's something to think about.

Don't think about that too hard, of course. Lethal doses of caffeine are notoriously hard to achieve. Depending upon medium, of course. Coffee is ridiculously hard. Caffiene pills not so hard, but you either have to be an immense moron or trying to kill yourself.

 

Assuming no health problems that would cause significantly abnormal susceptability.

Edited November 15, 2007 by Tale

[theslug]

Yeah gifted suicide is a mixed bag. I mean I can definitely see why someone would do it if they have nothing left in their life to keep living. Like you get in a car wreck, your closest blood relatives and a close friend or two perish but you are alive and you find out you will never walk again. Also your wife finds out your thingamajig will never work again and leaves you. Thats about time I'd take what remaining cash I have after the hospital repossessed everything I own and buy a brick of opium. Then ride the white dragon until you reach the heavens. Sounds awesome to me.

[Azure79]

I pray that one day my kids will be no where as screwed up as that girl, sad as this incident is.

[Nick_i_am]

The Mccanns did it.

[Volourn]

"I am not saying he should be charged for murder but maybe manslaughter,"

 

So, all the times you said soemthing really mean to someone on the internet and hurt their feelings you feel you should be charged for manslaughter if they commit suicide? That's silly.

 

As in poor tatse as the actions were, suicide is a personal choice.; not a forced upon action.

[Landiskan]

Tragic. My heart goes out to the girl's parents, it's not a nice place they're at now.