'My Space' hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen

[Squarethecircle]

This looks like a classic fake to me; although there is one specific thing that makes me not completely convinced, and that's how detailed it was.

[feederband]

No but the police said there was nothing to be done under current laws...But they are tring to get the laws changed in there state...Nothing fishy about ...The other side which they thought was there friends actually confirmed that they did it...

Sorry, I just don't buy it. If the story happened exactly as it's told, the state would have filed charges for harassment. people can say what they want. That doesn't mean it's true.

Edit: It's also a little suspicious that they were "unable to retrieve from the hard drive" that final message that allegedly drove Megan over the edge. That kind of data doesn't just disappear.

Sorry you feel that way...But thats how they are telling it....

Fact is their daughter is dead...And it was after she read these things on myspace...And the people admitted to doing it...Sad story no matter how you tell it...

My 3 sons all have Myspace accounts...We have their passwords and check on them from time to time...If any of you all have a daughter between 12 and 16 and they have a myspace I suggest you look at it from time to time...It is scarry the things these young girls say and pictures they post on this site...You may think you know your kid...But do ya..

[Brent]

This story would have been all over the news. Per the article it happened OVER a year ago. Yeah, something's fishy.

[feederband]

This story happened over a year ago and this is the first it's been reported anywhere??? and I hardly consider this site a reputable source. This would have been all over the news.

Put me in the "something's fishy" column.

But they didn't know untill just recent that is was the people down the street...They were on fox and cnn the last 2 dyas ..I will look for it after I pick up cody from school...

[fwbbreeze]

lets all do a little research before we are so quick to judge!!

http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/15/news/sj2tn20071113-1114stc_pokin_1.ii1.txt


http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/15/news/doc473c629800bb7940817680.txt


about the source:

http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/about_us/

[Ptarmigan]

Sorry, I just don't buy it. If the story happened exactly as it's told, the state would have filed charges for harassment. people can say what they want. That doesn't mean it's true.

Edit: It's also a little suspicious that they were "unable to retrieve from the hard drive" that final message that allegedly drove Megan over the edge. That kind of data doesn't just disappear.

Sorry to burst your bubbles, it appeared on the local news in St. Louis. I didn't know of this until yesterday.

[Category 5]

The scumbag who did it should be infected with the Ebola Zaire virus.

I'll second that.

They should be charged with murder.

[Ptarmigan]

I'll second that.

They should be charged with murder.

Agreed on that.

[gtalum]

They should be charged with murder.

How do you figure? Even if the story is true as told (a theory which I seriously doubt), no murder has taken place. Not even manslaughter. Suicide is not a reasonable response to this kind of attack, and thus cannot be predicted.

Murder requires intent to kill. Manslaughter requires at least the knowledge that death is a reasonable consequence of one's actions. Again, suicide is not a reasonable response, so it cannot be expected.

Harassment is the proper charge, and the lack of such a charge is what casts the most doubt on this story. Well that in addition to the extremely dubious claim that the message which allegedly set off the girl's suicide was not stored anywhere accessible to the FBI and local LEO's.

I still say the parents are just trying to manufacture a case to sue MySpace.

[Ptarmigan]

How do you figure? Even if the story is true as told (a theory which I seriously doubt), no murder has taken place. Not even manslaughter. Suicide is not a reasonable response to this kind of attack, and thus cannot be predicted.

Murder requires intent to kill. Manslaughter requires at least the knowledge that death is a reasonable consequence of one's actions. Again, suicide is not a reasonable response, so it cannot be expected.

Harassment is the proper charge, and the lack of such a charge is what casts the most doubt on this story. Well that in addition to the extremely dubious claim that the message which allegedly set off the girl's suicide was not stored anywhere accessible to the FBI and local LEO's.

I still say the parents are just trying to manufacture a case to sue MySpace.

I read the article and NOWHERE are they blaming My Space.

[HarlequinBoy]

I just feel really badly that the girl took her life. Her poor family.


But uhh.. it's not murder.

[Cryomaniac]

They should be charged with murder.

How do you figure? Even if the story is true as told (a theory which I seriously doubt), no murder has taken place. Not even manslaughter. Suicide is not a reasonable response to this kind of attack, and thus cannot be predicted.

Murder requires intent to kill. Manslaughter requires at least the knowledge that death is a reasonable consequence of one's actions. Again, suicide is not a reasonable response, so it cannot be expected.

Harassment is the proper charge, and the lack of such a charge is what casts the most doubt on this story. Well that in addition to the extremely dubious claim that the message which allegedly set off the girl's suicide was not stored anywhere accessible to the FBI and local LEO's.

Exactly, it is possible to be charged with manslaughter over a suicide, but it doens't happen often. And the whole lack of information thing is dodgy to me. You pretty much need to destroy a hard drive to make any thing on it un-recoverable.

[Chacor]

I'm with gtalum and Cryo on this one. While I do feel bad for the family that they've lost their daughter, some things don't add up. As has been mentioned, things don't just disappear off hard drives.

[Squarethecircle]

Let's see... What can we find that's typical of a urban legend here...

-Picked up by major news sources without additional information
-Designed to cause emotional outburst
-Related to some common and new item that is the medium of destruction
-Things that don't seem to add up, like the hard drive, or the lack of charges, which seems to prevent nasty loopholes in which a filing would be listed on a database
-Originating with a very local news source (extraordinarily common root of urban legends)

In addition, the whole way the article was written seems to have a disctinct air of falsehood, which would be very odd for a true story.

[feederband]

Wow is the conspiracy forums shut down? Where did all these people come from..I would of thought fwbbreeze post ended this but I guess not...

[gtalum]

I would of thought fwbbreeze post ended this but I guess not...

How do you figure? A free weekly neighborhood paper is hardly an authoritative source.

[fwbbreeze]

well lets look a little deeper then...

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4926871&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/59034

http://www.wjbf.com/midatlantic/jbf/news_index/entertainment_news.apx.-content-articles-JBF-2007-11-14-0011.html

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4939189&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1





hmm seems other viable news outlets are running with the story now...not such an "urban legend" after all is it???

[gtalum]

hmm seems other viable news outlets are running with the story now...not such an "urban legend" after all is it???

We'll see what happens when the prosecutor finishes his investigation.

[Squarethecircle]

hmm seems other viable news outlets are running with the story now...not such an "urban legend" after all is it???

We'll see what happens when the prosecutor finishes his investigation.

I see no indication anywhere except on news sources (who's only citation is the Suburban Journal) that any investigation might result in anything. And if the story is true, but the messages are also off the hard drive, then they have no proof that what the neighbors "said" to her caused her to die; it probably also indicates that no message was ever sent. And remember what I said; it is extraordinarily common for these things to start small and be picked up by major news sources THAT ONLY CITE THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE, this could be considered evidence for or against its truth.

[feederband]

I seen these parents on T.V. They seemed real enough...There child which wasn't in the best of mental state killed her self do to what people put on myspace...These people have admitted to doing it and allthough haven't totaly appoligized they are not going to take the responsibilty for their daughters death.....

Now parents aren't out to sue myspace...But are trying to change legeslature in their state that would make this type of harrassment illegal...

And they are also trying to get the story out for parents to keep a eye on what their kids are doing...Like checking in on them from time to time on myspace...

If you have some proof that this is a lie please show it...Oh yea and 9/11 did happen..