POKIN AROUND: 'Kill yourself,' 'Go to hell,' - Lori Drew talks about her phone messages
But only about her cell phone. Drew declined to discuss other aspects of her role surrounding the October 2006 suicide of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl who lived down the street. Megan had an on-and-off friendship with Drew's teenage daughter.
Teresa Woodard last week reported on Fox 2 News, KTVI, that Aubry Hollingsworth of St. Louis had the misfortune of being assigned Drew's former cell-phone number.At all hours of the day and night, Hollingsworth said, she received threatening voice and text messages, such as "burn in hell," intended for Drew.
Drew, 48, her daughter and an employee, Ashley Grills, then 18, were involved in creating a phony MySpace account for a non-existent boy named Josh Evans. The sole purpose was to see if Megan was saying anything mean about Drew's daughter.
Megan hanged herself after she received several mean messages from the fictional boy.
A Nov. 11 story in the Suburban Journal about Megan's death exploded into a national, then international, story. As a result, Lori Drew became the target of widespread cyberspace harassment. Personal information, such as her cell-phone number, which she had used for 10 years, appeared on Internet sites.
No criminal charges have been filed in connection to Megan's death but the Los Angeles Times reported last month that a grand jury is looking at whether Drew defrauded MySpace, which is based near Los Angeles.
Drew and her husband Curt and their two children still live on the same street in Dardenne Prairie, a few doors from Ron Meier, Megan's father.
Lori Drew initially agreed to talk to me in person, but her attorney, James Briscoe, vetoed that idea, citing the Los Angeles investigation.
So I suggested that I first send my cell-phone questions via e-mail to him, with the understanding that the responses would be Drew's, not his.
Here are Lori Drew's responses, unedited by the Journal, as sent to me by her attorney.
Q: When did the harassment start?
"Right after the first article published. We dropped our cell #'s about 10 days later."
Q: Describe the frequency.
"Non-stop throughout the day and night on our cell phones, home phone, and office phone. Many calls came from the same #'s. Many of the calls were from #'s that were not even recognizable.
"I remember one that came up 0000123456. Curt was sitting by me one day and my phone rang. I looked to see who was calling and it said 'Curt cell.' I asked Curt if he was calling me. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and responded, 'No.' Many text messages were sent via the Internet."
Q: When and how did you become aware your phone numbers had been posted on the Internet?
"Three days after the first article in the Suburban Journal. When the phone started ringing non stop we discovered that it was posted on multiple blogs."
Q: Did you initially talk to people? If so, what did you say?
"We didn't answer phone calls from any numbers that we didn't recognize."
Q: I was told someone hacked into your cell phone and changed your outgoing greeting. If so, what did they change it to? Was this investigated?
"Someone changed Curt's and my phone greetings on our cell phones. We were notified by one of my advertisers that called and heard the message. He then called back to leave me a message to check my voice greeting.
"We changed our greetings to basic greeting which only listed the phone #. Two hours later the old greeting appeared on our phones.
"We contacted our cell phone provider to disconnect the phone #'s, and to find out how someone could change our voice messages. The provider had no clue as to how the voice message changed. They said someone must have known or figured out the pass codes.
"A policeman was here when this took place, because someone had contacted the police department and said that they were worried about us because they couldn't get through to us on any of our phones. We have not been advised of any investigation by the police or the cell phone provider.
"The message was someone impersonating me and said something to the effect that, 'This is Lori Drew the world famous MySpace murderer, if you would like some advice about how to kill a beautiful teenager, you have come to the right place.'"
Q: What types of messages did people leave?
"The voice and text messages were very similar to what Aubry was showing on the news. Examples: a) Go kill yourself b) Murderer c) I can only hope your family name is abused and embarrassed publicly as you deserve. d) God is watching ur every move. Ur a sinner and u will go to hell 2/2 because that's exactly wat u deserve."
Q: What impact did this have on you and your family?
"It was extremely disruptive and we were concerned about whether this would escalate to behavior that would jeopardize the safety of our family. This was going on at the same time as the companies I did business with were also being harassed, so I was also concerned about their well being."
Q: Please comment on the Fox News report.
"I really feel sorry for Aubry, and don't blame her for being upset. No one should have to put up with harassing calls. I hope that she changes her # soon."
Q: Who was your cell-phone service provider? Did you recommend to your provider that your old cell number be permanently retired?
"I would prefer not to give our cell phone provider. It would be like harassing their business just as people were harassing my business.
"I did recommend to the provider that they should not give my old # to anyone else. There was not much of a response from them, but I don't think they understood the magnitude of the situation."
