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The Megan Meier Suicide: A Case Crying for Justice

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The Watcher
Post subject: The Megan Meier Suicide: A Case Crying for Justice
Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 1:06 pm
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I only learned of this story this morning after being awake in the wee hours, and what I have read is disturbing, to say the least. Here is a synopsis of what occurred:

LINK

Here is a more in depth account of what occurred, that does not name the Drews directly:

LINK


In a way, it seems to be poetic justice for Lori Drew, the mother who feels no guilt because, as in her comments made to the police, Megan had emotional problems and had considered suicide before. I hope the internet takes this story and destroys Lori Drew, rarely have I ever felt such outrage at the actions of an adult, much less the mother of a classmate of Megan's. What could possibly have been going through this woman's head? What type of life lesson was she giving to her own daughter, who was "in" on this sick and cruel joke? Finally, I hope the Meiers' sad tale lets us beef up laws covering clear and blatant cases of cyberstalking so that such events when discovered CAN be addressed with the seriousness that such things deserve.[/url]

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Axordil
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Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 1:23 pm
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As TW shows, originally the local paper here didn't publish the Drew's names out of concern for the safety of THEIR daughter--but there was plenty of information in the article that allowed quick confirmation of their identity. The follow-up stories (also linked to by TW) have talked about the burgeoning hostility of the neighborhood towards the Drews, and the shortcomings of the legal system in a case like this.

I think it's only a matter of time before the house gets burned down or something similarly violent happens. It wouldn't surprise me if it happened around the holidays, when people are likely to be emotional about family AND drinking. I don't see why the Drews haven't gotten the hell out of Dodge at this point...are they that stupid or blind or delusional, that they think it will blow over? People shoot each other because trash cans get knocked over by neighbors' dogs, fer chrissake.

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MariaHobbit
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Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 2:57 pm
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That was just evil. :bawl:

That article made me want to drive over and tar and feather them, and drag them out of town chained behind a car, and I'm a relatively peaceful person. How do the actual neighbors and relatives restrain themselves? :scratch:

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Ara-anna
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Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 3:33 pm
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I can't imagine being Megan's parents. They were storing stuff for the Drews....And why aren't the Drews moving. OMG I wouldn't even show my face in public if I were them. Megans mom and dad were on the Today show yesterday and said that Lori Drew confronted Megans mom and told her to stop going public with everything and drawing attention the story. How self centered and horrible do adults have to be to do this to a 13 year old. And trying to justify it by saying Megan was already suicidal….wtf…right that makes a buttload of sense…’I’m not guilty because she was already suicidal’ seems to me makes more of a case of guilt. Who pushes a suicidal 13 year old to commit suicide and then uses it as justification of not having anything to do with it?

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Axordil
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Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 3:38 pm
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I find myself wondering just what percentage of the population are functional and yet have enough low-grade antisocial behavior disorder to be like that: to deny their own culpability in the face of universal condemnation, to act like it's not that big a deal, to be angry that the story is now public as opposed to remorseful at what their actions led to.

It's a wonder they don't work for the Administration.

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LalaithUrwen
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Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 4:10 pm
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That's terrible!!!! :bawl:

It seems like a courageous prosecutor could come up with some kind of charge against these people--negligent homicide? Something?


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vison
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Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 5:44 pm
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A very sad and disturbing story.

But I have to say this: what in hell, what in HELL, were these people doing, allowing their daughter to be online? I am absolutely beside myself.

Playing on the internet, being on Facebook, or MSN, or any other kind of cyber-relating, is NOT a necessity and I don't give a rat's ass how "tightly supervised" the child was, if it had been me the goddamned computer would have been unplugged and thrown in the fucking garbage can before I let my kid near it again.

Yes, this other family and its spawn are vile, horrible people. No excuse for them.

Jesus H. Christ. People are fucking out of their minds.

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Jonny
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Posted: Tue 20 Nov , 2007 6:22 pm
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Absolutely horrifying.

