Prosecutors Indict Woman in MySpace Cyberbully / Suicide Case

Missouri authorities have been investigating, but they have opted not to charge Lori Drew. The federal authorities in California are the first to move forward with legal charges.

Megan Meier. Photo courtesy: hitsusa.com

(LOS ANGELES) - A Los Angeles federal Grand Jury indicted a Missouri mother whose actions through an online hoax may have led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide.

This is Lori Drew Courtesy: Cruel Justice

They are reportedly charging Lori Drew, whose daughter was feuding with the victim, with four separate crimes. She was indicted on one count of Conspiracy and three counts of Accessing Protected Computers Without Authorization to Obtain Information to Inflict Emotional Distress.

It was revealed that each of the counts in the indictment carries a potential five year prison sentence.

Drew is alleged to have beome closely involved in her teen daughter's love life, and that may be where the problems began. Prosecutors say she helped create a false MySpace page to contact 13-year old Megan Meier who thought she was talking with a 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans."

The woman communicated to Megan that she was fat and ugly, and the youngster hanged herself in October 2006 in her own closet. Her parents found her.

Things began to heat up when the name and address of Lori Drew and her family on Waterford Crystal Drive in St. Charles was released to the public by bloggers. They even published directions, and The Los Angeles Times reported that dozens of concerned people had been calling local businesses that work with the Drew family's company, an advertising print shop.

Drew has repeatedly denied creating the MySpace account or sending the messages to Megan.

As for Drew's denial of involvement, it was interesting that 19-year-old Ashley Grills, a former employee of Drew's, told ABC’s "Good Morning America" that she created the false MySpace profile and Drew wrote some of the messages to Megan. Grills connected Drew to the desire to learn what Megan was saying about Drew’s daughter, who used to be a friend of Megan Meier’s.

But Grills said she was the one who wrote the message to Megan about the world "being a better place without her" which she believed would end the online relationship with "Josh". Grills said she felt the joke had gone too far.

"I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone and I could get rid of the whole MySpace," Grills told the morning show.

Missouri authorities have been investigating the case, but they have opted not to charge Drew. The federal authorities in California are the first to move forward with legal charges.

Here is prior Salem-News.com coverage of the case: Virtual Vigilantes Hold the Watch Over MySpace Teen's Suicide Tragedy