A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Lori Drew, an O’Fallon woman, who is implicated in the suicide of teenager Megan Meier. Drew allegedly created a false MySpace account and contacted Meier. Meier thought she was speaking with a 16 year old boy named Josh, but Josh didn’t exist. Meier committed suicide in 2006 after getting mean-spirited e-mails, including one stating the world would be better off without her.
The federal prosecutor, who is in the state of California and has filed four criminal charges against Drew, thinks this is the first time charges have been filed in a case like this involving a social networking site. Drew is accused of violating MySpace’s rules in using a fake name to set up a MySpace account. Each charge carries a five year prison sentence.