[NOTE: DBKP has examined the 'Megan Had it Coming' Blog and its last post, dated December 3, "I'm Lori Drew". We don't know who is behind the blog--Lori Drew or Internet troll.
However, we've asked Trench Reynolds, who has covered MySpace crime for the last eight years, to give us his opinion.
He makes some good points. Some we agree with, others: we're not so sure. But, he makes several of his points so persuasively, we thought you readers should get a chance to see them and decide for yourselves.]
Hey everybody. My name is Trench Reynolds. Some of you may know me from my blogs about crime, TheTrenchcoat Chronicles and MyCrimeSpace. At the Chronicles I've been blogging since 2000 discussing school shootings and at MCS I talk about MySpace related crimes.
Mondoreb invited me to Death by 1,000 Papercuts (which is the greatest blog name ever) to express my thoughts on the Megan Meier story, specifically the 'Megan Had It Coming Blog'. As a lot of people have I've been following the story closely since it broke nationally. And just like most people I was horrified to read what happened to Megan Meier by people who were supposed to be adults.
When the identity of the Drews were made public by bloggers and commenters I decided that I would not post their names in hopes of not facilitating some kind of vigilante justice. Also I did not want to interfere with the investigation into whether or not criminal files would be charged.
It was after I made that post that someone posted a comment about 'MHIC'. It was also on that same post that someone by the name of 'ANONYMOUS' was leaving comments in defense of Lori Drew and was leaving comments similar to the posts on 'MHIC'.
I conferred with a blogging friend of mine who is a cybersecurity expert and we both agreed that ANONYMOUS and MHIC were the same person. Of course the Internet being what it is a lot of people automatically assumed that it must be Lori Drew without doing any investigation.
Now that's not a dig at DBKP because their own investigation seems to be thorough. However whenever a tragedy like this breaks there's always people willing to take advantage of the situation in order to get some attention. That's what I think is going on with MHIC.
Getting back to ANONYMOUS the e-mail address used to place the comments at MCS traced back to the MySpace of 16-year-old African-American girl from Michigan. It is possible that the address was a fake that coincidentally belonged to this girl's MySpace. However once I made that fact public the MySpace in question disappeared.
The second thing that leads me to believe that MHIC is a fake was the IP address of ANONYMOUS. Every time someone posts a comment at MCS I receive an e- mail that has their IP Address in it. IP addresses are used to trace back to someone's Internet Service Provider (ISP). Through this information I can usually ascertain the person's relative geographical location.
ANONYMOUS' ISP traced back to Louisville, KY which is roughly 260 miles from where the Drews and Meiers lived. IP addresses can be spoofed but if the person really wanted me to believe they were Lori Drew and had the knowledge on how to spoof IP addresses they probably would have made the address trace back to Missouri and not Kentucky.
Lastly, which may just be wishful thinking on my part, after everything that has be relayed in the media and on blogs I'd like to think that Lori Drew would not be that callous or stupid to entitle a blog 'Megan Had It Coming'.
Recently Lori Drew's lawyer said that she had nothing to do with the blog. Mondoreb himself poses the question if it's a hoax why is still up because of Google's imitation rules. My answer to that is I think it's not really a high priority for Google. Not only that if it was Lori Drew I think her lawyer would have advised her to take it down by now which can be done as easily as clicking on a button.
Since civil charges are likely against the Drews I think since the blog is still up that the odds are in favor of MHIC not being written by Lori Drew.
More than likely MHIC was posted by a group of people just looking for the attention and to see how many people they can get to fall for it. In the end I could be wrong but that would mean that Lori Drew is really that stupid and callous and if she is I weep for humanity.
So what do you think?
Is 'Megan Had It Coming' the work of Lori Drew?
Or an Internet troll?
[Check out other Trench Reynolds reports on the MySpace Suicide story, as well as MySpace and school crime at TheTrenchcoat Chronicles and MyCrimeSpace. Crime buffs need to drop by for the latest.]
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
You are absolutely unbelievable. An absolute piece of work. I hope you spend the rest of your life alone and destitute.
December 3, 2007 11:29 AM
I hope someday you realize that you instigated this situation. Your post did nothing but convince people that you are ruthless and immature. You hurt someone. And she was so hurt that she ended her life. One of my family members committed suicide, and it is something that I will never cope with. It's not a car accident, it's not cancer....someone was so SAD and helpless that they took their own life. You need to realize that you pushed someone that was vulnerable!
December 3, 2007 11:29 AM
Having conversations that were sexual for a 13 year old? How is that monitoring for cyberbulling?
GODDAMN YOU I AM SO SICK OF THIS LIE! I didn't engage in anything sexual. Megan tried to initiate sex talk and I backed away from it. I NEVER ENGAGED IN ANYTHING LIKE THAT. So stop spreading this lie.
December 3, 2007 11:29 AM
It's not fair to put that on me. I didn't know Megan would kill herself. No one suspected Megan would kill herself. If you blame me then you have to blame Megan's parents, too. They were closer to Megan. THEY WERE HER PARENTS. And she still managed to kill herself. What does that say? Does it say they're bad parents, too? No. It says that no one could have predicted Megan's suicide. Not Tina, not Ron, not me.
Lori, a drunken driver does not intentionally set out to kill a carload of prom going teens. He is just driving home. That doesn't make him any less responsible.
December 3, 2007 11:29 AM
GODDAMN YOU I AM SO SICK OF THIS LIE! I didn't engage in anything sexual. Megan tried to initiate sex talk and I backed away from it. I NEVER ENGAGED IN ANYTHING LIKE THAT. So stop spreading this lie.
