Woman Indicted in MySpace Suicide

A federal grand jury has indicted Lori Drew on charges of conspiracy and gaining access to “computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress” on Megan Meier in 2006. Ms. Drew and another woman sent Ms. Meier messages via a MySpace account in the name of an imaginary person, “Josh Evans”, who told Megan he liked her. A few weeks later, “Josh” sent a message to Megan breaking off the relationship. A day later Megan, 13, was dead.

State prosecutors earlier said they could not find a way to charge Ms. Drew criminally, and federal prosecutors in Missouri also did not proceed with a case, but federal prosecutors in Los Angeles noted that MySpace keeps its servers in L.A. Read more here in an MSNBC.com story, which includes a timeline of the events and in an MSNBC.com story here, discussing Megan’s mother’s reaction to the indictment. Here’s a link to video announcing the indictment and explaining the theory of the case.