L.A. grand jury issues subpoenas in Web suicide case [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

Source: LA Times

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has begun issuing subpoenas in the case of a Missouri teenager who hanged herself after being rejected by the person she thought was a 16-year-old boy she met on the social networking site MySpace, sources told The Times.

The case created a national furor when authorities revealed that the "friend" was really the mother of one of the girl's former friends.

When the woman abruptly ended the online relationship, telling 13-year-old Megan Meier that the world would be a better place without her, Megan hanged herself in a closet as her parents were downstairs preparing for dinner.

Local and federal authorities in Missouri conducted an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Megan's death but were unable to find a statute under which to charge Lori Drew, the woman who allegedly perpetrated the hoax.

Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, however, are exploring the possibility of charging Drew with defrauding MySpace by creating the false account that she, her daughter and another person used to communicate with Megan, according to the sources, who insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-myspace9jan09,0,5809715.story?coll=la-home-center