The tragedy of Megan Meier will take another twist Wednesday night when officials in her home town vote on whether to make online harassment a local crime.
\nMeier is the 13-year-old suburban St. Louis girl who met a cute 16-year-old named Josh Evans last year on the social networking site MySpace. They became close, but suddenly he turned on her, calling her names, saying she was “a bad person and everybody hates you.” Others joined the harassment \u201d\u201d the barrage culminated in Megan’s Oct. 16, 2006, suicide, just short of her 14th birthday.<\/p>\n
Weeks later, Megan’s grieving parents learned that the boy didn’t exist \u201d\u201d he’d been fabricated by a neighbor, the mother of one of Megan’s former friends. The girls had had a falling out, police say, and she wanted to know what Megan was saying about her daughter.<\/p>\n