Megan Meier MySpace Suicide: Lori Drew Indicted

The infamous mother in the Megan Meier Myspace Suicide case, Lori Drew, has been indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain private information.

Drew’s indictments come as a surprise to many as the local authorities where the case transpired, in O’Fallon, Missouri, and the FBI, declined to press charges after investigating the Megan Meiers Myspace case.

Back in December, St. Charles County prosecutor Jack Banas announced his office would not file charges against Drew because she hadn’t “broken any laws”.

Drew had admitted in a police report that she had “set up” a fake MySpace page to “monitor” what her daughter’s ex-friend, Megan Meier, was posting about her daughter on Megan’s MySpace page. Drew later recanted, claiming she wasn’t involved, that the police report was filled with errors.

Banas had said that the St. Charles County prosecutor’s office couldn’t “prove” that Drew or Grills had meant their messages to be a form of “harassment” even though Megan’s mother claims the messages from the fake 16-year-old “Josh” had grown increasingly mean, culminating in a final message posted the day Megan hanged herself in her bedroom closet, that the “world would be a better place without you”.

Megan had set up a MySpace page with the permission of her parents. She had told her parents about “Josh”, a boy on MySpace who claimed he was new to her area. For weeks the “two” exchanged messages until shortly before Megan was to celebrate her 14th birthday.

It wasn’t until after Megan’s death that her parents were informed by a neighbor that “Josh” wasn’t a 16-year-old boy but a concoction made up by their neighbor, a woman in her forties with a daughter who was a former friend of Megan’s, Lori Drew.

Drew claims she wasn’t involved even though she filed a police report stating she was instrumental in devising the web page as a way to “keep tabs” on what “Megan was saying about her daughter”. Drew then claimed it was all her 17-year-old employee, Ashley Grill’s idea, that Drew had nothing to do with it.

DBKP has been following the MySpace Suicide story and finds it highly unlikely that Grills, an employee of Drew, would take it on herself to create a fake persona on MySpace in order to chat up a 13-year-old neighbor girl she was not acquainted with. Megan had been Drew’s daughter’s off-and-on again friend for years.

Grills testified before a Los Angeles federal grand jury that it was Drew who suggested creating the fake page but that it was Grills who set it up. Grills also testified that Drew helped write some of the messages from “Josh”.

Megan took her life in November of 2006, it wasn’t until January 2008 that a Los Angeles federal grand jury began issuing subpoenas in what is now known as the Megan Meier MySpace Suicide Case.

While local authorities claimed they couldn’t find statutes that would cover charging Drew with any crime, prosecutors in Los Angeles looked at it from the MySpace angle, that Drew may have committed federal wire fraud and/or broken cyber fraud statutes. MySpace’s headquarters is located in Beverly Hills. The grand jury handed down one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.

Drew has become pariah in her and the Meier’s neighborhood. She may have to explain as to why she couldn’t just have read Megan’s MySpace page instead of creating the fake persona of a good looking, friendly 16-year-old boy named Josh to “chat” up Megan.

Drew puts the “D” in dysfunctional families as her meddling in her middle school daughter’s life is now linked to the suicide of a 13-year-old girl. Drew has shown absolutely no remorse instead she’s chosen to hide behind attorneys and cast blame on her 17-yr-old employee, Ashley Grills, even after Grills attempted suicide Drew continued to try to shift the blame to Ashley.

The Damning Police Report Filed by Drew

Drew stated in a November 2006 St. Charles County police report that she filed that she “needed to confront” Megan’s parents. The police report went on to state that Drew “instigated and “monitored” a MySpace page in order to communicate with Megan to find out “what Megan was saying about her daughter”.

Drew went on to claim the she, Grills, and her daughter all took part in “typing, reading, and communicating” with Megan, that Drew continued to communicate with Megan even after the messages became “sexual”. Drew shed some insight into the final days of Megan’s life after she admitted that she had allowed other “users” to access the fake Josh profile and that Megan then discovered she had been “duped”.

Drew went on to relate that arguments had “broken out” between Megan and “others” on MySpace, that Drew felt this had contributed to Megan’s suicide. Drew admitted that she “did not feel as guilty” after learning at Megan’s funeral that Megan had attempted suicide before.

Drew was upset that the Meier’s hadn’t answered their door when Drew had “banged on the door” on three separate occasions attempting to talk to the Meiers, that Megan’s father, Ron, had told Drew and her husband to “leave”.

Drew told the cops that ever since the neighborhood had heard “rumors” of her involvement in Megan’s death that the neighborhood had grown increasingly hostile and that Drew needed to speak to the Meiers to, in the words of the cop who report the report, “relieve herself of the “responsibility” and apparent guilt”.

The federal jury indictments against Drew are the next step in the Megan Meier MySpace case. Hopefully a trial will shed more light on the machinations of Lori Drew, the suburban neighborhood Mom without a conscience.

By LBG

Image - Evil Wine
Source - LA Times – L.A. Grand Jury Issues subpoenas in Web Suicide Case
Source – ABC News – No Charges Filed in MySpace Suicide
Source – MSNBC – Mom Indicted in MySpace Suicide Case
Source – Smoking Gun – Lori Drew Police Report

Tags: Ashley Grill, Lori Drew, megan meier, MySpace indictments, myspace suicide