WEBVTT
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Forensic genealogy the process of identifying unknown offenders through their
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DNA by finding genetic relatives and building out family trees.
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It's taken the crime solving world by storm. How does
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it work and what are these cases all about? Find
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out on dna ID, the only podcast that exclusively covers
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forensic genealogy. This season, you'll hear more than twenty solved cases,
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and of course we'll continue with our coverage of dough identifications.
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Don't miss dna ID wherever you get your podcasts.
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You're listening to Killer Communications, brought to you by Abject Entertainment.
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Be sure to check out some of the other great
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true crime podcasts from this network, including The Murder in
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My Family, Missing Persons, dna ID, Citizen Detective, Campus Killings,
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Scene of the Crime, Zodiac Speaking, and Beyond Bizarre True Crime.
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All of these podcasts are available for you to binge
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on right now wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe where
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you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode.
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In two thousand and three, a new digital platform set
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the stage for one of the most life altering changes
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of the twenty first century. Social media. Before TikTok YouTube
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or Mark Zuckerberg's meta company. MySpace was the first platform
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to allow teenagers from all over the world to access
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one another, but only three years into its inception, my
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Space became the hotbed of a new and terrible trend, cyberbullying.
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One of these cases of cyberbullying would lead to the
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tragic death of thirteen year old Megandmire. Chapter one the Communication. Seventeen,
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two thousand and six, thirteen year old Megan Meyer of O'fallen, Missouri,
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received the following message in her MySpace public chatbox. Everybody
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in O'fallen knows who you are. You are a bad person,
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and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life.
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The world would be a better place without you. It
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was the final straw of a two and a half
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hour online onslaught where Meghan was called everything from an
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awful friend to a slut by a boy she thought
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would soon be her boyfriend. Megan ran from the computer
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screen and flew past both of her parents on the
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way to her room. She slammed the door, took a
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cloth bout from her dresser drawer, tied it around her neck,
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and hung herself off the edge of the closet organizer.
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By the time her mother, Tina came to check on
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her twenty minutes later, Megan was dead. How could an
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online message board cause a teenage girl to not only contemplate,
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but actually choose to take her own life? And who
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was to blame Megan's parents for allowing her to use
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this new social media platform or the boy behind the
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keyboard who had typed those messages. The problem was there
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was no boy behind the keyboard. Megan's boyfriend to be
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didn't exist, So who had Megan been talking to To
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know that? We have to go back to Megan's early
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childhood Chapter two, The Friendship. From a young age, Megan
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Meyer struggled to fit in with her peers, and her
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mother mostly attributed this to Megan's size. In elementary school,
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Megan was a naturally larger person, which, in the way
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thin ideals of the late nineties, left even a young
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child open to a barrage of personal harassment about her weight.
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Megan worried about not looking like other girls as early
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as kindergarten. Today, Megan may have been diagnosed with body
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this morning, but no such diagnosis existed for children in
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the nineties. As she grew. Her insecurities about the way
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she looked were exacerbated by a quick temper and volatile tendencies.
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According to her mother, Megan could go from happy to
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a tantrum at the flick of a switch. In as
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early as third grade, Megan confided in her mother that
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she wanted to take her own life. The Myers were
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quick to bring a Megan to a therapist, where she
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was treated for depression and mood stabilization, as well as
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a diagnosis and medication for ADHD. But though these therapies
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helped Megan feel less depressed, they only intensified her outcast
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label among her young peers. Megan, though fearless around the
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neighborhood and a lover of games, movies, and fishing, found
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herself mostly alone. That was until two thousand and four,
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when a new family moved in down the street with
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a little girl a few years younger than Megan. Unlike
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many other families who lived in the Myers Cha, the
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Drus had not grown up locally and were not just
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new to the neighborhood but new to the O'Fallon area.
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Many neighbors found the Drew family obnoxious and tolerated them
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or invited them to parties out of a sense of
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polite obligation, but it wasn't to welcome them to the community.
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Their little daughter, Sarah, also found it difficult to make
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friends in this place, but she found a friend in
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Megan Meyer, who lived only four doors down. For a year,
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Megan and Sarah hung out doing all the things that
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tween girls do, including opening a clandestine account on a
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new Internet platform, MySpace. Chapter three. What is MySpace? The
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MySpace platform went live on the Internet in two thousand
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and four, and by the time Megan and Sara were
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making their pages without their parents' knowledge, there were over
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two hundred thousand people creating a new account daily. Unlike
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early Facebook, which required users to have an affla university
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email address to create a profile, as well as provide
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a first and last name, MySpace is only credential for
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making an account was a personal email address, and while
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my Space did have an age restriction of fourteen and up,
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the platform had no actual programs for enforcing the restriction.
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All Megan and Sarah had to do was lie about
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their age in a setup prompt, and in twenty minutes,
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the girls had created a profile featuring a flashing image
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of the Playboy Bunny icon and their photos. The girls
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used it to chat with strangers, and at one point
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they even called a boy in New York that they
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had met on the site. The girl's enjoyment of my
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Space was short lived, as Megan's mother, Tina, found out
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about the page and forced Megan to shut it down,
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but the damage was done. Megan had realized she could
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contact people outside of her own area who only saw
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the carefully selected images she chose to post. She didn't
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need to have friends at school when she could have
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friends on the internet, But her parents were adamant that
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she was too young for MySpace. Her only option was
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to hang out with her friend Sarah. Chapter four, A
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souring friendship. Whether it was due to the fact that
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Sarah was a little younger than Megan or if their
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personalities just didn't match, the girl's friendship was a rocky one.