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Wilma
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Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2007 5:49 am
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THis is pretty sick. I wonder why the Drews have not moved. About adults being involved int this I am not surprised I have seen adults encourage their children to tease or make fun of other people. I have seen adults (parents mind you) resort to calling people names over some stupid line up issue. Some people just have a superiority complex and don't grow out of it. Why were the Meiers letting their daughter go on the internet again anyway, they should have cut her off. I thought there were laws against cyber stalking. I guess not. 13 is too young to be myspacing or Facebooking I think.

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Lord_Morningstar
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Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2007 8:14 am
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Lali wrote:
It seems like a courageous prosecutor could come up with some kind of charge against these people--negligent homicide? Something?
It seems like common-law homicide to me, although I'm not familiar with U.S. law.

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TheMary
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Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2007 12:01 pm
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If Megan wasn't online at her home under her mother's supervision she would have gained access elsewhere. I think Tina Meier did a fine job of making sure her daughter was supervised on the internet.

What I don't understand AT ALL is how a grown woman and mother could create a MySpace account for the sole purpose of hurting a 13 year old girl. Not only did Lori Drews supervise the creation of the account but she allowed other kids to get in on the cruelty. It's sick and twisted and what's more she doesn't feel as guilty because Megan Meier had suicidal thoughts previously?! There are penalties for reckless driving and reckless homicide there has to be something the Drews can be served with! Their actions were completely reckless AND there's proof that there was intent to harm Megan. It's hard enough to be an adolescent without the parents joining the kids in being mean.

My Aunt used to live in O'Fallen only having moved about a year ago. I couldn't image something so terrible happening in such a nice town.

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Axordil
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Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2007 1:56 pm
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O'Fallon is much like Oakland was for Gertrude Stein--there is no there, there. I have friends from there too, btw.

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MariaHobbit
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Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2007 2:39 pm
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Ax wrote:
there is no there, there
Huh? :scratch: :scratch:

If there are laws against inciting a riot, there ought to be laws against inciting a suicide! :rage:

Although, that could backfire and get ugly, fast. :( Can you imagine every friend and family member of the suicide getting grilled by the police?

So, on second thought, no. Suicide should remain a crime of the perpetrator. It is a crime, isn't it?

What sort of crime should this event be called? Should misrepresenting one's identity online be a crime? Should telling someone they are worthless be a crime? Sure, it's easy to say THIS incident and these people should be punished, but what sort of law could be put on the books that wouldn't be horribly misapplied later on?

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LalaithUrwen
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Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2007 2:40 pm
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Freddy mentioned that he thought there were no criminal charges that could be brought against them, but they could bring civil charges against them (like in the O. J. Simpson case).


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The Watcher
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Posted: Wed 21 Nov , 2007 2:52 pm
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Some of the neighbors and families that live near the Meiers and Drews or who knew them through the schools have come forward with some of their feelings, one is actually the neighbor boy who helped perform CPR on Megan while waiting for the ambulances, and their comments are telling. While no one has come out (from these people's comments) and blasted Lori Drew as a psychopathic homicidal bitch, Lori Drew apparently asked Tina Meier to stop going public with their story even before it made national headlines, and the Drews have also put up seasonal decorations on their home. Lori Drew runs an advertising venue for local business in the form of mailers and coupon booklets, and at school functions was always trying to drum up more business. She, from comments made about her appearance, is 48, five foot five, and stocky/pudgy, and quite plain with a rather loud voice. Not that any of this in and of itself matters so much, but you think such a person would have SOME sort of inkling about what it might be like to feel one is the "ugly duckling" and trying to fit in, especially at such a terribly vulnerable age. Nope, she has not shown one iota of remorse, in fact, that telling police report in which she freely admitted her actions came about when SHE called the police last year to file a complaint about the destroyed foosball table and her fears about further property damage due to the irate feelings of the Meiers and some neighbors.

What a piece of work. It makes you wish people had to be licensed to breed.

