Bullied girl’s suicide won’t lead to charges

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The St. Charles County prosecutor said Monday there will be no criminal charges filed in the case of the teenage girl who committed suicide after being bullied on the Internet.

Prosecutor Jack Banas said that based on available evidence, the actions of the people involved in the Internet bullying did not meet the standards required by state laws for harassment, stalking or endangering the welfare of a child.

Banas announced his decision at a news conference called to discuss the Megan Meier case. Megan, 13, of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., hanged herself last year. Her parents said her suicide was the result of harassment via her MySpace Web page.

Her parents said an adult neighbor created a teenage boy who pretended to be interested in Megan before he began bullying her. The neighbors admitted to police that they created the account.

Megan hanged herself Oct. 16, 2006, shortly after receiving cruel messages on the social networking Web site MySpace. Megan’s parents, Ron and Tina Meier, found out six weeks after Megan’s death that the boy their daughter had been chatting with online never existed.

The boy’s profile, they learned, was the creation of Lori Drew, her daughter and Drew’s employee, Ashley Grills. The Drews and the Meiers live four doors apart in Dardenne Prairie.

Both the FBI and St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department investigated the Meier case over the past year and could find no appropriate criminal charge. Prosecutors didn’t see a crime either.