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According to Tina, the girls would hang out all day
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Friday and Saturday with no issues, but by Sunday, Megan
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would be bored with Sarah and no longer want to
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hang out with her. Tina speculated that Megan only hung
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out with Sarah because she had nothing better to do.
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Sarah took this rejection hard, and it would only get
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worse when Megan's parents decided to send her to a
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private school for her eighth grade year. Megan thrived at
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her new school, which required uniforms, so Megan's worries about
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her weight and appearance became less important. She began to
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make friends at school and no longer had a need
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to hang out with Sarah drew. In fact, Megan became
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a bit hostile towards Sarah and reportedly had called her
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lesbian in the middle of one of their fights, which
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upset Sarah and Sarah's parents, but Megan didn't care. Her
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new friends were all on MySpace, and Megan wanted to
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get back on that platform so she could talk to
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them outside of school. Chapter five, a new MySpace profile.
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Megan begged her parents to let her have a new
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MySpace account as her fourteenth birthday present. Since she was
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only a few weeks away from Myspace's age eligibility, they
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allowed Megan to make a new account that both her
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parents had access to as well. On September thirteenth, two
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thousand and six, Megan re emerged on MySpace, calling herself
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Megan Baby and listing her town as what she referred
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to as ghetto Saint Louis, Missouri. One of her first
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posts was about how hot the boys at her new
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school were, and only two weeks after rejoining Megan got
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friended by a boy named Josh Evans. His profile stated
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that he was sixteen years old, He preferred coke to PEPSI,
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hated sushi, had a trillion CDs, and loved pizza. His
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picture showed a blue eyed, wavy haired young man, and
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since he was only a few years older than Megan,
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Tina allowed her daughter to write to him. Over the
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course of October, Megan and Josh messaged each other four
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hours each day, caring on conversations about their favorite music groups,
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time at school, and about how Josh's goal for two
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thousand and six was to meet a great girl who
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just happened to have long brown hair like Megan's. And
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the thing that made Megan swoon the most was when
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he answered her a question about liking skinny girls, and
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his reply was that weight didn't matter to him. Megan
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Myra was excited she was about to get a boyfriend.
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The problem was, Josh Evans was not a real person
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Chapter six who created Josh Evans. The blue eyed young
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man's photo and the profile picture had been lifted from
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the Internet. His interest, preferences, and desires had all been
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carefully tell her to be exactly the kind of boy
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Megan would fall for. But just who wouldn't know enough
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about Meghan to create a boy specifically to her specifications.
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Only the neighbors she'd spent the last year hanging out
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with the Drews. While the idea of trapping Megan was
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initiated by Sarah an eighteen year old Ashley Grillis, who
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was an employee for the direct mail business the drus
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ran out of their home they count itself with The
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photo and information were created by Sarah's mother, Lori Drew,
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who was angry at Megan for the comments she'd made
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to Sarah after their friendship ended. Allegedly, the purpose of
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creating Josh Evans was to say Meghan was saying nasty
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things about Sarah online, but the account escalated as once
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the conversations began and Megan got hooked. Not only were
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Sarah and Ashley writing to Megan as Josh, but when
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neighborhood kids came to hang out, at Sarah's house. They
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were encouraged to join in the game, and they too
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messaged Megan as Josh. But the worst part was it
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wasn't just kids baiting Megan Meyer. Sarah's mother, Laurie Drew,
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was often at the helm of the Josh Evans messages
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Chapter seven, The Deadly Message. As this fake relationship grew,
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Megan wanted to talk to Josh on the phone, which
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caused Lourie, Sarah, and Ashley to have to come up
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with some quick lies. They made the excuse that Josh's
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family didn't have a phone so he couldn't call her,
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which Tina Meyer found to be exceptionally strong, as well
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as a few other comments. Tina had noticed Josh posting
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when she'd checked Megan's account, so one day, while Megan
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was out of the room, Tina decided to message Josh herself.
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His replies made her question whether or not this was
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really a teenage boy on the other end, and Megan
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later told Josh that her mother had called the police
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to see if he was a real person or not.
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Perhaps this is what scared the conspirators into wanting a
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way out of the live they'd contrived. We don't know
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for sure what exactly prompted what was to come, but
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we do know that on the evening of October fifteen,
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two thousand and six, one of the neighborhood girls who'd
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been in on the Josh Evans game messaged Megan as
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Josh and said, I hear you're not nice to your friends,
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and I don't think I want to talk to you anymore.