Heavy makeout sessions? Not a lie, honey. You may not want to see it this way...but it doesn't change what it was.
December 3, 2007 11:31 AM
Okay--place the suicide completely aside for now.
You baited and misled a depressed 13-year-old for weeks, eventually culminating in an emotional collapse.
Murderer? No, you're a torturer.
December 3, 2007 11:31 AM
Fine, you didn't mean to kill her? Do drunk drivers mean to kill people?
It doesn't matter if your malicious intent was to just make her miserable or to push her off the edge, you still did it. Show some regret you heartless woman.
December 3, 2007 11:32 AM
You not only victimized a girl who is the same age as your own daughter, you victimized someone who you KNEW was suffering from mental illness. What's wrong with you???? You are a child abuser...I just have to wonder how innocent your daughter really is, was she being bullied by other CHILDREN, was she an innocent victim, or does she take after you? Kids have a way of working out their differences for themselves, it's a part of growing up....are you going to fight all her battles for her, pick her husband for her, sleep with him too? You are a dangerous woman and no child should ever be allowed near you...including your own! The high school called Mrs Drew, they want their robe back..your youth is over, you can't get it back living through your daughter!
December 3, 2007 11:32 AM
One of my family members committed suicide, and it is something that I will never cope with. It's not a car accident, it's not cancer....someone was so SAD and helpless that they took their own life.
I'm very sorry for your loss, but you have to understand that Megan suffered from clinical depression for which she took medication. Her depression wasn't psychological, it was chemical. That means there is truly no way to know WHY she killed herself. Maybe it was the final myspace comments. Maybe it was her own mother ignoring her. Maybe she skipped her medication recently. Maybe that FDA warning that anti-depressants can have suicidal effects on children and teens should have come out a couple of months earlier. You can't place blame on others when someone commits suicide.
December 3, 2007 11:33 AM
Lori, a drunken driver does not intentionally set out to kill a carload of prom going teens. He is just driving home. That doesn't make him any less responsible.
Bingo.
Do you want the world to stop hating you?
Apologize, instead of defending yourself through pointing the blame at a 13-year-old. Apologize to the Meiers. Admit that you were wrong, horribly, terribly wrong, and that had you acted like an adult, none of this would have happened.
That's a start.
December 3, 2007 11:35 AM
You baited and misled a depressed 13-year-old for weeks, eventually culminating in an emotional collapse.
DID YOU NOT READ THE PART WHERE I TRIED TO LET HER DOWN EASY? You don't know it was an emotional collapse. No one can know why Megan killed herself. Maybe it was the myspace comments. Maybe it was the cold reaction from her own parents. Maybe it was her medication. YOU DON'T KNOW SO STOP PUTTING IT ON ME.
December 3, 2007 11:35 AM
Lori, you are delusional. You've spent six weeks trying to come up with a way to justify your sociopathic, vindictive behavior, and this is the best you can do?
Lame. Just plain lame.
It's all lies; delusional lies that you tell yourself so that you can sleep at night. You're mad at the world? Is that what you said? And to retaliate against the world, you right a blog called "Megan Had It Coming" and you call the child a slut?
Lame, lame, lame.
You really are a child predator. They always blame the victim, too. "That two year old SEDUCED ME. I had no choice but to molest her."
Megan was posting annonymous stuff through OTHER PEOPLES blogs? But you JUST KNEW IT WAS HER?? She's a demon seed....she's a slut...she's a BAD GIRL!
You are a deviant.
Have a shitty rest of your life. And your little dog, too.
December 3, 2007 11:35 AM
Letting her down easy would have been to just say, sorry, can't be friends anymore, or sorry, I'm moving away, or to just delete the account altogether. Instead, you had to be mean about it.
I don't think you intended to let her down easy at all.
December 3, 2007 11:36 AM
You can't be this stupid....really.
December 3, 2007 11:37 AM
a drunken driver does not intentionally set out to kill a carload of prom going teens. He is just driving home. That doesn't make him any less responsible.
This isn't like driving drunk. It's not even close. I worked to PROTECT MY DAUGHTER FROM A CYBER BULLY. There's was no way to know that Megan would kill herself. None. Not even the Meiers could predict or prevent it and they were HER PARENTS.
I'm not a murderer.
December 3, 2007 11:37 AM
What could have possibly possessed you to start this blog? I realize that you have serious mental problems, but where is your husband or your lawyer?
Is there no function adult in your life who is there to tell you how entirely ill-advised this blog is?
December 3, 2007 11:37 AM
First!
December 3, 2007 11:37 AM
I'm very sorry for your loss, but you have to understand that Megan suffered from clinical depression for which she took medication. Her depression wasn't psychological, it was chemical. That means there is truly no way to know WHY she killed herself. Maybe it was the final myspace comments. Maybe it was her own mother ignoring her. Maybe she skipped her medication recently. Maybe that FDA warning that anti-depressants can have suicidal effects on children and teens should have come out a couple of months earlier. You can't place blame on others when someone commits suicide.
You admit you knew she was depressed. How sad for you.
Lori, you aren't helping. Say sorry to them! Say sorry to your family. Say you are sorry to Ashley.
It is wrong, and she is gone. You didn't delete the account after it got sexual. You didn't do it. You didn't walk away. You kept going.
You are modeling this behavior for your very impressionable daughter. Teach her to own up to her mistakes. Be a good mom, and show her how you can take responsibility for her words and deeds. Be a good mom, and show your daughter the right way to do it.
December 3, 2007 11:38 AM