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Lori Drew is one of the most evil women in America. Drew was indicted on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on a 13-year old girl who committed suicide. Drew was recently found guilty of misdemeanors instead of felonies.

This is a troubling case that could have implications for Internet users that remain unclear. Here’s the background that demonstrates that Internet anonymity and deception can be deadly.

Lori Drew was doing well in her own local advertising business and was well thought of in O’Fallon, Missouri.

Her daughter, Sarah, was a good friend of another seventh-grader, 13-year old Megan Meier. Megan had a problem with her weight, and also suffered from Attention-Deficit Disorder and depression. Megan had been seeing a therapist since she was in the third grade after she began talking about suicide.

Sarah Drew and Megan Meier went to the eighth grade together and for whatever reason, their relationship became strained and the two were no longer friends. Sarah told her mother, Lori Drew, that Megan was mean to her.

Lori Drew created a profile on MySpace with the fake name “Josh Evans” and included a picture of a good looking young boy of the supposed 16-year old. Josh Evans claimed he had just moved into the area from Florida, was being home-schooled, played the drums and the guitar, and didn’t have a phone number. Oh, and he wanted to be friends with little Megan Meier.

Megan was overjoyed that this teenager wanted to put her on his friends list and shared her thrilling news with her mother, asking if she could add Josh Evans to her own friends list. Tina Meier, Megan’s mother, approved.

For the next month and a half, Megan and Josh chatted back and forth about subjects teens talk about. Posing as ‘Josh Evans,’ Lori Drew tried to use her adult cunning to persuade Megan to reveal all of her secrets to her online boyfriend. But Lori Drew told others about her scheme, including one of her employees at her advertising company who was brought in on the plot along with another neighborhood girl who had the login details to the Josh Evans account.

On October 15, 2006, Josh Evans changed. He became angry, mean.

Josh wrote to Megan, “I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends.” Megan responded that she didn’t know what Josh was talking about.

The next day, Megan handed out invitations at school to her birthday party. When Megan went home, she asked her mother to log into Megan’s MySpace account for her so she could see if Josh Evans had replied to her e-mail. Megan was hoping Josh would show up at her party and finally meet her parents.

But Josh had sent all of his computer correspondences to other online friends who suddenly knew all of Megan’s innermost secrets, feelings, and thoughts. Kids at school ridiculed Megan.

Megan’s mother had a dental appointment and was pressed for time, so she told Megan to sign off as she walked out the door. But Megan didn’t sign off. After her mother got to the dentist, she called Megan to find that her daughter was still online, sobbing. Megan told her mother everyone was making fun of her and again, Megan’s mother told her to log off.

Megan called her mother, and told her that people online were calling her, “fat,” and a “***.” Once again, Megan’s mother told Megan to log off.

When Megan’s mom got home from the dentist, she went to the computer and looked over the messages and then logged out of the MySpace account, finishing Megan’s computer use for the night. But before logging out, she failed to see the last message in Megan’s inbox from Josh Evans that read:

“Everybody in O’Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a s***** rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you.”

Megan’s parents were preparing dinner when they suddenly suspected something was wrong and ran upstairs to their daughter’s room. They found Megan, who had hung herself with a belt in her closet.

An ambulance was summoned and Lori Drew called a 13-year old boy who was in on this evil joke and instructed her to keep quiet. The Josh Evans account was deleted. Megan Meier was dead the next day. The 13-year old boy eventually told Megan’s parents about what really happened.

Lori Drew isn’t directly responsible for Megan Meier’s death, but if not for her using a fake identity on the Internet to manipulate the innocent girl, Meier would be alive today.

One has to be pretty sick and twisted to concoct the despicable, sinister plot Lori Drew orchestrated.

Of course, not every individual who uses an anonymous or fake name is a Lori Drew. But there are such people who are mean and cruel who possess diabolical motives.

It’s unfortunate the jury couldn’t convict Lori Drew of felonies. She deserves a lot of prison time. Her case raises many questions about the Internet and the demented people who use it for evil purposes.


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