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Megan's anxiety skyrocketed at this out of the blue accusation,
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and she fired off a series of chats demanding to
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know what he was talking about and what he'd heard
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other people say that that would make him think that,
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but he stopped responding. The next day, as soon as
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Megan got home from school, she logged into my Space
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to see if Josh was on, but she was shocked
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to find that Josh had posted their private chats publicly
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on MySpace, allowing all of Meghan's contexts to see everything
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she told Josh about her friends, her mental state, and
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even where she hoped the romantic relationship would go. Comments
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from Meghan's online friends immediately poured in, mocking Meghan's weight,
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picking at her insecurities, and calling her slut. For the
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next two hours, insults were slung between Megan, Josh, and
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several of Megan's other MySpace friends. By the time Tina
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came home, Megan was on the verge of a panic
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attack as she sat glued to the incoming messages. Tina
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told Megan to get off the computer, but Megan remained
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and that final comment from Josh clicked onto the screen
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in front of her. Cruelly, it read the world would
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be a better place without you. Tina demanded to know
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why Megan was even answering any of the vitriol, but
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Megan's distress was high, and her mother's insinuation that Megan
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was part of the problem sent her running to the
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room where she would take her own life. Chapter eight
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a shocking suicide. When Tina found Megan hanging in her closet,
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she immediately got her down and performed CPR while Tina's
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father called nine one one, but EMTs were not able
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to revive her. The Myers were devastated, and as the
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word quickly spread through the smallha the neighborhood was in
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a state of shock that Megan had taken her own
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life only two weeks before her fourteenth birthday party. But
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what of the Drews. According to later testimony, Sarah Drew
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was hysterical when she found out Megan is dead. The
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intention had never been for Megan to die, but this
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didn't make Sarah come forward about the Josh Evans game.
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In fact, upon learning of Megan's death, Sarah's father, Kurt
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deleted the Josh Evans account, to which her mother Laurie
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replied that even deleted, it would still be trackable, and
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Laurie wasn't wrong, though it would take some time before
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the Myers realized the truth of the situation Chapter nine,
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Neighbors at War. In the week following Meghan's funeral, the
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Meyers contacted police to see if Josh Evans could be
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found and prosecuted in some way for his part in
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Megan's suicide.
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Oh Fallon Police Department, is this an emergency?
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But the MySpace profile had already been deleted by Kurt
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and police had come to the same conclusion. Tina had
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suspected for a while that there was no real Josh
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Evans to arrest or prosecute. However, the Meyers got an
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interesting phone call from one of their neighbors on November
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twenty fifth about a month after the funeral, the girl
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who had sent the original your Mean to your Friend's
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post on October fifteenth, had finally come clean to her
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parents about the Josh Evans game and her role in it.
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The girl's mother immediately contacted the Myers, saying her daughter
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had admitted that on the day ambulances had raced down
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their street to save Megan, Lourie Drew had called her
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daughter and said something happened to Megan. Keep your mouth shut.
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From there, the truth unraveled about who created Josh, who
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had passwords to the accounts, and more importantly, that Laurie Drew,
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an adult and a parent, had not only known about
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the game, but encouraged the behavior and even participated. Understandably,
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the Myers were shocked, horrified, and angry at the truth.
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They had been good friends with the Drews. Tina had
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sold them their house and invited them to dinner. In fact,
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they were so close that the Myers had been helpfully
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storing a fostball table for the drew in their garage
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as it was going to be a Christmas present for Sarah.
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Upon finding out that Drew's fake MySpace game had led
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to their daughter's suicide. The Myers took sledgehammers to the
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football game and destroyed it. They then gathered the pieces
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into a cardboard box they spray painted with the words
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Merry Christmas, and left the box unceremoniously in the Drew's driveway.
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This act, though understandable based on the circumstances citing a
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neighborly dispute, but during this call, Lurie would expose herself
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as not only being aware that her daughter had created
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the Josh Evans game, but that she, a parent, had
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been actively involved with the MySpace account. Chapter ten trial
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failures and a lack of policies with a real person
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to pin the blame of megan suicide to the Meers
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wonted justice. Laurie and Sarah Drew had created a fake
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MySpace his boyfriend specifically towered to make its desires, only
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to pull the rug out from under her and expose
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00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:08.359
her deepest feelings to the entire Internet when they got
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tired of playing the game. The problem was it was
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two thousand and six, MySpace and any social media were
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brand new, and there were no policies on the books
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in Missouri about online bullying. The Meyers appealed to the
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00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:24.599
federal courts, hoping that there was a national law that
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00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:27.160
could be used to indict the Drews, and because my
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Space's office was located out of California, the Feds agreed
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to take the case. They were able to prosecute Lourie
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Drew under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, citing
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that Lurie had violated my Space's terms and conditions by
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00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:45.240
creating a profile that wasn't her own. However, using this
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00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:47.880
Act was a complicated procedure, as it was the first
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00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:52.079
time this Act was being prosecuted in this manner. Lourie
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Drew's tribe began in November two thousand and eight. Her
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daughter Sarah and her employee, Ashley Grillis, both testified statements
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00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:03.720
for contradictory as Sarah claimed her mother never wrote anything
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to Megan, but Ashley stated that Laurie not only encouraged
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00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:09.519
the writing that she and Sarah were doing, but that
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Lourie had partaken in more than half of the type
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conversations between the fictional Josh and Megan. With no direct
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00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:19.920
evidence to prove who had been Josh at any given time,
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00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:23.720
the jury ultimately found Laurie guilty of three misdemeanor counts
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of fraud. While this did have a three year prison sentence,
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00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:30.720
her council thoughed for a motion of acquittal, and to
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the surprise and dismay of the Myers, the judge granted
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00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:41.039
Lourie Drew's acquittal in July two thousand and nine, Chapter
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eleven Community Justice. While Laurie Drew may have escaped prison
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and had her record expunged, the neighborhood that already only
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tolerated the Drew family had turned hostile even before the
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trial proceedings. The Myers had done a private interview with
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00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:01.839
the local newswriters Z Pokin, who wrote a column for
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00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:05.680
the Suburban Journal. In November two thousand and seven. He
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00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:09.480
released the Meyers interview in his column Poking Around, and
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00:20:09.519 --> 00:20:14.160
the Drews became infamous almost immediately. Sarah was shunned at
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00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:17.440
school and her parents quickly removed her from going. The
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00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:20.799
side of their house was splattered with paintballs, and someone
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00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:23.400
threw a brick through their kitchen window at one point,
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00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:27.839
and in a case of cosmic irony, the place where
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00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:32.160
the Drews found the most hostile attitudes was online. Message
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board commenters publicly posted the Drew's home address, as well
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00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:39.400
as Kurt Drew's business address, under the title child Killers.
