Suicide of Megan Meier

Megan Taylor Meier (November 6, 1992 – October 17, 2006) was an American teenager who died by suicide by hanging herself three weeks before her 14th birthday.

A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her suicide was attributed to cyberbullying through the social networking website MySpace.

Megan Taylor Meier was born on November 6, 1992, to Christina "Tina" Meier and Ronald Meier in O'Fallon, Missouri.

From the third grade in 2001–02, after she had told her mother she had wanted to kill herself, Megan had been under the care of a psychiatrist.

She had been prescribed citalopram (an antidepressant that has a possible side effect of increasing suicide risk in young people ), methylphenidate, and the atypical antipsychotic ziprasidone.

She had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, depression, and self-esteem issues regarding her weight.

She was described by her parents as a "bubbly, goofy" girl who enjoyed spending time with her friends and family.

Meier attended Fort Zumwalt public schools, including Pheasant Point Elementary School and Fort Zumwalt West Middle School in nearby O'Fallon, Missouri.

Megan befriended the popular girls so that the boys who picked on her would stop.

The girls soon turned on Megan and the bullying became even worse than before.

For eighth grade in 2006, her parents enrolled her at Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Dardenne Prairie.

Soon after opening her own MySpace account, despite her mother's objections, Meier received a friend request from a fellow user claiming to be a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.

Meier and "Josh" became online friends, but never met in person or spoke.

Meier thought "Josh" was attractive.

As Meier began to exchange messages with this person, her family said she seemed to have had her "spirits lifted".

This person claimed to have moved to the nearby city of O'Fallon, was homeschooled and did not yet have a phone number.

A 16-year-old male named "Josh Evans" was registered on the account that was later attributed to bullying Meier.

But Lori Drew, the mother of Sarah Drew, a former friend of Meier, later admitted to creating the MySpace account.

At the time of the suicide, the Drew and Meier families were neighbors, living four doors apart.

Lori Drew was aided by Sarah and by Ashley Grills, an 18-year-old employee of Lori.

Lori and several others ran the hoaxed account.

Witnesses testified that the women intended to use Meier's messages sent to "Josh" to get information about her and later humiliate her, in retribution for her allegedly spreading gossip about Drew's daughter.

On October 16, 2006, the tone of the messages changed.

After Megan got home from school, Tina Meier signed into MySpace for Megan.

She was in a hurry because she had to take her younger daughter, Allison, to the orthodontist.

Before she could get to the door, Megan was upset.

"Josh" sent troubling messages to Megan, including one that said: "I don't want to be friends with you anymore. You're not a nice person."

More messages of this type were sent, some of Megan's messages were shared with others, and bulletins were posted about her.

Tina told her daughter to sign off, and went to the orthodontist.

She called her daughter to ask her if she had signed off, and she hadn't. Megan was sobbing hysterically.

When her mother got home, she was furious that Megan hadn't signed off.

She was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back.

Megan then told her mother, "You're supposed to be my mom! You're supposed to be on my side!"

and then left from the computer and went upstairs.

According to her father Ron Meier and a neighbor who had discussed the hoax with Drew, the last message sent by "Josh" read: "Everybody in O'Fallon knows who you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you".

Megan responded saying, "You're the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over."

The last few exchanges were made via AOL Instant Messenger instead of MySpace.

When she ran upstairs, she ran into her father.

Lori Drew, the mother of a classmate of Meier, was found guilty of cyberbullying in the 2009 case United States v. Drew.

However, her conviction was overturned by the judge.