Megan Meier MySpace Suicide: Cruel Hoaxers Outed, Let The Lesser Outrage Begin

Friday, November 16, 2007

Megan Meier MySpace Suicide: Cruel Hoaxers Outed, Let The Lesser Outrage Begin

We first wrote about Megan last Monday. The reactions to the story were those of disgust, horror, anger, and outrage.

Outrage over the death of 14-yr.-old Megan Meiers, a girl targeted by the perpetrators of a vicious hoax. Outrage that no charges have been filed.

Lastly, outrage at the paper who broke the story, the St. Louis Dispatch Suburban Journal, and their decision to not identify the hoaxers. The names of the "alleged" hoaxers have now been outed by bloggers.

MySpace Cruel Prank Leads To Teen's Suicide

A cruel and unbelievably vicious prank perpetrated upon a young girl has stripped away the "Leave It To Beaver" veneer of a suburban St. Louis neighborhood. A fourteen year old girl is dead by her own hand, her parents shattered, and in disbelief, wondering if there will ever be justice for their daughter.

"Fourteen years old, Megan was a victim of a cruel hoax on MySpace. The end result of the hoax, Megan is dead by her own hand, the hoaxer exposed as parents of a former friend of Megan's. The story was published on November 13 by the St. Louis Dispatch Suburban Journal in Missouri. The paper made the decision not to publish the names of the hoaxers. Their excuse, because the hoaxers had a child of their own and the fact that they had not been charged with any crime."

Source - MySpace Cruel Prank Leads To Teen's Suicide

14-yr-old Megan Meier

The original story provided enough clues to the identity of the hoaxers, plus the fact that the parents of Megan had unknowingly stored a foosball table that belonged to the hoaxers in their garage:

"The day after Megan's death, they went down the street to comfort the family of the girl who had once been Megan's friend. They let the girl and her family know that although she and Megan had their ups and down, Megan valued her friendship.
They also attended the girl's birthday party, although Ron had to leave when it came time to sing "Happy Birthday." The Meiers went to the father's 50th birthday celebration. In addition, the Meiers stored a foosball table of the hoaxers in their garage"

The paper went on to describe how, six weeks after Megan's sad death, her parents were informed that their precious daughter was the victim of a cruel hoax through the site, MySpace.com. That the perpetrators were the people, who after Megan's death, had asked Megan's parents if they could store their foosball table in the Meier's garage, as well as the parents of one of Megan's one time "best friends". The paper reported that, upon of learning the gruesome details of what had happened to their daughter and who was behind it, Megan's father destroyed the foosball table.

"Tina used an ax and Ron a sledgehammer. They put the pieces in Ron's pickup and dumped them in their neighbor's driveway. Tina spray painted "Merry Christmas" on the box."

The cruel hoaxers filed a police report over the destruction of their foosball table. They also sent a "condolence" note to Megan's parents:

"In a letter dated Nov. 30, 2006, the family tells Ron and Tina, "We are sorry for the extreme pain you are going through and can only imagine how difficult it must be. We have every compassion for you and your family."

Outraged by the decision of the Suburban Journal to not report the names of the "alleged" hoaxers, bloggers quickly went to work:

"Anyway, then I had a conversation with Steve "Pokin Around" Pokin, the columnist who broke the story of Megan's tragic story after her aunt called him up upon reading his slightly-less-disturbing tale of a teenage Myspace tormentor who eventually got charged with "littering."

Steve didn't really want to go too deeply into things, though he claimed that he was pretty sure not naming Curt and Lori Drew was the right decision, to which I said, "Um, those fuckers will be named SOON ENOUGH." And when I asked him whether the Drews -- he confirmed the names, though I'm not sure he meant to -- seemed ready to take responsibility or atone for their actions in any way, he said, "I don't know. All I know about that is in the story. I'm thinking that's a "not so much."