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A telephone and email campaign was set up to destroy
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00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:47.559
their home business. Laurie's personal voicemail was hacked, and someone
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posted a YouTube video of Laurie's face cut with the
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00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:54.640
clown from Stephen King's it. Tina Meyer also took a
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00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:58.400
personal approach to vengeance, following Laurie Drew around town and
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00:20:58.519 --> 00:21:01.839
encouraging shop owners who had interacted with Louri to check
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00:21:01.880 --> 00:21:06.160
out the Poke and Round article about Meghan's death. Eventually,
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00:21:06.519 --> 00:21:09.720
despite her acquittal, Lourie Drew and her family were forced
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to relocate Chapter twelve. The aftermath. While the Myers didn't
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00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:21.400
find justice in the courts, Meghan's death did usher in
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a new era of political and judicial awareness of cyberbullying.
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Following the outcome of the dru trial, the Meyers worked
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00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:32.759
with Missouri legislatures to pass the Megan Meyer Cyberbullying Prevention
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00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:36.240
Act of two thousand and eight. The Myers also created
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00:21:36.240 --> 00:21:39.960
the Megan Meyer Foundation, which provides presentations to schools on
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the dangers of cyberbullying. Initiatives to end child's suicide and
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00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:48.119
provide counseling programs to those in need. On a more
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00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:52.240
national scale, since the early two thousands, forty eight states
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have adopted legislation on cyberbullying to punish offenders. While much
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00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:01.440
has been done to combat cyberbully as of twenty twenty one,
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fifty nine percent of US teens pulled by the Pure
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00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:07.640
Research Center stated they had been the victim of online
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bullying or harassment, with name calling and rumor spreading being
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the highest offenses. In a study done by the National
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00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:17.480
Institute of Health in twenty twenty two, it was found
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that adolescents who had been cyberbullied were four times more
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00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:25.000
likely to have suicidal ideations than those who hadn't experienced cyberbullying.
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Lead researcher Ray Barzelay suggested that at a time when
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young adolescents are spending more time online than ever before,
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this study underscores the negative impact that bullying in the
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virtual space can have on its targets. It may be
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prudent for primary care providers to screen for cyberbullying routinely,
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in the same way that they might screen for other
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suicide risk factors like depression. Parents and educators should also
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be aware of this risk factor Chapter thirteen, Where Things
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Stand Today. Just recently, in January twenty twenty four, the
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CEOs of all major social media companies, including Meta, Snap, TikTok,
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and Acts formerly Twitter, were brought before the US Senate
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Judiciary Committee. The bipartisan hearing grilled the CEOs for several
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hours on their lack of company policies to protect children
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in online spaces, even from within Meta's own company. Facebook's
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president of global affairs wrote a letter to owner Mark
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Zuckerberg expressing that more people needed to be hired to
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work on the cyber bullying issues, as he was facing
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increased pressure from politicians not just in the US, but
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from the UK, Australia, and the European Union. The hearing
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was in part to gain more agreement from both Democrat
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and Republican representatives to pass the Kids Online Safety Act
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that had been proposed back in twenty twenty two, and
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while it's got unclearer if and when any policy will
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be created to curb children's access to social media, what
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00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:03.839
is clear is that Megan Meyer's MySpace induced death in
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two thousand and six was only the beginning of what
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has become a Global Problem Chapter fourteen Audience Participation. If
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00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:18.599
our listeners would like more information on anything discussed in
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00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:21.960
today's episode, we encourage you to check out a few places,
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00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:27.960
the Meganmeyer Foundation at Meganmeyer Foundation dot org, design It
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00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.039
for Us, a coalition of young people fighting big tech
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00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:35.359
at design itfor Us dot org. And if anyone listening
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00:24:35.480 --> 00:24:38.720
or someone they love needs help with suicide prevention, we
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00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:41.759
encourage you to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline twenty four
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00:24:41.799 --> 00:24:46.920
to seven at nine to eight eight. Is there a
390
00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:50.000
case or an unexplained communication you'd like us to cover,
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00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:52.680
Please take the time to rate and review the show,
392
00:24:53.079 --> 00:24:55.319
and in your comments tell us what case you'd like
393
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us to tackle. You can also follow us and reach
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00:24:58.279 --> 00:25:03.240
us on social media on x dot com at killercpod
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00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:09.240
and on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Killer Communications Podcast,
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00:25:09.720 --> 00:25:12.960
and be sure to check out our website, Killercommunications Podcast
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dot com Killer Communications Listeners. If you want to support
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Will also include a link in the show notes. Your
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support is greatly appreciated. Just a heads up. New episodes
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of Killer Communications air every other Saturday. Thanks for listening,
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and we hope you'll join us on the next episode
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of Killer Communications.
