Parents Warn Others About MySpace After Unusual Case Leads Their Daughter To Suicide
Monday November 19, 2007
CityNews.ca Staff
A convoluted and incredibly tragic case that emerged on the weekend has the grieving parents of a teenaged girl issuing a warning to other moms and dads about the dangers of online social networking sites in general and MySpace in particular.
In case you missed it, this story is a strange combination of two adults doing everything right and two others accused of doing everything wrong. It began earlier this fall in the small town of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, not far from St. Louis, when a shy and slightly overweight 13-year-old named Megan Meier received a request and a picture from another teenager named Josh Evans to become her friend via MySpace.
She went to her parents, excited that the guy was "hot" and anxious to exchange messages with her. Her mother carefully looked over Josh's profile, saw nothing dangerous, and agreed to allow the two to virtually chat.
Josh said he'd just moved to a nearby neighbourhood in the city of 7,000, was being homeschooled, but didn't have a local phone number where she could reach him, so their online chats were the only way to contact him. Their back and forth messages continued for some time until October 15th, when Josh suddenly sent her a disturbing text saying he'd been hearing some terrible things about how she treated her friends and wasn't going to talk to her anymore.
Then other messages started to get posted about her online, with hurtful harangues saying things like, "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat." The youngster, who was already on medication to fight depression, was devastated and couldn't figure out what prompted the cruel taunts.
But a final message from Josh telling her he thought the world would be better off without her was too much for the youngster. Her distraught parents did their best to comfort her, with her father telling her everything would be fine. But Megan ran upstairs in tears and slammed the door to her bedroom, upset about the turn her reputation had taken. When her parents went up to check on her 20 minutes later it was too late - Megan had hung herself in her room. She died the next day in hospital.
As terrible as this story is, it gets worse - because it turns out there really was no "Josh Evans." He was the fictional creation of the parents of a family who lived nearby, who had heard rumours that the girl was talking derogatorily about their own daughter and wanted to see what she was saying in a way that would trick the youngster. The girl, her mother and another adult had all taken turns composing the messages that won the child's trust - then shattered it in the cruelest way possible.
A friend discovered the deception and told the shocked parents six weeks after their daughter's death. Now Tina and Ron Meir are pleading with local authorities to lay charges against the adults who they believe contributed to Megan's suicide. The outraged mom doesn't believe anyone wanted the final outcome. "But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile," she told a local newspaper.
Police say there's not much they can do to get justice for the Meiers, noting as terrible as what seems to have happened was, no one broke any laws. The local government is now pondering passing legislation that would outlaw such actions. But it won't come in time to save Megan or her family.
The fall out from this terrible incident continues, with neighbour turning against neighbour. The Meiers are accused of destroying a foosball table they were storing for the family involved, dumping the pieces on their lawn and telling them to move. And the stress has now led Ron and Tina to separate, with divorce plans in the works.
But despite their acrimony, Megan's parents have now come together one last time to warn others about the potential hazards of online social networks - and the bitter reality that you can never quite believe everything you see.
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