Well, there is karma involved, apparently the local businesses that worked with Ms. Drew have been besieged by people to pull their business, and the same is happening for Mr. Drew who is a realtor in the area, so if nothing else, they are already becoming social outcasts.

What will the Drews' daughter think of all this? That poor girl is ruined now for life. Well, at least she still has the shreds of her life even left. :(

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Wilma
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Posted: Thu 22 Nov , 2007 4:06 am
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Well it seems similar to the whole cheerleading competition and hiring a hitman to kill the competitions mother so the girl would not do well in the tryout.

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Leoba
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Posted: Thu 22 Nov , 2007 12:40 pm
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What an awful story! Surely the Drews couldn't have meant for things to get that far out of hand?

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There are also two light-up angels, hung in the front window.
On a different note, that is also seriously freaky.

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Axordil
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Posted: Thu 22 Nov , 2007 4:42 pm
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I don't think mother Drew actually wanted Megan dead. But I also don't think she cared what DID happen to her, or accepts any responsibility, nor has remorse. What she did is analogous to shooting a gun down a hallway where someone is standing, without aiming. Maybe you just scare them. Maybe you wing them. And maybe you kill them.

It's the combination of things that makes the case so repugnantly fascinating: A mom "looking out for" her daughter by mind-fucking a girl she KNOWS has emotional problems, then acting like it's not that big a deal when the girl kills herself. All we need now is the mob with torches and we've got a made-for-TV docudrama ready to go. :neutral:

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*E*V*E*N*S*T*A*R*
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Posted: Thu 22 Nov , 2007 7:29 pm
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My own issues with this case are probably along what Maria hinted at, because I don't know how much responsibility you can place on anyone but the person who decided to commit suicide. Even if poor Megan was nothing but sunshine and flowers all her life before going through this MySpace bullshittery, in the end, it was her own hand that tied the noose. I don't know how heartless that makes me, but I've spent a lot of time over the last several years thinking about personal responsibilities and trying to blame others for what's going on in your own head. There is no easy answer, I just truly hate people's need to blame, and the delirious sense of vengeance that can follow. I also hate when a whole precious life is lost over something so terribly lame. It's more of a loss than I care to think about for long.

On the other hand, I feel like a fake for saying much about it because I really didn't get bullied much after elementary school. I was 17 or 18 when I started to spend lots of time on the internet and actually interacting with people via instant messenger or messageboards, so I had a few years to understand the value of privacy, and didn't do anything to attract attention to myself. These days, even schools in my small town have their own chatrooms set up and fan clubs on Facebook devoted to certain teachers, for example, so there's just a lot more interaction and ways to invite problems into your own home than I had to deal with. So maybe for people like Megan, it really is that bad. I know it would have added a few layers to my own depression back then. Even my brother who is just four years younger than me had stories about ex-girlfriends slinging shit about him on FB. I certainly had my own issues, but after grade 8 at least, they weren't as constant. It was just a case of some days being good, some bad. There weren't specific people actively trying to ruin my day. But I remember how it felt when those kinda folks were around, and it's hard to get through until you... get through it. Try telling that to someone else and I don't think it's very helpful, though.




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vison
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Posted: Thu 22 Nov , 2007 11:35 pm
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I know I am out of step here, but I can think of no good reason for children to be on these internet groups and I don't give a rat's ass, personally, for any excuse offered.

I know so many kids who've been bullied or made fun of this way, and can think of nothing worthwhile about it even when bullying doesn't go on.

You wanna talk to your friends? Pick up the phone or talk to them at school.

The girl who lives with us, she has reached the grand old age of 20, quite concurs with my refusal to let Oz and Tay play on the internet. She says if she had kids of her own, she'd say the same thing.

This isn't looking up stuff for a science project, this is asking for trouble.

My heart aches for the parents who lost their daughter, and I hope other parents take the lesson from it. *E*, my dear, the child was 13 and so distraught she hung herself and to be perfectly honest, I don't think a 13-year-old can really be responsible for that decision: only, she's going to be dead forever.

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