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Killer Communications is narrated and produced by Mike Morphord for
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ABJACT Entertainment. It's researched and written by Abigail Belcastro. Be
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sure to visit the show's website, Killercommunications podcast dot com
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for past episodes, social media links, show news, and more.
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Forensic genealogy the process of identifying unknown offenders through their
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It's taken the crime solving world by storm. How does
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forensic genealogy. This season, you'll hear more than twenty solved cases,
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In two thousand and three, a new digital platform set
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00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:28.079
the stage for one of the most life altering changes
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00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:33.040
of the twenty first century. Social media. Before TikTok YouTube
20
00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:37.200
or Mark Zuckerberg's meta company. MySpace was the first platform
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00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:39.680
to allow teenagers from all over the world to access
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00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:43.680
one another, but only three years into its inception, my
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00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:48.120
Space became the hotbed of a new and terrible trend, cyberbullying.
24
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One of these cases of cyberbullying would lead to the
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tragic death of thirteen year old Megandmire. Chapter one the Communication. Seventeen,
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00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:04.760
two thousand and six, thirteen year old Megan Meyer of O'fallen, Missouri,
27
00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:10.639
received the following message in her MySpace public chatbox. Everybody
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00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:14.159
in O'fallen knows who you are. You are a bad person,
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00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.680
and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life.
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00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:21.919
The world would be a better place without you. It
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00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:23.960
was the final straw of a two and a half
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00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.520
hour online onslaught where Meghan was called everything from an
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00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:30.039
awful friend to a slut by a boy she thought
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00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:34.000
would soon be her boyfriend. Megan ran from the computer
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screen and flew past both of her parents on the
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00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:40.039
way to her room. She slammed the door, took a
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00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:42.960
cloth bout from her dresser drawer, tied it around her neck,
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00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:45.840
and hung herself off the edge of the closet organizer.
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By the time her mother, Tina came to check on
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00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:54.479
her twenty minutes later, Megan was dead. How could an
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00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:58.000
online message board cause a teenage girl to not only contemplate,
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but actually choose to take her own life? And who
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was to blame Megan's parents for allowing her to use
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this new social media platform or the boy behind the
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keyboard who had typed those messages. The problem was there
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was no boy behind the keyboard. Megan's boyfriend to be
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didn't exist, So who had Megan been talking to To
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know that? We have to go back to Megan's early
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childhood Chapter two, The Friendship. From a young age, Megan
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Meyer struggled to fit in with her peers, and her
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mother mostly attributed this to Megan's size. In elementary school,
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00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:43.919
Megan was a naturally larger person, which, in the way
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thin ideals of the late nineties, left even a young
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child open to a barrage of personal harassment about her weight.
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Megan worried about not looking like other girls as early
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as kindergarten. Today, Megan may have been diagnosed with body
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this morning, but no such diagnosis existed for children in
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the nineties. As she grew. Her insecurities about the way
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she looked were exacerbated by a quick temper and volatile tendencies.
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According to her mother, Megan could go from happy to
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a tantrum at the flick of a switch. In as
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early as third grade, Megan confided in her mother that
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she wanted to take her own life. The Myers were
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quick to bring a Megan to a therapist, where she
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was treated for depression and mood stabilization, as well as
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a diagnosis and medication for ADHD. But though these therapies
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helped Megan feel less depressed, they only intensified her outcast
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label among her young peers. Megan, though fearless around the
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neighborhood and a lover of games, movies, and fishing, found
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herself mostly alone. That was until two thousand and four,
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when a new family moved in down the street with
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a little girl a few years younger than Megan. Unlike
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many other families who lived in the Myers Cha, the
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Drus had not grown up locally and were not just
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new to the neighborhood but new to the O'Fallon area.
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Many neighbors found the Drew family obnoxious and tolerated them
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or invited them to parties out of a sense of
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polite obligation, but it wasn't to welcome them to the community.
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Their little daughter, Sarah, also found it difficult to make
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friends in this place, but she found a friend in
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Megan Meyer, who lived only four doors down. For a year,
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Megan and Sarah hung out doing all the things that
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tween girls do, including opening a clandestine account on a
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new Internet platform, MySpace. Chapter three. What is MySpace? The
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MySpace platform went live on the Internet in two thousand
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and four, and by the time Megan and Sara were
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making their pages without their parents' knowledge, there were over
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two hundred thousand people creating a new account daily. Unlike
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early Facebook, which required users to have an affla university
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email address to create a profile, as well as provide
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a first and last name, MySpace is only credential for
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making an account was a personal email address, and while
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my Space did have an age restriction of fourteen and up,
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the platform had no actual programs for enforcing the restriction.
