The story surrounding the death of teenager Megan Meier reads like a Lifetime movie. The drama, secrets and outrageous behavior are better suited for fiction than reality. In my family, the story of Megan Meier’s suicide hit close to home. It is easy to see that Megan could easily have been one of my daughters.
Our family lives only a few miles from the neighborhood where Megan lived with her parents, Ron and Tina Meier. It is a neighborhood similar, although perhaps more affluent, than ours.
My husband is a business associate of Tina Meier and had seen her just a week or before the story of Megan’s suicide was published in the St. Charles edition of the Suburban Journal in an article by Steve Pokin. Although we knew of Megan’s death and how she was found, we were completely unaware of the harassment Megan was subjected to through Myspace prior to her death.
The school Megan attended at the time of her death closely resembles the school my own daughter attends. I know teachers, students and families at the school.
The scary part of Megan’s story is the fact that it could happen to any of our children. The scariest part is that the person responsible for emotionally tormenting Megan to the point that she took her own life was an adult trusted by her family.
Megan was a thirteen year old. Like many, if not most, thirteen-year-old girls Megan Meier wanted to be accepted, to be part of a group. Megan Meier struggled to fit in at times and was thrilled to find a new online friend when Josh Evans contacted her via Myspace wanting to be a friend. After the friendship developed Josh Evans turned enemy. He sent mean messages that tormented Megan. Tina Meier, Megan’s mother, had been supervising her daughter’s time online but was too late to prevent Megan from being exposed to all of the nastiness on the final day of her life. The comments instigated by Josh Evans drove Megan Meier to kill herself.
The story would be terribly tragic if it ended there. Unfortunately, it did not. Ron and Tina Meier would later discover that Josh Evans never existed. He was a fictional character created by a mom down the street who wanted to make certain that Megan wasn’t saying bad things about her daughter. Even after she found that Megan wasn’t causing any trouble this woman continued the farce, eventually involving other kids as well. Despite their cooperation with the police, Ron and Tina Meier were told that charges could not be brought against the adult who tormented their daughter because she had not broken any specific law.
Within days of Megan Meier’s Myspace story being published it has made national news, including an interview on CNN. The woman responsible for starting this horror story was not named in the original newspaper article but her identity was quickly revealed by internet sleuths. The woman who caused Megan Meier to commit suicide is identified as Lori Drew of Dardene Praire, MO.
According to news reports, Lori Drew does not show remorse for her actions. A reasonable person might believe that she is remorseful but her emotion is simply not displayed. I suspect otherwise.
Megan Meier’s death is most terrifying for me because I’ve seen other moms like this in action. I have had the unfortunate experience of having a daughter whose “friends” had parents like these. One allowed completely unacceptable behavior when pre-teens were at her home. Behavior that broke laws. When she found out that people were discussing her behavior she threatened to sue other families for defamation of character. When a boy broke up with her daughter to go out with another friend she sent nasty, anonymous letters to the girl and her parents filled with lies and threats. Her goal is always that her children be considered the best and the most popular. She does not care who she harms along the way. Another mother helped classmates commit illegal acts. When I confronted her, I was told I was simply so uptight because I didn’t have older children.
I would not be surprised to find out that either of these mothers had committed the same type of purposeful hatred toward a child that Lori Drew did.
This is the true reason Megan Meier’s death scares me. I know, personally, that evil lurks around the corner. It is hidden behind the mask of the people we call friends. People we trust. What has caused these women to believe that they have the right to torment innocent victims? I sincerely hope that Lori Drew is ultimately held responsible for the death of Megan Meier and that it will send a message to other adults that their actions do have consequences.
