Parents concoct ‘joke’ that leads to shame, anguish, death for teen:
Leonard Pitts Jr. is one of the few newspaper columnists I respect. Hell, he might be the only one. In his latest column, he gives his take on the death of Megan Meier and his wishes for the Drews. In my opinion, it’s the best take so far on the situation.
MySpace hoax victim’s kin seek justice:
This is an article about the interview Megan Meier’s parents gave on the Today Show yesterday. Where they say that the ‘adults’ who caused their daughter to kill herself have offered no apology. In fact, they’ve done quite the reverse.
“They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”
Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.
“She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”
The Meiers have not named the people because they do not want to identify their teenage daughter, who had once been a friend of Megan’s.
Wow, how in the hell do you become that callous in your life to not apologize but to complain when you caused a girl to kill herself.
And speaking of not naming them, I’ve decided to lift that restriction since the St. Louis Journal has. And it seems that Curt and Lori Drew are receiving just a modicum of karma for what they did to Megan Meier…
One night last week, well after most of the families in this quiet community went to bed, a half-dozen police cars sped down Waterford Crystal Drive, lights flashing.
A man, they were told, had been fatally shot inside a home.
Neighbors opened doors, peered out windows and watched. As many as 15 deputies, they said, drew weapons and charged the home of Lori and Curt Drew.
But there was no body lying in a pool of blood. No weapon in Curt Drew’s hand.
The call was a prank, one of many at the Drews’ home this year. A lawn job. A brick through a window. Threatening phone calls. Paintball attacks.
The neighborhood is angry.
But now it’s not just the neighborhood, most of the country is angry.
Thanks to Dan Fan for the last link.
Man guilty of sex with teen met on MySpace loses bid for lenience in Lake County court:
Back in July, I posted about Andre Johnson. He’s a 30-year-old man from Ohio that was on parole for the rape of a 14-year-old girl when he raped another 14-year-old girl. Johnson had met his most recent victim through the girl’s sister but maintained a relationship with her on MySpace.
Now he’s been sentenced. He has to serve out the remainder of his original sentence, and a judge tacked 8 years on to that for his most recent crime.
During Thursday’s hearing, Johnson asked the judge to give him a break. Judge Lucci told Johnson he had already been given that chance when he was paroled on the first crime.
I love how multiple offenders think they deserve a break.
Anyway, Johnson will also be a lifelong registered sex offender.
Blog Readers Out Anonymous Adults that Newspaper Refused to Identify:
According to this article from Wired, readers of some blogs, not this one, that read the story about Megan Meier have published the names of those responsible for her suicide.
The St. Charles Journal wrote in the story that it decided not to name the woman and the other adult involved in the incident out of concern for the woman’s own teenage daughter. The two adults haven’t been charged with any crime.
But readers of various blogs that posted the story were furious with the paper’s decision. By matching certain details in the article with property records, they found the name and address of a woman who they believe created the Josh Evans persona, and published her details online.
Was the paper right to protect the woman’s identity? Were the bloggers right to publish a name and address that may or may not be correct?
Even though I think the people involved with Megan’s death are scumbags and I hope eventually they are prosecuted and sent away for a long time, this is nothing more than a blatant case of vigilantism. I also want to add that I will not post their names here.
Let the law do its job, people. By publishing their names, you’re jeopardizing the chances of justice being served.
Prosecutor To Review MySpace Suicide:
The St. Charles, Missouri County Prosecutor, Jack Banas, is saying that there may be criminal charges for the MySpace suicide death of Megan Meier, but he also says it’s unlikely.
The county prosecutor says he never saw the complete case file. He doesn’t want to give anyone false hope, but he says it’s not yet case closed.
“Me personally, I’ve never seen anything on this case,” says St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas. He says from what he’s heard he knows hearts are broken, but he doesn’t believe laws were.
Banas never saw the report but wants to see all the evidence now, but based on what he’s heard he believes what happened was cruel, but not criminal.
I’m not holding my breath over this one, but I pray to God that Prosecutor Banas can find something to charge the people responsible for Megan Meier’s death.
MySpace teen on Dr. Phil show:
It seems that our favorite word traveling runaway MySpace teen is back in the news.
Katherine Lester will be on Dr. Phil today and tomorrow to discuss her trials and tribulations. I thought this might set a bad example to teens willing to run away for some MySpace guy, but Dr. Phil seems to have his act together this time…
The second segment also will include an interview with Betty Mahmoody, an American citizen who moved to Iran with her husband and fled the country after he and his family became violently controlling. Mahmoody’s story became the 1991 Sally Field film “Not Without My Daughter.”