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All Megan and Sarah had to do was lie about
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their age in a setup prompt, and in twenty minutes,
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the girls had created a profile featuring a flashing image
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of the Playboy Bunny icon and their photos. The girls
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used it to chat with strangers, and at one point
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they even called a boy in New York that they
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had met on the site. The girl's enjoyment of my
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Space was short lived, as Megan's mother, Tina, found out
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about the page and forced Megan to shut it down,
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but the damage was done. Megan had realized she could
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contact people outside of her own area who only saw
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the carefully selected images she chose to post. She didn't
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need to have friends at school when she could have
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friends on the internet, But her parents were adamant that
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she was too young for MySpace. Her only option was
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to hang out with her friend Sarah. Chapter four, A
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souring friendship. Whether it was due to the fact that
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Sarah was a little younger than Megan or if their
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personalities just didn't match, the girl's friendship was a rocky one.
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According to Tina, the girls would hang out all day
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Friday and Saturday with no issues, but by Sunday, Megan
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would be bored with Sarah and no longer want to
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hang out with her. Tina speculated that Megan only hung
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out with Sarah because she had nothing better to do.
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Sarah took this rejection hard, and it would only get
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worse when Megan's parents decided to send her to a
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private school for her eighth grade year. Megan thrived at
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her new school, which required uniforms, so Megan's worries about
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her weight and appearance became less important. She began to
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make friends at school and no longer had a need
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to hang out with Sarah drew. In fact, Megan became
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a bit hostile towards Sarah and reportedly had called her
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lesbian in the middle of one of their fights, which
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upset Sarah and Sarah's parents, but Megan didn't care. Her
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new friends were all on MySpace, and Megan wanted to
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get back on that platform so she could talk to
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them outside of school. Chapter five, a new MySpace profile.
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Megan begged her parents to let her have a new
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MySpace account as her fourteenth birthday present. Since she was
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only a few weeks away from Myspace's age eligibility, they
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allowed Megan to make a new account that both her
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parents had access to as well. On September thirteenth, two
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thousand and six, Megan re emerged on MySpace, calling herself
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Megan Baby and listing her town as what she referred
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to as ghetto Saint Louis, Missouri. One of her first
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posts was about how hot the boys at her new
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school were, and only two weeks after rejoining Megan got
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friended by a boy named Josh Evans. His profile stated
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that he was sixteen years old, He preferred coke to PEPSI,
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hated sushi, had a trillion CDs, and loved pizza. His
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picture showed a blue eyed, wavy haired young man, and
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since he was only a few years older than Megan,
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Tina allowed her daughter to write to him. Over the
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course of October, Megan and Josh messaged each other four
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hours each day, caring on conversations about their favorite music groups,
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time at school, and about how Josh's goal for two
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thousand and six was to meet a great girl who
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just happened to have long brown hair like Megan's. And
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the thing that made Megan swoon the most was when
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he answered her a question about liking skinny girls, and
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his reply was that weight didn't matter to him. Megan
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Myra was excited she was about to get a boyfriend.
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The problem was, Josh Evans was not a real person
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Chapter six who created Josh Evans. The blue eyed young
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man's photo and the profile picture had been lifted from
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the Internet. His interest, preferences, and desires had all been
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carefully tell her to be exactly the kind of boy
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Megan would fall for. But just who wouldn't know enough
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about Meghan to create a boy specifically to her specifications.
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Only the neighbors she'd spent the last year hanging out
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with the Drews. While the idea of trapping Megan was
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initiated by Sarah an eighteen year old Ashley Grillis, who
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was an employee for the direct mail business the drus
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ran out of their home they count itself with The
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photo and information were created by Sarah's mother, Lori Drew,
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who was angry at Megan for the comments she'd made
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to Sarah after their friendship ended. Allegedly, the purpose of
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creating Josh Evans was to say Meghan was saying nasty
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things about Sarah online, but the account escalated as once
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the conversations began and Megan got hooked. Not only were
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Sarah and Ashley writing to Megan as Josh, but when
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neighborhood kids came to hang out, at Sarah's house. They
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were encouraged to join in the game, and they too
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messaged Megan as Josh. But the worst part was it
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wasn't just kids baiting Megan Meyer. Sarah's mother, Laurie Drew,
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was often at the helm of the Josh Evans messages
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Chapter seven, The Deadly Message. As this fake relationship grew,
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Megan wanted to talk to Josh on the phone, which
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caused Lourie, Sarah, and Ashley to have to come up
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with some quick lies. They made the excuse that Josh's
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family didn't have a phone so he couldn't call her,
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which Tina Meyer found to be exceptionally strong, as well
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as a few other comments. Tina had noticed Josh posting
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when she'd checked Megan's account, so one day, while Megan
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was out of the room, Tina decided to message Josh herself.
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His replies made her question whether or not this was
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really a teenage boy on the other end, and Megan
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later told Josh that her mother had called the police
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to see if he was a real person or not.
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Perhaps this is what scared the conspirators into wanting a
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way out of the live they'd contrived. We don't know
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for sure what exactly prompted what was to come, but
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we do know that on the evening of October fifteen,
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two thousand and six, one of the neighborhood girls who'd
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been in on the Josh Evans game messaged Megan as
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Josh and said, I hear you're not nice to your friends,
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and I don't think I want to talk to you anymore.
