After a teen girl falls victim to a Web hoax, angry neighbors take matters into their own hands

P.J. Hufstutter writes:

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, MO. — For nearly a year, the families who live along Waterford Crystal Drive in this bedroom community northwest of St. Louis have kept the secret about the boy Megan Meier met last September on the social networking site MySpace.

He called himself Josh Evans, and he and 13-year-old Megan struck up an online friendship that lasted several weeks. Then the boy abruptly turned on Megan and ended it. That night, Megan, who had previously battled depression, committed suicide.

The secret was revealed six weeks later: Neighbor Lori Drew had pretended to be 16-year-old Josh to gain the trust of Megan, who had been fighting with Drew’s daughter, according to sheriff’s department records and Megan’s parents.

After their daughter’s death, Tina and Ron Meier begged their other neighbors to keep the story private. Let the local authorities and the FBI conduct their investigations in privacy, they pleaded.

But after waiting for criminal charges to be filed against Drew, neighbors learned that local and federal prosecutors could not find a statute applicable to the case.

This community’s patience has dried up. The furious neighbors — and in the wake of recent media reports, an outraged public — are taking matters into their own hands.