I, of course, will not be watching because personally, Dr. Phil disgusts me.
However, the article seems to reveal that Lester is back in The States.
The series will have a third part that will air in a couple of weeks centering around Lester’s decision to come back to Michigan, said Wade Simpson, a segment producer with the program.
“We fully anticipated her getting back on the plane at the end of the second episode,” he said. “And then she said no, so we kept tracking it to see what would happen.”
Lester returned to Michigan about a week and a half ago, Simpson said.
The soap opera continues.
Belch has more on this here.
‘My Space’ hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen:
This one is so heart-wrenching as a parent that I’m at a loss for words.
Megan Meier was a 13-year-old girl who had some problems, but things were turning around for her. That was until she got a friend request from someone claiming to be, in Megan’s words, a hot 16-year-old boy by the name of Josh.
The two remained friends on MySpace for a while, then all of a sudden, Josh started sending disparaging messages to Megan. Comments like “I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends.”
Then MySpace bulletins started circulating about her that said things like, “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.”
It bothered her so much that Megan Meier took her own life.
That’s not even the worst part.
Worst Part #1: Josh never existed and this was all done by adults.
Worst Part #2: No criminal charges are being filed.
As usual, I’m not paying justice to the story. Please go and read the entire article.
And to the people who did this to Megan Meier, I’ll just leave you with that I hope you rot in hell.
Thanks to Belch for the link.
Now I’m going to go listen to the song Danny Boy to cheer myself up.
According to the article, not only were Dillon Cossey and Pekka-Eric Auvinen YouTube buddies, but it seems they belonged to the same pro-Columbine groups on MySpace.
Police do not believe this to have been a coincidence. The two youths are thought to have made contact over two MySpace groups, “RIP Eric and Dylan” — a reference to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 12 schoolmates at Columbine — and “Natural Selection”.
And people wonder why I think that sites like MySpace and YouTube need to shut down what basically amounts to hate groups.
But like I’ve said before, MySpace and YouTube wouldn’t have to if parents just paid better attention to their kids.
Speaking of parents…
Auvinen’s parents are regarded as somewhat bohemian in the small dormitory township of Jokela. His father plays part-time in a jazz band and composes his own music; Auvinen’s mother is an activist for the Greens. They are regarded as stalwart members of the community and neighbours describe them as a “normal family”.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.
Eatery co-owner held in sex attack:
50-year-old Lyle Mitsugi Nonaka was arrested last week on sexual assault charges. He’s accused of posing as a girl named Shayna on MySpace and getting a 14-year-old boy to send him nude pictures of himself. Once Nonaka received the pictures, he threatened the boy with sending the pictures to the boy’s friends.
“Shayna” told the victim that an older Asian male would pick him up and drive him to a friend’s house that had a Web camera. A man introducing himself as “Lyle” picked up the boy and drove him to a home near Pearlridge, police said. The suspect, later identified as Nonaka, allegedly performed oral sex on the boy while being filmed with the Web camera.
A second incident allegedly occurred on Oct. 23 after Nonaka allegedly threatened to post video footage of the first sexual assault if he didn’t meet the suspect to go shopping.
That day, Nonaka picked up the boy and drove him back to a Pearlridge home and allegedly molested and performed oral sex on the boy. Nonaka then brought the boy to the Pearlridge Shopping Center and bought about $352 worth of clothing.
The next day, the boy’s mother reported the assault to the police. Police arrested the suspect at 11 a.m. Thursday at his home.
Even paradise has monsters.
Seven convicted over Werribee sex DVD assault:
Seven teens were convicted over the infamous Werribee, Australia rape DVD because let’s face it, it was nothing short of rape.
The group took her to nearby river parkland where they began filming their activity, surrounding her in a circle and chanting “The Victim” – the title of the segment in which she featured on the DVD.
The youths cheered and chanted as she was urinated on, set alight, poked with sticks and made to perform sex acts.
Her clothes are taken and thrown in muddy water with two boys using her mascara to scrawl the title of the movie across her chest.
You’d think they’d receive jail time, but that’s what we get for thinkin’.
Of the eight who pleaded guilty six were placed on strict youth supervision orders for up to 18 months and two on year-long probation.
All will be required to attend a counseling program for young sex offenders.
I don’t know what it’s like in Australia, but here in The States, we all know how well counseling works. It rarely does. I’m sure these kids will be back in trouble with the law before we know it.
Thanks to Alan for the link.