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Megan's anxiety skyrocketed at this out of the blue accusation,
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and she fired off a series of chats demanding to
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know what he was talking about and what he'd heard
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other people say that that would make him think that,
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but he stopped responding. The next day, as soon as
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Megan got home from school, she logged into my Space
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to see if Josh was on, but she was shocked
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to find that Josh had posted their private chats publicly
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on MySpace, allowing all of Meghan's contexts to see everything
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she told Josh about her friends, her mental state, and
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even where she hoped the romantic relationship would go. Comments
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from Meghan's online friends immediately poured in, mocking Meghan's weight,
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picking at her insecurities, and calling her slut. For the
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next two hours, insults were slung between Megan, Josh, and
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several of Megan's other MySpace friends. By the time Tina
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came home, Megan was on the verge of a panic
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attack as she sat glued to the incoming messages. Tina
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told Megan to get off the computer, but Megan remained
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and that final comment from Josh clicked onto the screen
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in front of her. Cruelly, it read the world would
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be a better place without you. Tina demanded to know
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why Megan was even answering any of the vitriol, but
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Megan's distress was high, and her mother's insinuation that Megan
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was part of the problem sent her running to the
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room where she would take her own life. Chapter eight
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a shocking suicide. When Tina found Megan hanging in her closet,
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she immediately got her down and performed CPR while Tina's
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father called nine one one, but EMTs were not able
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to revive her. The Myers were devastated, and as the
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word quickly spread through the smallha the neighborhood was in
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a state of shock that Megan had taken her own
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life only two weeks before her fourteenth birthday party. But
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what of the Drews. According to later testimony, Sarah Drew
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was hysterical when she found out Megan is dead. The
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intention had never been for Megan to die, but this
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didn't make Sarah come forward about the Josh Evans game.
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In fact, upon learning of Megan's death, Sarah's father, Kurt
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deleted the Josh Evans account, to which her mother Laurie
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replied that even deleted, it would still be trackable, and
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Laurie wasn't wrong, though it would take some time before
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the Myers realized the truth of the situation Chapter nine,
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Neighbors at War. In the week following Meghan's funeral, the
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Meyers contacted police to see if Josh Evans could be
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found and prosecuted in some way for his part in
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Megan's suicide.
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Oh Fallon Police Department, is this an emergency?
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But the MySpace profile had already been deleted by Kurt
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and police had come to the same conclusion. Tina had
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suspected for a while that there was no real Josh
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Evans to arrest or prosecute. However, the Meyers got an
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interesting phone call from one of their neighbors on November
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twenty fifth about a month after the funeral, the girl
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who had sent the original your Mean to your Friend's
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post on October fifteenth, had finally come clean to her
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parents about the Josh Evans game and her role in it.
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The girl's mother immediately contacted the Myers, saying her daughter
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had admitted that on the day ambulances had raced down
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their street to save Megan, Lourie Drew had called her
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daughter and said something happened to Megan. Keep your mouth shut.
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From there, the truth unraveled about who created Josh, who
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had passwords to the accounts, and more importantly, that Laurie Drew,
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an adult and a parent, had not only known about
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the game, but encouraged the behavior and even participated. Understandably,
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the Myers were shocked, horrified, and angry at the truth.
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They had been good friends with the Drews. Tina had
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sold them their house and invited them to dinner. In fact,
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they were so close that the Myers had been helpfully
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storing a fostball table for the drew in their garage
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as it was going to be a Christmas present for Sarah.
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Upon finding out that Drew's fake MySpace game had led
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to their daughter's suicide. The Myers took sledgehammers to the
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football game and destroyed it. They then gathered the pieces
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into a cardboard box they spray painted with the words
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Merry Christmas, and left the box unceremoniously in the Drew's driveway.
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This act, though understandable based on the circumstances citing a
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neighborly dispute, but during this call, Lurie would expose herself
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as not only being aware that her daughter had created
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the Josh Evans game, but that she, a parent, had
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been actively involved with the MySpace account. Chapter ten trial
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failures and a lack of policies with a real person
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to pin the blame of megan suicide to the Meers
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wonted justice. Laurie and Sarah Drew had created a fake
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MySpace his boyfriend specifically towered to make its desires, only
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to pull the rug out from under her and expose
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her deepest feelings to the entire Internet when they got
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tired of playing the game. The problem was it was
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two thousand and six, MySpace and any social media were
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brand new, and there were no policies on the books
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in Missouri about online bullying. The Meyers appealed to the
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federal courts, hoping that there was a national law that
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could be used to indict the Drews, and because my
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Space's office was located out of California, the Feds agreed
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to take the case. They were able to prosecute Lourie
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Drew under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, citing
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that Lurie had violated my Space's terms and conditions by
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creating a profile that wasn't her own. However, using this
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Act was a complicated procedure, as it was the first
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time this Act was being prosecuted in this manner. Lourie
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Drew's tribe began in November two thousand and eight. Her
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daughter Sarah and her employee, Ashley Grillis, both testified statements
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for contradictory as Sarah claimed her mother never wrote anything
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to Megan, but Ashley stated that Laurie not only encouraged
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the writing that she and Sarah were doing, but that
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Lourie had partaken in more than half of the type
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conversations between the fictional Josh and Megan. With no direct
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evidence to prove who had been Josh at any given time,
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the jury ultimately found Laurie guilty of three misdemeanor counts
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of fraud. While this did have a three year prison sentence,
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her council thoughed for a motion of acquittal, and to
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the surprise and dismay of the Myers, the judge granted
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Lourie Drew's acquittal in July two thousand and nine, Chapter
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eleven Community Justice. While Laurie Drew may have escaped prison
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and had her record expunged, the neighborhood that already only
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tolerated the Drew family had turned hostile even before the
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trial proceedings. The Myers had done a private interview with
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the local newswriters Z Pokin, who wrote a column for
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the Suburban Journal. In November two thousand and seven. He
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released the Meyers interview in his column Poking Around, and
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the Drews became infamous almost immediately. Sarah was shunned at
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school and her parents quickly removed her from going. The
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side of their house was splattered with paintballs, and someone
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threw a brick through their kitchen window at one point,
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and in a case of cosmic irony, the place where
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the Drews found the most hostile attitudes was online. Message
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board commenters publicly posted the Drew's home address, as well
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as Kurt Drew's business address, under the title child Killers.
