20 Nov, 2007
‘No apologies’ over teen who hanged herself over failed romance, kin say
“They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”
Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.
“She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”
The Meiers’ daughter, Megan, hanged herself Oct. 16, 2006.
The Meiers have not named the people because they do not want to identify their teenage daughter, who had once been a friend of Megan’s.
After the two girls had a falling out, the mother invented a 16-year-old boy, “Josh Evans,” created a MySpace account for him, and made Megan believe he was new in town and thought she was cool.
Megan, a girl who had battled attention deficit disorder, depression and a weight problem for much of her young life, believed him, despite her mother’s warnings to be cautious.
“That was always the talk,” Tina Meier told Lauer, repeating the conversations she had with her daughter: “‘Megan, c’mon, we don’t even know this person. Let’s not get too excited.’ She’d say, ‘Oh, Mom, you don’t understand.’ So I did talk to her daily about that. But children at this age, they don’t think that.”
And then the boy turned on Megan, leading a campaign of vilification and online name-calling that ended when Megan took her own life.
For a year, the Meiers kept quiet at the request of both the FBI and local law enforcement officials while they investigated the incident.
Ultimately, investigators told the Meiers that while the hoax was cruel, it was not criminal.
photo & story courtesy today.msnbc.msn.com, 11/19/07
Parents of MySpace hoax victim seek justice
Are you careful about who you talk to online?
Proverbs 13:20
20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm. (ESV)
What does today's God's Story scripture warn us about the people we associate with?
Friends can make us or break us. We must be careful about whom we choose as our closest friends.
The woman who invented the MySpace hoax that helped lead Megan Meier to kill herself did something that can be described as evil, regardless of whether or not our courts find it criminal.
BUT, Megan Meier made a poor choice in getting to know this fake "Josh Evans". Her parents had warned her, but her desire for acceptance from a guy clouded her thinking. Her pain of being let down by this "guy" was so deep that she made the choice to end her life.
Today's scripture does not mean that followers of Christ should not become friends with unbelievers. That's the best of way to communicate Christ's love. But we must be smart about who we hang out with online and in person.
Ask yourself if others who are not Christ followers are being drawn to Jesus because of your friendship, or are you being pulled away from Christ by them?
Are your closest friends people who want to be close to Jesus?
How can we connect today's God's Story scripture to our lives?
- Write out an honest evaluation of your friendships. List your 10 closest friends. Which ones are helping you become like Jesus? Which ones are not? Are you making progress in helping them learn about Christ's love or are they pulling you away from Christ?
- Spend some time with an older Christian friend who can share Godly wisdom with you. If you don't have a friend like this, pray for God to bring this kind of friend into your life.
- If you are a MySpace user, evaluate if it is a positive or negative influence in your relationship with Jesus.
How can we connect today's story and God's Story scripture and our story to others?
- Pray for the family and friends of Megan to experience God's comfort and for justice to be done in this tragedy.
- Get together with other followers of Christ and talk about today's DAILYBIDE. Agree to check on each other and hold each other accountable to make wise choices in friendships both online and in person. Pray and talk about ways to use the Internet to practice 3Story so that you can help others come to know Christ.
- Use today's story as a conversation starter with your friends who don't know Christ as their Savior. Ask him or her about their experiences with the trust factor in friendships. Look for the opportunity to share your story - that you have discovered a personal relationship with God....how you can trust Him...how He has given you hope rather than fear...how He promised to never let you down...
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