Yeah.. There’s been a lot of computer haxxoring and other crap going on with her, apparently.

What sort of a world do we live in when a 13 y.o. girl actually knows how to commit suicide?  The family who did this to her were complete sadists to do this to a young girl (and she was a young girl, not a teenager).  If they suggested the means by which she could kill herself, then they are murderers and should be tried as such.

Her own parents should get a look over as well, for not monitoring what she was doing online.

Stiglet - 08 December 2007 10:31 PM

What sort of a world do we live in when a 13 y.o. girl actually knows how to commit suicide?  The family who did this to her were complete sadists to do this to a young girl (and she was a young girl, not a teenager).  If they suggested the means by which she could kill herself, then they are murderers and should be tried as such.

Her own parents should get a look over as well, for not monitoring what she was doing online.

Killing yourself isn’t exactly rocket science now is it?

And it’s not murder unless you end someone’s life with the mens rea of a wicked and malicious intent to do so.

Renquist - 09 December 2007 06:09 PM

Stiglet - 08 December 2007 10:31 PM

What sort of a world do we live in when a 13 y.o. girl actually knows how to commit suicide?  The family who did this to her were complete sadists to do this to a young girl (and she was a young girl, not a teenager).  If they suggested the means by which she could kill herself, then they are murderers and should be tried as such.

Her own parents should get a look over as well, for not monitoring what she was doing online.

Killing yourself isn’t exactly rocket science now is it?

And it’s not murder unless you end someone’s life with the mens rea of a wicked and malicious intent to do so.

Well, the definition of murder varies from place to place.. Over here in the states we’ve got ‘degrees’ of Murder, which varies from state to state. There’s your basic ‘premeditated’ murder, which basically means someone went out with the intent of killing someone (First Degree). Then there’s killing someone as the result of another violent felony, or in a particularly heinous manner (First Degree with Special Circumstances). Then there’s the ‘catch all’ for ‘other murders’, Second Degree, which is usually reserved for things that are a little too violent for simple ‘homocide’. Bar brawls, domestic violence, forcing someone to read WayToGo’s posts…

That’s always the problem with legal arguments online: Your penal code is not the same as their penal code. Not to sound callous, but they haven’t done anything *legally* wrong.. Morally and ethically wrong, yes. But there are no laws that say that they could not do what they did. Now, if they had carefully structured things with the *intent* that she kill herself, and convinced her to do so, then ther emight be something. As it stands, the best that can be hoped for is a civil suit.

Of course, that doesn’t stop folks from impassioned screaming about how a sweet young girl was ‘murdered’, etc. It’s basic emotional drama, but then that’s what one expects from MySpace…

Stiglet - 08 December 2007 10:31 PM

What sort of a world do we live in when a 13 y.o. girl actually knows how to commit suicide?

I can’t even imagine living in such a dark age that a 13 year old wouldn’t have the basic understanding of biology to how to keep living (or not).

I could have told you how to commit suicide when I was six.

Stargazer - 10 December 2007 11:01 AM

Stiglet - 08 December 2007 10:31 PM

What sort of a world do we live in when a 13 y.o. girl actually knows how to commit suicide?

I can’t even imagine living in such a dark age that a 13 year old wouldn’t have the basic understanding of biology to how to keep living (or not).

I could have told you how to commit suicide when I was six.

It’s not rocket science to fill your pockets with rocks and jump off the Kigston Bridge or gaffer tape an ASDA bag round your head.

Especially at 13! I mean, by 13 you should know a few things about the human body! You’re in Junior High for crying out loud!!! I had taken several years of gifted biology by that point. I could have easilly told you how mitochondria worked inside the cell, much less how to make a human body not be alive anymore.

Stargazer - 10 December 2007 12:11 PM

Especially at 13! I mean, by 13 you should know a few things about the human body! You’re in Junior High for crying out loud!!! I had taken several years of gifted biology by that point. I could have easilly told you how mitochondria worked inside the cell, much less how to make a human body not be alive anymore.

*Sitting with a knife looking at their arm*

“Hmmm…now I know I’m supposed to do something with this…but what? Arm…knife…hmm…stage one- Get knife and roll up sleeve. Stage 2-  Stage 3- Profit!“

Remember, kiddies, it’s down the highway, not across the tracks!

This just in (well, just in as far as I know):

Feds Probe Internet Suicide

A federal grand jury has issued a subpoena to MySpace.com in a probe stemming from the suicide of a Missouri teenager who received cruel messages on the networking site that turned out to be a hoax, a newspaper reported.
Federal prosecutors are considering charging a mother in the girl’s neighborhood with defrauding MySpace by creating a false account that she, her daughter and a teenage employee used to fool 13-year-old Megan Meier into believing she was communicating with a 16-year-old boy, the Los Angeles Times said Tuesday on its Web site, citing unidentified sources.
It said its sources insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
Megan, of suburban St. Louis, hanged herself in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages from the fictional boy she had befriended online, including one saying the world would be better off without her.
The neighborhood woman, Lori Drew, has denied creating the account but acknowledged being aware of it. She also has denied sending any messages to Megan or being aware of the unkind messages.
Prosecutors in Missouri declined to charge anyone because no laws appeared to apply to the case.

Link: http://wibc.com/news/article.aspx?id=1316331

I wonder if they could simply prove she encouraged the other two teens to post…charging her with “contributing to the deliquency of a minor”??

Hmm…