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A telephone and email campaign was set up to destroy
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their home business. Laurie's personal voicemail was hacked, and someone
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posted a YouTube video of Laurie's face cut with the
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clown from Stephen King's it. Tina Meyer also took a
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personal approach to vengeance, following Laurie Drew around town and
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encouraging shop owners who had interacted with Louri to check
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out the Poke and Round article about Meghan's death. Eventually,
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despite her acquittal, Lourie Drew and her family were forced
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to relocate Chapter twelve. The aftermath. While the Myers didn't
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find justice in the courts, Meghan's death did usher in
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a new era of political and judicial awareness of cyberbullying.
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Following the outcome of the dru trial, the Meyers worked
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with Missouri legislatures to pass the Megan Meyer Cyberbullying Prevention
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Act of two thousand and eight. The Myers also created
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the Megan Meyer Foundation, which provides presentations to schools on
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the dangers of cyberbullying. Initiatives to end child's suicide and
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provide counseling programs to those in need. On a more
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national scale, since the early two thousands, forty eight states
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have adopted legislation on cyberbullying to punish offenders. While much
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has been done to combat cyberbully as of twenty twenty one,
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fifty nine percent of US teens pulled by the Pure
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Research Center stated they had been the victim of online
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bullying or harassment, with name calling and rumor spreading being
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the highest offenses. In a study done by the National
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Institute of Health in twenty twenty two, it was found
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that adolescents who had been cyberbullied were four times more
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likely to have suicidal ideations than those who hadn't experienced cyberbullying.
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Lead researcher Ray Barzelay suggested that at a time when
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young adolescents are spending more time online than ever before,
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this study underscores the negative impact that bullying in the
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virtual space can have on its targets. It may be
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prudent for primary care providers to screen for cyberbullying routinely,
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in the same way that they might screen for other
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suicide risk factors like depression. Parents and educators should also
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be aware of this risk factor Chapter thirteen, Where Things
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Stand Today. Just recently, in January twenty twenty four, the
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CEOs of all major social media companies, including Meta, Snap, TikTok,
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and Acts formerly Twitter, were brought before the US Senate
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Judiciary Committee. The bipartisan hearing grilled the CEOs for several
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hours on their lack of company policies to protect children
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in online spaces, even from within Meta's own company. Facebook's
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president of global affairs wrote a letter to owner Mark
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Zuckerberg expressing that more people needed to be hired to
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work on the cyber bullying issues, as he was facing
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increased pressure from politicians not just in the US, but
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from the UK, Australia, and the European Union. The hearing
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was in part to gain more agreement from both Democrat
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and Republican representatives to pass the Kids Online Safety Act
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that had been proposed back in twenty twenty two, and
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while it's got unclearer if and when any policy will
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be created to curb children's access to social media, what
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is clear is that Megan Meyer's MySpace induced death in
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two thousand and six was only the beginning of what
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has become a Global Problem Chapter fourteen Audience Participation. If
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our listeners would like more information on anything discussed in
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today's episode, we encourage you to check out a few places,
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the Meganmeyer Foundation at Meganmeyer Foundation dot org, design It
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00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.039
for Us, a coalition of young people fighting big tech
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00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:35.359
at design itfor Us dot org. And if anyone listening
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00:24:35.480 --> 00:24:38.720
or someone they love needs help with suicide prevention, we
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00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:41.759
encourage you to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline twenty four
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to seven at nine to eight eight. Is there a
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00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:50.000
case or an unexplained communication you'd like us to cover,
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00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:52.680
Please take the time to rate and review the show,
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00:24:53.079 --> 00:24:55.319
and in your comments tell us what case you'd like
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us to tackle. You can also follow us and reach
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us on social media on x dot com at killercpod
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and on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Killer Communications Podcast,
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00:25:09.720 --> 00:25:12.960
and be sure to check out our website, Killercommunications Podcast
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dot com Killer Communications Listeners. If you want to support
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Will also include a link in the show notes. Your
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support is greatly appreciated. Just a heads up. New episodes
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of Killer Communications air every other Saturday. Thanks for listening,
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and we hope you'll join us on the next episode
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of Killer Communications.
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Killer Communications is narrated and produced by Mike Morphord for
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ABJACT Entertainment. It's researched and written by Abigail Belcastro. Be
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sure to visit the show's website, Killercommunications podcast dot com
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