Megan Meier
Storyboard Text
- Sad Life
- New Ray of hope
- No Hope Left
- Megan Taylor Meier was born on November 6, 1992. 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 and was frequently bullied in school
- The Incident
- Soon after opening her own MySpace account, despite her mother's objections, Meier received a friend request from 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.
- The Culprit
- On October 16, 2006, the tone of the messages changed 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." "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".
- The Conclusion
- Megan hung herself with a belt in the bedroom closet. Despite attempts to revive her, Megan was pronounced dead the next day on October 17, three weeks before her 14th birthday.
- Several weeks after her death, Megan Meier's parents were told that the mother of one of their daughter's friends—with whom Meier had had a falling out—had created the "Josh Evans" account. The parent, Lori Drew, who created the fake account, admitted that she and her daughter had the password to the account, and characterized the hoax to a reporter as a "joke". Initially, Drew denied knowing about the offensive messages that were sent to Meier. She told the police that the account was aimed at "gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people". The neighborhood mother who had told the Meiers that Drew had the hoax account said "Lori laughed about it", and said she had intended to "mess with Megan".
- in 2008 over the matter. Her conviction was vacated by a federal judge on a post-trial verdict, on grounds that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act did not intend to criminalize the conduct of which Drew was accused. The government chose not to appeal this post-trial ruling.
Over 30 Million Storyboards Created