Impersonators walk away scot-free

Feb 28, 2008 20:06 GMT  ·  By

The case that circled the world and mesmerized the media for the past year and a half has seen its final decision being made today. Impersonators of the woman claimed to have staged the hoax that convinced 13 year old Megan Meier to commit suicide will not be prosecuted.

After the decision to not charge Lori Drew for her actions, a blog was set up by people outside of Missouri (where it all went down), entitled "Megan Had It Coming." The posts were allegedly signed by Lori and shared her would-be motives for getting involved with the MySpace hoax against the teenager.

Because there was no direct contact being initiated between the anonymous bloggers and either of the two families involved in the tragic accident, the authorities decided not to pursue charges in the impersonation case. The difficulty of legally proving that one person or the other was behind the IP address from which the posts were written also played a major role in the decision.

Like the story behind the suicide, this can also be labeled as Internet harassment. While claiming to be a boy named Josh Evans, Lori Drew, her daughter, at one point friend of Megan, and an 18 year old employee are said to have flirted online with the teenager. After charming Meier into believing she was in love, 'Josh' started sending increasingly harsh messages, culminating with one saying that the world would be a better place without her. That lead to the girl hanging herself in October 2006.

Megan's mother, Tina Meier, said that not following through with the charging disappointed her deeply because it highlighted that prosecuting Internet harassment is very difficult. "They can't do anything about it. That to me is extremely disappointing. Do I feel sorry for the Drews, that the people were not prosecuted? No. Under no circumstances do I feel sorry for the Drews." Could she have?