"Murder?" Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead

"Prosecutor: No Criminal Charges in MySpace Suicide"

Megan Meier, a 13-year-old, killed herself after "Josh," her online boyfriend, turned on her.

Here's the punch line: Josh isn't real. He never existed.

Lori Drew, whose daughter knew Megan, wanted to find out what Megan was saying about her daughter online. So, naturally, she

• Hired an 18-year-old to help her set up a MySpace account
• Created a non-existent but totally hot "Josh"
• Strung Megan along with this ideal boyfriend
• Then had "Josh" demean Megan's character and dump her

Ms. Drew's defense lawyer says that she didn't mean any harm at all, and was just trying to find out if Megan was mean.

Terrific.

After Ms. Drew and her employee drove Megan to suicide, the suburb of St. Louis where the hit happened, Dardenne Prairie, adopted a law making Internet harassment a crime. I suppose that, after a few more people are killed, the state of Missouri may follow suit.

I've harangued on this murder already, in "Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace (November 13, 2007), so I'll stop now.

Posts, including this one, about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)